Math skills:
  • Overall, Tom's math skills appeared to be fairly strong.
  • He tended to rush through and made careless mistakes.
  • He did not see his mistakes and often it was a result of recording the numbers incorrectly (i.e. 256 he would write 265).
  • His poor writing also created errors since he was unable to read his work and had difficulty keeping the column of numbers straight - this was problematic when he had to do 3 digit calculations (+, -).
  • When making change he found it difficult, without the use of scrap paper, to figure out the answer.
  • Although he did struggle with fractions, once he was reminded of the rules he improved.
  • Tom appeared to understand calculations but once they were combined in a word problem, he could not figure out what calculation to use and which one to do first.
  • Tom had difficulty verbalizing large numbers (i.e. 156,342 - he got his thousands and hundreds mixed up).
Overall attitude and motivation:

Tom tends to minimize the importance of spelling and writing, given that he really hasn't had to use it a lot in his job. His verbal skills have compensated for these areas. He feels that teachers are picky and don't know what you really need to survive. He is motivated to get his Grade 12 diploma but tends to want immediate action. He appears to know when he has a problem but hasn't ever thought of why and how he can fix it.

Questions for practitioners to consider:
Based on the initial findings, what areas would you focus on more in-depth, to gain a better understanding of Tom's struggles and why? What struggle areas do you think are impacted by his potential processing challenges and what areas are just results of a lack of exposure to skills? How would you approach Tom about the potential auditory and possible organizational learning disabilities?