Name : Morris Anderson Ethnicity : Caucasian
Birth date : 10/28/1996 Grade Level : 2
Age at Evaluation : 7years 11 months Evaluation Date : 9/2003
Primary Home Language : English Primary Child Language : English
Report Date : 10/05/2003

Reason for Referral : Morris Anderson was referred for Psychoeducational testing to assess current academic functioning and to detect possible symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. A teacher at his current school felt he might be hyperactive.

Background Information : Morris resides with his mother and father as well as several younger siblings in Lake Montezuma/Rimrock. He has a supportive home environment and a parent present in the home much of the time because his mother is a homemaker. Morris appeared to interact well with his younger sister and when a mishap with a large dog occurred he was comforted by this toddler.

Morris's parents are still married and he is the oldest son. He was well dressed and groomed, and had sparkling eyes that danced with delight as he took in information. He found a set of toy cards and could hardly wait to find the owners so that he might ask to keep them. He appears to be honest and willing to work hard and take directions from adults. He always asked permission if uncertain about what to do in the new environment. He was quiet but personable and presented an appropriate affect for each new situation encountered. Though unfamiliar with the examiner, he established rapport and was cooperative and interested in the testing.

Morris appears to be a well-rounded child with a traditional familial household and supportive parents. Until very recently he has not had serious academic concerns and has not had questionable behavioral incidents. Morris can focus and stay focused and did so throughout most of the evaluation.

Previous Evaluations: Morris has had no previous Psychoeducational Batteries according to his mother.

Measures Used in Current Assessment:
PEPSI- Student Assessment Early Adolescence Scale
My Best Test

Behavioral Observations

Behavioral Observations

Evaluation :

Morris began our evaluation by asking many questions. These questions included information about the surroundings, questions about what was happening, and other children he saw and queried in a polite but interested manner. Morris continued to have a voracious mind as our time together continued. He asked many questions and wanted to know many things. He is an interested individual who wants to know what is going on around him.

Morris primarily asked questions, but was willing to answer any question put forth to him to the best of his knowledge. Most of his experiences are related to individuals and he is extremely interested in human beings in general but people from his church in particular. The church he belongs to seems to be an area of comfort for him that provides a natural socialization group. Morris also has an interesting pattern of responses. He tends to ask questions until he begins to have difficulty on something. At this point he begins talking about himself. This natural defense mechanism is actually counterproductive to his ability to resolve learning difficulties and needs to be reversed so that he does ask questions about areas where he feels discomfort so he can resolve the issues or concerns.

Morris was able to concentrate for long periods of time, especially in light of his age. Morris did physically and verbally act out any time he felt frustrated. It is a similar behavior to the one addressed in the previous paragraph. He talks when he does not know how to do something. The more frustrated he becomes the more he wiggles. This behavior is not AD/HD but is rather a method of releasing tension that is building within Morris because he feels he is failing. Morris actually works very hard to learn and think but several deficits cause him to feel frustrated and this is acted out in his behavior. This pattern is helpful to anyone working with Morris because the acting out is almost always tied to not understanding an idea or directions. Any time Morris is acting out, he needs assistance with a concept. Punishment will only worsen the behavior because the wiggling and talking is simply the way Morris has learned to express frustration and anxiety.

Morris finished quickly and worked hard on tasks. He can be easily redirected and does want to learn and think. He displayed a great deal of imagination throughout the time it took to do the Psychoeducational Evaluation. He is a sweet, good-natured little boy who does not have a negative thing to say about anyone or anything. Given support, he will go to great lengths to succeed and to do the things he believes he should.

Results and Interpretation

B . PEPSI Student Assessment Late Adolescence Scale : Morris stated that he was happy living at home with his family. He appears to have an especially close bond with his youngest sister and talked about her often. He does not appear to have anything in particular he wants to do when he grows up. This is quite age appropriate. He does have a good understanding of science and likes robots and spaceships.

Physically: Morris appears to be on target for a seven year old who will soon turn eight. He was bright and thoughtful. He had great energy and appeared to be very healthy and agile. His large motor coordination is well balanced, and his small motor coordination is only slightly below that of most of his peers. His drawings were detailed and showed definition in the individualized drawing of a robot. Physically, Morris appeared to be on track with his peers.

