Tony's Case Study: Special Education Services
Final Paper
Julie Davis
SPE 780, Fall 2015
Missouri State University
Tony’s Case
Tony, 2nd grade, has been referred for Special Education Services because he appears to have difficulties with visual tasks, holds his book close to his face, uses his finger as a guide when reading and appears to be clumsy. He trips over and bumps into things and walks hesitantly.
Before Tony is eligible Special Education Services, there are pre-referral strategies that need to be conducted to see if Tony even qualifies for service and if so which ones. The pre-referral strategies that are appropriate are to find out more about Tony by talking to his parent(s) and get more information and understanding about his situation/condition, (does …show more content…
• Current print functioning: The functional vision assessment should state the child's primary mode of reading, whether it is regular print, large print, optical devices, or braille.
• Examples of both near and distance information: The assessment report should include examples of environmental features such as faces, signs, and travel cues the child can see and at what distance the child can see each feature.
• Light sensitivity: Light sensitivity has implications for how the student performs in a variety of illuminated settings. Children with diagnoses such as albinism or achromatopsia are significantly affected by higher levels of illumination and often perform tasks better under less illumination. There are also visual conditions for which additional lighting is necessary. For a majority of visual conditions, glare will adversely affect visual functioning.
• Convergence: Convergence is the necessary inward movement of the eyes in order to focus on a near …show more content…
The Special Education Techer, also, needs to be in contact with the general education teacher to make sure that they are teaching the expanded core curriculum. Since both the regular education teacher and the Special Education classroom teacher have a central role in Tony’s education, it's important for both teachers’ to remain in close contact about the best ways of meeting Tony’s individual needs within the classroom. The Special Education teacher can be a support to the family in meeting their needs by providing resources to outside agencies for families of children that have a visual impairment.
Since Tony has a visual impairment, the teachers will need to implement individual instructional strategies such as object permanence.
Spence and Capt (1994) found that it is critical first to gain the visual attention (of sighted children) before introducing the task. Pasnak and Pasnak (1987) found that attention and interest are best maintained by varying the objects to be concealed and the covers used. They also found that it is important to name the object before concealment and again when asking children to locate it.
If all of these strategies are implemented, correctly, then Tony should be able to improve his visual tasks in the classroom and enhance his chance of being successful with his
Julie Davis
SPE 780, Fall 2015
Missouri State University
Tony’s Case
Tony, 2nd grade, has been referred for Special Education Services because he appears to have difficulties with visual tasks, holds his book close to his face, uses his finger as a guide when reading and appears to be clumsy. He trips over and bumps into things and walks hesitantly.
Before Tony is eligible Special Education Services, there are pre-referral strategies that need to be conducted to see if Tony even qualifies for service and if so which ones. The pre-referral strategies that are appropriate are to find out more about Tony by talking to his parent(s) and get more information and understanding about his situation/condition, (does …show more content…
• Current print functioning: The functional vision assessment should state the child's primary mode of reading, whether it is regular print, large print, optical devices, or braille.
• Examples of both near and distance information: The assessment report should include examples of environmental features such as faces, signs, and travel cues the child can see and at what distance the child can see each feature.
• Light sensitivity: Light sensitivity has implications for how the student performs in a variety of illuminated settings. Children with diagnoses such as albinism or achromatopsia are significantly affected by higher levels of illumination and often perform tasks better under less illumination. There are also visual conditions for which additional lighting is necessary. For a majority of visual conditions, glare will adversely affect visual functioning.
• Convergence: Convergence is the necessary inward movement of the eyes in order to focus on a near …show more content…
The Special Education Techer, also, needs to be in contact with the general education teacher to make sure that they are teaching the expanded core curriculum. Since both the regular education teacher and the Special Education classroom teacher have a central role in Tony’s education, it's important for both teachers’ to remain in close contact about the best ways of meeting Tony’s individual needs within the classroom. The Special Education teacher can be a support to the family in meeting their needs by providing resources to outside agencies for families of children that have a visual impairment.
Since Tony has a visual impairment, the teachers will need to implement individual instructional strategies such as object permanence.
Spence and Capt (1994) found that it is critical first to gain the visual attention (of sighted children) before introducing the task. Pasnak and Pasnak (1987) found that attention and interest are best maintained by varying the objects to be concealed and the covers used. They also found that it is important to name the object before concealment and again when asking children to locate it.
If all of these strategies are implemented, correctly, then Tony should be able to improve his visual tasks in the classroom and enhance his chance of being successful with his