Savannah and Teacher at School

The VRC met with Savannah and her teacher, Miss Sue, who referred Savannah to VR. From the interview, the following abilities, challenges, and support needs were identified:

Reported & Observed Interests & Abilities

As a means of building rapport, the VRC asked Savannah to show her around the classroom. Savannah was happy to show where her desk is located and where she keeps her supplies. The VRC then proceeded with strategic questions designed to identify the tasks Savannah most enjoyed. Savannah enjoys helping with the school laundry, gathering the bus notes, delivering them to the office, washing the dishes after a cooking class, organizing the art supplies, and helping her teachers and classmates. From her observations, the VRC creates the following list of Savannah's skills and abilities:

• • Organize her school supplies according to function: pencils with pencils, markers with markers, etc. (Savannah smiled and appeared to take pride in her organizational skills.)
  • Sort, wash and dry the school team jerseys. (Savannah likes doing laundry so much that she gets upset when it's one of her classmates' turns to do the jerseys.)
  • List washing steps in proper order:
    1. 1. "Sort the jerseys and the pants."
       2. "Put the clothes in the washer."
       3. "Put the pods in–one pod for half full and two pods for all the way full."
       4. "Turn it [the knob] to make the water hot or cold and push the on button."
  • Organize classroom art supplies according to type and color in proper bins and cabinets according to her teacher's expectations.
  • Wash, dry, and stow cookware and utensils in proper places.
  • Read order forms to identify how many milk cartons each classroom needs, and what flavor, white or chocolate.
  • Count out the correct number of cartons, load the cart and, deliver the right number to each classroom.

In the interview with Savannah's teacher, Miss Sue, the VRC learned that Savanah is a "delightful" student who is polite (saying please, thank you, excuse me) and helpful to staff and her classmates. If somebody looks or sounds frustrated, Savannah is known to ask, "Can I help you with something?" Miss Sue added that Savannah has an excellent memory. Miss Sue provided the following examples:

• • Savannah recalls other staff's vacation dates, their kids' names, and information that accurately helps her do her school jobs.
  • Savannah recalls, from memory, the number of milk cartons each class typically orders and in what flavor. One day, Savannah said that one teachers' order form was wrong. Savannah was correct; the teacher had mixed up her chocolate and regular milk order numbers that day.

Reported Challenges

When asked to comment on any challenges, Miss Sue indicated that Savannah:

• • Struggles with tasks that require spatial skills and fine motor control, such as folding clothing items, especially those with irregular shapes
  • Doesn't like unpredictable changes to her routine; she gets frustrated and requires encouragement to adjust.

Reported Supports

Miss Sue indicated that Savannah learns best from repeated demonstration and repeated opportunities to practice something new. As Savannah learns the task, Miss Sue fades her support to verbal prompts until Savannah performs the job independently with infrequent prompts.

Next Up: Interview 2 with Savanah and her parents at their home.