Case Study

November 26, 2018

Johnny is a code name to keep the name of the student private.

Part I: Child’s History

Johnny is a junior at Alton High School this year. He is a 16-year-old male who identifies
as Caucasian. He lives in the Alton area with his mom and his dachshund, Jack. Johnny also has
an older brother who is currently studying engineering at Southern Illinois University –
Edwardsville. Johnny suddenly lost his father recently to lung cancer. His family is still
struggling with this loss. Johnny spends his free time watching Netflix and Hulu, but he does not
hang out with friends because it is difficult to meet up with them. Johnny shows up to class
everyday wearing the same pair of jeans and shoes, although he does wear a different plain
colored T- shirt from day to day. Generally, he seems to enjoy high school, because he feels like
the teachers are supportive and he appreciates their dedication to his success. Additionally,
Johnny reports that he likes high school because he believes that the assignments students are
given are fair. Johnny’s favorite subject in school is choir because he loves to express himself
through music and enjoys participating in the choir concerts. On the other hand, he greatly
dislikes math and art.

Johnny is in Mrs. Dresch’s 4th hour Geometry Concepts Class. Geometry Concepts is a
class intended for lower performing math students and it is run at a slower pace than a regular
geometry course. Additionally, students in this class are given the opportunity to correct quizzes
and tests before they are formally graded. The teachers use a highlighting system for the students
whenever there is a quiz or a test so that after a student turns in his test the first time, the teacher
highlights the problems that he got wrong, and then gives the student the test back. After the
student receives his highlighted test, he is able to attempt to correct those mistakes and hand the
test back in for full credit. Johnny currently has a C in Geometry Concepts. He generally
performs well on homework assignments, such as work sheets and online assignments, but he
struggles more with cumulative summative assessments. He does well with online homework
especially because he is able to use trial and error to find the correct answer. So far, this
semester, Johnny has not gotten above a C on any quiz or test. His quiz and test scores are shown
below:

Quiz 1: 75 %
Quiz 2: 56%
Test Unit 1: 67%
Quiz 3: 78%
Test Unit 2: 68%

I met many other fascinating students at Alton High School, but I quickly chose Johnny
to be my case study because I felt like he was a student that needs intervention and someone to
really be there to help guide him. After the first interaction I had with Johnny, I knew that he was
a little bit different than the other students. He struggled to make eye contact with me when I
attempted to have a conversation with him. Additionally, he exhibited unusual behaviors in the
classroom such as shouting out randomly during class and constantly leaning back in his chair
and laying his head on the desk behind him. At many points throughout the math class, it seemed
like Johnny was not even present but instead he was dreaming or imagining about something
else. I chose to study Johnny because he seemed like a student that got brushed aside although he
truly deserves positive attention.

Part II: Observations

Johnny is the first one to arrive in Mrs. Dresch’s 4th period class every day. He walks in
and collapses into his chair, throwing his backpack beside him. Almost immediately after
entering the classroom, he will begin talking to Mrs. Dresch about whatever is on his mind. At
the beginning of class each day, Johnny generally appears focused. He usually participates in the
warm up problem, although he does not always write it down as he is instructed to. Rather, he
waits until Mrs. Dresch asks for the solution and he starts yelling out answers.
After the warm up, Johnny enters into one of two “modes” of learning. In some instances,
Johnny stays engaged and answers every question that Mrs. Dresch poses to the class. The other
students occasionally seem frustrated with Johnny always shouting out answers and refusing to
stop talking. If Johnny is not attentive and shouting out answers, he is often infatuated with
picking the acne on his back, skin and arms. He will frequently pull his shirt down to expose his
chest and continue this behavior. Once Johnny has started to pick at his skin, it seems difficult
for him to refocus. He is so focused on his skin that he forgets that the lesson is still being taught.
Similar to his skin picking, Johnny will also close his eyes and make expressions with his face
while Mrs. Dresch is teaching. He will close his eyes for extended periods of time and lean his
head back on the desk behind him making loud moaning and sighing sounds. The other students
in the class typically ignore this behavior because it happens so frequently, but every once in a
while, a student will laugh at this behavior. Mrs. Dresch does her best to help Johnny and says,
“Johnny, stop. Focus!” Johnny usually jolts when Mrs. Dresch asks him to focus on his work and
makes a face of disapproval at her. Sometimes Mrs. Dresch’s intervention is enough to get
Johnny to rejoin the class, but many times he ignores her guidance and continues closing his eyes
or picking at his skin. Johnny constantly switches between the two “modes” of picking his
skin/closing his eyes or answering every question aloud and the switch occurs within a matter of
minutes, but there does not seem to be any “in between” mode. One minute Johnny will be
working diligently on his own and the next he will be picking at his skin again. Additionally,
during both modes, Johnny speaks aloud to himself. When he has an assignment that he is
supposed to work on individually, he will often think out loud and voice every step that he is
taking to complete a problem. He will say, “Ok, I need X on this side so I need to subtract this to
that side and then…”. Throughout this process, Johnny also verbalizes his thoughts such as,
“Oh, I got that right” or “Oh, no that is definitely wrong”. He exhibits this behavior so frequently
that his peers ignore this behavior.
Finally, Johnny is known for his inappropriate and unfiltered comments that he randomly
shares with the class. Johnny seems to say whatever is on his mind which can cause other
students to make fun of him. However, he does not necessarily recognize that his peers are
laughing at him. During one of my conversations with him, Johnny explained to me that he felt
like he has friends at Alton High School. I asked a follow up question about bullying and
whether or not he had ever been bullied at school. He responded by explaining to me that he did
not feel like his peers were bullying him, rather they were just “joking around with him but they
did not mean it.”

