INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 1

Individual Difference Student Profile Essay

Hennen, Hawley

Instructor: Dr. Egbert

EDCU 201: Foundation of Teacher Education

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 2

Abstract
Importance of teaching, why people should teach, why students need schooling, and/or the skills

you have learned from the school which help you in the workforce or in your volunteer activities.

In my opinion, teaching is important because I have seen first-hand the occasional failings of the

American educational system. It is less about inspiring and enlightening young minds and more

about and ever-moving assembly line, where quality control standards keep dropping. I do not

think that everyone is cut out to be a teacher. Teaching is as much a calling as being an artist, a

lawyer, a doctor, or a dancer. It is an artform that must be practiced and perfected. A good

teacher shares information, but a great teacher shares themselves. Students need school because

education is an opportunity that nobody should be denied. Teachers ignite the spark of

illumination which helps to enlighten the path a student takes in life regardless of what it may be.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 3

Individual Difference Student Profile Essay

Most people will never understand the difficulties and daily challenges often posed to

students/people dealing with physical or mental disabilities. This assignment afforded me the

opportunity to speak with a long-time friend, by the name of Callie, regarding her disability. In

Callie’s specific situation, her disability was categorized as a “developmental delay”. She was

diagnosed as being delayed in her cognitive and physical development as a small child. Due to

the delays, she was placed on an Independent Education Plan (IEP) since the first grade. While

interviewing Callie, and asking her different questions, it became apparent to me that even with

her IEP in place, it was an uphill battle for her to be afforded the same educational opportunities

to succeed like her peers. Just getting the schools to follow her IEP required constant

involvement and oversite by her parents. My first experience with Callie was in kindergarten.

Even at a young age, it seemed very obvious to me that traditional learning formats were not as

successful for Callie as they would be for other students. The IEP was meant to help level the

playing field for Callie, and yet more often than not, her parents had to fight to get the school’s

teachers and administrators to cooperate. As a future educator, I realize that the current system in

place may fail students who desperately want to succeed. In this paper I will review general

information about Callie, as well as her physical development, cognitive development, and

socio-emotional development.

General Information

Callie is currently a nineteen-year-old female, born and raised in Jerome, Idaho. Callie

resides with her mother, father, and two younger siblings. Callie attended the Jerome School

District from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. Callie’s extracurricular activities during her

school years included: Girl Scouts, cheer, dance, and photography. She was elected the head
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 4

editor of her Yearbook class her Senior year. Callie graduated with a 3.6 grade point average

(GPA). She was awarded several academic scholarships and has gone on to attend a cosmetology

school in Twin Falls, Idaho.

During Callie’s school years, she attended school from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. After

school she would go home on the bus and get ready for her dance classes every other afternoon.

On Tuesdays and some Saturdays, Callie would have Girl Scouts from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

While in school, Callie attended special education courses for math and reading. She also had

numerous one-on-one sessions with both a counselor to address her spatial contact issues and a

speech therapist to assist with some earl- speech pattern delays. Currently, Callie is attending a

cosmetology school in Twin Falls, Idaho, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. During her free time, she

volunteers for Girl Scouts and dabbles in photography. She is employed at a local mass-market

retailer, where she is in charge of the toy department. Callie is working towards graduating from

her current cosmetology school and will soon start the next stage of her schooling at another

cosmetology school located in Jerome, Idaho. Once she has completed both programs, she will

have the necessary skills and knowledge to successfully perform the latest trends in cosmetology,

barbering, nail technology, and esthetics. This has been a passion of Callie’s since she was a

young child, inspired by an aunt who is a hairstylist, and whom she has always admired.

Physical Development

Callie is a Caucasian female, with brown hair, brown eyes, she is 5’4 inches in height,

and weighs 135 pounds. Callie has a condition called Amblyopia (lazy eye), which causes her

right eye to drift when she is tired. She has already had two corrective surgeries and is

considering another one in the future. She continues to wear glasses and/or contacts. During her

elementary school years, Callie had to have tubes placed in her ears on more than one occasion,
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 5

and she has frequent hearing tests due to an excessive amount of wax production. Physically,

Callie’s maturation is comparable in stature with young adults of the same age. Callie has a

normal yearly physical, with additional 6-month checkups on her eyes and ears. She has no

specific physical limitations; however, she has to be careful with balance tasks due to the above-

mentioned problems with her eyes and ears.

Callie has never suffered from any significant issues with her large or small muscle

development; she practices yoga and stretching nightly as part of her physical exercise routine.

She does suffer from a gluten intolerance and is right hand dominate.

Cognitive Development

The “concrete operational stage” is the third period in Piaget's theory of cognitive

development, spanning the time of middle childhood, beginning around age 7 and continuing

until around age 11. While this is an important stage in and of itself, it also serves as an

important transition between earlier stages of development and the coming stage where children

will learn how to think more abstractly and hypothetically. From first grade through the twelfth

grade, Callie was on an IEP due to cognitive issues, visual issues, and hearing issues. Callie

attended regular classes for most subjects, with the exception of math and reading for which she

was in a resource room. Callie was a full-time student at Jerome High School, and graduated on

time in May of 2021. Callie used special programs at Jerome High School that would allow her

the extra help she needed on a daily basis. There were accommodations in her IEP which

allowed for: leaving the classroom if she was unable to concentrate, her exams to be read to her

orally if necessary, and exams to be shortened if needed. These adaptations allowed her to be on

task cognitively which helped her improve over the years, requiring less assistance.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 6

Social-Emotional Development

Callie’s interactions with her peers have always been positive. However, she has had

problems with spatial contact concepts, an issue which required her to receive therapy exercises

in order to overcome them. Callie has always gotten along much better with adults, rather than

peers her own age, mainly due to the fact that they were able to recognize her disability. With the

exception of Callie’s first grade teacher, who required her to engage in unusual behaviors

(making her wear gloves at all times to prevent touching things, and placing her desk directly in

front of the classroom’s whiteboard so that she was isolated from others) every other teacher

Callie had was always very excepting of her, and wanted to see her succeed.

