Abhay had repeated Senior Kindergarten in his previous school. He had joined School in the 1st Grade.  

He was in the second grade, and he demonstrated significant difficulties in early literacy skills and visual processing. He was diagnosed with a specific learning disorder with moderate impairment in reading, spelling and reading comprehension. His IQ was 81- in the dull normal range.

He belonged to a family where English was the second language. Abhay’s mother was upset with him and told him she would not come to school if he did not get good scores on his test. He was also sent for tuition for 2 hours and had no time to play or indulge in any sport. She also reported he is very forgetful and cannot recall simple things like what he had for breakfast the previous morning. Family members would mock him for his memory issues. He did not have friends and often used foul language in a range of anger.

Abhay’s teacher reported his skills were significantly below grade-level in phonological awareness, decoding, writing and listening. Abhay was unable to write the letters of the alphabet sequentially. When asked to spell, he did not exhibit letter- sound association. He started receiving Academic Intervention Support services in reading and spelling (two 30-minute group sessions per week), as well as curriculum-based remediation (two 30-minute sessions per week) in school, for 6 months. Abhay, mentioned he did not understand instructions and wanted someone to translate them for him in his mother tongue Marathi. To assist him with the same and supplement the remedial program, additional skype sessions were conducted. This was found necessary to also reinforce the English vocabulary taught in school.  

Background: Abhay attended Empower reading program and also attended a reading remedial program at SED (Skill Enhancement Department). Inspite of both the programs, he struggled to read.