Case Study Is This Child Mislabeled

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In the case study, “Is This Child Mislabeled?” the reader is introduced to Serge Romanich, who is a third-grade Serbian refugee. Upon Serge’s enrollment in Oakwood Elementary, it was said that he barely knew any English and never started school due to his mother’s hospitalization and the Serbian war. Serge was placed into the Limited English Proficiency (LEP) program at his school, where he was soon labeled as a non-reader with no aptitude. Adding onto that, due to Serge’s inability to make academic progression and catch up, the faculty at Oakwood Elementary suggested to his mother, Byona Romanich, that Serge had a learning disability. According to the article, “On the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities, he scored at least 2 standard …show more content…

During this examination, the administration did not take into account that Serge was not proficient enough in English to fully comprehend the test. Serge was tested in English for the majority of the questions and was unable to successfully answer them due to his language barrier. When Serge was placed into the third-grade class, he had just gone through a traumatic experience wand was undergoing both a cultural and language shock. These events should have played a more prominent role in his assessment. Moreover, Serge was not correctly identified as learning disabled, because of the language barrier present in these tests. Since he was tested in mainly English, it was not that he was disabled, it was because he lacked the understanding of the English language. As specified by Salend and Salinas (2003), in their six recommendations for multidisciplinary teams, students should be assessed in both their native and secondary languages. These results should then be compared in order to determine results (Salend & Salinas, 2003, …show more content…

A special education setting is based on educational needs of those with learning disabilities. Students should not be immediately placed in a special education classroom, but instead should be taught strategies that are appropriate to their educational needs. Notwithstanding, Serge did not have a learning disability and as a result, should not have been placed in a special education setting. This was inappropriate placement for him as his only problem was his inability to speak English. Although he eventually did thrive with the instruction he received from Mrs. Evans, a resource teacher, his placement was not appropriate. In correlation with Ortiz (2001), “Early Invention for English Languages who are having difficulty in school needs to be implemented by general eduction teachers. Supportive school climates and instruction tailored to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students (Ortiz, 2001, pg. 4). Also, if Serge was placed into a general education setting with individualized instruction, he would have been barely able to perform at all. He would not understand anything that is going on and would have been completely lost. In order to grasp material, Serge should have both Serbian and English material provided for

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