Running head: GROUP A: CASE STUDY

Group A: Case Study

Casey Ayer
Kaplan University

GROUP A: CASE STUDY

2
Background

James is a 6 year old who has just been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome.
James tends to be sensitive to loud noise, smells, and tastes. He is also sensitive to too much light
and becomes distracted by these things. James lives in a traditional family household with both
parents, Tammy and Steve, working outside the home. He has a 3 year old sister, Katie, and an 8
year old sister, Maddie. James enjoys playing house with his sisters and seems more comfortable
with them than other children. His family is very supportive and understands his disability.
Jamess parents are concerned that he is not making friends at school and then he doesn't
act "male." His parents want to know what they can do to get James to play with and be
interested in male toys and play. When they initiate conversation about it, James often shies away
and gets a little upset. Jamess teacher states that he is being criticized by male peers for playing
with the female students. When James tries to play with the boys, they ignore him. Jamess
teacher says that he is does well with direct, repeated instruction and does not engage or interact
with other students very well. James does not react to comment when others seem sad, happy, or
any type of emotion. He also tends to group similar objects together, regardless of the color of
those items. For instance, he will line up all the trains in one line and all of the cars in a separate
line. James plays with the female students in class and enjoys playing house, tea party, and with
baby dolls as he does at home with his siblings. When playing, he does not engage in direct eye
contact and tends to have repetitive, one sided-conversations.
Assessment
Tests used: Drawing assessments, Wechsler Scale-III (WPPSI-III), Kaufman Assessment Battery
for Children (KABC-II), and Standford-Binet (SB5).
James was asked to draw whatever he felt like drawing. This gave me a chance to view
his perception and what he was thinking about. I was not able to find any information about his

GROUP A: CASE STUDY

emotional state, but was able to check his cognitive and motor skills after asking him to draw
specific items that were easy to sketch for his age. This process took time to accomplish due to
Jamess lack of focus and getting easily distracted.
After measuring Jamess IQ with the aid of the WPPSI-III, it was found that his IQ
ranked in the 70th percentile. This can be concerning because this rank demonstrates mild
retardation. James has to be evaluated further because his IQ results could be influenced by other
factors such as his Aspergers, not his intelligence according to his age.
The next assessment administered to James was KABC-III. This test took 40 minutes to
administer, in which he ranked in the 66th percentile, which shows that he has difficulty with
fluid or inborn intelligence as well as his crystallized or learned intelligence that is affected by
cross-cultural differences and the environment. Other problems he has are in the areas of visual
processing and shot and long-term memory.
The last assessment administered to James was the SB5 and it took 45 minutes to
administer. According to the results, James nonverbal score was 36 while his verbal score was
18. The nonverbal subsets included: fluid reasoning, knowledge, and visual-spatial processing,
and working memory. His inability to stay focused could have determined a low score in these
areas as well as his incapacity to sit still. Due to his low score in verbal communication, it is
imperative that he is referred to a physician to check for the possibility of more severe physical
disabilities, other than Aspergers.