Starting at the beginning, Amy had several difficulties in kindergarten. It was stated by her teacher, Mrs. Head, that Amy was a little bossy sometimes, that she had trouble waiting her turn to talk, and she needed much improvement with neatness. As a comment on the 4th quarter report card, she stated that Amy needed to work on coloring, cutting, and printing over the summer.

In First grade, her teacher was Mrs. Neff. Amy made basically A’s and B’s, with the exception of the 2nd quarter in math she made a c+ (she had difficulties understanding concepts like 6+8 and 8+6 were the same answer), and the 4th quarter in spelling (her handwriting was difficult to read, and she frequently would reverse letters or would have the correct letters in wrong sequence), and another area that was difficult was her handwriting. When I talked to the teacher about it, I was told that she could do it, if she tried harder. I started working with her at home, to improve her handwriting, and we worked on in it all summer long.

Other areas of difficulties that Amy experienced in first grade were making friends, talking at appropriate times, demonstrating self control, listening carefully, following directions, doing neat and orderly work. It was stated on the comment section of the report card for second quarter, that Amy needed to develop self discipline to do work she could be proud of. When asked about the possibility of having a learning difficulty, I was told that Amy was too smart to be considered for having any type of learning difficulty, that she was just a difficult child, and needed more discipline at home. She had been given an achievement test, and the testing showed that she was above average on all subjects, Word analysis and Reading being on the 3rd grade level, spelling and math computation being almost on grade level.

During the 4th quarter of 1st grade, and the summer between 1st and 2nd grades, we had independant testing done to determine if Amy had Attention Deficit Disorder, and it was determined that she did indeed have this disorder.

For 2nd grade, we moved at the end of the second quarter, so Amy had two teachers for 2nd grade. Mrs. Schaefer, and Mrs. Boyd. Her grades at Sullivan scattered, the first quarter were basically c’s with a 2 B’s, but her medicines were still being regulated. By the second quarter, the only C was in reading. There were several places where the teacher felt Amy needed improvement. Amy needed improvement on handwriting, compleating assignments on time, doing neat and orderly work, and talking at appropriate times. It was noted in the teacher’s comments that Amy was so eager to learn .

Mrs. Boyd had Amy for about a week or two of the second quarter, and the rest of 2nd semester. The only problem areas Mrs. Boyd had marked on Amy’s report card was that she had unsatisfactory performance in exhibiting self control (which improved in the 4th quarter), respects the rights of others, works with outhers cooperatively, staying on task, and in forming letters and numerals legibly.

Again, when I questioned a possibility of her having learning difficulties, with her writing, it was quickly dismissed as her being uncooperative.

For Third Grade, Amy had Mrs. Jones for her teacher. It was noted that most of her grades and other developemental categories were marked satisfactory, with the exception of Mathematics, Language, Social Studies, and Science, which most of the check marks were in the outstanding performance range. The only negative marks were on Amy’s handwriting, the forming of her letters and numerals. While her writing saw a dramatic improvement, it was still a great difficulty for her. It was in Mrs. Jones class that Amy started to write down stories, and to experiment with creative writing. The only problem is, few could read it, and she had difficulty reading them as well.

In 4th grade, Amy’s teacher was Mrs. Bennett. The grade cards changed, and it gave areas of consistant progress, acceptable progress, areas of weakness, along with letter grades. Her letter grades were good, Amy made B honor roll the first 3 quarters. There were several areas of weakness noted; spelling correctly in written work, uses legible handwriting, expresses ideas in complete thoughts, communicating mathematical thought, practices self control, works independantly. Several areas fluctuated during the year; communicates effectively with peers, keeps work area clean, expresses ideas clearly, and understanding her multiplication facts.

It was this year that we experimented with graph paper to help her learn spacing, for both writing and for math problems.

For 5th grade, Amy’s teacher was Mr. Camp. Her grades were very good, she was on B honor roll, all 4 quarters. Most of the different grades were 2’s and 3’s, except for a for uses legible handwriting, keeps work area clean. She had some trouble communicating with peers, but it did improve the second semester.

In March of 5th grade, Amy was given an 504 Accomodation plan. In this plan, it was determined that Amy had difficulty with the speed of task completion, focusing on lesson presentations and activities, organization skills, handwriting, and social skills and peer relations. She was given the following accomodations: Minimizing writing assignments, allowing Amy to dictate essays, tests and other assignments, utilize a computer to complete assignments, modify daily work and tests when appropriate.

To help her with organization skills, it was agreed to establish a periodic time for Amy to clean out her desk and organize, have a peer helper to help file papers in correct places, placement with those more tolerant of her disorganization.

Also in the 5th grade, Amy was give the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and Cognative Abilities test. In this test’s results it was noted that Amy earned a composite grade equivalent of 8.3 on the level 11 test. This means that her test performance was approximately the same as that made by a typical student in the eighth grade at the end of the third month. Her overall achievement appears to be above average for fifth grade. The area that showed relative strength for Amy was Science. The following areas are relative weaknesses which may need the most work: Integrated writing advanced skills, integrated writing total, math concepts and estimation, maps and diagrams, and math computation. Amy’s actual acheivement is higher than expected in two test areas, vocabulary and science. Amy’s actual achievement is lower than expected in one test area. This is math computation.

This brings us to 6th grade. Amy made A’s and B’s during the first quarter, but had great difficulties finishing her homework. I had asked for an evaluation to be done in August, and on January 5th, it was determined that she did have a written language disorder, or Dysgraphia. The 2nd quarter, Amy’s grades fell, and in the 3rd quarter, were starting to improve for the most part, but she still had a great deal of difficulty doing her writing, and all the other problems that have caused her difficulties throughout her academic life.

In conclusion, I realize that with ADHD and with Dysgraphia can cause many academic difficulties. I also know that the past can’t account for present behaviors, but it does show that there has been a history of academic difficulties, and misunderstanding on the part of her teachers of what her difficulties actually were. I am concerned that the continued negative aspects of her difficulties being continually brought up to Amy, is going to have lasting concequences on her both socially and academically for the remander of her life.