he name of Alex. Alex is an energetic young boy who attends the Lura A. White School. He is an active 3rd grader that spends the majority of his school day in an inclusive classroom setting with a 1:1 academic assistant. The remaining portion of Alexs day is spent either in the resource room or in therapies. Alex has no physical disabilities and maintains the active lifestyle typical of any energetic 9-yr. old boy. His hearing, vision and motor skills are functionally optimal. His disposition is positive and happy and his frustration is minimal. He learns best in small group and/or 1:1 activities. Reinforcement of positive behavior and small rewards are successful methods in working with Alex. He enjoys hands on activities as well as those, which require movement, and performs optimally with numerous short activities rather than long ones. Disregarding the mention of Alexs inclusive classroom, one could assume that Alex was a relatively normal child. However, Alex has been diagnosed with AD/HD, as well as mosaic downs syndrome. Due to the fact that Alex was first diagnosed with downs syndrome, the recognition and commonality of his attention deficit was not a surprise. Alex has been taking Ritalin for almost three years now. The medication provides tremendous assistance in keeping Alexs attention focused, however the time I spent with Alex served as a supplement to his medication. By this, I mean that where the Ritalin left off in the students schooling, I picked up. My teachings, at this point in time, revolved around Alexs speech and language impairments. However, the manner in which I taught him ran parallel with recommended strategies used in teaching children with attention deficit disorder. The following are a few of the approaches I took in working with Alex 1. By pausing and creating suspense by looking at the student before asking questions, emotion comes into play and the students interest will be peaked 2. ...
