• She took basic courses during her short time at high school and remembers being sent to a small group for extra help in reading during elementary school.
• Her rebellious behaviour began to interfere with her academics in grade 7. Samantha's parents went through a difficult divorce at that time and limited attention was focused on her.
• She reports no medical history that would interfere with her learning and has had her eyes checked in the past eight months.
• During her upbringing, Samantha recalls her mother always reinforced the need for her to do well in school and get a college degree, so that Samantha would not wind up like her mother.
• Samantha's mother has always worked as a cashier in a grocery store and most recently is working at a major department store. Although her mother has average reading abilities, Samantha knows that her mother avoids reading when possible.
• Samantha hasn't seen her father since her parents' divorce and believes he did get his Grade 12 diploma. He was a mechanic.

Initial test results: (CAAT - Canadian Adult Achievement Test and Math Skills Inventory)

• Vocabulary 10.3, reading comprehension 6.5 and spelling 7.7.
• Math results indicate that she can add, subtract and multiply single-digit numbers but had has difficulty with double-digits and division. As a result, she struggled with her percentages and fractions. Although her adding and subtracting were strong, when they were put into a word problem format she was unable to solve them.

Questions for practitioners to consider: