Running Head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

Individual Differences Student Profile

Shelley M Smith
College of Western Idaho
Natalie Raass

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

2

Individual Differences Student Profile

As a future educator, it is my responsibility to be prepared to teach all students who enter
my classroom. It is my responsibility to provide a fair and equal education to all students in my
charge. Todays classrooms are filled with students from every walk of life, todays students are
diverse and unique many of them face challenges as diverse and unique as they are. As a teacher
I will be expected to meet the needs and challenges faced by many of such students and to be
able to provide a quality education to every one of them. In this profile I will be examining a
particular student with whom I was fortunate to observe this semester. I will be touching on this
childs physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development. Some personal information
pertaining to this child including his or her name has been changed in this profile to in order to
preserve the students privacy.
General Development
Katie is a 9 year old girl who is part of a large family. Katie lives with her mom, her
grandmother, and three younger siblings, a brother who is 6, a sister 4, and another sister who is
2. Katies father has not been a part of her life since she was 3 years old. She is being raised by
her single mom with the help and support of her maternal grandmother. Katie and her family
members are all Caucasian and were all born in the United States. Katie walks to her
neighborhood school along with her little brother. She tells me that she enjoys helping him cross
the street and it makes her feel special that her mom allows her to take him to school and to
bring him home. Katie told me that once in a while her and her little brother arrive home before
her mom and grandma, she says that she likes to babysit Zach and that her favorite part is fixing
them a snack. I can tell that Katie enjoys having this responsibility and takes it very seriously. I
had the opportunity to meet Katies mom and she told me that Katie gets along well with her

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

3

siblings, that she enjoys helping her mom with the daily chores and that she is respectful of the
authority of her grandma and mom.
Physical Development
Katie appears to be of normal development compared to her peers. She has blond hair,
blue eyes, and is of average height and weight. Katie is right handed, and displays normal fine
and large motor skills as compared to her classmates. She does not have any trouble holding a
pencil, coloring inside the lines, or managing scissors, as a matter of fact, Katie seems to enjoy
doing arts and crafts although she does tend to be a perfectionist. The need for perfection in her
work could be associated with her disorder. Katie loves to engage in physical activities and
displays a propensity towards physical fitness excellence. She loves to play 4 square and
basketball. Katie does not have any signs of sight or hearing deficits and does not show any
signs of language or speech deficits.
Cognitive Development
Katie is in the third grade at Central Elementary School in heart of downtown Nampa.
The school boasts that is unique in many ways including that they operate in the oldest school
built in 1929 where Katie is part of a population of 400 students. According to Centrals website
they serve the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students in the district at over
90%. Katie and her family are among this 90%.

In the second grade Katie fell behind in most

every subject by the end of the school year it was apparent to her teacher, staff and parent, that
Katie was not ready to move on to third grade. Katie repeated the second grade during which
time it was determined that Katie has a learning disability. It was also determined that Katie
suffers Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The school staff, along with the cooperation of
Katies mom and grandmother, developed an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

4

educational plan has been in place since Katies second grade year and remains in place still.
According to IEP Katie is academically successful in PE, Art, and Science. Academically Katie
struggles most in math and reading comprehension. As a result Katie spends an hour of her day
in the special education resource room where she works diligently on math, writing, reading,
and spelling. A significant amount of her time in the resource room is delegated to working on
solving story problems.
While observing Katie I witnessed that while in the general education setting Katie is
easily distracted. She has a short attention span, and loses motivation. I saw that she often
would be in a daydream or sitting at her desk with her head down on her folded arms. I saw that
Katie did not initiate interaction during discussions but would respond positively when called on
by her teacher. However while in the resource setting Katie was attentive, and interacted openly
with her teachers and peers. I feel that the difference was due to the focused attention of the
staff, the design of the room, which is significantly smaller than her general education classroom,
the quiet setting of the room and most importantly the structured routine. In the general
education classroom, I often witnessed Katie hiding her assignments in her desk or backpack to
avoid having to complete them. But in the resource room Katie worked diligently and with focus
to compete the assigned tasks.
Math is one of Katies biggest challenges. However she told me that she enjoys the
challenge of solving word problems. Katie can become very focused on her work during one of
these assignments. It is my observation that during the process of solving a mathematical word
problem Katie is demonstrating one of the stages in Piagets cognitive development stages.
Katie is demonstrating the concrete operational stage. This stage is characterized by childrens
ability to think logically but only about concrete problems and objects (Berns, 2004). Katies

