The assessment for Attention Deficit Disorder – 1st assessment in my kindergarten level had indicated perceptual difficulties and learning difficulties in the area of writing and spelling which is also typically seen in young children. It becomes a concern only after the characteristics are no longer age appropriate. My mother was advised that assessment for reading and writing is appropriate only two years after commencement of formal learning in reading and writing which in my case was two years of kindergarten education.
 Perpetual Difficulty-Visual Tracking |
 Correction, with support |
6 months after starting Primary 1, my mother noticed that I continued to have much difficulty with writing (an example of my writing given above). I was sent for an assessment for specific learning disability to find out the specific impairment in my academic learning.
- Neale Analysis of Reading Ability – Revised – consists of set of graded passages for testing the rate, accuracy and comprehension of Oral Reading for reading attainment for a child from 6 years to above 12 years old.
- Expressive Vocabulary Test – is a measure of expressive vocabulary and word retrieval
- Test of Written Spelling – 3rd Edition – Spelling Test of predictable and unpredictable words
- Child’s reading indicated that she was still mainly using visual recognition for decoding words. Use of phonetic skills was apparent only in her attempts to decode the initial sounds. Substitutions were often used when she came across a word she did not know.
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 My 1st spelling test-first letter of the word |
- An analysis of her spelling errors indicate that she tended to spell words from her memory, rather than using phonetic skills. She also tends to mix her upper and lower-case letters, when the words become harder. This suggest that it is still fairly effortful for her to remember and discriminate at times between uppercase and lowercase letters, and also possibly for letters reversals to occur at times when she feels under pressure and required to produce work at a level that is challenging for her.
- What is important is that formal and informal assessments indicated that she is currently not able to achieve her potential, as she is about 1 -2 years behind her same age peers in her academic work. Given her intellectual functioning, it is apparent that this discrepancy in potential and actual performance is a combination of both her attention as well as learning difficulties.
Presents with visual processing difficulties of letters which is indicative of Specific Learning Disability.
Although child has been learning phonics, she will benefit from sessions which include sight words, in addition to phonic spelling words. She will be introduced to high frequency sight words and foundation phonic spelling blends words will be introduced to her.
With her assessment of visual integration difficulties of letters, it is recommended that she would require strategies to assist her in forming letters through visualization through pictures.