Joseph White Observation

Part1:
Joseph White is a student in an inclusion classroom in the 3rd grade at a private institute in Quincy, MA. Joseph was diagnosed with autism at a young age and has adapted to him new classroom setting “exceptionally” according to his mother. His mother stated that within a short period of time, Joseph has made gains in all academic areas.
After observing Joseph over a three-day period, it is evident that he has areas of concern. His main areas of concern are in writing and in math. The information gathered during the written language observation concluded that Joseph presented a majority of his writing in short phrase form. He is unable to compute complex phrases, complete sentences, or form paragraphs. When presented with the assignment

After speaking with Joseph, he expressed his enjoyment for math. He insisted that math was his favorite subject. At the beginning of each math lesson, the students are required to complete a 5 minutes of “Brain Busters” this activity requires students to race each other and see who can complete the most problems correctly in a 5 minute block. During this lesson, the students were learner single digit multiplication. Joseph completed 45 problems in the 5-minute block. In relation to his classmates, Joseph was in the average-above average range. After further observation, it was clear that Joseph was confidant in math. He knew his math facts, can read visual aids, and showed a good understanding for regrouping numbers. During the week of observation, the students were being introduced to word problems. Joseph’s teacher expressed her concern about this matter. Because of him lack of confidence and struggles in reading and writing she felt as though word problems might be challenging for him. However, after viewing one lesson, Joseph seemed to be handling the new task at the same rate a majority of his classmates were. If was evident that he was working slower and was becoming frustrated because he wasn’t able to work as quickly as he wanted. As the word problems became more advanced and multiple steps were required, Joseph because visibly flustered and began to shut down. It was clear he had become over stimulated. As the math

Addressing this issue will make a greater difference for the Joseph’s access to the general curriculum. Joseph shows great difficultly when it comes to organizing and generating ideas. When asked to respond to a short story or a writing prompt, he is unable to write his response down. Joseph is able to verbally express his ideas, but when it comes to filling out a concept map or even formulating a topic sentence, he becomes anxious and indicates he needs assistance. The tool recommended for Joseph is an iPad app. This app can also be used on an iPhone, and iPod touch. If this type of technology is not available there are other versions of this software made available for Microsoft. The app suggested is called “Speak-it!” This app allows students to verbally respond to a question. As the student speaks, the app translates the verbal tone into text. This allows the student to express his/her ideas and then work from there. Once the context is concrete and in front of the learner, they are then able to build from there. Organizing and adding detail becomes easier and adding information. This app is expected to be an effective AT for Joseph for many reasons. One reason being, Joseph loves technology. The iPad is something that he has adapted to and is knowledgeable of. The second reason being that he is capable of producing a verbal response.