# Alyssa's special education needs report. (long)



## tiggy

INITIAL ASSESSMENT REPORT BY LEARNING SUPPORT TEACHER CONFIDENTIAL.

PUPIL NAME: Alyssa Towle. DOB: 30/7/05. AGE: 5yr 2mnths.

SCHOOL: ********** Primary. CLASS TEACHER: Miss *******. YEAR GROUP: Y1.

Date/s of assessment: 21/10/10

BACKGROUND TO THE ASSESSMENT:

Alyssa was refferred to the Early Years Inclusion Team in October 2008. As Alyssa is now in Y1 her file has been passed onto the Learning Support Team and I will continue to support her with her learning.
Alyssa was seen by Dr ****** when she was 3yr 6mnths and is reported to have significant language impairment. She continues to be supported by the Speech and Language service for this.
Alyssa also has a small stature, Microcephalyand can be anxious in newsituations.

PUPILS VIEWS

I asked Alyssa some questions to try to obtain her likes and dislikes about school. I phrased the questions in a variety of ways to help her to understand.
When asked what she liked about school she said "about all of them". She said that she didnt like "scaries" and enjoys playing hopping, "go racing" and "train station, goes in a tunnel" when she is at home.

APPROACH TO WORK

Alyssa was happy to complete the tasks asked of her. She was chatty throughout her time with me. Sometimes I found her very hard to understand.
She was easily distracted by things moving outside of the classroom i.e. a bird came to land near the window and she spent a long time wanting to talk about the bird.

BRITISH PICTURE VOCUABULARY SCALE

This is a test of an individuals hearing vocabulary - a measure of the words that an individual understands when they hear them. It can give an indication of verbal ability. There is a second range of scores for young children with English as an additional language (EAL). 

Standardised score: 82
Percentile level: 12th
Range: Below average.

PHONICS/WORD READING (LETTERS & SOUNDS)

1. Oral blending: When I said a word to Alyssa that was split into its constituent sounds, she was not able to blend 3 phonemes to work out a word like man. I also tried words with 2 phonemes in but she did not blend she was being asked to complete as she was giving me whole words that were unconnected to the initial letters i.e. I gave her the sounds 'm-a-n' and she said the word 'jumper'
2. Oral segmentation: For this task, Alyssa was supposed to split a word that she heard into the seperate sounds. I gave her a word to segment but she repeated the word that I had said rather than break it down into individual phonemes.

INDEPENDENT WRITING

Alyssa was happy to write for this task and held her pen with a tripod grip. She used a right handed grip and now needs to work on increasing her pencil control through pencil play type activities. Her pressure on the paper was light on this occasion.
Alyssa appeared to be in the early stages of mark making when free writing, using lines and circles to represent words. She recorded an 's' when I asked her to write her name. She correctly recorded the letters 's', 'i' and 'n' and wrote the numbers 1 to 4, reversing 2 and 3. She had a go at forming a number 5 but asked me to write her number 6 for her as she didnt want to do a number 6.
When speaking with Alyss's teacher after I had worked with Alyssa, Miss ******* reported that Alyssa can do more than she is sometimes willing to and asked Alyssa to show me how she can write her name. Alyssa was almost accurate on this occasion.

MATHS

One of Alyssa's targets in the classroom has been to practise counting and she asked to count everything whilst we were working together. She was able to count from 1 to 16 on her own.

RAPID NAMING TEST (FROM DYSLEXIA SCREENING TEST)

This is a test of processing speed. The pupil has to name a series of pictures as quickly as possible. The test assesses an individuals ability to recognise a stimulus and respond to it. It measures the ability to order, analyse and retrieve data systemattically in a time-efficient fashion. 

RESULTS: 57 seconds.
STANDARDISED SCORE WITHIN THE RANGE: 75 - 81.
PERCENTILE: 5th - 11th
RANGE: Below average

SUMMARY/ APPARENT NATURE OF DIFFICULTIES

Alyssa has a very complex profile which includes her microcephaly and her speech and language difficulties. From the assessments that I was able to carry out with Alyssa it was arrarent that she is working at an early level with her Literacy and Numeracy skills. She will need access to a multisensory teaching approach with plenty of opportunities for overlearning and revision of the things that she does know. Her verbal understanding score fell into the below average range for this assessment and it will be helpful for Alyssa to have information broken up into smaller chunks, with time allowed to process what has been said, when she is in the learning environment.

