Grand Canyon University: SPE 226
3/03/2014
Teaching for Exceptionalities
Description of Student The student is five years old. The student is in kindergarten. The kindergarten class has fourteen children. The classroom is a mainstreamed and both teachers have special education experience. The student has strengths in reading comprehension, phonics, and spelling. He enjoys puzzles and can complete a fifty piece puzzle on his own. The student focuses on the end pieces of the puzzle first. The puzzle is a picture of the United States and the students reads all the states and their capitals. When the student completes the puzzles he recites the cities that are listed. His weaknesses are in physical activities that involve group participation. The student does not show interest in teacher directed games such as leap frog. The student has trouble making eye contact and engaging in conversations. The student repeats questions when he is asked. The student repeats what he hears throughout the day so he will often say hello, how are you? When the student repeats the phrase he does not make eye contact or pause for a response. The student has an IEP and a goal for the student is to promote conversations with peers, family members, and teachers. The IEP states that the student works with a therapist for speech. The speech therapist states that the student uses echolalia which is repetitive use of language. The student can read age appropriate books for eight year olds. The student read the book, Stegosaurus The Dinosaur with the Smallest Brain, by Elizabeth J. Sandell. The student pronounced every word correctly. Another saying he often repeats out loud often are, come on lets wash your hands. When the student says that, he does not go wash his hands. In fact the teachers have to aid in hand washing with the student because he seems to avoid soap when not supervised. The student was