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INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

Individual Differences Student Profile Raz, Kristin Student ID #303614 Instructor: Tracey Meyerhoeffer EDUC 205: Development/Individual Differences Fall 2012

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Individual Differences Student Profile Many children may need support in one area but shine in another. This is true for a student named Ally who I have had the pleasure of knowing for three years. In this profile, Ally, a young girl with learning disabilities and learning challenges is described as having some neurobehavioral/cognitive challenges. She also has a history of Aspergers disorder, which is often considered a high functioning form of autism. It can lead to difficulty interacting socially, and repeating behaviors. Ally has not just been diagnosed as having one single disorder, but several that are under the umbrella term autism spectrum disorders, known as ASD. Many of Allys files have her down as Aspergers and some say Autism. For this individual difference student profile, I will examine this students family background, physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development. I will provide a summary on my findings in these areas. General Information Ally is a ten year and 10 months old, Caucasian female student who is currently in 5th grade. Ally lives at home with her mom, dad, two younger brothers, and baby sister. Allys oldest younger brother is eight years of age and goes to third grade at a different elementary school in the same school district. Allys other two siblings are ages two and eleven months. Allys mom is a retired school teacher who now is a stay at home mom. Ally has a one on one paraprofessional who is with her at all times during the school day. Ally receives speech therapy three days a week, occupational therapy two days a week, physical therapy two days a week, and travels out of the area for developmental therapy three days of the week. The speech and occupational therapy are serviced at school during the school day. The physical therapy is an outside service her family has her attend near their home. The development therapy

IDP 3 is in St. Anthony which is an hour drive. Ally is picked up early from school at 2:00 p.m. three days a week by a transportation service and taken to and from St. Anthony. Ally usually does not get home until about 8:00pm on these nights. These are long days for her, and it is noticed the next day at school when she is tired. Physical Development Ally is an average girl in her height and a little overweight for her age. She is a toe walker and has been since she started walking. It was found that her Achilles tendon did not form correctly and therefore in physical therapy, they work on stretching this out. She attends P.E. with the rest of her classmates and participates in all the activities. Ally loves to play tag at recess, and downhill skis in the winter time; in fact, she is a part of the Adaptive Ski program. The adaptive ski program provides a specially trained instructor for Ally that tailors to her needs. She also loves to sing, but sings very loud. We were practicing for the Veterans Day Program, and she could be heard over all the other 250 students. This did bring a smile to my face hearing her sing. Ally receives occupational therapy for her fine and gross motor skills. Therapy for fine motor skills includes holding a pencil correctly and handwriting. Gross motor skill activities focus on coordination and balance. Cognitive Development Ally loves Disney movies and has each and every Disney movie memorized. She knows all about the characters and can tell someone word for word what they say. However, when it comes to reading comprehension, Ally is intensive which is below grade level on all her assessments. Ally is above grade level on her reading level and fluency, but does not comprehend what she has read. Ally does join the 5th grade reading group each day, but reads passages about Princesses. This allows Ally to be in the reading group with others her age, and

IDP 4 build on her comprehension skills by reading something she is interested in. Ally is motivated to come to reading class and read about Princesses. Ally is intensive in math, and will tell anyone that she does not like math. Additionally, Ally can meet a person one time and never forget his/her name. She calls everyone by his/her name, and remembers everything an individual tells her about his/her personal life. She can remember me telling her about my daughter Rylees fish named Sushi over a year ago, and she still asks me sometimes about Sushi. When she talks about Disney movies, she always asks if the individual owns the movie, and if it is VHS, DVD or if it is the masterpiece collection. Throughout the years I have known Ally, I have shared several of my Disney movies with her, and have sent them home with her to watch and return. Socio-Emotional Development Ally wants to be accepted by her peers and works hard to try to fit in with her fellow students. Many times she misreads facial expressions or comments students make and can become upset or sad really fast. Sometimes in a situation, Ally thinks one thing is going to happen but it doesnt because her perception was incorrect. Piaget explains this as a state of cognitive disequilibrium. Ally also repeats statements, questions or actions frequently. Ally seems to have a tick where she repeats the same thing over and over which is a type of echolalia. Her big one right now is, Im not lying, really Im not, Im telling the truth, are you going to call 911? She repeats this over and over. At school, Ally for the most part is a happy child, acts polite, smiles and laughs a lot. Today, however, Ally was having a difficult day, which could have been due to lack of sleep as she does not sleep much at night. Ally has also been diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. Ally was testing her paraprofessional at the time of my observation. She was reading a book when she wasnt supposed to be and when her paraprofessional would walk over, she would hide it in her shirt. Ally ended up having a meltdown, and covered up her

