Literature Review

Background Information

The purpose of this case study is to indicate reading readiness of a 5 year-
old male, who was born prematurely. The child is currently enrolled in pre-school. He recently was administered "The Circle Test," which is a standardized test for pre-
school students. Test results of this test are used to determine if the
child is ready for kindergarten.

Personal/Home Life

The subject was born January 18, 2005 and was a premature baby. He
weighed 6 pounds at birth, so he was allowed to come home after his birth.
His parents have been divorced for 2 years. During the first 3 years of his life, he was involved in domestic disputes. The child was caught in the middle of his parents' disputes. His father many times would take the child and leave with him and tell his Mom that she could not see him. Finally, he would let the mom see him after the child continuously cried for her. Both parents have moved as many as 6-8 times within the 5 years of his life. The last year has been the most stable for the child because he lived in the same house for a year. But last month the child moved again with his mom to an apartment. Now his Dad has visitation every other
weekend or sometimes every weekend. His dad at one time moved to Alaska
for 9 months and did not contact the child. During this time the child
would cry for his dad and even say his dad died.
His mom is currently providing a more stable life style for the child. The dad
provides a less stable environment for the child and this could lead to
insecurity that can effect the child in the future.

Other Information

While his mom was pregnant with him, she listened to music. Now, the child
loves music and sings many songs. He knows all the words to many songs.
Therefore, his learning style is as an auditory learner. He loves books
because his mom reads to him as much as possible. Both of his grandparents
read to him also. He knows the alphabet and "The Alphabet Song." He also
knows the syllables in most words. He recognizes words on signs and he
knows how to start the computer and play his games. Leapster2 is a
learning game he loves to play and he also has a SmartCycle that has
learning games. He will sit for hours and play these learning games.

Tests Administered:

Phonemic Awareness- Letter Identification (Clay, 2002)
Informal Classroom Based Assessment- Test of Print Concepts(Bell & McCallum,2008)
Development of word recognition- Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation (Bell & McCallum,2008)
Curriculum Based Assessment- The Circle Test (Idol,2007)
QRI- Level- Pre-Primer (Leslie & Caldwell, 2006)
Book Handling Knowledge Test (McKenna & Stahl)

Other Tests Administered
Kindergarten Readiness Test-(Michigan Dept. of Education, 2010)
Kindergarten Reading Readiness Test-(Williams, 2009)


Observation During Testing

During "The Letter Identification Test," the child would sing the alphabet song to help him remember the letters. At the beginning of the test he wrote the alphabet. During the test he missed some of the same letters he had trouble writing. The words he came up with were his friends names from pre-school.
He also came up with words from books his mom had read him, such as cranium. Other words he came up with were ace, hater, Chum Chum (cartoon character), bacon, faking, faith, whine ,x-ray, Auto-Zone. He missed the letters W,w,u,q,b,k,N,n,V. He was confused with the letters v and y. He also acted like he had never seen a lower case q. His score was 41/54, which is 75% recognition of the letters.

During "The Yopp Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation," the child scored 11/22, which is 50% on this test. While testing, he struggled with blending these letter sounds. He recognizes most of the letters in isolation but he is still struggling with blending the letters to make words. He seemed confused when he saw the letters close together in words. He just turned 5 in January. He also was a premature baby. At this time, he needs more exposure to consonant blends and phonics and word recognition.

When administering "The Test of Print Concepts," he understood most of the concepts. He scored 16/17 which is 99 % on the modified test. He did not point to the bottom of the page when asked to point to it. He also did not turn to the lower line, instead he turned the page. While taking the test he remarked, "This is boring." He commented that he knew sign language. When he was asked to circle one word, he circled 2 words instead. He also circled the whole sentence and he did not circle individual letters. The modified test version was used because he does not know punctuation marks or some of the concepts in the longer version of the test.

Next, “The Book Handling Knowledge Guidelines Test,” was administered. He scored 14/21, which is 66%. He called a period a polka dot. He did not know what commas , quotation marks, or exclamation marks were. When he was asked to show me a lower case letter like a l. He pointed to an exclamation mark. When he was asked to point to two words. He only pointed to one. Therefore, he needs to work on lower case letters and punctuation and word and letter recognition.

The QRI Test was administered next and some sections were modified ,since the child cannot read.The story was read to him. On the first test he scored 8/9- 88%. He was asked, “ what does it mean when something is lost?” He said, “you cannot find it.” He had me draw happy faces and sad faces beside his responses. He retold the story very well.

For the retelling part of the test he scored 70%. He did not tell all the details of the story. He only told about half of the events and then he said, “he found his toy,” which was not mentioned in the story.The last part of the test was the question section and he scored 100%. He got all the questions right.

The Circle Test was administered as a Curriculum Based Test. On this test the child was tested on these things:

Rapid Letter Naming- Score=17= Proficient

Rapid Vocabulary Naming=Score-18 Below Proficient

Phonological Awareness-Score-35= Proficient

Listening-Score-5=Proficient

Rhyming I-Score-8=Proficient

Rhyming II-Score- 3= Proficient

Alliteration-Score- 6=Proficient

Words in a sentence-Score-3= Below Proficient

Syllabication-Score-6=Proficient

Onset rime-Score-4=Proficient

Book and print awareness- Score-7=Occasional or (in the middle).

Social Skills were tested and for the area of regulation of Behavior he scored -occasional , (in the middle).

Math was also tested and he scored proficient in all areas such as rote counting, number discrimination and number naming, Shape discrimination, shape discrimination triangle, shape discrimination square, set counting, and operations.


Summary and Recommendation

Based on observation of the child, the conclusion of this case study is that the child is in the emergent stage of reading. His strengths include phonological awareness, syllabication, and basic concepts for reading. He needs work on word recognition, recognizing words in a sentence, and he needs to develop his fine motor skills. He has some difficulty writing his letters and making them clear. The child scored proficient in all areas of math. His mother was given 2 home surveys that were online and these tests matched the results of “The Circle Test.” (Alphin, 2007). Since he was a premature baby, perhaps in 6 more months he should be reading.


Goals for Improvement:

1. The child needs continued exposure to Predictable books and read-alouds.

2. Focus needs to be on word-recognition while reading books. An activity the child can do is to help him with word recognition is to make his own book at home. He can gather things around the house and create a story about these things. An adult can write for the child and he can try to write the words.

3. The child needs more exposure to lower case letters and consonant blends.

4. The child can play a phoneme deletion word game. For example, he can say the word black, then an adult can say, what is the word without the b? (lack)

5. The child needs to cut out pictures with scissors in order to help develop his fine motor skills. This should help him in his writing of letters.

Works Cited:

1. Bell, S.M., & McCallum, R.S. (2008). Handbook of Reading Assessment. Boston: Pearson. Tests:

2. Idol, L. (2007). Models of curriculum-based assessment (4th ed.), Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

3. Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J. (2006). Qualitative Reading Inventory- 4. New York: Longman.

4. McKenna, M. C. , & Stahl, S. A. (2003). Assessment for reading instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.

5. Clay, M. (2002). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

6. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Michigan Dept. of Education, 2010 http//www.education.com/topic/ready-for-kindergarten/

7. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Alphin, 2009 http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Readiness_Indicators/

8. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Cook, 2009 http://www.education.com/reference/article/kindergarten-readiness/

9. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Williams, 2009 http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Kindergarten_Reading_What_Happens/