Jozef’s mother soon came to realize he was having some trouble forming the letters of the alphabet when he was five. She attributed this to his young age and their efforts at teaching him in mostly English. Nicolai and Ana were concerned that their efforts may be hindering his progress academically. They had always assumed that Jozef had a good command of both languages because he could speak and understand them well. He and his sister often played together speaking English. He enjoyed teaching English words to his friends in the neighborhood. He made obvious syntactical and morphological errors as anyone at a young age learning a second language would. Sometimes he would omit the plural /s/ and substitute incorrect pronouns. He was improving his use of regular and irregular plurals such as “children” and regular and irregular verbs such as “ran” and “took” with prompting from his parents. His questions were produced in the incorrect word order such as “Why you can’t take me with you?” and “Where you did go after school?” He was adding a question word to a declarative sentence to make it a question. Most of the generalizations eventually were corrected with instruction from his parents. Ana persisted in teaching Jozef his letters of the alphabet and reading simple vocabulary words appropriate for his age.

Eventually it came time for the family to move to the United States. Ana and her husband hoped that going to school in the U.S. would stimulate Jozef’s reading and writing skills. Since Joseph did not attend school immediately after arriving in the U.S. his mother continued helping him with reading and writing. This time she borrowed English language workbooks from Jozef’s cousin. Jozef and his cousin were the same age but Jozef had not acquired the pre-writing and pre-reading skills his native English speaking cousin had. Jozef could not produce the sound that each letter made. His mother would go over each letter and its corresponding sound with him repeatedly. At the age of six Jozef could name and produce the sound for seven consonants and three vowels.

Jozef enrolled in first grade in 1998 and worked very hard in school. His parents were relieved that Jozef would finally get an English education. His teachers and friends liked him and he was well behaved in class. However, Jozef did not like to ask a lot of questions when he misunderstood which led his teachers to believe he was comprehending. His parents worked very hard with him every night to make sure his homework was completed. Maria, on the other hand, could finish her homework by herself.
In third grade Jozef’s teacher approached his parents with her concerns. Jozef was not reading and writing at the level of the other students. Prior to third grade his teachers attributed these gaps to learning a new language and culture. Mrs. Johnson was concerned because he spoke almost fluently with the children and his reading and writing were not improving at the same rate as his expressive and receptive language abilities. Jozef was tested by the school psychologist and diagnosed with dyslexia. He was found eligible for the Specific Learning Disabilities program at his school. Jozef’s academic demands were becoming more cognitively challenging. He was no longer singing nursery rhymes and learning numbers and letters. At this level he should have been learning to solve complicated math problems, compare and contrast information, and make inferences in science experiments. His social language (BICS) skills have flourished since coming to the United States. However his reading and writing delays are negatively impacting his progress in academic language (CALP). Jozef’s schoolwork requires him to read from textbooks and answer comprehension questions. His disability is manifested by weaknesses in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and word problems. If his teacher reads a passage aloud Jozef is able to answer questions verbally. He has trouble copying information such as key vocabulary words and definitions from the board. Jozef’s eligibility into the Specific Learning Disabilities program was difficult for his parents to accept but they wanted to do what was necessary to help their son. Jozef’s self-esteem was negatively impacted when he first entered the SLD program. However, since he is finding himself more successful and his teachers more understanding, his self-esteem is beginning to improve. His teacher is showing him strategies for learning and is providing essential modifications to his lessons.