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Running head: Individual Differences Student Profile

Individual Differences Student Profile

Nicole Seabock
Instructor: Kurt Scheffler
EDUC 205: Development / Individual Differences Online
Spring, 2014

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Individual Differences Student Profile
Throughout Idaho there is a vas variety of exceptional learners that all differ from the
next. What works for one student may not work for the next. This provides a huge challenge for
education system and educators to be able to meet the needs of each student and provide the best
education possible. In the following paragraphs, I will profile a student who has a sever
behavioral disorder. By examining his physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development
and then summarize my findings, I will help provide several examples for how this information
can be beneficial for educators in their classroom.
General Information
The young boy that I observed is named Sam Smith. Sam is a 5 year old boy who lives at
home with his mom and dad, 3 older sisters, and 2 older brothers. Sam is the youngest in the
house and has about 2 years difference between each child. Sam's family demonstrates the
capacity of cohesion but lack adaptability when it comes to Sam's behavioral disorder. Sam is a
preschooler and attends a half a day of school which begins at 12:50 to 3:50 in the afternoon. He
then either goes home with his family or is babysat by his aunt until his parents arrive home from
work. When at home, Sam likes to play with his toys by himself. He will attempt to play with
his siblings for a while but then becomes frustrated and reverts to playing alone. He likes to play
outside at the park and likes to play soccer with his brothers. He falls asleep at about 9:30pm
every night and is usually the first person in his family to go to sleep. If he does not get enough
sleep each night it effects his behaviors significantly so his parents keep him on a strict sleep
schedule.
Physical Development

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Sam has light brown hair and green eyes. He is Caucasian and has a small beauty mark
above his left top lip. Sam is slightly behind his peers in physical maturation and is slightly
shorter than his peers. Sam has a small stigmatism in his left eye and occasionally wears
corrective glasses but does not enjoy wearing them. Sam is right handed but occasionally does
some things with his left. He has not fully committed to being right handed yet, but does better
work with his right than left.
Sam seems to be in good health and is very coordinated for a boy of his age. He eats like
a typical 5 year old boy so he does not have the best nutrition habits, but is still learning to like
and try new foods. Sam is a bit smaller in stature and weight compared to students his own age,
but is very strong. He is a fast runner, can kick a ball, can throw a ball, and is a great climber.
His large muscle development for his boy of his age is typical to a little advanced. His small
muscle development is about average for a student of his age. Sam is able to write with a pencil,
cut paper, color inside the lines, and glue paper onto paper. His overall fine motor skills are that
of a typical 5 year old boy.
Cognitive Development
Sam is in the preschool program at his school which is considered special education, but
Sam is not in the preschool program for his abilities in academics. He is very smart in knowing
all of his colors, ABCs, can count to 20, can identify numbers to 20, knows all of his shapes, and
how to spell and identify his name. He is academically at the capacity of a kindergartner, but
does have a small speech impediment.
His attention span is about 2 minutes and seems to be less than the typical preschooler.
He does not like to participate with class activities unless it is something that he is interested in.

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If he has no interest in the subject matter he would rather act out to escape the activity. Sam likes
to be by himself more that being incorporated in class activates. The only thing that motivate
Sam to do anything is that he enjoys the activity or that he will be rewarded with an activity that
he likes after completion of the task.
Sam cannot yet grasp the complex concept of cause and effect so he is at the
Preoperational Stage of Piagets stages of cognitive development. He does not yet understand
that when he decides to not listen to directions in art and just scribbles on his paper or does
whatever he wants that he will be given a new paper and instructions to start all over. He does
not see that if he did it right the first time that he would spend less time doing a non-preferred
activity and would be able to do a preferred activity sooner.

Socio-emotional Development
Sam's likes to play by himself and is more introverted then most children his age. He will
attempt to play with other students in class but does not know how to play appropriately or
cohesively with other students his age. Sam has a very hard time sharing and gets frustrated
easily when another student does not play with the toy the way that he had attended. May
students avoid playing with Sam due to the fact that he will get frustrated and lash out to hit or
bite or spit on the other student.
Sam's interactions with adults are very different than a boy of his age. He enjoys playing
with adults more than he does with peers his own age. He also wants to be the center of attention
when it comes to an adult's attention. He interacts and plays well with adults as long as they are
playing exactly as he wants them to and is not trying to get him to do something that he does not
want to do. As soon as the adult takes control away from Sam he lashes out and looses himself in

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an aggressive rage. He becomes very violent and tries to hurt the adult and anyone around him in
any manner he can. Sam has to be in control of everything in his life and when he does not the
interactions become bad fast.
Sam cannot yet cooperate well with his peers and has not yet shown guilt for his actions. He is
still very stubborn and throws fits when he does not get his way so he at the Learning
Autonomy Versus Shame (Will) stage of Erik Erikson's Stages of Social-Emotional
Development.
Summary, Conclusions and Implications
In summary, Sam is going into kindergarten a very bright and intelligent boy. He is very
academically smart and is typical if not above other students his age in academics. Sam is very
coordinated and strong for his age. Sam would succeed in outdoor sports teams due to his typical
or above large muscle development. He will also go into kindergarten with great small muscle
development such as writing, cutting and coloring.
The conclusions of this profile show that this boy is typical in his physical development
even though he is a little smaller in stature than his peers, shows some setbacks in his cognitively
when it comes to knowing the effects of his actions, but otherwise is age appropriate in cognitive
development according to Piaget. When it comes to socio-emotional development, Sam is below
where he should be base on Erikson's Stages of Social-Emotional Development and will need the
most help and assistance in this area while continuing his education. Sam will need to be in a
PBI classroom to help with his behavioral disorder and his socio-emotional development. He will
need an assistant with him that is stern and consistent with Sam. He will also need help with
cooperating and working together effectively with his peers. He will need to learn to play in an

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appropriate manner with his peers and he will need to learn to let go of some control and trust in
people. I think that the thing that will help Sam growth in socio-emotional development is being
pushed out of his comfort zone and learning that even if he does have behaviors and acts out that
he does not get to escape from things that he does not want to do or does not enjoy.