Intervention

Question 1

What is an accommodation?

Answer 1

Accommodations are about providing equity of access to the curriculum and learning opportunities And provides the ability to demonstrate knowledge despite the LD.

Question 2

What is intervention?

Answer 2

Interventions are about attempting to remediate the academic difficulties a student experiences. E.g. reading accuracy, ready fluency, ready comprehension, spelling, number sense, calculation strategies etc..

Question 3

What assessment would you use at tier 1?

Answer 3

Screening / diagnostic assessment e.g. DOE On-Entry

Question 4

What assessment type would you use at tier 2?

Answer 4

Diagnostic and progress monitoring

Question 5

What assessment type would you use at tier 3?

Answer 5

Diagnostic and progress monitoring

Question 6

What can you use assessment for?

Answer 6

1. As a placement to find a starting point in an intervention program for our student.
2. To detect weakness - use as a diagnosis
3. As a checking mechanism to monitor the progress of your student through the intervention program
4. Show the achievement of the student to demonstrate what has been learned
5. Report to parents

Question 7

What is dyslexia?

Answer 7

difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provison of effective classroom instruction.

Question 8

What are secondary consequences to having dyslexia?

Answer 8

may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

Question 9

What is dysgraphia?

Answer 9

unusual difficulty with handwriting and/or spelling that may occur alone or with dyslexia (impaired word deocidng, word reading, and spelling).

• The handwriting aspect: difficulty with forming letters (to the point of illegibility) and extremely slow and non-automatic letter writing. This in turn interferes with spelling and written composition (essay writing)
• The spelling aspect: difficulty translating ideas into a written form.

Question 10

What is dyscalculia?

Answer 10

Dyscalculia is an umbrella term which describes a wide range of difficulties in math’s, in particular the acquisition of arithmetic skills. Developmental dyscalculia is referred to math’s difficulty present at birth whereas acquired dyscalculia can be caused by accidental brain damage. The cause cannot be attributed to intellectual impairment or inadequate schooling and is still present after intervention (of at least 6 months).

Question 11

What are the three main components to working memory, explain each.

Answer 11

Space: working memory has limited space and the amount of space available depends on the age of the student.

Time: Information given quickly is difficult to process efficiently, specially if you have poor working memory. Slow your speech down.

Effort: Working memory overload can occur if the tasks given to students are too difficult to achieve. We can support students in the classroom by breaking down complex tasks into small achievable chunks (e.g. task analysis).

Question 12

What does self-esteem mean?

Answer 12

Self esteem is about valuing who you are, liking yourself, believing in yourself and knowing you can do well, knowing your presonal worth and feeling you have a place in the world where you belong.

Question 13

Describe tier one in the classroom

Answer 13

• Whole class teaching including differentiating for certain individuals and groups of students.
• Structured synthetic phonics for teaching reading with an emphasis on phonological awareness and phonemic awareness
• Emphasis on teaching the skills of blending and segmenting coupled with decodable readers
• Rich literacy program with an emphasis on oral language development.

Question 14

Describe tier two in the classroom

Answer 14

• Small groups of 4-5 students identified as having similar needs through testing and screening.
• For those students who are struggling to make adequate progress despite high quality instruction
• Emphasis on phonemic awareness and teaching of the 44 sounds of English and corresponding letters.

Question 15

Describe tier three in the classroom

Answer 15

• Individual students / groups of 3 who are not responding to a second wave intervention and have been identified through careful monitoring and tracking of their progress.
• Through intervention we are attempting to change the course or pathway by providing an intensive (1:1) and frequent program for success.
• Redemption where we are trying to ‘catch’ them up to their peers - long and slow progress

Question 16

What is strategy instruction?

Answer 16

Strategy instruction focusses on teaching students specific strategies for learning, especially when a large task is involved. It involves how to learn as compared to what to learn. Metacognitive (E.g. thinking about thinking) and metalinguistic (E.g. thinking about language) strategies
○ Strategic learners can:
§ Analyse a problem and develop a plan
§ Organise multiple goals and switch between goals
§ Access and use background knowledge
§ Use effective self-regulating strategies when completing task
§ Review goals and determine whether they have been met

Question 17

What is explicit instruction?

Answer 17

Systematic, direct, engaging and success orientated method of teaching with emphases on proceeding in small steps, checking for student understanding, and achieving active and successful participation by all students. Follows the gradual release of responsibility model and takes into consideration the zones of proximal development.

Question 18

Explain the features of explicit instruction

Answer 18

1. Pick important content to teach
2. Break it down into obtainable pieces
3. Sequence the pieces logically
4. Integrate the pieces systematically to build up on more complex skills.

EI is interactive, engaging, provides immediate feedback, is brisk pace and follows a I do, we do, you do model.

Question 19

How are students taught to use strategies?

Answer 19

1. Develop background knowledge
   
   2. Describe and discuss the strategy
   3. Model its use
   4. Memorise the strategy
   5. Provide ample assisted practice time
   6. Promote student self-monitoring and evaluation of personal strategy use
   7. Encourage continued use and generalization of the strategy

Question 20

What are learning difficulties?

Answer 20

16-20% of the school population with a normal range of intelligence, however have external contributing factors causing them to have difficulties at school. Such contributions can include dyspedagogia, instructional casualties, high absenteeism or poverty. Such problems are not persistent and can be responsiveness to instruction and intervention. These students are identified through school or class based assessments. E.g. DOE On-Entry Screening

Question 21

What are learning disabilities?

Answer 21

Learning disabilities affect 3-5% of the school population and have a normal range of intelligence however contributions to the disability are internal to the child and are neurological in the brain, usually heritable. Problems are life long and are resistant to instruction and intervention. Students are identified to have a learning disability through a diagnosis from a qualified professional.

Question 22

What are Specific Learning Disorders?

Answer 22

Characterised by persistent difficulties learning a key academic skill and is unexpected. In some cases, students may present with more than one type of SLD. There are 3 types.
- impairment in readying (dyslexia)
- impairment in written expression (dysgraphia)
- impairment in mathematics (dyscalculia)

Question 23

What strategies would you put in place to support a child with poor working memory?

Answer 23

• visual schedules / and other visuals
• to-do lists and checklists
• simplifying tasks
• graphic organisers
• repetitive reading / repetition work
• consistent routines
• make the work engaging
• use simple language
• have specific learning goals
• engage other senses

Question 24

What is motor based dysgraphia?

Answer 24

Difficulty with fine motor skills needed to produce letters or numbers. The individual can see the symbols, but cannot create the motor movements required to reproduce them with accuracy and automaticity. The student may experience pain while writing, very low speed of writing and low legibility of writing.

Question 25

How long does the child need to show difficulties before it being assessed as a SLD?

Answer 25

6 months

Question 26

What are the features of a SLD with impairment in written expression?

Answer 26

Difficulties with spelling, poor phonics knowledge, orthographic processing difficulties, deterioration of spelling on extended writing tasks, lack of incorrect punctuation, poor organisation of ideas, hard to follow the point the student is trying to make.

Question 27

What is working memory?

Answer 27

Located in the pre-frontal context of the brain, it is used to remember, hold, manipulate, process of manage information even when distracted. It works with information in order to remember and holds information for a short amount of time. Can be described as a post it note. Through revision, information can be stored in the long term memory.