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. Babies born after 26 weeks face an increased risk of learning disabilities and other problems, but the specific odds of these problems vary heavily on fact. Research states that babies born very prematurely can face high odds of having some level of learning disabilities or other developmental impairment, but the intensity of the disabilities or impairment can vary heavily.

In babies born before 26 weeks, only 20% will have no long-term problems. About 34% will have a mild disability, such as cognitive impairment or near-sightedness. Another 24% will have a moderate disability, such as visual/hearing impairment or cerebral palsy with the ability to walk. Finally, 22% will have a severe disability, such as cerebral palsy and no ability to walk, blindness or profound deafness. (Danielsson, 2008)

The subject's parents have been divorced for 2 years. During the first 3 years of his life, he was involved in domestic 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.

Children who have been abandoned may reject everything about the absent parent: In some cases, children who have been abandoned by one parent will make an effort to completely reject him or her.

They may idealize the absent parent: Some children may over-identify with the absent parent and develop a set of fantasies about him or her which - although they may provide temporary comfort - are not be based in reality.

They may develop poor self-esteem: Children who have experienced parental abandonment may also be prone to developing poor self-esteem and a sense of shame surrounding the parent's absence. They may even question whether they could have contributed to the absence, whether they somehow "deserved" to be abandoned, or whether the absent parent believes he or she is better off without the "burden" of a child.

They may have difficulty expressing their emotions: Children who have experienced parental abandonment may also have difficulty sharing their feelings. They tend to keep their emotions bottled up and lack the trust necessary to share their true selves with others. (Wolf, 2008)

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. Auditory learners often have musical talents. They can hear tones, rhythms, and individual notes with their strong auditory skills. ( Auditory Learners, 2010)

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. Early Emergent Readers (Levels aa-C)
Aspiring readers are just beginning to grasp the basic concepts of book and print. They are acquiring a command of the alphabet with the ability to recognize and name upper- and lowercase letters. They are also developing many phonological awareness skills, such as recognizing phonemes, syllables, and rhyme.( Reading A-Z, 2010)


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. When preemies are babies, parents and pediatricians often use gestational age, instead of chronological age, to determine whether they are meeting developmental milestones on time. Most parents abandon that practice when their children “catch up” to their full-term peers. Some babies are using chronological age well before they can walk; others, because they were very premature or very sick during infancy, take longer.

Signs of School Readiness

Experts generally agree that signs of school readiness are more important than age when deciding whether a child is ready for school. Signs that a child is ready for kindergarten include:

Physical readiness: Children are physically ready for school if they are in good health and fully potty-trained. They should be able to run, jump, and play outdoors, should be up to date on their immunizations, and should have begun regular dental care.

Social and emotional readiness: Children who are ready for school can communicate well and follow directions. They are curious and enjoy learning new things and playing with other children. They can share and can calm themselves when upset.

Academic readiness: Before beginning kindergarten, children should know that letters make words, and should be able to recognize some letters and the sounds they make. They should be able to count and sort, and should know shapes and colors.
(Morrissette, Cheryl, 2009)

In conclusion, even though he was a premature baby and had many setbacks, the child seems to have caught up on the developmental scale as compared to childen his age. However, he may have some insecurities from his past homelife experiences.



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.
(Morrissette, 2009)

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

7. Retrieved March 28, 2010 from The World Wide Web: Alphin, 2009 http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Readiness_Indicators/

8. Retrieved March 28, 2010 from The World Wide Web: Cook, 2009 http://www.education.com/reference/article/kindergarten-readiness/

9. Retrieved March 28, 2010 from The World Wide Web: Williams, 2009 http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Kindergarten_Reading_What_Happens/

10. Retrieved April 4, 2010 from the World Wide Web: Danielsson, 2008
http://miscarriage.about.com/od/pregnancyafterloss/a/prematurebirth.htm

11. Retrieved April 4, 2010 from the World Wide Web: Morrissette, 2009
US Department of Education. “Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten” Accessed April20,2007 from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Preparing_Your_Child/.

12. Retrieved April 4, 2010 from the World Wide Web: Wolf, 2008 http://singleparents.about.com/od/parenting/a/abandonment.htm

13. Balcom, Dennis A. "Absent Fathers: Effects on Abandoned Sons." The Journal of Men's Studies 6.3 (1998): 283+. Questia. 31 Mar. 2008 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001348916].

14. Retrieved April 4, 2010 from the World Wide Web: Reading A-Z, 2010
http://www.readinga-z.com/guided/stages.html

15. Retrieved April 4, 2010 from the World Wide Web
http://www2.yk.psu.edu/learncenter/acskills/auditory.html