I did not feel that it was appropriate to use all of the available assessments with Alyssa on this occasion due to her difficulty in understanding the instructions.
These assessments can be used when Alyssa is a little older to gain a clearer picture of her strengths and weaknesses.

*the rest is personal notes to the teacher*


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## Vinushka

We just also got our Daughter's SEN statement renewed, and at 7 y/o she is still failing her 2 word speech and comprehension tests. She has a deletion of 13q long arm and spontaneous RB and goes to a special school. That looks like your daughter is doing pretty well in a mainstream school, is there a lot of support there for her? Also does she have a speech therapist or is she being referred to one as I haven't noticed much improvement in my daughter's case even with speech therapy on a regular basis.


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## tiggy

Her school is mixed mainstream/special needs. She sees the in school speech therapist once a week along with another kid in her class.

Also she has been getting one to one teaching some mornings as she seems to struggle in group sessions or gets too distracted.

compared to a year ago she has improved heaps where as she wud hardly say a word and just grunt all the time.

now we cant shut her up lol.

good luck with ur lo xx


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## Tegans Mama

Glad to hear she's doing relatively well hun. Do you think she's progressing well in a mainstream school? :hugs:

Tegan is too young for an SEN just yet but we are starting on one in September when she starts nursery.


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## tiggy

Yes definetly we had choice of 2 local schools and am so pleased we chose the one she is at.


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## BrandiCanucks

I wanted to thank you for sharing that. My 3 1/2 year old daughter, Zoe, also has microcephaly and although I have accepted that diagnosis, not knowing what her overall condition is or how she will develop or be treated in school scares me. All we know is that her white matter all over her brain is disappearing.

I wish your daughter all the best and please keep in touch, if you would like.


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## tiggy

Thank you.

tbh I still have no clue wat microcephaly is or how they know she has it :s

think i will be asking school after holidays.


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## BrandiCanucks

Microcephaly literally translates to "small head". It occurs when a child's brain stops growing or slows it's growth. It can be present at birth or occur later in life. Zoe's developed when she was 8 weeks old, but she wasn't diagnosed until she was 26 months old. She will be 4 in March but has the head circumference of the average 14 month old. 

Microcephaly is diagnosed if a child's head circumference falls at least 3 standard deviations (on a growth chart) below the 3rd-5th percentile (depending on where you live).

Microcephaly is not a diagnosis in itself, but a symptom of a greater condition that affects the child. Has your daughter had genetic testing or an MRI done to find the cause of the microcephaly at all?

If you want more information, you can look at Zoe's website, www.zoemeszaros.com or there's a Google group (and many of us are on Facebook too). It's like a second family, full of support and amazing people. You can get there through the US-based Foundation for Children with Microcephaly, www.childrenwithmicro.org.


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## tiggy

BrandiCanucks said:


> Microcephaly literally translates to "small head". It occurs when a child's brain stops growing or slows it's growth. It can be present at birth or occur later in life. Zoe's developed when she was 8 weeks old, but she wasn't diagnosed until she was 26 months old. She will be 4 in March but has the head circumference of the average 14 month old.
> 
> Microcephaly is diagnosed if a child's head circumference falls at least 3 standard deviations (on a growth chart) below the 3rd-5th percentile (depending on where you live).
> 
> Microcephaly is not a diagnosis in itself, but a symptom of a greater condition that affects the child. *Has your daughter had genetic testing or an MRI done to find the cause of the microcephaly at all?*
> 
> If you want more information, you can look at Zoe's website, www.zoemeszaros.com or there's a Google group (and many of us are on Facebook too). It's like a second family, full of support and amazing people. You can get there through the US-based Foundation for Children with Microcephaly, www.childrenwithmicro.org.


:( No tis is why I'm confused how they can see she has it. Looking at her school photo and her head is slightly smaller than her friends but she is petite too she is in y1 but bout same size as nursery kids.


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## BrandiCanucks

Are they going based on what her head looks like, or based on actual measurements? A diagnosis can only be made if they have physically measured her head circumference and the measurement is below the 3rd percentile. Zoe's is 44cm. Her brother, who is 20 months younger, has a head circumference that measures 48cm


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## tiggy

Ye its by measurements. Id say Alyssa is bout size of the average 3/4 yr old. She will be 6 in July.


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