Samantha's Case Study: Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic

Samantha, a 6-year, 10-month-old female, was evaluated at the Eastern Illinois University (EIU) Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic (Clinic) on April 1, 2011. Speech-language pathologist (SLP) Lynn Calvert referred Samantha for an evaluation. Samantha’s mother, Mrs. Brown, noted that Samantha currently uses pronoun mix-ups that may not be age-appropriate, confuses verb tenses, has speech sounds errors, and leaves morphemes off words. Her mother first noticed the problem around the age of four and currently is not sure what may have caused the problem. She reported that Samantha has made slight improvements since the problem was first noticed. Samantha also sounds out every word even when she has seen it before and her writing reflects her speech and language errors. Mrs. Brown is concerned with Samantha’s inconsistent academic performance, especially in math, reading, writing, and spelling. Samantha presently resides in Rockwood, IL with her family.

Birth and Developmental History
Mrs. Brown reported that she was at an advanced maternal age when she was pregnant with Samantha. Her pregnancy was otherwise unremarkable, reporting that her health was excellent. Her labor was induced and Samantha was delivery head first at full-term with a normal birth weight. Mrs. Brown reports

She presently does not have an individualized educational plan (IEP). Although she is making progress, her teacher, Mrs. Wheaton, reported that Samantha still struggles in the classroom. Mrs. Wheaton also reported that Samantha struggles in math and her reading scores fluctuate. She has concerns with Samantha’s attention in the classroom, academic performance, and sentence structure and grammar. Wheaton praised Samantha’s parents for the hard work they had done to help Samantha. Samantha’s current grades are as follows N in math, C in reading, B+ in language, and B+ in