Running Head: DEVELOPMENT/INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IDP 1

Individual Differences Student Profile

Makayle Tyree
Professor Kimberly Jones
EDUC 205 Developmental/Individual Differences
Online, Spring 2018
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Starting school for the first time can be challenging. For many, myself included,

preschool was the first time ever being away from the family. It is a new environment filled with

new people and new experiences. Having a schedule, learning how to share, making new friends,

for some this can be the first time for all of that. Now imagine being unable to verbally

communicate your wants, needs, or any other thing a person normally conveys through speech.

This is exactly what my new friend “Ethan” is going through. Ethan has had a hard time learning

to speak clearly. His teacher says he has dyspraxia, but it was unclear if this was an official

diagnosis. This makes all the normal things that preschoolers do, such as singing songs difficult.

For this profile, I will give information based on my time spent with Ethan regarding physical,

cognitive, and socioemotional development. I will also discuss how Ethan is overcoming this

obstacle and my general findings. By observing the development of an exceptional child, a better

understanding can be gained of how they function in a classroom setting and to help make sure

that they are having the best learning experience possible.

General Information

Ethan is a 5-year-old male child. He has a language learning disability which means his

main form of communication is nonverbal. Ethan does speak, but only a few words are clear

and/or understandable. After spending time with him, it becomes more apparent as to what he is

trying to say, but it still is quite difficult. Ethan relies on gestures and physical examples to

convey what he is saying. For example, if Ethan wants to go play with the cars, he will take the

person to the cars or bring the cars to them. Ethan understands what is being spoken to him and

follows directions. Ethan is an only child who lives in Twin Falls. His family is active in the

outdoors. Ethan is at preschool from 8-11 am. Either his mother or father drop him off at the
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preschool and one of them pick him up from school. His parents are very involved and appear to

be loving and nurturing.

Physical Development

Ethan is a physically normal 5-year-old boy. He is the same build as peers just slightly

taller than most. He has blonde hair, fair skin, and expressive eyes. Ethan is full of energy and

often dances and jumps around when he is excited. Being a young child, Ethan runs to every

activity. If there is music playing or the teacher and class is singing, Ethan sways with the music.

During snack time he eats all of his snack and often goes back for seconds. His teacher is

beginning to suspect that Ethan may be colorblind, as he is having a hard time learning his

colors. Muscle development seems on par with his peers. A few of the fine motor skills Ethan

possess are holding a pencil, eating using utensils, and squeezing a glue bottle. He appears to be

right handed, but due to his age uses both hands for most activities such as squeezing a glue

bottle. He can also dig using a shovel, rake leaves, and push around a wooden spool that is

roughly the same size as him.

Cognitive Development

Ethan is currently attending the College of Southern Idaho preschool. While there, Ethan

participates in play, drawing, small group activities, reading, music, and writing. Ethan enjoys

playing, especially with toy cars. Playing with the other students can be hard because they cannot

understand Ethan, which tends to leave him frustrated. This same issue happens during the small

group activities. Ethan shows interest and wants to participate but when the other students are

verbally expressing what they intend to do Ethan cannot join in with his ideas. This lack of

communication makes it so that Ethan becomes frustrated because he cannot do what he wants in
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the activity. This may also cause the other kids to become upset because Ethan executed his plan

without telling them.

Due to Ethan's age and the lack of verbal communication, it is hard to gauge where he is

at on language and literacy development. Ethan does speak but it is hard to understand what he is

saying. Some words are clearer than others, but he appears understand what he is trying to

convey. When teachers or other adults ask Ethan to repeat himself, it becomes easier to

understand what he is saying. Ethan also likes being read to. He has a favorite book that he

brings to people, and he likes to sit near them while they read it to him. Between this and the fact

that Ethan follows directions, he seems to understand what is being said to him. Sometimes

Ethan needs extra directions because he would much rather rush through something so he can go

play. He also knows how to count; if a car has four wheels, he draws four circles on his paper.