Presently, Callie has a solid self-concept. She looks at the world very positively every

day. However, Callie’s self-esteem suffered in High School. Callie received therapy due to

anxiety and suicidal ideation. She was put on an anti-anxiety medication until she graduated

from High School. In High School, she was experiencing identity vs. role confusion (Erikson)

recognizing she was not like everyone else and got treated differently because of it. Once

removed from the High School environment, Callie’s self-esteem greatly improved. She just won

a fashion show competition in April of this year. Callie opted to forego traditional college and

instead pursued a cosmetology trade school where the curriculum is based more in “hands on”

experiences. She is excelling at it.

Summary, Conclusion, Implications

After interviewing Callie, I feel like she has a great support system from her family who

continue to make sure that all her physical and educational needs are met. Her parents definitely

had times where they had to go the extra mile to make sure that the administration and educators

were doing their job in order for their daughter to succeed. Every year, Callie’s parents would
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 7

advocate for her inclusion during their IEP meetings. They would also have to take a firm stance

with some teachers to ensure that the lessons plans were tailored for Callie’s IEP needs. During

this time, Callie appeared to be happy and always on the go with school, her yearbook classes,

cheer, dance, Girl Scouts, and employment. Now however, she has genuine happiness in her life

and is not simply putting on a brave face for others.

In conclusion, I believe that Callie has closed the gap with her peers and is at a typical

level of development for her age. Physically, Callie continues to have her eyes and ears

examined every six months. She is able to withstand a physical job of hairstyling, a physically

strenuous occupation. She also is currently employed in a position which requires ample physical

activity. Callie has moved on to cosmetology school and has almost completed the first part of

her program. Out of the fifteen girls that started the program, she is the only one graduating on

time. Cognitively, Callie has progressed from a disabled individual to a person who manages

some cognitive disabilities. It is a day-to-day struggle, but a challenge that she is most certainly

capable of meeting. Callie has a full-time job while going to school and is volunteering as a Girl

Scout Leader. From a Socio-emotional standpoint, Callie has come a long way from requiring

phone calls to her parents when she failed to conform to the school’s expectations, and now

continues to work on achieving a better understanding of social norms.

Even though Callie was placed on an IEP in first grade, she never let that stop her from

being a success, including joining the cheer team and going out for track. Callie was never an all-

star athlete, but her enthusiasm always carried her across the finish line. Simple tasks others may

take for granted can be problematic for Callie, but her determination will not let her give up.

Callie’s condition made her early childhood years extremely difficult socially, leading to feelings
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 8

of isolation and depression. By the time she completed High School, she was voted “most

friendly” by her classmates.

Based upon my interview and research with Callie, I believe my top five strategies which

would benefit a student under similar circumstances are: inclusion, improvement in lesson plans,

modifications, accommodations, and peer teaching/group work. Inclusion is important because

we need to highlight our similarities as opposed to emphasizing our differences. When children

feel separated, they begin looking for a reason why and will often attribute it to some sort of self-

shortcoming, which can further undermine their confidence. Next, I would emphasize the

importance of adaptive lesson plans that enable teachers to tailor specific strategies for an

individual student’s success. Education is a journey and often there are multiple paths to the

same destination. This leads into my next essential strategy, modifications. Teachers need to

have the capability to adjust the length and scope of assignments in order to achieve true

understanding of the concepts, which is the ultimate goal of any educator. Beyond modification

of the working materials, accommodations may also be necessary to adjust the environment to

better suit a child’s educational needs. While previous generations might have felt that non-

conformity could lead to chaos, we now understand that small adjustments to a student’s comfort

level can yield dramatic improvements in their academic performance. Finally, I cannot

overemphasize the importance of peer teaching/group work. Sometimes knowledge is more

easily conveyed through a different perspective, or if nothing else, there is a reassurance in

recognizing a shared unease with specific ideas. When children see that classmates might

similarly be struggling to grasp an idea, they do not feel as isolated and it is often less

intimidating to express a lack of comprehension to a peer instead of a teacher or instructor. I

won’t pretend that there is any one combination of strategies which will miraculously work for
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 9

every student in any situation. However, I do believe that these five strategies will help create a

solid foundation upon which further techniques may be employed, all working towards that most

noble of goals: to educate and enlighten.

Educators need to understand that no two children will ever be exactly alike, nor will

their strengths or weaknesses; we must treat everyone as a unique puzzle and employ the

strategies that we have learned to take a thousand random pieces and combine them into a

breathtaking work of art.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY 10

References

Sousa, D.A. (2007). How the special needs brain learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Press: Sage Publications Ltd.