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

5

teachers provide her with visual and verbal cues that help her to solve the problem through a
multisensory approach.
Socio-Emotional Development
I observed that in both the general education as well as the special education setting, it
was important to Katie that she be noticed for her accomplishments especially when working on
an art project. She would often compare her work to the work of her peers. She would either
become excited if she felt she was doing better than most or frustrated if she seemed to be falling
behind. In part this behavior is due to her disability, but I also attribute it to Eriksons Stages of
Physical Development. I believe that Katie is demonstrating Industry VS. Inferiority Stage of
Development. It during this stage that a child often compares themselves to others. Katie wants
to be like her peers but struggles with confidence. However, when Katie does reach a level of
achievement she demonstrates pride in her work and seeks recognition (Mcleod, 2013).
During a brief meeting with Katies mom, she told me that Katie enjoys some aspects of
school, but that she has a hard time fitting in and making friends. Her mom thinks that Katie
struggles with her disabilities, and is hyper-aware that she had to repeat the second grade. She
feels that Katie lacks self-confidence as a result of both. I did observe that Katie is a bit of a
loner. She has two friends that she spends most of her time with. She is seems to especially
bonded to one of the girls who seems to be a confidant for Katie. Katie is friendly towards her
peers but can come off as a little aggressive or bossy when interacting with them. Katie shows
respect and kindness when interacting with her teachers and the school staff and seems to be
comfortable expressing any concerns she has with them. When observing Katie I did note that
she compare herself often with her peers, and she gives up on tasks easily when she feels that she
is not achieving success. Her teacher does a great job of communicating with Katie. She offers

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

6

her assistance when available and Katie has a peer mentor that sits next to her. The mentor is a
confident and in my opinion very patient female student who I observed often praising Katie and
reminding her that she can do it. I was very impressed by how Katie responded to her mentor
and watched Katie often accomplish difficult tasks with the help of her peer. As a matter of fact
the group of students who sat next to Katie all seemed too worked together to keep Katie on
track and to help her achieve success. I attribute these positive peer relationship successes to
Katies teacher who works very hard to foster respect and acceptance of others in her classroom
on a daily basis. Katie is lucky to be a part of a class where teamwork, and trust among each
other is a vital part of the classroom environment.
Summary, Conclusions and Implications
I found Katie to be a happy individual. She loves to share stories especially about her
younger siblings. Katie is struggling to find her place among her peers but has a friendly and
nurturing personality. Katie does not have many friends but I found her to be fiercely loyal to
the ones she does have. She is bright and can learn, when a subject is of interest to her she
demonstrates a passionate need to learn more. However, she is easily distracted and often
frustrated by her disability at those times she readily gives up.
Generally and physically Katie appears to be normal to her peers. She has strengths and
weaknesses just like others in her class. She is strong and healthy, and she strives to be what she
perceives as normal. Cognitively and socio-emotionally Katie is behind the rest of her
classmates, however, Katie excels in physical activities, art and science and is a very creative
student. She does very well in a kinetic learning environment and is mostly eager to learn. She
has an obvious aversion to challenging subjects but I see that through the efforts of her teachers,
and with the support of her family Katie is striving to work harder at recognizing and

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

7

overcoming her weaknesses. Katies home life is a bit of a challenge for any child to overcome.
The parenting authority in her home is non-traditional, and her family struggles socioeconomically. Her mom is works a lot of the time and she spends a great deal of her time at
home with her grandmother.
After spending time observing Katie in the school setting I can see that the teachers and
staff have Katies best interest in place. I think that by continuing to monitor and update the IEP,
Katie will see academic success and continue to achieve success in her learning and
development.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

8

References
Berns, R. (2004). Child, family, school, community: Socialization and support (6th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
McLeod, S. A. (2013). Erik Erikson. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/ErikErikson
http://central.nsd131.org/