Student
Success Stories
Joshua
| Leon
| Julie | Beth
Leon
A labored reader in middle school
A
Long Search for Answers
Leon's warm smile, pleasant manners, and cooperative spirit masked
a sea of anxiety churning beneath the surface. The demands of middle
school were far greater than they had been in fifth grade, and things
seemed to be falling apart. In spite of his hard work - including
three hours of homework most nights - he was making several D's.
He had always had difficulty reading, and middle school material
was especially difficult to read. He felt different and unintelligent,
and was experiencing stomach aches before school. Was this how middle
school and high school were going to be? Would it get even worse?
Would he be denied entrance into the acclaimed high school he wanted
to attend? He felt, as he described himself, "overwhelmed."
Although sixth grade was exceptionally difficult, Leon had encountered
difficulty for much of his school career. Early on, he experienced
problems in reading, writing, and paying attention. He was diagnosed
by his public school as having a learning disability, and received
special services through an LD resource room. His parents sought
solutions through various avenues: public and parochial schools,
four years of private tutoring, evaluations by outside agencies,
and medication for his diagnosed ADD. Throughout this time, Leon
experienced periods of time in which he made good progress, but
overall he continued to struggle in reading, spelling, and writing.
Leon had assumed he was smart as a young child, but school convinced
him he was not.
To his teachers, Leon was a paradox. They appreciated his excellent
behavior and his kindhearted personality. However, they were confused
by his daydreaming, disorganization, and poor reading skills. He
was obviously very bright and motivated; why wasn't he succeeding
in their classes? Several teachers told his parents that he could
do the work, if he only worked harder. His parents knew this was
not true. In fact, they knew he was exerting more effort than should
be required of him.
Leon's parents also recognized the emotional toll that school was
exacting on their son. They were concerned that he was becoming
depressed. They wrote, "Leon is a very sweet, bright, and wonderful
person. He wants very much to please his teachers as well as parents
and friends. He wants to feel successful and good about all his
efforts." While searching for help, they investigated The de
Paul School.
Academic Needs are Identified
As part of the admissions procedure, de Paul's assessment team used
specific tests to determine whether de Paul was a good match for
Leon's needs. Through this battery of assessments, the school was
able to identify three key points:
1.
Leon was capable of learning. On the WISC-III (Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children, Third Edition), which was administered
by outside sources, Leon achieved a full scale score of 106, ranking
him at the 66th percentile in comparison to children his age.
de Paul's assessment of his capacity to learn further demonstrated
his intelligence as being in the average range. In other words,
he was easily as capable as his peers who were succeeding in school.
2.
In spite of his capabilities, he was not learning certain skills
that would normally be expected of a child his age.
Leon was a slow and labored reader. He scored in the 16th
percentile for reading rate, and the 25th percentile for accuracy.
In spite of this, his comprehension scored in the 75th percentile.
He was able to retrieve and remember a significant amount of information
from the text as he struggled along. Leon scored in the 9th percentile
for spelling, having particular difficulty with multisyllabic
words, vowel combinations, and irregular spelling patterns.
Leon scored in the average range in mathematics tests.Ý
However, he did have particular difficulty in written computation,
due to disorganization and incomplete mastery of his addition
facts. His written expression showed deficiencies in grammar,
spelling, and paragraph development.
3.
Leon's learning difficulties stemmed from perceptual deficits
-- ways in which his brain processed information differently
from most children. Most noticeable were characteristics of his
ADD: he was very disorganized, he worked at a slow rate, and had
some difficulty following directions. In addition, his reading
and spelling were impaired by a deficiency in phonological processing.
Although he was extremely close with his friends at his school,
Leon was open to the idea of changing schools and attending de Paul,
in order to learn better. His parents saw this as a cry for help.
Specific help for specific difficulties
Leon and his parents decided to transfer to de Paul midway
through his sixth grade year. He immediately began to experience
success. The smaller class sizes allowed him to receive individualized
attention from his teachers throughout the day. The highly interactive
lessons and hands-on activities helped him to stay focused throughout
class. New concepts were presented at a pace appropriate for Leon,
so that he could thoroughly digest one new piece of information
before another was presented. Leon was very aware of how this type
of environment suited his learning style. He says, "I love
the staff here! The teachers work with you so well. What has helped
me the most is how they work with us individually. The classes are
smaller so you get more attention. This is a great school."
Leon worked daily on learning to break words apart in order to read
them. Hands-on activities allowed him to literally pull words apart
and focus on individual letters and syllables. His teacher used
daily activities to build his phonological processing skills, so
that he could better identify and discriminate the sounds of language.
His reading rate and accuracy were markedly improved by the end
of his sixth grade year.
In math, as in all classes, Leon's teachers helped him to focus
on how to organize his written work. Improvement in written organization
lead to more accurate computation in mathematics. Leon also needed
to begin learning to perform more abstract reasoning, which is necessary
for middle school level problem solving. Step-by-step instruction
and hands-on activities began building his aptitude with these thinking
skills.
Now in his seventh grade year, Leon continues to build his proficiency.
He is a faster and more accurate reader, and now reads for pleasure.
His teachers note that he often chooses books which are difficult
for him, knowing that extra labor will be involved to complete them.
He analyzes books critically as he reads, noting the author's style
and how he himself would like a book to be written. So far, few
books have ended according to his high expectations! As he has moved
into more advanced reading, he has experienced some difficulty with
reading comprehension. He has worked with his teacher on strategies
to visualize as he reads and to stay involved in the text.
Leon also continues to improve in his expressive writing abilities.
He is a descriptive writer, but still has difficulty organizing
his information into well constructed paragraphs, especially in
expository writing. de Paul's structured approach to the writing
process, especially in the prewriting and drafting stages, is teaching
him how to organize his facts and details into a solid writing style.
Although Leon's thoughts are not yet on high school, his teachers
are preparing him for the demands and expectations he will encounter
there. He has is learning about what study techniques work best
for him, and is learning the student skills which he will need (including
note taking, preparing for tests, and using textbooks). "My
biggest challenges right now are my handwriting and staying organized
on paper."
Leon is a much more confident student than he was one year ago.
He is a "ham," and enjoys any type of project which involves
presenting in front of people. He takes risks in math class, and
is willing to attempt solving abstract problems without immediately
feeling overwhelmed. He is so confident, in fact, that he now tends
to impulsively blurt out answers in class. (He and his teachers
are working on this, now.)
Leon now is able to look back on his earlier trials with the wisdom
of experience. He now understands that his earlier difficulties
were not due to something wrong or inferior in him, but were due
to a type of education which was not suited to his needs. In his
typical sincere and straightforward manner, he says,
"I
really didn't think I was smart at all,
but now I know that I am."
Leon has a great deal to offer. The world could not afford to have
lost the adult he is becoming. |
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