Kyle

Abstract

I enjoyed having Kyle in my first-grade classroom because he worked so hard, but his speech was unintelligible nearly all the time, even to his father. Although repeating himself frustrated him, he hated it when people pretended to understand him. Fortunately, Kyle's ability to understand others was normal for his age. In first grade he was already showing signs of emotional problems, namely a preference for being alone, refusing to talk, staring blankly, and showing low energy. Between his withdrawal and speech problems, he was behind most other children in reading, writing, and spelling, even though he tried hard. Kyle was on an individualized education program (IEP) for severe articulation disorder.

His mother, Renee, was worried about how his early speech challenges might affect his academic growth and social life. She had reported warning signs of emotional disturbance (ED) on the initial Child Behavior Checklist, noting that he showed no guilt after misbehaving, hung around with others who got in trouble, lied and cheated, ran away, and stole at home. For these reasons, she was eager to participate in a project our rural elementary school was launching with the University of Vermont.