Case Study: Behavioral Observations, Folder Review, and Parent Interview. Behavioral ObservationsThree separate B.O.S.S. (Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools) observations were conducted on Justin. The first two were conducted on 2/19/04; one in the morning for a reading and story writing class activity and another in the afternoon with Mrs. J. for math activities. The third observation was recorded on 2/25/04 during a review of reading lessons given earlier in the week. All three lessons involved class wide interactive activities.

For the first observation, Mrs. D. was interacting with the kids in the carpet area and the group was recalling events from a story read earlier in the week and writing a new story as a group in preparation for seat work where the students would work on writing a story independently. Justin was on task a total of 48.8% of the time (15.4% Active, and 33.3% passive) and off task a total of 52.3% of the time. His off task activities involved Motor (9.5%), Verbal (11.9%), and Passive (30.9%) distractions. The peer comparisons showed that the class was on task 66.6% of the time and off task 33.3% of the time. Though not included in these scores, it may be noted that as Justin returned to his seat to write his own story, he was on task for 11 out of 12 observations. This reflects less than the first four minutes of the independent work time.

For the second observation, Justin was in Mrs. J’s math class shortly before the end of the school day. The class was working on telling time and using script to keep count or score. The activities involved the teacher asking questions for which the students would write answers on a white board and hold them up for approval. Justin’s scores were higher for this activity. Justin was on task a total of 76.3% of the time (50.0% Active, and 26.0% passive) and off task a total of 23.6% of the time. His off task activities involved Motor (9.7%), Verbal (1.3%), and Passive (12.5%) distractions. The peer comparisons showed that the class was on task 88.8% of the time and off task 11.1% of the time. Both Mrs. D. and Mrs. J agree that Justin typically does better in math than reading, but is still off task more than the average student in both classes. It was also mentioned by Mrs. J. that Justin appears to be growing in restlessness and fidgetiness in class, and has been for the past several weeks. It should be noted that the times when Justin was observed to be passively off task, he had often already correctly answered the question asked of the class, and was waiting for other students to finish up.

The third observation was done in Mrs. D.’s class in the morning while working on reading skills. Again, Justin’s on task behavior scores were lower than those of his peers. Justin was on task a total of 57.7% of the time (25.0% Active, and 32.7% passive) and off task a total of 41.3% of the time. His off task activities involved Motor (13.4%), Verbal (2.8%), and Passive (25.0%) distractions. The peer comparisons showed that the class was on task 69.2% of the time and off task 30.8% of the time. Justin’s passive off task periods seemed to be because he was bored with the subject matter, rather than because he had completed a question, as in the math observation.

Looking at the three observations as a whole, it appears that Justin is on task less often than his peers. Additionally, Justin is off task a greater percentage of the time when working in Mrs. D’s class (reading and language arts) than when working in Mrs. J’s class (mathematics). In discussing the results with Justin’s teachers, it was agreed that Justin is not paying attention as often as he should. Though no official testing has been done, both of his teachers report they believe that Justin may have an attention deficit disorder. The results of the B.O.S.S. consistently show Justin as being passively off task rather than off task because of motor or verbal reasons. This would support the idea that Justin may have characteristics associated with ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder. However, Justin was less often off task passively in math than in the language arts (12.5% compared to 25.0% and 30.9%), showing that Justin may pay more attention, or drift less, in subjects in which he performs better. Also, teacher reports indicate that Justin’s inattentive behaviors have been increasing over the last two months. This brings the question as to whether or not environmental or other factors are actually playing a roll in Justin’s recent off task behaviors, as the characteristics of ADD are typically constant over time. Justin’s teachers also agreed that Justin works better and stays more focused when working with someone one-on-one. It has been Mrs. D.’s goal for Justin to receive simple tutoring in reading in a one-on-one or small group environment. Justin does not qualify for such services because he has already participated in the district’s T-1 program.

Folder Review and Parent InterviewA review of his past records from T-1 and Kindergarten reveal that Justin’s teachers have always held the most concern for his reading and language areas. By the end of T-1, he was considered to be mastering many areas of math. His teachers also consider him to have the abilities to be a hard worker, and state that they enjoy working with Justin. It should be noted that Justin missed 21 full and eight partial days of kindergarten and seven full and one partial day of T-1.

A conversation with his mother reveals that she considers Justin to be “the spitting image of his father in many academic areas” His father was recently tested and reportedly reads at the third grade level. He was in L.D. classrooms for the entirety of his academic career. Justin’s mom stated that it always takes Justin a long time to complete work at home, but that while working, he seldom becomes frustrated. Justin’s mother also agreed that he is an auditory learner who works best in one-on-one situations. Like Justin’s teachers, his mother believes he is distracted in groups. It is possible that extra time in a one-on-one setting may be beneficial to Justin’s acquiring necessary reading skills he has either missed, or received but not mastered along the way.

The school nurse found a note from 8/18/02 from another school district stating that they were “watching to see if he sees things backwards.” No further explanation was given in the records and his current school does not see a need to test Justin for dyslexia or any other similar problem. The same file also stated that Justin would leave out the words “in” and “the” in many spoken sentences. This behavior has not been observed by myself or his teachers today and the school psychologist and speech therapist agree that this was most likely a result of his age, and that he has outgrown this behavior. Justin’s mother commented that she believed that Justin may have dyslexia. She reports that his father does have dyslexia and that Justin will “say 23, but write 32.” Discussing this with Mrs. K., the school psychologist, it was decided that it was doubtful that Justin truly has a problem with miss-ordering letters. It was further decided that as a part of my hypothesis testing, that a specific letter order test could be used to see if this is a concern which should be addressed. Justin’s mother also mentioned that when Justin was very young, he did not have a preference for either hand, but as he grew he began to prefer his left hand. Once Justin started school, he reverted to right-hand usage.

Filed under: EDC 514-515 Academic Assessment for Intervention
Copyright: February, 2004 - David Profitt