Question
I was recently assigned to work with a delightful, verbal 5th grade girl who is diagnosed with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum. I plan on working on listening comprehension, vocabulary and concept knowledge this summer. Can you provide me with resources
Answer
Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum is a rare congenital disorder in which the corpus callosum may be partially or completely absent. The severity of the symptoms associated with the disorder could be placed on a continuum of mild to severe, which may result in intellectual impairment, along with speech and language delays and dysphagia. Based on the description of this 5th grade child, it appears as she presents with a milder degree of impairment. Listening comprehension, vocabulary and concept knowledge are wonderful goals. I would recommend that you try to keep it as functional as possible. It may be best to get her school materials for the next year and begin working on any concepts, vocabulary, etc. that will be difficult for her, which is not to say that you should "tutor" her, but you could use those materials in therapy to address your goals. When addressing listening comprehension, clients/patients are often asked questions after hearing a story (of varying lengths depending on their abilities), but in this case, she could also pick out the most salient aspects of the story using story grammar, such as the setting, the initiating event, the consequence(s), etc. It may be a good idea to use a different color bead for each aspect of story grammar in order to help her remember.
Dr. Amy Ogburn is an assistant professor at Auburn University Montgomery and is on the Advisory Board for SpeechPathology.com. Currently, she resides in Montgomery, Alabama and can be reached at aogburn@aum.edu.