Running head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE 1

Individual Differences Student Profile

Heather Cooper

Professor Natalie Raass

EDUC 230: Intro to Special Education

Spring 2018
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Individual Differences Student Profile

This semester I had the opportunity to work in a Special Education resource room with

exceptional students. I was able to observe a sweet little girl, whom I will refer to as Laura, in the

resource room. Being in the resource room with Laura allowed me to observe her interactions

with her fellow students, as well as directly interact with her on an individual basis. In this essay,

I will discuss what I have been able to observe, such as Laura’s general information, her physical

development, cognitive development, socio-emotional development, as well as any major

findings while working with her.

General Information

The young student I am observing is an 8-year-old girl in a 2nd grade classroom at a local

public school. Laura has a slight hearing disability, and wears a hearing aid to compensate for

the loss; Laura also has the genetic disorder Down syndrome (DS). She knows some basic sign

language, and her special education teacher makes sure that she utilizes the signs she knows;

however, her hearing aid allows her to hear and understand spoken language well enough to

follow directions and participate in conversations.

Laura is a happy child with an excitable personality, and seems to get along well with her

fellow students. Laura spends a lot of time in the Resource Room with other children with

learning and intellectual disabilities. This schedule allows her to get more small instruction

time with the special education teacher, which seems to benefit Laura greatly. I was unable to

observe any family interactions with Laura’s family, but Laura told me she has one sibling (a

brother), and when speaking with Laura’s Special Education teacher I was able to find out that

Laura’s parents are both involved in her school and social development. One day, Laura came in
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to school with a badge proclaiming it to be “Down Syndrome Day” that her mom pinned on her

shirt.

Physical Development

Laura is Caucasian, with short brown hair and blue eyes, and is small for her age group;

her small height is not unusual for children with Down syndrome. Laura wears glasses, as she is

nearsighted, though she takes them off and will often forget to put them back on. As previously

mentioned, she has a hearing aid and requires the teacher to wear an amplifier around her neck so

Laura can hear better. I was not able to observe any other health problems while observing

Laura. She eats a healthy lunch her mom provides every day, and enjoys getting the chance to

earn a popcorn reward.

When she is working on the white board at the front of the room, I was able to observe

that Laura is left-handed and has limited small muscle development; her hand writing is very

broad across the board, and when needed to arrange small items into small groups, Laura seemed

to struggle. During the times she was required to use a pencil while working on classwork, she

was able to write her name legibly; however, her letters were large and unevenly placed. Her

large muscle development appears to be on par with her age group, as she is able to participate

in the end of class physical activities with the rest of her classmates. Laura is able to jump, drop

to the ground, run in place, and dance without any difficulties.

Cognitive Development

Laura spends a few hours a day in the Resource Room with her peers; there are usually 6

other students in the room with her, from grades 1st-5th. When working with Laura in a smaller

group of 3, I had the opportunity to observe firsthand her academic abilities. During a math

lesson, Laura was able to read and understand a 2-step work problem that used addition and
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subtraction; her ability to do so is on track with 2nd grade operational and algebraic standards.

However, when asked to work on the white board and place items in groups of ten, Laura had

trouble with grouping the objects. Her inability to work with base ten is below her grade level.

Laura also had some trouble with vocabulary words. When presented with new 1st grade level

vocabulary words, Laura could correctly identify 6 out of 10 new words. Additionally, Laura is

easily distracted by her peers, especially when she is having to do an activity that she does not

particularly like. When expected to work on her iPad, she has a better attention span and desire

to do the work because she considers it fun.

From what I have observed, Laura seems to be in the 2nd stage of Jean Piaget’s Stages of

Cognitive Development. In the 2nd stage, preoperational, Laura is able to “think

symbolically… use words and pictures to represent objects” (Cherry, 2018). This is shown when

Laura is working on her word problems and successfully uses manipulatives to represent objects

in the word problem. Furthermore, Laura shows difficulty in viewing a problem from a different

perspective. During a class activity around Easter, the students were tasked with finding 5 eggs,

each a different color; some students had trouble finding all of their eggs, and Laura would grab

any egg no matter the color, even though she knew they did not all belong to her. This situation

falls in line with the preoperational stage.

Socio-emotional Development

While in class Laura will interact with her peers as much as she can. She has a group of

friends in class that she sticks with, so when they misbehave Laura tends to follow. Laura is not

often an instigator of trouble; while she may get off task when she is bored, she does not try to

distract her peers, with the exception of one of her friends whom I’ll refer to as Alan. Laura and

Alan have to be separated wen doing work because they will distract each other. When
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interacting with her teachers, I can see that Laura really loves them and enjoys having them as

her teachers. She does a great job with respecting their rules, and when she is caught off task and

reprimanded, Laura will apologize and get back on task. Laura does not seem to suffer from low

self-esteem; she has no problems with going in front of the class and directing them during

group work, and the first time she worked with me she did not display any shy tendencies.

Instead, Laura does not seem to believe the teacher when she is told she has done something

incorrectly- she will say “no” and continue doing the work incorrectly until she is told several

times.

Laura is currently in Erik Erikson’s 4th Psychosocial Stage. This 4th stage, industry vs

inferiority, typically occurs between ages 5-12 years. Industry, otherwise known as competency,

plays a large role in this stage. Laura exhibits the behaviors found in this 4th stage, especially in

relation to the importance of her peer group. She is developing a “sense of pride” in her

accomplishments, and tries to win the approval of her classmates and teachers. Laura is also

beginning to feel more confident in her abilities, as shown when she is directing her peers during

group work (McLeod, 2017). Laura shows a lot of initiative and understanding of her

responsibility in her personal learning process, while at the same time it is apparent that she is

still struggling with acknowledging her own limitations.

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References

Cherry, K. (2018). Piaget’s Theory: The 4 Stages of Cognitive Development. Very Well Mind,

www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457.

McLeod, S. (2017). Erik Erikson. Simply Psychology.www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-

Erikson.html#industry.