Case Study: Supporting a Student with a Learning Disability

Initial Identification and Assessment

Selina, a Grade 1 student, showed early signs of academic struggle, including difficulties with phonemic awareness, letter sounds, and reading decoding. Her teacher, Mrs. Davidson, utilized running records and literacy checklists to confirm that Selina was reading at a Kindergarten level, relying heavily on picture clues rather than text.

Intervention and Monitoring

The school implemented various classroom supports, including technology (Kurzweil/CoWriter), guided reading groups, and speech-language pathology collaboration. Despite these interventions and consistent monitoring, Selina showed minimal progress in phonemic awareness and reading comprehension by November.

Diagnosis and Long-term Planning

Following diagnostic assessments that highlighted a discrepancy between Selina's oral language strengths and reading struggles, the team engaged a district psychologist. A formal psycho-educational assessment in March confirmed a learning disability. The team subsequently created an Individualized Program Plan (IPP) to provide targeted support moving forward.