Laura Soto

September 29, 2014

SERP 301C- Benchmark Part I
*PLEASE NOTE THAT I HAVE GIVEN MY CASE STUDY CHILD A PSEUDONYM (IVY)
TO PROTECT HER INFORMATION AND IDENTITY
Description of Child:
Ivy has been identified and placed into a first grade English Language Development class
due to the following assessments that are further described below: Home Language Survey and
AZELA. She is a six year old female. Ive observed during our open house meeting that she has
one little sister and a mom. No further knowledge is known about her family information.
Type of Diversity
Ivy currently has an IEP and attends an IEP meeting with her speech therapists during the
following times: Tuesday at 9:30 AM, Wednesday at 8:30 AM, and Thursday at 8:30 AM.
Strengths
Ivy is very humble about her strengths but they are very prominent if you take the time to
look. Her fine motor skills make her writing very clear and concise. Ivy has demonstrated the
ability to color within the lines and write her sentences in a straight line (no lines needed). She
mentioned that she liked to color on September 29th, when I asked her what she likes to do at
home. She is also very organized. When I observed her during her IEP meeting, her stamps were
aligned in a straight line and facing the same direction. Ivy is very observant, I noticed her
observe others during multiple reading lessons. Some of these examples include: seeing how her
peers respond to instructions so she can mimic them, seeing that there is trash on the floor or
observing when peers need something. Unfortunately, this sometimes means she misses out on
the instructions.
Lastly, I consider her determination a strength. She always finishes her assignments and
seeks out models to follow. She knows when she doesnt like something and sticks to her

Laura Soto
September 29, 2014
SERP 301C- Benchmark Part I
feelings. However, she hasnt completely found how to express them vocally. Ive tried to seek
out ways to scaffold her speaking abilities and when I talked to her Sonyas class; I was given a
wonderful opportunity to see how she thinks. I had to ask the students about something they
wanted to learn about and here is how the conversation went: Me: What do you want to learn to
do better? Ivy: Count. Me: How high can you count now? Ivy: (I watch her lips move as she
counts to herself.) Six. Me: Thats a great number! How high would you like to count? Ivy
(Stares at me for a bit.) Me: Can you show me on that chart? (I was pointing to the hundreds
chart.) Ivy (She smiles a big smile and nods. Then she walks over to the chart and points to 20.)
Me: I think thats a wonderful goal!
Challenges
The following paragraph will delineate some examples of Ivy reacting emotionally and
not vocally. There have been multiple observations of Ivy having a conflict with another person.
On September 3rd, I observed my mentor teacher helping Ivy be a morning leader. The morning
leader has to point to each letter of the month and have the class clap. Ivy skipped passed all the
letters. My mentor teacher supported Ivy by inviting her to slow down. When this didnt work,
my mentor teacher gently held Ivys hand to guide her but Ivy pulled away and continued as
before. Another incident occurred later in the day when she pushed one of her peers. When my
mentor teacher told the other child to move, Ivy tried to follow the child to push them again.
Lastly, on September 15, the lunch lady approached my mentor teacher with Ivy at her side. She
explained that Ivy wasnt following directions in the Cafeteria and when she went to approach
her about it Ivy covered her ears. While the two discussed the situation Ivy wouldnt make eye
contact. My mentor teacher explained that that hurts peoples feelings and maybe she could talk

Laura Soto
September 29, 2014
SERP 301C- Benchmark Part I
to the lunch lady. Ivy didnt move. In fact, she didnt go to recess until both adults had left. I
predict this was to show them her stubbornness.
I have noticed some progress in this region though. On September 29th, I observed Ivy
during math time. The teacher mentioned to Ivy that they had already talked about her looking
up and she needed to do so. I watched as Ivy went to cover her ears. Then, suddenly, she started
to tear up. She removed her hands from her ears and wiped her eyes instead. Normally, she
would continue to cover her ears but she started to pay attention again. I dont know if this was
her reaction because the teacher left her alone after her remark or if today was an emotional day
for her. Id noticed that she hadnt passive-aggressively interacted with anyone that day.
Consequently, Ivy has demonstrated a limited vocabulary and uses a strand of four or less
words when speaking. On September 3rd and 15th, I kept track of some of the things she said
during the day and they include: sit down, not gun [students name], pizza, I know
teacher, skip this one, and now read this one. Her smile when she gets something is
wonderful though. For Sonyas class, I have to ask the students about something they want to
learn: Me: What do you want to learn to do better? Ivy: Count. Me: How high can you count
now? Ivy: (I watch her lips move as she counts to herself.) Six. Me: Thats a great number! How
high would you like to count? Ivy (Stares at me for a bit.) Me: Can you show me on that chart? (I
was pointing to the hundreds chart.) Ivy (She smiles a big smile and nods. Then she walks over
to the chart and points to 20.) Me: I think thats a wonderful goal!
Relevant History
When I went to Ivys IEP meeting, I learned that she has made some progress on her
goals. For example, she used to say ma instead of map.
IEP Goals and Accommodations

