Running Head: INDVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE 1

Individual Differences Student Profile

Maygan Harrison

Instructor: Natalie Raass

EDUC 205: Development / Individual Differences

Fall 2017
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Individual Differences Student Profile

This semester I had the chance to observe a 2nd grade child, I will call Lilly. I observed

Lilly in her 2nd grade classroom and resource room in the morning during language arts and

math. She is a white American, average size with brown hair and blue eyes. Lilly has a learning

disability which has caused her to get drastically behind on reading and has goal to be able to

read 90% of Kindergarten site words by the end of the school year. She is also behind on math

they have a goal to get her to do addition up to 10, the normal for 2nd gr is addition up to 20. I

will be discussing Lillys general information, physical development, cognitive development,

socio-emotional development, and a summary of any major points.

General Information

As said in previously Lilly is a white American, average size with brown hair and blue

eyes. Lilly was adopted as a toddler, and lives with 4 other siblings and some cousins. Out of the

5 children 3 are adopted. She is the youngest of the siblings, I am not sure how old the cousins

are, or what the situation with the cousins is. The teacher said she got the feeling Lilly has a

hectic home life and they are on the lower-class side financially. Lilly usually gets driven to

school by her parents or with a friend they carpool with, she did mention riding her bike a few

times but not often. She was also picked up or walked home with the friend she carpooled with. I

didnt have any interactions with her family, and the teacher didnt know much ether so this was

all I could figure out.

Physical Development
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Lilly is 7-years-old, the teacher did say she was a young second grader. Shes a white

American, with brown hair and brown eyes. She looks to be in good health. She usually ate

school breakfast (this school district gives free breakfast for all pre-k 12th gr students, so it is

quite common for most kids to get breakfast) and lunch so I know those meals were healthy. For

snack time, she often had a jumbo chocolate muffin from the gas station, which isnt the

healthiest. She seemed to be average height as there was kids shorter and taller than her.

Physically her large motor skills were caught up with the rest of the class. I observed her

jumping rope a couple times with some other girls from class, she was able to turn the rope and

jump over it multiple times before messing up. This seemed to be where the other girls in the

class were also. I also observed her playing four square, which entails her bouncing a ball back

and forth and being able to aim it in the right spot, she did really well with this activity, showing

me that her large motor skills match her age. She told me about riding her 2-wheel bike with just

her friend one morning, which leads me to believe she can for the most part at least ride a two-

wheel bike fairly well. Her fine motor skills seemed to be lacking quite a bit. Her handwriting

was drastically messier then other students around her. It took her quite a while to finish the

handwriting page she really struggled with writing even a little fast. Another thing I noticed was

flipping to pages in the book, she had a hard time flipping through and would drop the pages

making her start over from the beginning. Kids would usually have found and started working in

the page before she even found the right one. She also had a really hard time operating scissors,

she couldnt follow the lines very well. She uses her right hand for coloring, writing and cutting.

Cognitive Development
Lilly spends most of her day in the general education 2nd grade class but does get pulled

out for language arts and math. Language arts is 120 minutes, and she is in the resource room
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for the first 45, math is split up in to 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes after lunch, she

spends the full 45 minutes after lunch in the resource rooms. During these times, she works on

getting to her goals, as previously mentioned, which are reading 90% of kindergarten sight words

and being able to do addition up to 10. She also goes to speech therapy for 30 minutes once a

week, to help with her pronunciation of words. When in the classroom if the class is working on

something she struggles with you can see her getting frustrated. She is a very wiggly busy

student and often will shut down a lay on her desk. She does have some disruptive behaviors,

she likes to make loud sighing noises and stomp her feet some everyone knows shes upset.

During circle time she tries her best to behave, however she has a short attention span which

often results in her falling on to other people or playing with their clothes. This can usually be

fixed with a quick keep your body still and to yourself reminder to the whole class.

Going off Piagets theory of cognitive development, I think shes at an older

preschooler age. Piagets has 3 levels each divided in to, two parts. Lilly fits into the Pre-

conventional level stage 2, when they start trying to get the best for themselves and just want the

reward. She always wants what will make her happy and does things based off what will make

her happy not if its right or wrong. She doesnt make these choices thinking shes being bad or

purposely doing the wrong thing. She only willingly choses to do class activity or work if its

something she enjoys or sees a reward at the end of it.

Socio-emotional Development
When it came to interacting with people, peers or adults it varied on Lillys mood that

day, or even at the moment. Most of the time she was very socially talking to everyone on the

playground before class starts, saying hi to both the teacher and I as soon as she got in the

classroom. There were a few times when she had a bad morning or didnt get her way on the
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playground that she would storm in to the room and pout very loudly till the teacher went over

and asked what was wrong. She did struggle with talking to adults when she needed help with

the classwork, even if they offered help quite often she would get frustrated and lay her head on

her desk until she calmed down. She also had a lot of issues being told no, or that she couldnt do

something at that moment. She would continue to do it or sulk and slam things on her desk in

attempt to get her way. Her peer interaction was also dependent on her mood, some of the kids

didnt want to play or work with her because she often through tantrums. This made it hard on

her sometimes, because even though she was calm and being nice the others and seen the way

she acted before and didnt want to be around that. As I mentioned previously, she likes to get

her way so she often wanted to play her way or she would throw a fit which also seemed to push

away kids. Every day she would bring a stuffed animal or two from home, they would stay in her

backpack until recess but there were often tears over that rule being enforced, and this put up

another barrier between her and the other students. Overall, I dont think she had much self-

concept, which made her not really have or not have self-esteem, but I dont think she ever felt

bad about herself because of the lack of self-concept. Going off Kohlbergs theory of moral

development I believe Lilly is in stage 2, Instrumental purpose orientation. This is bases of

avoiding consequences and getting rewards. If there wasnt a clear-cut consequence for her

actions she would continue them, or if she decided that they werent that bad of consequences

she continued, on the other hand when offered a reward that would almost guarantee she would

stop or the behavior would of never started.

Summary
Lilly will need continued services after completing 2nd grade at this point, her goals to

meet are still below grade level meaning she will almost 2 years behind academically at the start
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of 3rd grade. With encouragement and love Lilly will do wonderful in the general classroom, she

just needs some extra patience and times, especially when she is acting younger than her age.

Conclusions
Lilly is an atypical student, being that she is adopted, and living in a lower-class family.

She is also living with more than just her immediate family. She doesnt act her age, has a hard

time interacting with peers when things dont go her way. She is also behind academically, and is

still at a kindergarten level. Physically speaking she is normal, you cant notice any physical

abnormalities looking at her.

Implications
Lilly is wonderful child to have her your class, her behavior isnt a huge problem, most of

the time she is quiet. That can also be a problem, making her be missed but has long as you pay

attention to her its shes easy to accommodate. You just need to be willing to figure out what

works for the both of you. She is a very loving little girl and wants to make you smile.

Her parents need to be involved so that she can be worked with at home, but that has

proven to be difficult in the past. Her special education and other services need to be continues

so that she can be getting the most help possible and keep from getting even further behind.

In conclusion, I think with the right services and support Lilly could be caught up to

grade level by the time she enters 6th grade. She will need everyone at school and home to

support her though. With continued assistance I think she will want to push herself to get caught

up also and that will help a lot.

References
HALLAHAN, DANIEL P.. KAUFFMAN, JAMES M.. PULLEN, PAIGE C. (2018).
EXCEPTIONAL LEARNERS: an introduction to special education. S.l.: PEARSON