IDP 5 ears and face to hide from others. At that time, Ally needed a sensory break alone with her paraprofessional. I am in the lunchroom at the time Ally comes in for lunch, and it is really interesting. She takes her wrist and rubs it on the tabletop where she is about to sit, smells her wrist, looks under the table and then says, No poo. I am not sure where this comes from, and no one really seems to know what started this, or why she does this. Earlier this week, we had wiener wraps and peaches for lunch. Evidently, Ally does not like the hot dog part of the wiener wrap or the peaches because I noticed her throw these items on the floor under the table where she was sitting. I asked her about it and she told me she does not like them. I let her know she doesnt have to eat what she doesnt like and can throw them away in the trash can. I let her paraprofessional know this, and they did hands on activity about what to do with the food you dont like. Allys paraprofessional took the approach John Dewey, an educational theorist would have also used. Dewey wanted students to learn from hands on experience, and learn the solution by the hands on activity. He believed there needed to be balance between philosophy and natural science. Today we call this approach pragmatism. Because of the hands on activity, Ally remembered not to throw her food on the floor that she did not like. I really enjoy being in the lunch room at this time, so I can visit with her and learn some new and interesting ways about her. Ally needs to have firm clear boundaries. As in Stage 2 of Ericksons psychosocial theory, Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt, children need clearly stated boundaries to protect them from physical harm and to help them develop a sense of self control. Ally also seems to have problems demonstrating her knowledge and applying it to what she already knows or to new situations. Ally is able to participate in day to day activities at school but does need a

IDP 6 paraprofessional to help frequently redirect her and to ensure that she stays on task and to minimize distractions. She has started not wanting to go outside at lunch recess, and has been sneaking into a room to play on the computer. She is fully aware of what she is doing and will ignore someone when they try talking to her about needing to go outside. It comes across that Ally thinks if she doesnt talk to someone, they wont see her, or they will give up and go away. Its actually kind of cute, and I have talked to her about needing to make sure she is safe so we need to have her outside where the teacher can see her and know she is safe. Since I am the person on lunch duty when she is in the lunch room, she now lets me know when she is ready to go outside and I personally walk her outside. She remembers this routine and every day comes and grabs my hand and lets me know she is ready to go outside. Summary and Conclusion Although I have known this child for three years, I did not know the extent of what issues Ally struggles with on a daily basis. There is a lot more that goes on with this child than what other staff realizes. Ally is a great student to have in the school, and a lot of her disabilities are not known to everyone because of how effectively her issues are handled by her paraprofessional. Because of this, the students and other staff usually are not aware that there even was an issue, and Ally doesnt have a lot of unwanted attention brought upon her. In conclusion even though Ally is a student with learning disabilities and learning challenges, she demonstrates she is able to spend most of her day in the general education classroom with the support of a paraprofessional. Ally will be taken out of the classroom when sensory breaks are needed, and for speech and occupational therapy. Ally is advanced in reading fluency, but will continue to receive extra support with reading comprehension and

IDP 7 math. Overall Ally is receiving the support she needs in school and is not struggling with the day-to-day operations of going to school.

IDP 8 References Parsons, Hinson, Sardo-Brown. (2001). Educational Psychology. United States: Cengage Learning. University of Canterbury Library Guide. (2014).