Tshenolo was referred to Edublox after failing Grade 2. He scored 1/7 (between 0% and 29%) for English, Afrikaans and Mathematics, and 4/7 (between 50% and 59%) for Life Skills.
Assessment, January 2016
Tshenolo could not count and he could not read. He was assessed on the Essi Reading Test, on a Grade 1, 3rd term level. This reading test aims at determining the sight word vocabulary of a learner. Norms for the tests, available for each term, have been calculated in the form of stanines and percentile ranks.
Of children doing the test on grade level,
4% score a stanine of 1 (VERY POOR)
19% score a stanine of 2 or 3 (POOR)
54% score a stanine of 4, 5 or 6 (AVERAGE)
19% score a stanine of 7 or 8 (GOOD)
4% score a stanine of 9 (VERY GOOD)
Tshenolo scored 0/15 for the test, which equals a stanine of 1. He could not read any of the words. He merely guessed: us was read as in, she as bed, box as angry and with as cheese.
He was also assessed on the Essi Spelling Test, on a Grade 1, 3rd term level. He scored 1/15, which equals a stanine of 1.
Below is Tshenolo’s attempt at writing the words jump, flag, shop, dish, egg and king:
Our assessment determined that Tshenolo was struggling as a result of weak cognitive skills. His form perception was very weak. The child with poor form perception is at a distinct disadvantage when confronted with school-related activities. There is hardly an academic activity that does not require the child to engage in form perception.
The most obvious classroom activity requiring the child to discriminate forms is that of reading. The learning of the letters of the alphabet, syllables, and words will undoubtedly be impeded if there is difficulty in perceiving the form of the letters, syllables, and words. The child having a problem in this area is unable to distinguish between similar letters such as m and n, or words such as hose, house and horse.
Tshenolo’s visual memory was also very weak. Visual memory involves the ability to store and retrieve previously experienced visual sensations and perceptions when the stimuli that originally evoked them are no longer present. That is, the person must be capable of making a vivid visual image in his mind of the stimulus, such as a word, and once that stimulus is removed, to be able to visualise or recall this image without help.
Various researchers have stated that as much as eighty percent of all learning takes place through the eye with visual memory existing as a crucial aspect of learning.
Most learning-disabled students have serious deficiencies in the area of visual memory, states Addie Cusimano in her book Learning Disabilities: There is a Cure. “Children who have not developed their visual memory skills cannot readily reproduce a sequence of visual stimuli. They frequently experience difficulty in remembering the overall visual appearance of words or the letter sequence of words for reading and spelling. They may remember the letters of a word but often cannot remember their order, or they may know the initial letter and configuration of the word without having absorbed the details, that is, the subsequent letters of the word. As a result, these students fail to develop a good sight vocabulary and frequently experience serious writing and spelling difficulties.”
Tshenolo’s auditory memory was also inadequate. A poor auditory short-term memory is often the cause for a child’s inability to learn to read using the phonics method. Phonics is an auditory learning system, and it is imperative to have a sufficient auditory short-term memory in order to learn, utilise and understand reading using the phonics method.
According to neurodevelopmentalist Cyndi Ringoen, in order to begin to utilise phonics beyond memorising a few individual sounds, a child must have an auditory memory span close to six. Tshenolo’s auditory memory span was only four.
Tshenolo scored
25% on the Form Perception Assessment
44% on the Visual Memory Assessment
39% on the Auditory Memory Assessment
36% on the Eye Span Assessment
0% on the Logical Thinking Assessment
SCALE: 90%-100% — Very good/Development will further increase the skill level. 80%-89% — Good/Development will further increase the skill level. 70%-79% — Average/Development is necessary. 0%-69% — Below average/Development is essential.
Tshenolo joined Edublox EASY in January 2016, and is repeating Grade 2.
EASY is a special programme offered at 11 Edublox clinics to approximately 100 learners. We present tutoring of IMPAK’s curriculum combined with 200 hours of brain training per year, as well as 100 hours of reading, spelling and comprehension activities. Our specialised and personalised services are suitable for Grade 1 – 7 learners with learning challenges, with the aim of helping them get back on track academically.
Re-assessment, 10 October 2016
On a recent assessment Tshenolo scored
100% on the Form Perception Assessment
78% on the Visual Memory Assessment
67% on the Auditory Memory Assessment
43% on the Eye Span Assessment
33% on the Logical Thinking Assessment
Tshenolo’s visual spatial memory is simply exceptional. Here he is, memorising and recalling a pattern of 34 blocks!
He could read all the Grade 1 words of the Essi Reading Test and 10 of the 20 Grade 2 words. Below is Tshenolo’s attempt at writing the words jump, flag, shop, dish, egg and king:
All-in-all Tshenolo is now approximately one term behind in reading and two terms in spelling, a small deficit compared to the deficit when he started, and one which we aim to overcome by the end of the year. Academically he is doing well. He scored 6/7 (between 70% and 79%) for English, Afrikaans and Mathematics on his latest IMPAK report.
Tshenolo will complete EASY at the end of 2016, and will attend Grade 3 at Confidence College in 2017.
Susan du Plessis Case study author