Emotionally Morris is a very tender, sweet little boy. He is very sensitive and has a great deal of naïveté. This is perfectly appropriate for a child his age. He appears to be much kinder and gentler than many of his peers. He appears to be interested in the surface difficulties and troubles quickly fleet through his mind. He only spoke of one subject with fear, the discipline system of his school. He does not know exactly what would get him in trouble but he is very afraid of what happens when you are. This may be strong handed and should be toned down when dealing with such a sensitive child. He is a well-behaved boy and should not have something of this level looming over him. This is especially true in light of the response that tension and frustration elicits in him. This fear may very well be part of his difficulty in class. Anxiety about doing the wrong thing at school may actually contribute to his lack of focus as he fears failure, thus alarming him and increasing the likelihood of failures. Morris is an appropriate level emotionally. He trusts his family and home situation, likes who he is and wants to be able to perform as expected.

Philosophically, Morris is philosophically appropriate. Though he does not understand the core beliefs his family holds, he does honor them. This is very normal for a boy his age and his understanding will increase as time goes on and his brain develops more cognitive ability. He is approaching an ability to choose to do kind acts because they are important to relationships, and in the meantime, chooses kindness as a way of being. Morris has an appropriate level philosophically.

Socially , Morris is extroverted and this means he loves people and social excitement. He want very much to talk to everyone he can and is not at all shy. He relates stories of interesting people he knows, many older adults, and seems genuinely interested in all the events occurring around him. Morris loves his siblings, and his friends and parents. He is good at interacting on a one-to-one level with many different people. He would likely benefit from having an older peer nearby who could give him instructions and help him understand concepts when he was having difficulty garnering meaning. This would increase his understanding and also prevent what some might perceive as his “ADD-like” behavior from occurring except in rare occasions. To recap, when Morris feels anxious he loses focus, turns inward and begins to conform himself while withdrawing from educational danger. His is not the most productive way to deal with not understanding, but a very non threatening form of “flight.”

Intellectually, Morris has intelligence that is wonderfully suited to traditional public school. He actually learns best by reading. This is causing difficulty right now because he is only now perfecting and strengthening his reading ability. However, as his propensity to read increases, he will become a better and better student who should be happy at school. Developmentally, reading begins to increase as a useful tool for gaining knowledge in about the third or fourth grade. Morris will become more adept in educational situations as he gains in expertise and ability to use books to his advantage. Morris shows some mild confusion in recording and then consolidating information provided on the board. His short-term memory does not always provide a mirror image of words he sees so that he can reproduce them accurately and letter perfectly on his own page. He also shows some modest lack of phonemic consolidation. This is still within normal range, developmentally and may indicate the need to attend more carefully to his process of reproducing materials from an overhead or instructional area, but again, this is age appropriate.

To summarize, Morris is very much on level with his peers. He does need some assistance in areas like reading and working with peers is also likely to be very beneficial to him because he is so extroverted. Morris is an average healthy boy with minor deficits. These may self correct with age and experience because they are in the normal realm of expectations for a child his age. In a few areas like consolidation and attention to details retrieved from an instructional board and recorded on his own paper, it may take practice and the practice of self correction, and that can be easily taught to allow him a very successful public school education.

C. My Best Test

Academic Development Profile

Math Application

Reading Application

Language Application

Intellectual Strengths

Personal Strengths: Morris is a very motivated and interested student. He wants to learn and wants to do well. Due to some delays in cognitive processing it is unlikely that he is learning many things through association and reflection and cognitive decoding. It is much more likely that most of his knowledge is coming from rote memorization. This means that Morris is devoting serious time and hard work to his academics. He should be commended for how very hard he is working. It is unlikely that others, including his teachers, have recognized what an accomplishment all his learning to date has been. He is motivated where most would give up and stop trying. It is essential that Morris be given support now that his frustration with the difficulty he has encountered in learning has become present in his physical behavior.

Needs: Morris is encountering several areas of difficulty. One of these is not AD/HD. Morris is not AD/HD and medicating him would likely lead to a discontinuation of his ability to learn and achieve. Instead, his real areas of deficit need to be addressed.