Laura Soto
September 29, 2014
SERP 301C- Benchmark Part I
I went to Ivys IEP meeting on September 24th. They had her state her IEP goals in the
beginning of session. She was in a meeting with two other students, her speech therapist and a
graduate student who was learning the trade. The IEP goals that were mentioned were: working
on vocabulary, verb tense, L blends, S blends, following directions, and the ends of words.
An accommodation that I have seen in the classroom for Ivy is modeling. The teacher
wrote out a sentence for her so she could look at it and write her sentence (ultimately, she would
just copy it.) Ive also seen my teacher ask her questions in the middle of morning meeting or a
lesson to bring her attention back to the task at hand. My teacher also writes everything she says
on the board and uses manipulatives for almost every activity she has them perform. She also
uses visuals during reading and language arts.
Research
Speaking of Speech categorized their website into different goals that speech diversity
might need. The first one was articulation goals. There was a goal that read: produce target
sounds in blends and consonant clusters (Speaking of Speech.com, 2014) that resonated with
two of Ivys goals of producing s and l blends. The next goal category was fluency goals. There
werent any specific goals that appeared to reflect what I saw in the IEP room, however, some of
the benchmarks of this goal included: sentences and responses to questions. The speech therapist
did target these during the session but I dont know if it was the other childrens goals. The next
goal is functional life skills goals. One of Ivys goals landed under this category: will follow
verbal directions during daily routines and transitions (Speaking of Speech.com, 2014). I wasnt
able to see the speech therapist target this goal during the last session. The following goal is a
rather large one that encompasses many aspects of this diversity and it is called language goals.
Although, all of Ivys goals connect it to it in some form, the most obvious goal that relates to

Laura Soto
September 29, 2014
SERP 301C- Benchmark Part I
this category is: correctly use irregular forms of plurals and pat tense verbs (Speaking of
Speech.com, 2014). I didnt hear them mention this word but another goal under this category
that fits Ivy is: communicate using 4-5 words per sentence (Speaking of Speech.com, 2014).
Phonological Awareness & Auditory Discriminations is the fifth goal category. The l blends, s
blends and ends of words goals could be found under this category. It is described as auditory
blending and identifying ending sounds. Another goal category is social skills and pragmatic
goals. Following directions was also under this category. Ive also noticed another trait that Ivy
has that is under this category. Student will demonstrate understanding and use of appropriate
tone of voice and volume (Speaking of Speech.com, 2014). Ive noticed through our
conversations that Ivy doesnt have complete control of this yet. Auditory processing is the next
goal category on the list. There were any specific goals that Ivy needed to meet in this category
but most, if not all, had some connection to her goal. In fact, student will devlop techniques for
consistent auditory attention in all instructional settings (Speaking of Speech.com, 2014)
directly correlates with Ivy following directions. Lastly, we have a miscellaneous goal category
that touch on more advances topics such as metaphors and similes.
Ultimately, I have reflected that most speech goals are interconnected. The only goal
category that didnt represent Ivy in any way was the Augmentative Communication Goals. She
does not have any further diversities that cause her to use an electronic device for speech.
Another source identified the categories to be different. Bridges4kids identified the
following categories: articulation, fluency, morphology & Syntax, pragmatics, semantics and
voice. Overall, these categories covered the same information but used a more education based
jargon. After realizing that this last handbook was for Oregon, I tried to pinpoint a handbook
source in Arizona to compare them but it could not be located. All that was found was that a

