Individual Differences Student Profile Miranda Rick Kae Hamilton EDUC 205: Exceptional Students Spring 2012

Running head: Individual Differences Student Profile Individual Differences Student Profile

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According to Idaho State Department of Education in 2009-2010, 8.555% of children ages 3-21 were served in special education. That percent ranged from Learning Disability to Non- Categorical. In the special education room from 2009-2010; 8,340 which is 30% where served for a Learning Disability (Statistics). In my observation I observed a young Hispanic girl who under the IDEA 04 definition qualified for Specific Learning Disability. General Information The young Hispanic girl I observed is named Kiara. Kiara is nine years old. She was born in the U.S. but is not fluent in Spanish or English. She lives with her mom, dad, and 3 younger siblings. When Kiara is at home she only plays with her younger brothers. Her parents both speak only Spanish so she has a hard time communicating with them. She comes from a lowincome housing where both parents work at minimum wage jobs. Kiara has partial inclusion at school; she is in the resource room for math and reading. She receives related services outside of school; she has speech and language services two times a week for 30 minutes. She also has reading, written and math services. Physical Development Kiara has brown hair, eyes and skin. She does not appear to be behind in her peers with physical maturation. She has good eyesight and is right handed. She appears to be in good health. She has normal large and small muscle development. Cognitive Development

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Kiara attended preschool in Nampa, Idaho. Then for kindergarden she attended extended day for ELL (English language learners) students. After kindergarden she attended magnet school for ELD (English language development) program for two years. After two years at the magnet school she returned to home school. She is currently at Birch elementary school where she has been there since second grade. She is in the resource room for math and reading and then returns to her fourth grade class. At the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, Kiara was reading at a kindergarden level. She is now currently at a late 2nd grade level and demonstrating comprehension at an early 2nd grade level. Her written language is at a 2nd grade level. Kiaras math level needs the most work; she does not retain numeric information and continually needs repeated practice and modeling to acquire computations skills. Kiaras academic weaknesses are she struggles with reading comprehension, vocabulary development, decoding, phonemic awareness skills and sight word recognition. Her attention span is short; she does not like to participate in class activities. She will remain quiet and make excuses to get away from the group. In her general education classroom she will often hunch down in an attempt to hide herself from the teacher. She likes math but does not retain the information from day to day at times. There are times when she will copy other students work so that she does not have to do it. She also enjoys writing and has learned cursive to help in writing complete words, spacing and placement. Kiara can apply logical, systematic principles to specific experiences so she is in concrete operations stage of Piagets stages of cognitive development. Socio-emotional Development

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In Bronfenbrenner theory of human development, Kiara has difficulty with the peer part of the Microsystem. She does not interact very much with her peers. She has made a couple of friends but in the past she only played with her brothers at home. In the general education room she sits alone most of the time, she does not try and talk to her peers very much. She will normally wait until the teacher comes up to her or another student comes up to her. Kiara loves to be around adults. When she is working on a project she will normally go ask the teacher to help her instead of her peers. She loves to talk to the teachers or adults in the classrooms. Kiara has improved on her areas that need help but she still has a long way to go to get to the level her peers are at. Her physical development is at a typical level for her age, yet her cognitive and socio-emotional level is below typical level for her age. Her cognitive development is not at the typical level because her peers are reading at 4th grade or above level but she is at a late 2nd grade level. She also is not at the math or writing level as her peers are at. Her socio-emotional level is not at a typical level of her peers because she does not socialize as her peers do. She does not have many friends and does not try and make friends. Kiaras needs are in reading, writing and math where she gets her help in. The implications of these needs are that she is not at the level of her peers. Whether you are teaching a student with a learning disability or a hearing impairment you need to be ready to use accommodations or change you curriculum. Even if you are teaching a student that is considered at-risk you may need to make changes to your curriculum. As future educators we need to not be afraid to teach a student with a disability, they are a student who needs to be taught just like every other student.

Running head: Individual Differences Student Profile References Berns, R. M. (2007). Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support (8th ed). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

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Taylor, R. L., Smiley, L. R., Richards, S. B. (2009). Exceptional Student: Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Statistics. http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/special_edu/stats.htm

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