Assessment Tools Used:

• Writing sample: Tom was asked to write about his work experience in the beer factory.
• Reading comprehension: Tom read passages orally and silently, and listened to passages. He was asked comprehension questions after each passage.
• Auditory and visual processing abilities were tested by having Tom point out the word that was said from a group of words that sounded and looked very similar (i.e. big, bed, bin). Tom did this while hearing the word with and without seeing the list of words.
• Math skills were tested as Tom was offered a number of problems to solve independently. He was asked to verbalize how he worked out the problem. Tom did some simulation money exchange problems and he read numbers.

Assessment results

Expressive writing:

• Tom had frequent and inconsistent spelling errors.
• He tended to add or miss parts of multi-syllabic words.
• Tom had spelling problems with suffixes and prefixes.
• Tom used poor grammar, such as mixed verbal tenses and used fragmented and run on sentences.
• He used limited vocabulary when writing, most likely due to poor spelling because his verbal vocabulary is strong.
• He had difficulty organizing his thoughts in writing. He just put down the thoughts as they occurred.
• Tom's handwriting was poor - his letters were hard to distinguish.
• Tom was unable to see most of the errors in his writing - but could spot a few spelling errors when he really struggled with the words.
• He had difficulty hearing the letters when he asked for the correct spelling of a word - the letters had to be stated very slowly in order for him to write the word.