Individual Difference Profile

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Individual Difference Student Profile Dennis Anderson Linda Vermette EDUC 205: Development/Individual Differences Fall 2011

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Individual Difference Student Profile Essay The requirements for this course told me that I had to find a student on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), and follow them between their classes in order to view how things worked. I never realized how much fun I would have doing this set of observations. This opportunity gave me the experience to jump right in and help a student who just did not understand things, and it was the first time that I had ever thought about the possibility of teaching special education students. I observed a student named Johnny, who I will educate you about in the following paragraphs. We will discuss his general information, barriers, physical development, IEP goals, cognitive development, socio-emotional development,, along with the summary of the child and my conclusions. General Information Johnny, who was placed on an IEP because he originally limited English Proficient, but since he has overcome that language barrier, it seems that he has a horrible problem with paying attention to things, and this, causes him to not be able to understand simple concepts. Johnny is in the fourth grade and is currently 9 years and 3 months old and has been placed in the eligibility category of Specific Learning Disability. Johnny has an average IQ of a fourth grader, but he doesnt seem to understand some of the concepts that they teach in the general education classroom. I had the opportunity to view him in both settings, and he was a completely different student in the two. In the general education class he would sit with his hands on his desk playing with random toys he pulled out of his pocket, while in the special education class, he jumped up and down excited to answer questions that he knew the answer to. While the student was originally placed on the IEP because of his language barrier, when I

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observed him, he did not have one problem communicating to anybody that he talked to, unless it was during his reading. When I was observing him I counted the words that he read in a minutes time, and he was only reading about 15 words in a minute, and that was out of a second grade reading book. After talking to his special education teacher, this is right where his main problem lies, because his reading and his comprehension both suffer greatly because of his lack of ability to pay attention. I did notice that the student never wore a jacket to school, even when he was eating breakfast, and it was 27 degrees outside. I was not able to see the way that his family and him interacts, but after talking to the teacher about it, I did find out that they do have a problem with the money flow coming into their house. The teacher told his parents in a conference that they should go down to the district office and get a jacket for him, because it was not okay for him to not have a jacket. His parents are not legal in the country, so not only are they not able to teach him the things that he learns in school, but they really have no way of giving him all of the attention that he needs when talking about his education. Physical Development Johnny is a Hispanic student who is about four feet tall, and weighs about sixty pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He is left-handed, but he does have trouble with his writing skills. His writing is very sloppy, and most of the letters in his writing it is hard to tell whether the letters are lower or upper-case. In the P.E. setting Johnny excels, because he is very athletic. He seems to have fine motor skills in his grasp, but he struggles with aspects that have to do with writing, even though he does not seem to struggle with coloring or with drawing. When Johnny is at recess he seems to be a bit of a loner. He plays soccer by himself, and he seems to be by

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himself playing about sixty percent of the time. With his larger muscle groups, he seems to be in perfect shape for a child his age that is his size. He jumps all over the rock wall at recess, and he climbs all over the jungle gym. Overall he is very fit for being such a small child. Cognitive Development Johnnys main problem is his attention span. Most fourth graders have a hard enough time processing all of the information thrown at them without having a communication problem. Johnny is one step behind them anyway. He has a horrible time paying attention to the teacher. Ii was able to follow him for three whole days and noticed that when we were in the general education class he had a hard time sitting still and he was constantly playing with something, but he made it pretty clear that he did not understand the concept. Johnny does have a lot of friends in the class, and he seems to get distracted easily when they do things out of the norm as well. He seems to at least try everything in the general education class though, even if he does not understand the concept at all. When they were working on their multiplication tables he had all the wrong answers after the 2s column, he refused to let me help because he said he was doing fine, this I did notice seems to be a trend when it comes to interacting with adults. After viewing Johnnys goals for his IEP, it was pretty obvious that they just wanted to build on the things that he had already knows. Johnny has a goal for English set at him reading with a second grade level with working on comprehension, and to work on recognition of high frequency words. His math goals on his IEP are using addition and subtraction, and being able to tell what the difference was. I was able to see this all firsthand because one of the days that I was observing the assistant in the special education class was gone, so I go to step in and help out. This was interesting because I got to observe him doing math that he could do, and doing

