IDP 1 Running head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCFES STUDENT PROFILE

Individual Differences Student Profile Emma Van Diest Instructor: Dr. Tracey Meyerhoeffer EDUC 205: Developmental Individual Differences MWF, 10:00-11:00, Spring 2013

IDP 2 Individual Differences Student Profile For my individual development student profile, I decided to profile an amazing young woman who has beaten the odd several times and has come out on top despite her list of disabilities. In fact, Roseanna is a perfect example of a person with a disability who has successfully overcome many obstacles through the help and guidance of her parents and educational personnel who. No matter what a persons disability is, there are always ways to work with that disability to improve his/her physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive developmental levels. General Information Roseanna is a 19 year, 9 months old Caucasian female. Roseanna has a mother, father, and an older brother, though the older brother no longer lives in the same household as his family. Roseanna originally graduated in 2011, but since she has special needs, she has been allowed two additional years. Roseanna only attends her school three days out of the week now, and then she spends the other two weekdays at a warehouse packaging candy and other items for grocery stores. Rosanna isnt one for recreational activities; she is definitely most comfortable relaxing at home. Physical Development Roseanna is a beautiful girl who was blessed with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a fair complexion. Roseanna has many scars on her scalp and stomach for she has had multiple surgeries throughout her life. Her most unique physical characteristic though is what she calls twin toes because she has two toes that are fused together. Her physical maturation hasnt been affected by her disabilities even though Roseannas mental maturation is about equivalent to a 12-15 year old.

IDP 3 Since birth, Roseanna has been plagued with a plethora of medical problems. When Roseannas mother was three months along the doctors found enlarged ventricles in Roseannas brain. After she was born, she had shunts put in to drain the excess fluid from her brain, but that isnt where her ailments stopped. Rosanna had arachnoid cysts which are found in a particular part of the brain. These arachnoid cysts brought on a whole heap of other problems including hydrocephalus, which is an accumulation of cerebral spinal fluid. With increased pressure in her brain from the excess fluid, she had many seizures and her vision was affected. Roseanna now deals with cortical blindness, which is like looking through Swiss cheese; pieces are missing which makes learning and other tasks difficult or impossible. When Roseanna was young, she almost lost her life to the meningitis she contracted after obtaining a staph infection when her shunts were implanted. Certainly, she has struggled with all of the issues that have affected her brain; in all, shes had 24 head surgeries that have caused scar tissue to build up which brings on seizures. She steadily has petit mal seizures throughout the day, but these seizures go unknown to most people because they only last about 15 seconds and may just appear as if she is staring off into space. Though she has suffered a few grand mal seizures in her life, she has not had a grand mal recently. Another issue Roseanna deals with due to brain problems is she has right side weakness. She is naturally right handed, but because she easily loses strength in her right side extremities, she has had to learn to write with her left hand. Additionally, Roseanna doesnt participate in any physical activities because of her right side weakness. Roseannas hearing is normal, only her vision is affected. When it comes to gross and fine motor skills, Roseannas fine motor skills are more impaired than her gross motor skills. Cognitive Development

IDP 4 While in school, Roseanna attends resource rooms in order to meet her academic goals. She isnt required to take any form of standardized testing because with all of the brain damage she has experienced, they cant build a curriculum or a test that is low enough to fit her academic abilities. Roseanna was held back for two years; though once she reached high school, they bumped her back up to her normal grade. The only classes that Roseanna is in that arent special education classes are some PE classes, but she has a supervisor the whole time. When it comes to behavior, Roseanna doesnt have a problem. Though academically she needs constant repetition because she lacks the short term memory she needs for learning to come easily for her. Having a set schedule so things happen the same way every day helps ease the chance that she will get confused. Having a small course load also aids her ability to learn. For Roseanna to be able to see anything a teacher is writing on the board, it has to be written on a white board with a black marker. She needs the high contrast in order to be able to see with her cortical blindness; her teachers also highlight the edge of the paper and make the lines larger than wide ruled so she can write successfully. When it comes to Piagets stages of cognitive development, it would be safe to say that Roseanna has met at least a small part of every stage, some more than others. When it comes to language and literacy, she doesnt have a problem with speech. Her literacy is limited because of her eyesight but she is able to read like any person her age. Scientific and mathematical thinking is a harder thing for her to grasp simply because of her disabilities. When it comes to arts, she is limited because of her right sided weakness and cortical blindness. Amongst Piagets stages, Roseanna has problems with schema, assimilation, and accommodation. Due to her early brain damage, she is unable to access or sometimes build file cabinets within her brain to categorize the concepts that she learns.

IDP 5 Socio-emotional Development When it comes to social interaction, Roseanna has very good social skills. She is much better with older people because they can come down to the level that she is on. Little kids are also good for her because she can either come down to their level or they may already be at the same level as her. Her interaction with people her own age isnt as strong because she cant quite adjust to their levels because she isnt there yet and may never be. Roseanna has a good self image; she is quite content with herself, though she doesnt necessarily want people to know that she has special needs. This most likely is because some people dont interact with disabilities in the most accepting of ways. Emotionally, she has developed normally though she hasnt quite reached the stage of moral development that her age would indicate. Because she cant quite grasp the concept of consequence, she is in Kohlbergs preconventional stage of moral development. Summary, Conclusions, and Implications What I found about Roseanna is that she can function like a person without special needs, but when it came to academics and some moral decisions, she has some noticeable differences from her same age, typically developing peers. Some would think that Roseanna doesnt have any strengths with what she has to deal with, but I found that she is highly resilient and doesnt let her disabilities bring her down. She definitely has her needs though as she requires a great deal of patients and repetition. The strategies I would use to support the childs learning are exactly what Roseannas teachers have already done for her. They have assessed what she knows and what she still needs to learn in order to differentiate their instruction to her particular level of learning. Basically, they accommodate her needs in a successful manner that allows Roseannas academic and life

IDP 6 skills achievement to improve. In all, I couldnt be more glad that Roseanna has the right people directing her educational plan.

IDP 7 References Parsons. , Hinson, , & Sardo-Brown, (2001). Educational psychology. Cengage Learning.

IDP 8 .