Part III: Interpretation/Analyses of Research

It is evident to me that Johnny needs support socially and academically as displayed by

his actions during class. His impulsive and inappropriate comments specifically indicate that he
is not aware of when it is appropriate to talk and when it is not. I talked to Mrs. Hainut, one of
the special education teachers that co-teaches Johnny’s English class, and she explained to me
that she believes his biggest challenge is his ability to connect with others and understand social
norms. Johnny clearly struggles to fit into any social group at Alton High School and, therefore, I
believe he feels lonely but yearns to be accepted. It may be helpful for Johnny to learn social
norms and to be aware of those around him more. Additionally, he needs to find a way to stay
engaged during his classes so that instead of spending his time picking his skin and closing his
eyes, he is learning new material and actually understanding the information. Throughout my
time with Johnny, I noticed him always switching between those two “modes” of picking at his
skin and shouting out answers every day, but I was never able to pinpoint exactly what triggered
him to switch from one to the other. It is possible that Johnny was bored by the material or so
confused that he gave up on trying to understand, leading him to get distracted. I believe he
needs a specialist to evaluate his behavior thoroughly and decipher what would help him focus
more throughout the school day. Johnny is an intelligent student; however, he is clearly not
thriving in the environment that he is in. He may benefit from working with a social worker who
can provide him appropriate resources to help him learn.

Part IV: Intervention and Conclusions

According to the Autism Society, making rude comments without understanding their
impact, thinking literally and not understanding sarcasm, shying away from eye contact, and
having an intense desire to pursue an interest and becoming very focused on that single idea are
all characteristics of an autistic individual. Throughout my time in the classroom, I noticed all of
these observations as I watched Johnny. One observation that I noticed in particular was his
inability to make eye contact with me. During my one-on-one discussion with Johnny, he did not
make eye contact with me once but instead stared at the ground or the ceiling the entire time. In
addition, one day Mrs. Dresch was asking students to answer questions on the warm up, and too
many students were shouting out answers at once. Therefore, Mrs. Dresch started calling on one
student to answer a question, and after they answered one question they were “muted” for the
rest of the warm up. After Johnny was called on and “muted” he sat in his desk looking
extremely frustrated for about 10 minutes. Then he finally ripped a piece of paper out of his
notebook, aggressively scribbled down a note and held it up for Mrs. Dresch to see. The note
read, “Still muted. Please unmute me soon”. He did not understand that he was only muted for
that one math problem and that after that he was allowed to talk again. The other students in the
class burst out laughing and Mrs. Dresch did her best to hide her smile. This demonstrates
Johnny’s extremely concrete thought process and his literal interpretation of the world. Besides
these isolated instances, Johnny struggles daily with focusing too much on picking his skin rather
than focusing on his academics and he needs some way to help him stay on track.

In the past, Johnny has struggled to connect and form positive relationships with his
teachers. In interview that I conducted with him, he said, “I hated my middle school teachers.
They treated me horribly almost every day.” I then asked him if he liked Mrs. Dresch (his high
school math teacher) and he responded saying, “I think she is a good teacher. She is very nice to
me and helps me when I am behind.” It is evident that Johnny needs to be nurtured and
supported by his teachers. My intervention plan involves nurturing Johnny and working with
him to build solid student-teacher relationships. The first step to helping Johnny is by setting up
an initial meeting so that the teacher can discuss her thoughts with him and he can express his
thoughts, too. In the meeting, the teacher can raise issues such as his challenge with focusing and
his constant shouting out in class and she might also suggest that she and Johnny meet once a
week to check in with each other. Then, the teacher should work with Johnny to construct a plan
on how they can work together to address these issues. One method I would suggest for
addressing Johnny’s issue with picking his skin and getting off task would be to have the teacher
gently touch Johnny on the shoulder or tap on his paper with her pen to indicate that he needs to
refocus. This method is subtle and will not embarrass Johnny in front of his peers, but will act as
a firm reminder that he needs to refocus his attention. During the weekly check-ins, Johnny and
the teacher will have the opportunity to debrief the week. They can discuss what was successful
and where there is room for improvement. For example, if Johnny had a really rough week and
the teacher had to tap his paper six times in once class period, the teacher may discuss this with
Johnny. They can then work together to develop a plan for the next week. It is clear that what
Johnny needs most is to have a teacher that shows that she cares about him and wants him to
succeed!

Johnny undeniably needs access to resources that will allow him to be successful in the
classroom, including a social worker and a special education teacher. However, in order for the
school to provide him with these resources, he will first need to be formally diagnosed. I
recommend that he gets tested for autism and then, if he is officially diagnosed, he should be
given an IEP. This will require the school to contact Johnny’s mother and explain to her that this
is a necessary step for improving Johnny’s educational experience. An IEP will allow Johnny to
have more specialized assistance, not only in math, but in his entire school day. It will help tailor
his education so that he is given resources that he needs to succeed. In regard to the social
worker, he requires a professional who is able to help him reflect on his actions and help him
break down his thoughts and work with him to understand social norms. Along with this, Johnny
would greatly benefit from joining a social group, such as a club, in order to help him form
connections and bond with other students. He needs to establish a network of friends that he can
rely on and interact with frequently. Johnny also needs support from a special education teacher
that is knowledgeable about students with autism. He does not necessarily need to be pulled out
of the mainstream classroom, but he does need more individual attention. A special education
teacher that is able to be present in the classroom and intervene with Johnny when she deems
necessary would have a huge impact on Johnny’s learning.
 Works Cited

Autism Society. Growing up Together Teens with Autism. Retrieved from https://www.autism-
society.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NEWasa-growing_up-teen-final-rev.pdf