Case History of Student X

Statement of the Problem

Student X is a 5 year old Kindergarten Special Education student with a

classification of Mental Retardation with Multiply Handicapping conditions. His physical

disabilities are characterized by Spastic Cerebral Palsy which means he is very high

muscle tone (stiff) with limited mobility. Student X is non-verbal but receptively he

appears to understand familiar vocabulary that is part of his immediate environment. This

student was also evaluated by a Technology Center for the possibility of getting and IEP

(Individualized Education Plan) driven Communication Device. The device that he got

was a Tech-8 device with levels. This is a device that allows 8 verbal responses to be

recorded It has levels so overlays can be made for each level. For example: one level can

be basic generic vocabulary, level 2 can be literacy, Level 3 can be play time, Level 4 can

be gym or adaptive Physical Education, Level 5 can be math . This student has a good

receptive vocabulary so he is able to use his communication device throughout the day in

all curriculum areas. He needs to interact more with his peers and his Speech/Language

Therapist is working on this area with him. Student X also receives Occupational

Therapy and Physical Therapy this device should be used by all of his service providers.

The other Therapists don’t buy into the device but the Speech Therapist is working with

them. Student X’s communication device can be very helpful in his other therapies,

because he can express pain and needs like rolling or standing on a stander. This student

might want to stand during therapy or play ball but how would anyone know this without

the use of the device. The Speech Therapist is also working with the Educational

assistants because they are direct care and they take care of feeding and toileting needs.

They need to help this student make communicative choices in the cafeteria when the

Speech Therapist is not there. Communication during toileting is also important because

this student can use his device to communicate when his toileting needs should be

attended to. Collaboration is the key for the success of Student X now that he has been

assessed by the Speech and Language Therapist with PLS-4 and the Technology center

has given him a Tech-8 device all providers need to implement the use of his

communication device throughout the day.

The Assessment

The Pre-school Language scale (PLS-4) Fourth Edition Authors: Irla Lee

Zimmerman P.H.D. Violette G. Steiner, BS., and Roberta Evatt Pond M.A. was the

appropriate test to administer because the student is five years old. The Pre-school

Language scale was standardized on students that were in the age ranges of birth, 6-11

years old. The purpose of this test is to measure both Receptive and Expressive Language

skills. Administration time is 26-45 minutes, but with student X it took two days to

administer this test to student X because of his attention span and physical limitations.

This test was standardized on students from different Socio-economic and religious

backgrounds, so the test is not culturally biased. The PLS-4 makes it easy for Parents,

Teachers, Caregivers and Therapists to quantify therapy and intervention for the child.

This test is easy to administer to infants and students with disabilities because the test

uses objects and pictures that are in color.

This test is also based on new norms 1500 children with disabilities. This test

measures auditory comprehension some items measure the child’s ability to focus or

attend to a task. The majority of the test looks at the child’s ability to understand

vocabulary (picture-word or picture-phrase matching) and following directions or

commands. In the area of Expressive Communication some items focus on syntax and

semantic knowledge and some items measure the child’s ability to demonstrate

communicative competence with concepts. The child is asked if they are able to talk to

name common objects, use concepts that describe objects, express quantity, use

prepositions, grammatical markers and sentence structures that are age appropriate. Raw

scores can be converted into standard scores, Percentile ranks and age equivalent scores.

This test was standardized on a nationwide representative sample of 2400 children. Test

and retest reliability is in the .90 range and the inter-rater reliability correlation was close

to perfect.

The validity was established by using The PLS-3 and the Denver Clinical validity

studies with children that were classified with special needs it was also conducted to

provide evidence of the PLS-4 validity. The PLS-4 test can be used long before a child is

in pre-school and because it was standardized on children with special needs it can be

used with Student X and any other student that is classified as mentally retarded with

Physical Challenges. The results of this test helped to determine that Student X had

excellent receptive language and cognitive skills. Since this student is non-verbal it was

difficult to assess Expressive Language skills. Good receptive language skills are pre-

requisite to using an Augmentative Communication Device however. Student X was

evaluated and he did get a Tech-8 Communication device now he is able to express his

wants and needs accurately.

The PLS-4 also helped student X with his academic needs because the Special

Education teacher uses this device in all settings. The test is used during breakfast, lunch,

social studies, literacy, play time, and adaptive physical education. The Speech Therapist

works in the classroom so this helps student X communicate and use the device in all

settings. The examiner is allowed to give cues to a student during testing especially a

student like Student X because of his level of functioning. Some of the items that are

used are objects and using objects is sometimes needed for students that do not respond

to pictures because of age or cognitive abilities. Now that student X has his

communication device the PLS-4 will be re-administered to assess some of the expressive

skills that he was not able to respond to before he had a device. Student X is able to take

turns and express “my turn” during literacy lessons; he can express “turn the page”. He is

excellent at answering yes/no questions. He is able to greet and say goodbye at the

beginning and at the end of the day. Student X is also able to request and make choices

during mealtime. Students that are non-verbal should be allowed to express themselves

when being assessed by using their devices.