Morris has a cognitive deficit in processing. It resides in the encoding process between the sensory store and the short-term memory. It is likely that Morris has a normal working memory but is having trouble with etching pathways into his short-term memory store. This is particularly true of details that he can pick up, for it appears that these thoughts do not consolidate within his mind. In effect, he has a lot of information stored in his brain and it gathers there but it does not consolidate. So, individual facts do not consolidate into a whole without assistance. This makes logic a very difficult task for Morris because facts are seen as a whole and not as building blocks that can be used for larger thoughts. This may be something that can be addressed in school. It is something that needs immediate attention because the process of building a complex vision from lectures and reading is a normal task in school and is very difficult for Morris to grasp.

It is likely that this inability to build solid logic chains of information is what is causing him to not understand what is occurring and the last thing that his teacher requested he do. This is especially true when he is not in a one-to-one situation. It is harder for him to concentrate on what the teacher said when he does not feel he is personally engaged in an interaction with her. Interaction can be used as a tool to work with Morris. He loves people and he loves to be important to people. When he feels listened to and valued, he will work very hard for positive interactions and feel he was richly rewarded.

Morris is still having difficulty with object permanence and this may also be part of the problem with his reading. As he learns that letters are not interchangeable because they look identical but in different position, he will begin to work much more effectively. He is already working well on this skill and will get better and better as this becomes natural to him.

Challenges:

Morris learns best by reading but does not yet read well. This skill needs to be addressed.

Referral Recommended:

Morris does not need to be place in Special Education unless his regular education teacher does not feel she can effectively work to help him read or improve logic skills.

Summary

Morris is a seven-year-old living with his natural family. He is a bright attentive extrovert who loves people and loves knowledge. He works very hard in school but is having a difficult year. Not only has he reached an age that traditionally is associated with hyperactive and inattentive behavior he has begun to show scholastic frustration through talking and wiggling.

Morris does not have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. He has simply learned a defense mechanism that distracts the attention of his teacher from his confusion to his behavior. This behavior has just begun and can be reversed through the actions of a caring teacher. Every time he begins acting out he is asking for help because he does not understand or feels helpless. The behavior discontinues with minor assistance and clarification of ideas.

Morris does have a delay in cognitive processing. With hard work by Morris, which won't be hard to elicit, and a curriculum designed to teach him how to think and be logical to organize and store and use details, he will quickly overcome this learning disability.

Morris learns best by reading which will serve him well in a traditional school. It is essential that his reading skills be worked on so that he may continue to do well in school. It is important that object permanence be worked on with him so that he can improve his reading, logic and academic progress.

Morris can be reached easily with interpersonal interaction. He is very extroverted and really cares about people, including adults. He is also very attentive to his siblings and cares very much about his family. These can also be used to help motivate him. He is also very imaginative and is wonderful with art and unique thinking.

Morris does not need Special Education if his teacher will take an active role in making a positive supportive environment for him.

Statement of Other Effects:

There are no indications of an educational disadvantage or the presence of environmental, cultural, or economic factors that would primarily account for any learning problems targeted by this evaluation.

Diagnostic Impressions :
Axis I: V71.09 No diagnosis or condition on Axis I.
Axis II: V71.09 No diagnosis or condition on Axis II
Axis III: No referral

Axis IV: No socio environmental areas of difficulty

Axis V: Current GAF: 85

Recommendations:

•  When Morris begins to misbehave in class he needs assistance with the concept being learned. Morris acts like he is AD/HD when he does not know how to do something or does not understand a concept.

•  Morris should not be punished for his AD/HD like behaviors. Punishment will only increase the undesirable behaviors he is exhibiting.

•  Morris needs assistance in learning to ask questions instead of talking when he is having difficulty with a subject.

•  Morris would benefit from a peer tutor who could assist him when he did not understand a concept.

•  Morris learns best by reading. This means helping Morris to learn to read well should be emphasized over almost every other subject at this time.

•  Morris needs directions, especially in a high stakes testing environment, to be repeated at intervals within the test.

•  Morris needs assistance in learning to make logic chains and draw conclusions from a series of facts.

•  Morris's is very good at rote memorization and this can be emphasized.

•  Morris is naturally very imaginative and creative and this should be emphasized and valued.

•  Morris has a natural gift for art.

•  Morris needs assistance in understanding details.

•  Morris is still having trouble with object permanence and as he works through this difficulty his reading will become better.

______________________ ________________________
J'Anne D. Ellsworth Ph.D. Martha Ellsworth, M.S.
Licensed Psychologist, State of Arizona Psychometric evaluator
Peak Education Peak Education