MaThan Nu is a nine-year-old student who is a member of the Karen people. MaThan Nu’s family originally lived in Myanmar, settled briefly in a refugee camp in Thailand, and resettled in the U.S. when MaThan Nu was 5 years old.

At home, MaThan Nu speaks a dialect of the Karen language. Although she has excellent oral comprehension skills in her native language, she has no reading or writing skills in that language. MaThan Nu has had little formal education outside of the U.S.

Upon entering the U.S. school system at age 5, MaThan Nu was diagnosed with developmental delay. Her primary disability was changed to Emotional-Behavioral Disorder when she was reevaluated at age 7. MaThan Nu displays levels of hyperactive and impulsive behavior that are higher than expected for her age and grade-level. She also has difficulty interacting socially with peers and staff at school.

MaThan Nu has difficulty attending to classroom instruction, and is struggling in most academic areas. She scored at the basic level in reading and mathematics on state content tests. Although she has attained proficiency in speaking and listening on her most recent English language proficiency assessment, she has yet to reach proficiency in reading and writing.

Consider MaThan Nu as you continue ...