Drawing the whole car with detail is not something Ethan shows interest in. All drawings are

very abstract and rushed; he would much rather go play with the cars than draw one. Most of

Ethan’s classmates do the same thing, very few are interested in adding details to their drawings.

Ethan also appears to take part in private speech when playing. It is not distinguishable as to

what he is saying, but he continues to talk to himself while he plays.

Socio Emotional Development

Ethan struggles to interact with his peers due to the lack of communication. Some of the

students are more understanding that Ethan doesn't verbally communicate and play with him

despite their differences. Sharing is a bit of a struggle as other kids come take toys that Ethan is

playing with. This upsets Ethan because he cannot tell them he is playing with that item.

Sometimes this escalates into Ethan taking the toy back, leaving both children upset. Ethan often

engages in parallel play. Never really playing with his classmates but playing near them
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sometime sharing the same toys. His obvious desire to play with other students is occasionally

overshadowed by Ethan’s struggle to verbally communicate with his peers.

Ethan is also extremely empathetic. If anyone shows any sort of distress, even across the

school yard, Ethan will get up and run to check on them. He will stand by their side until he can

confirm they are okay. Interacting with adults is less frustrating for Ethan as adults understand

nonverbal communication. Ethan often grabs his teachers by the hand and takes them to what he

wants. For example, Ethan wants a rake out of the shed, so he takes his teacher's hand and takes

her to the shed that houses the rakes. Adults also have more patience with Ethan repeating

himself and then try to clarify what he is trying to say. Over the last few weeks Ethan has

become aware that he communicates differently than his peers. It is unclear as to what caused

this newfound awareness. This has caused him to become a little rebellious and he is very

focused on testing his boundaries as a result.

Summaries, Conclusions, and Implications

My major findings are that Ethan is an active 5-year-old child who is struggling to learn

how to verbally communicate with the people in his life. Besides that, Ethan is a very caring

child with a very expressive personality. Ethan communicates well nonverbally but his peers

often don’t pick up that. So much of relationship building at this age relies on pragmatics, which

Ethan struggles to participate in. From my time spent with Ethan I believe that he is in Jean

Piaget’s preoperational stage. A lot of this stage is dependent on verbally expressing ideas, which

is hard for Ethan. One thing Ethan does though is make-believe play. Ethan uses a toy doctor's

kit on a stuffed bear and he pretends to feed people mud pies. Ethan’s teacher says that most

children who have dyspraxia, or other similar language learning issues, experience a

breakthrough at about ages six or seven. Regardless of whether this breakthrough happens or not,
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speech therapy will have to be an active part of Ethan’s development. Ethan will have to learn

ways to adapt to new situations and environments since next year he will start kindergarten.

Despite Ethan’s struggle to speak, he has found ways to communicate nonverbally and is

extremely caring.

Being in preschool Ethan does experience a lot of individual attention from the teachers.

These teachers do not treat him any differently from the other students except when

communicating with him. They often implement recasting and then have Ethan repeat back the

correct words to the best of his ability. To me this was real example of Vygotsky’s sociocultural

theory, of a person learning from a more knowledgeable other. By attempting to have Ethan

communicate verbally, they are helping to improve his speech. Ethan was always expected to

participate in class but never forced to do anything more than what he wanted. It will be

interesting to see if Ethan has that major language breakthrough in the next couple of years.

Overall, Ethan is an incredible child. While he may not be able to verbally communicate,

he has strong nonverbal skills that will only improve with age. Only time will tell how much

Ethan’s verbal language skills will improve. Ethan is probably the most empathetic and caring

child I have ever met. This means that he will make a great friend even if he cannot speak. I hope

that Ethan’s struggle to communicate never ruins what a caring person he is.
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References

Berk, L. E., & Meyers, A. B. (2016). Infants, children, and adolescents. Boston: Pearson.