2. By Jessie Culley

3.  9 year old hispanic third grader  Extremely positive, extremely happy, loves to learn  Favorite color is pink  She sings in the school choir  Favorite musical is the sound of music  Has an older brother in fifth grade

4.  Has no number sense  Two-digit numbers  Cannot tell time  Emotional-regulation/ no coping mechanisms  Gets extremely frustrated and can’t carry out task

5.  Without a more tailored approach to learning, involving manipulatives and her lack of sufficient coping strategies, Jen becomes frustrated and unable to focus on her work, which causes her to lose interest, confidence, and ultimately become unable to grasp the knowledge needed to move on academically.

6.  Nervousness or frustration cause her to lose complete control of her mind  Will “check out” once critical period is reached  Once she sees things that are out of her comfort zone she goes into overload  Unable to pay attention, stresses out, and starts to guess answers

7.  Tremendously increases her attentional capacity  Able to focus on task and only task (no distractions)  Increases her confidence  Enables her to actually solve her math problems  Something in them gives her clarity

8.  Teacher found out that she could not tell time  Found similar issues with her learning that I did  The information is broken down into small pieces and taught slowly….WITH VISUAL AIDS!!!  Jen excels and has been doing well lately, can now tell time to the 15 minute interval  However….she hates it

9.  I learned the importance of patience  She is extremely patient and persevering  SHE TAUGHT ME THE VALUE OF BEING NORMAL  She wants to learn normally like everyone else but she can’t