Alyssa Carle

Intervention Plan Assignment

SPED Practicum Fall 2016
My student is an 8-year-old third grade student whose main disability is
Autism. This diagnosis is based on his communication and verbal skills, social
interaction with peers, sensory processing, and ability to adapt to
environmental stimuli. The student is currently in a LINKS substantially
separate classroom for students with similar diagnoses and needs. He
receives two thirty-minute speech sessions a week. The student
demonstrates low verbal skills and academically works below grade level. He
is currently working on recognizing sight words. One of his ELA goals written
in his IEP focuses on receptively and expressively identifying first grade level
sight words. For his intervention plan the target skill is writing these sight
words without visual cues. The specific measureable goal set for this plan is
that when the student is presented verbally with no visual model 8 sight
words, he will write each word with correct spelling on 3 consecutive days.
He is also able to clearly write all of his letters. He independently writes his
name and will attempt to write words from memory when given time for free
draw. The student can write words when visually prompted with the word.
With the students quick mastery of identifying sight words and his
appropriate fine motor skills, I created a goal that connects both of these
strengths to target a recall skill. The intervention plan is expected to last
about 2 to 3 weeks.
For the intervention plan I picked 8 sight words, all of which he has mastered
receptively and expressively identifying during his discrete trials. I planned to
work on this intervention plan for 2-3 weeks for the student.
When the intervention began, I reviewed the 8 sight words with him and had
him expressively identify each word to ensure that he did know all of them.
For baseline data I said each word and had him write it down. Looking at the
baseline data I observed that the student really did struggle with this skill. I
recognized that the student was mixing up some letters and the sounds they
make. The student also began to copy what he had previously written for an
earlier word rather than trying to write the word that he was asked to write.
After the initial baseline I had the student write the letters of the alphabet as
I said them allowed. I did this because I wanted to see if he knew the
correspondence between the letter name and writing it. As we went through
the alphabet I noticed that he was confusing some of the letters when he
was writing them down. My ideas for why he may be having trouble writing
the letter based on hearing its name is that he has low verbal skills and will
not always accurately say a letter name. Often times his pronunciation of
letters can sound similar, such as B and D, so he is writing what he hears
himself saying. The other thought I had was that he comes from a Spanish

speaking family so there may be some confusion between the English and
Spanish alphabets. I repeated having him write the alphabet for a couple
days before starting with the words to have him practice identifying the
letters correctly. To teach the skill of spelling these 8 words I used magnetic
letters. Using the magnetic letters the student was able to have a visual of
the letters rather than having to recall them, and he was able to manipulate
them. After he spelled the words with the magnets he wrote them down. He
was able to reference these words, which he had independently spelled after
I said the word aloud. The student quickly mastered spelling the 8 words with
the support of the magnets and was able to clearly copy them to the paper.
After this step, I gradually eliminated the use of magnets. I would have him
write each word as I said them without any prompting. Then based on his
accuracy, I would give him the magnetic letters and have him respell the
words he missed and then rewrite them using the magnets as a visual
prompt. Reducing the use and support of magnetic letters aims to generalize
the skill. The student is able to identify these words and spell them with
magnetic letters, there is disconnect when he recalls and writes the words.

Artifacts
Baseline data.

The notecards that were used for the written visuals.

The words spelled out by the student using the magnetic

letters and then writing them.
Data Table

10/28 10/3
1

11/1

11/2

11/
3

11/7

11/9

11/15

11/18

11/1
9

Prompt/
Accuracy

A P

A P

A P A P

A P

A P

A P

Like

Look

Me

ML

You

ML

My

And

ML

M
L
M
L

The

M
L
M
L
M
L
M
L

M
L
M
L
M
L
I

M
L
I

Are

W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V

ML

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V
W
V

M
L
M
L
M
L
M
L
M
L
M
L
M
L
M
L

1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1

Key:
Prompting I-Independent ; WV- written visual on a notecard ; ML- magnetic
letters
Accuracy- 0-incorrect 1-correct
The data chart shows the independence and accuracy for each of the words
in regards to the targeted skill over the course of the intervention plan. With
the support of a written visual, where the sight word was written on a note
card, the student was able to accurately write all 8 words. The written visual
support was use for three days and then the next day the student attempted
to write all the words independently. During this trial the student accurately

wrote like, look, and my. The next day of the intervention began the
spelling with the magnetic letter and using those as a support. After the word
was said aloud, the student arranged magnetic letters to spell it. The student
was able to independently and accurately spell each word using the
magnetic letters. Once the word was spelled he would transfer it on to the
paper. He accurately wrote all 8 words with the help of the magnetic words.
For the next few trials the student would only use the magnetic letters if he
misspelled the word when I first said it aloud. The student independently and
accurately spelled like, look, and are. The next time he accurately and
independently spelled like, look, and my. The final trial where the
magnetic letters were there as possible support he spelled like, look,
me, and my accurately and independently. The final day of the
intervention I had the student just try and write all the words independently.
Out of the 8 words the student was able to accurately spell 5. The student
showed moderate improvement towards reaching the goal of mastering all 8
words.
There were some obstacles throughout the duration of the intervention plan.
A challenge I encountered early on was if he truly knew how to write all the
letters independently. After having him write out the alphabet for me and
saw that he confused some letters, I took some time to focus on just writing
the letters. This took away time from focusing on the targeted skill of
recalling and writing the selected sight words. On a few occasions the
student became quite escalated prior to having to sit and complete the work.
This forced me to adjust the length of time I spent working with him because
I knew if I pushed him too much his behavior would again escalate. I think if
I was able to work on this with him for longer periods of time each day the
student would have shown more success. Moving forward I think continuing
to use the magnetic letters to learn how to spell words will help the student.
He might also benefit from practicing tracing his letters and the words as
they are said aloud or learning how to type on the computer. A keyboard
would give the student the visual supports he benefits from and allow him to
write more efficiently.