• Background
• Purpose
• Test Administered
• Result – Attention
• Result – Rigidity/Imagination
• Result – Pre-academic skills
• Conclusion
• Recommendation

Background

After discussing the report with senior teacher in pre-school, support and attention were given to help me to improve my self-esteem or emotional needs. My home and school behavior improved and at the end of the 2nd year in kindergarten, my mother met with senior teacher. During that meeting, my mother was advised to send me for an assessment for attention deficit disorder.

Purpose

Cause of concern

• Behavioral difficulties – tantrums, and frustration with self when unable to do things, anxiety when placed in a new and/or different situation
• Lack of attention
• Learning difficulties in the area of spelling and writing

Test Administered

• Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale and a semi structured interview with parent on the child’s developmental history, communication skills, social interaction skills, imagination skills and any unusual behavior
• Stanford-Binet Intelligence – a series of tests that look at the verbal and non-verbal thinking skills of children

Result – Attention

Noted the following:

• Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork eg when performing addition/subtraction tasks, sometimes does the carry-over wrongly. Also sometimes makes mistakes when asked to do copying.

spot my mistakes! (1)

spot my mistakes! (2)

• Often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks. Has difficulty maintaining attention when she does things at home and further confirmed by teachers that she is often distracted when left to do work on her own. Teacher reported that she is often not able to finish the worksheet given due to her distractibility.

The Dog’s Bone

• Often does not follow through on instructions and often does not manage to finish an activity set by the teacher. Her teacher reported that when instructions are given, it often needs to be repeated, and even then, she has difficulty following through on the instructions, especially when it is multi-step.
• Sometimes avoids or dislikes engaging in tasks that require sustained mental effort. She does not like to do writing and often resists doing it.
• Often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli. Attention in group activities in school is very low; in group teachings, she was observed to be playing with her hair or skirt, and lost in thought. Teachers reported that she tends not to follow what is happening and would sometimes provide information that is irrelevant to the topic. She works better in a one-to-one situation.

Classroom Noises

• Often forgetful in daily activities. She is quite forgetful in remembering where her things are, or would forget to bring things when she is asked to do so.

Result – Rigidity/Imagination

• Reported by both mother and her teachers to dislike trying new things. A lot of encouragement needs to be given before she is willing to try; this can be due both to her lack of confidence, as well as being more comfortable with things that are familiar.
• Mother reported that child does not like changes in routine and would try to argue her way out; however, if insisted upon, she is able to handle the changes.

Result – Pre-academic skills

Able to print the letters of the alphabet. However, reversals for several of the letters, including “b”, “d”, “g” and “s”. Also able to print the numbers 1 – 14, but again showed reversals for the numbers “12”. Worksheets done in schools confirmed the reversals, including occasional reversals for some letters when writing name.

Conclusion:

• Attentional behavioral difficulties – these patterns of behavior are consistent with that observed in children with Attention Deficit Disorder
• Learning difficulties in the area of spelling and writing – although these are indicative of Specific Learning Disability , it is also typically seen in young children. It becomes a concern only after the characteristics are no longer age-appropriate. Intervention however, should still be provided to address current difficulties.

Recommendation:

Supports to assist child in increasing her attentional skills are needed both in the school and home environment; recommended that an Individual Learning Plan be developed for the child.

Parent training would be necessary to support child in her home environment. Child needs to be supported in gradually increasing her self-confidence, and reducing her anxiety when faced with new situations.

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