Analysis of Family’s Situation Questions to Consider Henry lives with his mother, younger half-sister, and his mother’s boyfriend. Henry has a close relationship with his mother, however she often works late hours. This means that she often sees Henry only in the mornings. Henry is close with his four-year-old half-sister, Claire, but is fearful of her father, who is his mother’s boyfriend. Henry’s maternal grandmother often cares for both Henry and Claire. Grandma has a boyfriend that often picks Henry and Claire up from school and daycare. Henry also has a maternal aunt and infant cousin with whom he is close. Henry’s father lives in another town that is not too far away. However, Henry’s dad often misses his scheduled visits with Henry due …show more content…
Henry is a first grader who attends a daycare center, at least on occasion. This means that the daycare and public school, alongside the DHS social worker and Henry’s parents, are working to assure that Henry has the best care and education possible. Henry’s contextual factors play a profound role in his education. Henry’s behavior and some of his academic abilities can be tied to his contextual factors. Henry is behind in literacy. He does not want to engage in reading activities with anyone but his mother and struggles to engage in other literacy activities all together. Henry not wanting to read with anyone but his mother is possibly due to the special one-on-one activity of having her read to him. It could be that Henry sees reading and other literacy activities as being something between him and his mother only. His close relationship with his paternal grandfather can be seen in his unique method of solving problems with dominos. Henry understands things in a very concrete fashion, meaning that the abstract social studies curriculum that is in place is not ideal for his learning style. Henry should be offered hands on activities and …show more content…
This would likely help Henry to regulate his emotions better and adjust better to the classroom. The midterm goal for Henry is to make the math, science, and social studies curriculums more relatable and concrete. This can be done by increasing the amount and variety of manipulatives, including dominos, in math activities, by modeling various ways to do solve a math problem, an increase on the amount of concrete, or hands-on, activities and an increase in relevant social studies topics that can be applied to Henry’s life. By making these changes to the curriculum, Henry will be better able to find meaning in the material. The long-term goal for Henry is to increase his literacy ability. There are numerous strategies that could possibly help in the attainment of this goal. One would be to offer various literacy activities that Henry’s mother can engage him in that go beyond reading, such as onset and rime activities, oral storytelling, or having Henry read to her. This would give Henry opportunities to engage in literacy activities beyond reading with his mother. Another strategy would be to have other caregivers read to Henry and engage him in other literacy activities on occasion. This would help Henry to increase his comfort with