Zach Powers

Background Information

Zach is a the child of a Hispanic mother and Viet Namese father. His mother speaks Spanish at home, but understands English and can speak it well. His father speaks English well, but rarely attends conferences. Zach was born in the U.S. but has learning difficulties due to lack of oxygen at birth. He is the youngest of three children and the only boy. He had difficulties feeding at birth and had to be fed with a feeding tube.

Language

• Zach has auditory processing difficulties which include slow ability to process correctly what is heard, difficulty learning vocabulary and spelling correctly.

• Zach’s social language is appropriate, but he misses important social cues due to a diagnosis of ADHD.

• Zach’s academic language is delayed one year.

Motor Skills

• Zach has some visual-motor difficulties and his writing has poor legibility.

• Zach’s gross motor skills area an area of strength. He loves soccer.

Academic

• Zach is about one year delayed in reading and writing. He has difficulty with words that are not phonetically spelled. He has good ideas, but just stares when he has to put them down on paper.

• Zach has difficulty with subtraction and addition with regrouping.

• Zach loves science and social studies and is included in regular ed at that time.

Social/Emotional

• Shuts down when he is overwhelmed.

• Class clown when avoiding difficult tasks.

• Impulsivity causes him to talk without being recognized.

Transition

• If your student is over 16, you must look at his employment skills

Solution

• For Zach’s reading, I recommend using: