Jeremy Cooper was a pretty typical first grader. He was far more
interested in playing with toys than he was learning math problems, and
he often got up out of his seat during work time or turned to talk to
his friends. Jeremy was not a troublemaker. In fact, he was one of the
most well liked kids in class, and all of the teachers commented on how
sweet he was. His teacher, Mrs. Walters, did not think anything of
Jeremy’s behavior until she noticed he would often turn in incomplete
assignments. She knew that this was largely because Jeremy was not
staying on task, so she started to reprimand him for getting out of his
seat and talking with his friends during work time.
Over the next few months, things only got worse for Jeremy. He
was behind in just about all of his subjects, and he had started to
withdraw a little from his peers because he was embarrassed about being
behind academically. Mrs. Walters was not surprised when she got a call
from Jeremy’s mother, Marie. Marie was worried about Jeremy. She knew
that something was wrong because Jeremy needed far more help staying on
task than her daughter did when she was his age. Marie told Mrs. Walters
that she worked with Jeremy on homework every single night. They
practiced spelling words for the weekly spelling tests and ran math
facts in addition to any assigned homework. Marie knew that, despite her
best efforts to teach her son to become an independent learner, he was
very behind grade level. She asked Mrs. Walters if she had noticed any
changes in Jeremy, so Mrs. Walters told Marie about Jeremy’s recent
withdrawal from his classmates. The two agreed that something needed to
be done to help Jeremy. Mrs. Walters referred Jeremy to be tested to see
if he qualified for special education services, and she contacted the
principal, counselor, and school psychologist to set up a meeting for
once the testing was completed.
After testing, they were able to determine that Jeremy had ADHD
(inattentive type). According to the school psychologist, this diagnosis
often gets missed because it does not look like the most commonly
thought of type of ADHD, which includes a hyperactive component. Because
Jeremy had his mother and his teacher advocating for him and giving
such detailed information, he could more readily be diagnosed. Because
of his diagnosis, Jeremy qualified for an individualized education plan
(IEP) that would be updated at least yearly based on his needs. The IEP
included information about modified assignments, increased test-taking
time, and priority seating. His mother did not want to put Jeremy on
medication, so the strategies that were decided on were largely
behavioral treatments.
In addition to his IEP specifications, Mrs. Walters decided that
her entire class could benefit from some sort of intervention that
would help keep them interested in what they were learning. Her class
had really loved the unit that they did on local plants, so she decided
to take nature walks around the school’s campus with her class. She gave
them each the task of collected natural items (leaves, rocks, grass,
etc.) so that they could examine them once they were back inside. All of
the kids loved being able to get out of the classroom, and having some
extra time outside really seemed to help Jeremy focus once back in the
classroom. Mrs. Walters also set up stations inside of her classroom
where students could examine the natural objects that they had found.
She broke her class into four groups, mixing the learning levels so the
students could help each other. She found that all of her students
performed better when they got to help each other, largely because
teaching other is such a great way of testing one’s knowledge. She also
decided to start chunking larger projects for her class, creating
multiple due dates for pieces of projects to help all of her students
learn to manage their time. Although she knew that this would especially
benefit Jeremy, she also decided that this was a good practice for her
to use with all of her students.
By the end of the school year, Jeremy was almost back up to
grade level when it came to reading, but he still struggled in math. His
mother was very pleased with his progress, and she continued to be
involved to make sure his IEP was fully up to speed. Although Jeremy
still needed accommodations, especially when it came to time
constraints, he was doing very well in school, and he was much happier
now that he was keeping up academically with his classmates.
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