Laura Soto
September 29, 2014
SERP 301C- Benchmark Part I
speech therapist may be provided three times a week for thirty minutes per session
(www.azed.gov, 2014). As mentioned early, Ivy does see the speech therapist three times a
week.
Resources Added
I found some wonderful resources on Do2learn. I went to the red tab called disabilities.
Under this tab are five subcategories. One of the subcategories was definitions which gave the
definition of the 14 primary terms included in IDEA under the lead definition of child with a
disability (speech or language impairment was number 12). Another subcategory was called
Characteristics and Strategies. Under this subcategory are even more subcategories and one of
them is called Speech or Language Impairment. Once I clicked on this tab: there was an option
for Characteristics or Strategies. They both are such wonderful resources. The characteristics
tab had a list of many characteristics that someone with this diversity might encounter. The page
split it up into categories of physical, language, speech, academic and behavior. It made me
analyze Ivy and think about some learning difficulties that she might have that I didnt think
about before. I want to take the extra initiative to observe what other characteristics Ivy might
have. I honestly didnt think there would be so many. The strategy tab was another absolutely
wonderful resource. I could use almost every single one of these strategies except for the
physical strategies because they dont apply to my case study. There were also a lot of resources
that included academic, social skills and behavior management scaffolds. The math visuals and
manipulatives would work great with Ivy. When Ivy deals with dice, she still has to count the
dots and put up a finger up every time she points to a dot to create that one-to-one
correspondence. Ivy is also most engaged when we are signing in our Avenues lessons;
therefore, I think some of the literacy resources are wonderful because they are interactive and

Laura Soto
September 29, 2014
SERP 301C- Benchmark Part I
fun. There is even a sound sing-a-long interactive video. Im really excited about these resources
and investigating when some of these could be used.
The second resource I found was a childrens book called Jimmy Finds His Voice by
James Doti. I really enjoy this book because it starts with an authors note saying this is a true
story. He talks about how he was bullied and that it was hard to pronounce certain words. It was
also really cool that this story takes place in first grade classroom because that is the grade Ivy is
in. I do think the book is a little advanced for Ivys vocabulary but I was thinking of making it
into a book like Sherry showed as a resource when we took our midterm. If I made the print
bigger, added more pictures and read it throughout multiple days; I think Ivy might be able to
relate to it. Here is a link from Amazon that allows you to look into the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Finds-Voice-James-Doti/dp/1935204475.
My third resource was a journal from Queensland Government. It demonstrated many
strategies for adjustment in planning, teaching, assessment, reporting, environment and
resources. There were many great ideas that I could use in the future. I, especially, like that one
of the categories was assessments because its one of the things Im focusing on Sonyas class.
One of the biggest ideas that popped out at me was to use alternative communication systems to
demonstrate student learning. Right now Im mostly taking writing samples and pictures so I
want to start thinking outside the box to understand how else I can fairly assess Ivys strengths
and challenges. Another strategy that stuck out for me was to decorate the classroom to illustrate
and support current unit vocabulary. My current mentor teacher and I always post past work on
the walls so the children can feel represented in the classroom but should it be focusing more on
the now? This is an interesting insight that I would like to look deeper into.

Laura Soto
September 29, 2014
SERP 301C- Benchmark Part I
Lastly, I wanted to look more into the statement you made on D2L: From your
description of Ivy, I was wondering if she may be experiencing some challenges beyond speech.
After reading this statement, I really wasnt sure. Coincidentally, the next week, I had a one-toone talk about some of my observations of Ivy with Sonya and she mentioned that she had
originally thought that Ivy might have Autism. I knew nothing about this diversity and
embarrassingly had made assumptions that this diversity came with some sort of physical
indicator (Ivy does not have a physical indicator). When I was on do2learn, the website made it
very easy for me to research what some characteristic of this diversity might be like and I agreed
with Sonya that there were a lot of commonalities. However, I dont feel comfortable explicitly
saying that she does indeed have this diversity. However, I will make a mental note to cross
check if any of her other characteristics match up with this diversity.
Citations
(2014, January 1). Retrieved October 24, 2014, from
http://education.qld.gov.au/staff/learning/diversity/educational/sli.html
Do2Learn: Educational Resources for Special Needs. (2013, January 1). Retrieved October 24,
2014, from http://www.do2learn.com
Doti, J., & Mertins, L. (2012). Jimmy finds his voice. Minneapolis, MN: Jabberwocky Books.

IEP Goals and Objectives. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2014, from
http://www.bridges4kids.org/IEP/iep.goal.bank.pdf
IEP Goal Bank. (2014, January 1). Retrieved September 30, 2014, from
http://www.speakingofspeech.com/IEP_Goal_Bank.html
Individualized Education Programs. (2012, July 1). Retrieved September 30, 2014, from
http://www.azed.gov/special-education/files/2012/02/iep-aztas-07-2012.pdf