Running head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE 1

Individual Differences Student Profile

Michelle A. Bollar

Instructor: Natalie Raass

EDUC 230: Intro to Special Education

Fall 2017
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Individual Differences Student Profile

Over the last two months I have had the opportunity to observe a boy who I will call

Johnny for the purpose of this paper. I was able to observe Johnny in his sixth-grade general

education and resource room classes at a local elementary school. Johnny is an eleven-year-old

Caucasian boy who was in a severe car accident at the age of two. Below is a summary of my

observations.

General Information

As mentioned above Johnny is an eleven-year-old Caucasian boy who was in a car

accident at the age of two which left him with a head injury and heavily scarred mostly on his

left side. He has physical, intellectual and speech disabilities. It is known that he resides with his

mother, but it is unknown what the rest of his family configuration is as I was not able to observe

any family interactions. Johnny attends school from 8 am to 2:45 pm Monday through Friday

with one hour and forty-five minutes spent in the resource room for Math and Language

Arts/Reading. His resource teacher also informed me that he attends speech therapy outside the

school setting. It is unknown what Johnny’s schedule is outside of school.

Physical Development

Johnny has dark brown hair and eyes with a tan complexion. He suffered an open head

injury on his left temporal lobe. Johnny has scarring the entire left side of his head along with a

long incision scar and the auricle is mostly missing There is also damage to the ossicles. Due to

the damage, Johnny is adventitously deaf. Johnny has scarring around his face and on his hands.

It is unknown how much more the scarring is under his clothing as he wore long pants and long-

sleeved shirts. He has a denture in his lower mouth and is missing a finger on his left hand.

Johnny has a motor-speech disorder due to the damage to his mouth. Johnny also wears special
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glasses that look like goggles with a strap to hold them on his head and are slightly darker than

normal due to him having light sensitivity.

Johnny appears to be at the same maturation level as his peers. He is social and socially

accepted by his fellow classmates. Johnny has a visual disability which requires special glasses

due to his light sensitivity and needing large print. Due to the scarring and damage to his mouth,

Johnny requires a denture appliance for his lower jaw. His speech is slurred and hard to

understand if he talks to fast. Johnny is missing his left index finger, but this handicap does not

appear to hinder him. He appears to be in good health otherwise. Johnny does not require any

adaptive devices other than padding on his pencil to make it easier to hold. He is right handed.

Johnny participates normally in his physical fitness class and recess at school. I observed

that he takes everything that is offered at lunch and clears his tray. Johnny actively plays with

sports with his peers at recess and does not show any deficiencies. He is also able to write, color

and use scissors along with typing on a computer keyboard as appropriate to his age.

Cognitive Development

Johnny attends the 6th grade and participates in both general education classes and

resource room classes. The specifics of Johnny’s academic and school history is unknown before

the 6th grade. He attends the resource room for instruction in Math and Language Arts. His

general education classes include homeroom, science, social studies and specials (library, music,

and P.E.). He has two general education teachers and one special education teacher that

participate in collaborative consultation once a week. It is unknown what his academic grades

are. Johnny struggles with some of his phonemes such as d, b, t, f, and c. He also struggles with

reading fluency and reading comprehension which he works on by doing repeated readings

in his resource room.

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During class, Johnny has a short attention span and participates in class activities about

80% of the time. He can be disruptive to his fellow classmates with loud talking and fidgeting

behavior. Johnny also likes to walk around the room visiting when they are working on

groupwork. He responds to the teacher and does exhibit some self-regulation when asked but

lacks initiative.

I believe that Johnny’s actions show that he is in the concrete operational stage of

cognitive development according to Piaget’s theory. He is able to think, articulate and participate

in classroom discussions logically for the most part. He is not quite at the same level as most of

his peers when it comes to language and literacy.

Socio-emotional Development

Johnny is socially on track with his peers but sometimes annoys them when he distracts

them from classwork. He is well liked by students and school staff and is rarely in trouble.

Johnny is firmly in Erik Erikson’s industry versus inferiority stage. He has good self-esteem and

gets along with peers and adults, interacting appropriately. He is also mastering skills in social

studies, reading and arithmetic. He still has some work to do in this stage before he moves on to

the learning identity versus identity diffusion stage.

Summary, Conclusions, Implications

In general, Johnny is at a “typical level” of development. If it were not for his obvious

physical appearance you would not see him as much different than the other boys in his class. He

will need continued supports due to damage to his left temporal lobe from his brain injury at two

years old, but his special education teacher is confident that it will remain minimal and his

language will improve over time with continual practice. Continued use of cooperative

learning in the classroom and positive behavioral support will improve his executive
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functioning. Johnny has overcome his physical handicaps and thrives normally, playing football

with his friends at recess. He is well-liked and self-confident.

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References

Erik Erikson's Stages of Social-Emotional Development. (1999-2015). Retrieved from Child

Development Institute: https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-

development/erickson/#.Wi9GaN-nHIV

Hallahan, D. P., Kauffman, J. M., & Pullen, P. C. (2015). Exceptional Learners: An Introduction

to Special Education, 13E. Pearson Education, Inc.

Theories of Cognitive Development. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~rakison/POCDclass7.pdf