Fourth Grade Classroom Case Studies

Classroom Case Study: 4th Grade Learning disabilities are very common but despite that fact they are often overlooked or hard to determine often being referred to as invisible disabilities. One main factor that contributes to the confusion of determining if a student has a learning disability is that children develop at different rates and on their own time. When learning students also make mistakes and that does not necessarily mean that a child has a learning disability, students often make mistakes when learning a new subject or concept. Children with specific learning disabilities are not usually diagnosed until the child has been in school for a few years.

There are multiple ways to determine if a student has a specific learning disability

Student number one is Dylan. Dylan is the oldest in his class and is repeating the fourth grade with a new teacher and class. His favorite subject’s are art and music and he is very friendly and talkative. On his progress reports from last year Dylan’s teacher wrote that he “does not like to participate in read aloud or class discussions” and “has difficulty completing assignments on time”. These observations made by Dylan’s last teacher correlate with the problems Dylan has because of his dyslexia. He has trouble comprehending words and can easily get letters mixed up, this results in him being hesitant to read a text aloud or to participate in discussing that text because it was hard enough just reading it. A way to help Dylan in this situation would be to read aloud the text thus giving students the option to follow along and asking questions to increase comprehension of the text and it’s meaning. Because it takes Dylan extra time to complete assignments I would give students the opportunity to start homework or projects in class and sometimes give him a shorter assignment that still covers all of the content needed and then work up to longer assignments. It would be more beneficial to Dylan to give quality assignments that will help him understand than to give him lengthy assignments that will make him frustrated.

Jane is a great storyteller but has a hard time putting her creative ideas on paper. The way she grips her writing utensils is odd and seems as if it makes it harder for her to write. Along with just writing being difficult in general for her, her handwriting is often difficult to read. In her writing a lot of her words and letters are unfinished and vary in sizes, she struggles with taking time to write neatly and often gets frustrated when she can’t get her sentences and letters organized. To assist Jane in her writing skills I would give her extra time to complete assignments and also have the option for the students to take oral exams instead of written, she would be demonstrating her knowledge and would be less likely to be frustrated. A useful website in helping to recognize students with dysgraphia and offers solutions on how to help them is http://www.handwriting-solutions.com/dysgraphia.asp. At Handwriting Problem Solutions they emphasize the importance of helping children with dysgraphia learn to use equipment and technology software and applications to help them in their writing