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reading that he could understand. I observed him in the general education class as well though doing a multiplication table, and that did not go so well. Johnny also is put into a communication class for forty-five minutes per day to allow him to get better with communication skills among his peers. The accommodations that are made for Johnny are as follows: tests are read to the student using headphones, and he will have extra time allowed to take the test. Johnny learns best by when he sees pictures and can match things together. By one of the exercises that we did in his special education class, it was obvious that he was in Jean Piagets preoperational stage. In the exercise we took a set of Legos and asked the students to find different ways to group them. The first way that Johnny grouped them was by color, and after that he could not really find another way to group them. The only part of the stage that seemed to be missing was the egocentrism, because he does do pretty well at viewing the world through others eyes. For instance; he was reading, and he was asked what person as speaking, and he could tell the teacher who it was, and what they were using to tell the story, whether it was first person, or third person. Socio-emotional Development Johnny is great with being social in the classroom, but he does not do so well while he is playing at recess. He seems to like to play by himself more than he likes playing with others when he is out of the classroom setting. Inside the classroom he seems to be developing healthy friendships with the other students and one in particular. There is another student who goes to all of the same classes that Johnny attends, and he and Johnny are very close while they are in class. The other students in class realize the reason that Johnny leaves for class, but they seem to

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leave him alone about it because his social skills are very well developed. One of Johnnys favorite parts of the week is when they have reading buddies. This is a time where the fourth grade class goes down and cross-age tutors the kindergarten classroom. Johnny said that it makes him feel awesome, being able to help somebody read and learn. Johnny is currently in Erick Ericksons industry vs. inferiority stage, because he has the want and desire to impress people. The thing about Johnny is that he knows that he is different from the other students, but he does not want to be different, so he tries everything he can to stand out as a person who is not different. He does great with the drive to learn new materials, but he does not do all that well when you are talking about the comprehension or even the understanding of the material. Summary Johnny is a great kid that tries hard in everything that he does. In the time that I spent with him, he did not misbehave even one time. The thing that worries me about Johnny is that he is such a nice kid that his self-esteem, because we all know how kids can be taken advantage of by other kids. Johnny overall is developing very well, and has made a huge amount of progress in the last year according to the teacher. Johnny does receive special education services and other related services such as a communication class for as part of his IEP. Johnny has issues with his attention span, but he is not disruptive, and he is a great helper when the teacher needs help. If he does not understand something he is very shy to ask for help, and that is something that teachers will have to get used to with a kid like him. Johnny does not ever really get into trouble because he keeps to himself, and because of his shyness. When he is on recess or even in the Physical education setting, he likes to be by himself to play, or even just to run. Positive reinforcement is definitely the way to get Johnny to try to do the things that he is capable of, but using any negative connotations with him has proved to do the opposite, because

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seems to lower his self-esteem. For obvious reasons I was not able to view his home life, but I was able to talk to the special education teacher about his home life and his family interactions, and according to her, the parents do not speak English, but they are very supportive of getting Johnny every bit of support that the school thinks that he needs. This is great in the fact that the school has a chance to try everything that they can with the complete cooperation of the childs family. Conclusion/Implications Johnny is at the normal level for almost all of the things that a student should be developing at. In general he is a great athlete when it comes to muscle strength, and even endurance. His man issue when it comes to Johnnys development is his cognitive mind. He does not understand concepts nearly as easily as the other fourth grade students. Johnny has the ambition that any fourth grader has about attending school, and he loves messing around in class with his friends. The use of computer technology plays a huge part when it comes to the development of Johnnys young brain. He has an average IQ, but it does not show because his level of understanding fourth grade concepts is not as prevalent as it should be. The continuation of the services that Johnny is being provided will serve him well in the long run, and the goals of his IEP are that he will be caught up to his classmates by the time that he hits high school.

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References
Taylor, R. L., Smiley, L. R., & Richards, S. B. (2008). Exceptional students, preparing teachers for the 21st century. Boston: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.