Elementary Special Education Case Study

By: Kathryn Morehouse

The purpose of this case study is to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions
currently being used with John Doe and explore the influence of introducing new
interventions.
I studied the students background information by gathering the following data:
Observation
Teacher Interviews
Individualized Education Plan
Assessment Scores
I observed the student over a span of six weeks, Monday through Friday. I chose
this student because I have never had the opportunity to work with a child who has
autism and is non-verbal. I am seeking to understand strategies that are in place for this
student and implement new strategies that will help this child learn in engaging and
meaningful ways.
John Doe is an eight-year-old male enrolled in the first grade. His parents are
married and he has one younger brother. His father is fully employed and his mother is
a stay-at-home mom, they are living a middle-class lifestyle. Being a child with autism,
Johns current cognitive, social, emotional, and academic developmental levels are
lower than his typically developing peers. His lessons are built around the South Dakota
Early Childhood Guidelines.
John experienced sensory problems, lacks fine-motor skills and cannot
communicate verbally. He has been documented as having outbursts of crying and
screaming when he gets frustrated or when there is a change in his daily schedule. He
does not retain newly learned skills after long breaks. John receives special education
services for reading, math, speech, skill based tasks, and occupational therapy. He
takes part in the general curriculum for reading, music, lunch, recess, and extra-class
activities.
Educators, who work with John, implement a variety of strategies to engage him in
learning activities. These should include clear beginnings and ends to activities, allow
plenty of wait time for responses, use physical and visual cues to initiate tasks, and
provide reasonable accommodations (Autism Spectrum Disorder Program, 2006). To
begin and end a task anyone who works with this student is to say time to work and
good job, take a break. John is given a one- to two-minute break when he completes
assigned tasks quietly, independently, and with no errors. The breaks motivate him to
learn, sustain a low frustration level, and provide opportunities to develop skills
independently. John is given additional wait time for responses. If he makes a mistake,
the educator must promptly give feedback either verbally or physically. He will only learn
a task correctly when he is given practice and completes tasks correctly.
I had the opportunity to work with John throughout my student teaching experience.
He seemed to adjust well to the change and I did not observe any outbursts. Educators
should teach systematically across a variety of places, people, and materials, and
frequently change activities and materials (Autism Spectrum Disorder Program, 2006).
When working with John, I thought it was interesting how changing the materials often
changed his ability to complete a task. Although, once I demonstrated the task for him,
he could complete it with little to no errors. My greatest take-away from working with
John, is that he taught me to never underestimate a student and that if you are
determined to find a solution to an issue, its out there somewhere.
Feedback from teachers who worked with John the previous year stated that he
has made huge gains from eating school lunch, to running his own breaks, and to
learning new tasks after being shown them only a few times. Based on the
observations, feedback, evaluations, usage of evidence-based practices, and outcomes
from the student, it is determined that the interventions being used with John are
effective.