Lara's Low Concentration Skills

Mrs. Read, Lara’s fourth grade teacher, expressed concerns regarding Lara’s low concentration skills and how it affects her school performance. Her parents, Derya and Ali Oz, agreed with Mrs. Read’s concerns and requested a referral. They believe she is performing lower than her peers and lacks in intelligence skills. A few examples of Lara’s low concentration skills are as follows: bothers her peers during independent work, interrupts lessons to say irrelevant comments, puts her head down on her desk, doodles on class work, and crumbles class work papers into paper balls. Mrs. Read has seen this issue frequently within the last two months. Her teacher and parents are concerned about her cognitive development and would like to know methods

Lara was enthusiastic about the testing situation. She asked how long the test would be, if it would be difficult and how important would the results are. Lara appeared to be hygienically clean. Her appearance was as follows: her brown shoulder length hair was cleaned and brushed, cut nails, and no body odor. Her apparel included a plaid button-down light blue and light pink shirt with ripped denim jeans. Before joining the testing area, she grabbed a lollipop from the kitchen and placed it in her back pants pocket. When she sat down she took it out and placed it on her right side of the table. She was allowed to eat the lollipop while the test was being prepared and before it was time to begin. After each subtest was completed, Lara was allowed to enjoy her lollipop for one minute allowing her to motivate herself. In the beginning of the first administered test Lara was alert. She kept eye contact when listening to the instructions and applied the test without any erupting issues. When the test became difficult she asked, “Am I going to have more time?” For a brief moment she lost concentration as she began to take deep breaths and started to scrunch her eyebrows in confusion. In the next subtest, she was once again attentive. She would verbally think for a minute before giving a detailed response. She then commented by saying, “This feels like a T.V.

She kept eye contact and listened to each number and either mouthed the numbers while listening or she would tap her index finger on the table to the beat of each number said to her. Soon thereafter, during the following subtests, Lara begins being fully engaged and focused. She does this by sitting up straight, facing forward, keeping her body still, and keeping eye contact when listening to instructions. She answered each question to her full potential, but towards the difficult tasks she begins to give uncertain answers. This was followed by statements such as, “I don’t know”, “Pass”, “I’m not enjoying this,” and “I’m just going to guess.” She did not want to attempt or brainstorm any possible answers. When asked to elaborate certain explanations, Lara was able to find the right answer to the questions asked. When Lara was given feedback, her response would be with a slight smirk and reply with an “okay.” The attentive and responsive behaviors indicated by Lara’s performance level for this assessment allows her results to be valid and