Running head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE ESSAY

Individual Difference Student Profile Essay

Peyton Karl
Instructor: Dr. Egbert
EDUC 201: Foundations of Teacher Education

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Individual Difference Student Profile Essay

Children all throughout the world have many different physical, cognitive, and
social-emotional differences that contribute to the person and student they are. For my
essay, I chose to focus on a family friend of mines little girl, Grace. She has been
through a lot of positive and negative experiences in her seven years of life that have
affected her physical, cognitive, and social development. Since she has gone through so
many experiences in such a short amount of time. I thought she would be a great person
to write my essay about.
General Information
Grace is a Caucasian, seven years and two-month old girl. She lives with her
mother, her fourteen-year-old brother, and twenty-one-year-old sister. Her father has been
in and out of her life since she was a newborn baby. She was born in Twin Falls, Idaho,
and lived there until she was almost six years of age. Once her father left her family
again, her mom packed up her family and moves to California to be closer to their
extended family members.
Graces daily schedule is the same for five days during the week; she goes to
school at 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and then goes home and is babysat by her siblings
until their mother gets off of work at 6:00. She spends the time her siblings babysit her by
doing her homework for the day and practicing her cheer choreography. Once her mother
gets home, she eats dinner, finishes whatever homework is left for the day, and heads to
her bed to finish the evening.
Physical Development

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Grace is a beautiful little girl who has absolutely stunning physical features.
Graces eyes are a light, sky blue color with ring of yellow right around the pupil. Her
hair is long and dark blonde, almost light brown. Grace has extremely fair skin, who she
most likely got from her Irish ancestors. She also has a tiny mole on her left check that
she says is a ginormous angel kiss. Even thought Grace is as health as any other little
girl her age, she lacks in physical maturation. She is the same height as other girls her
age, but her weight is just a little lower than the average weight for girls of her age. One
reasoning for this may be that she was born premature, so it has always been a struggle to
maintain her weight at a normal level. Her vision has has also been a reoccurring problem
throughout her life. She was born with nearly perfect eyes, but as she grew, she
developed a wandering and lazy eye. As she got older, it became worse. Her mother
caught the problem early enough and was able to monitor it and get her corrective lenses
that help her eye stop wandering and look in the correct direction. Despite her problems
with her vision, Graces hearing is nearly perfect, and she doesnt have any chronic health
problems that are known at this time in her life. Like most of the population, Grace is
right handed, and she draws wonderfully with that right hand of hers.
Graces general health is extremely good. She participates in many physical
activates, such as soccer, karate, and cheerleading. She has a fairly good diet, only eating
junk food or fast food every once in a while. Her mom is a health nut and really tries to
keep Graces nutrition on track. Graces large muscle development is on the slower side,
mainly because of her lower weight. Because of her low weight, she has a difficult time
kicking a soccer ball or throwing a baseball ball as hard and as far as the other girls her
age. With time and weight gain, this problem will most likely go away. Her small muscle

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development is just as normal as other girls her age, with her being able to hold a pencil,
type on a computer, and pick things up easily. All of these large muscle development and
small muscle development tasks require her to use many physical, as well as cognitive
functions.
Cognitive Development
Grace has always attended a private Christian school and is in the second grade.
She is placed in regular classes where she learns about subjects such subjects such as art,
social studies, language arts, math, and science. Her strengths in school are learning
about art and language, and her weakness are learning about science and math. Even
thought she over achieves in some classes and struggles in others, she maintains As and
Bs every year of school. Going to a Christian school as taught grace the importance of
behaving outside and inside educational settings. She has learned how to focus on her
studies and finish assignments and task effectively and in a timely manner. She has a
quite a short attention span of girls her age, but is extremely self-motivated when it
comes to school. She doesnt have to be told twice to do her homework or read a book in
her spare time. She loves participating in both individual and group activities. She is also
one of the only students in her class who will volunteer to read out loud or answer
question the teacher asks in front of the entire classroom. Her entire family is extremely
proud of the young girl and student she is becoming, and they give a lot of credit for that
to the teachers and their teaching at the private schools she has attended.
In Piagets stages of cognitive development, Grace is currently in the concrete
operational stage (Parsons 2011). During this stage of Piagets theory, Grace is learning
how to properly apply the knowledge she has in order to make the best decisions for

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herself. For example, she has learned that turning in an assignment helps her grade, while
skipping an assignment hurts her grade. She portrays this knowledge because I have
observed that she is adamant about finishing her schoolwork on time above everything
else going on at the time. While she is in this stage, she is realizing that she loves school,
and loves reading even more. I have asked her why she enjoys reading, and she said its
because of the idea that she can picture the book inside her head so that she can make
more sense of what is going on throughout the book, which displays a start in higher level
thinking and logic.
Social-emotional development
Grace has excelled when it comes to social-emotional development. Despite the
fact that her father has provided her with constantly leaving her throughout her life, she
has never let that set her back from enjoying the people around her. While she is at
school, her teachers say she has exceptional social skills compared to the rest of her
peers. They conclude this because she always helps her peers in determining what is right
and wrong to do in a situation. From personal experience being around Grace, Ive
learned that she is also very good at socializing with adults in her life. From the day I met
her, she was a bubbly and excited person who loved talking to people around her. From
her ability to easily socialize with her peers and people far older than her, I can conclude
that she has extremely positive self-esteem and has a good understanding of self-concept.
Grace is in the learning industry versus inferiority stage of Eriksons stages of
socio-emotional development (Parsons 2011). During this stage, Grace is supposed to be
learning how to work well with peers, learning how to play with certain rules and
limitations, and learning how to master her academics. From personal experience being

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around her inside and outside of school, I can say that she has excelled at this stage of
social-emotional development. Her teachers say she plays extremely well and fair with
others and loves to create games that have a bunch of silly rules and tasks to do. They
have also said she has taken a liking into seeing high grades on her assignments, and that
has pushed her to want to excel in her academics.
Summary, Conclusions, Implications
Graces physical development is almost normal for girls her age. The only
complications and downsides to her physical development is her weight and vision
problems. She has excelled at cognitive development based on her grades and ability to
perform successfully at school. She is also at a high level of development in socialemotional interactions, despite the hardships she has faced throughout her life with her
father leaving multiple times. She has overcome that obstacle and become a very bubbly
and social little girl.
I have come to the conclusion that she is at normal development, if not at above
average development for girls her age. Despite the fact that she weighs less than most
girls her age and she has a vision problem, she has excelled in both cognitive and socialemotional development. She is able to learn and retain information taught to her just as
well, if not better, than students her age. She is also able to positively socialize with her
peers her age, and adults who are much older than her, leaving me to believe she is
excelling at socialization in her life.
One strategy to help Grace achieve even more success in her physical
development is trying to help her gain healthy weight in order to improve her average
weight and large muscle development. By doing so, Grace will be able to play and

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compete with girls her age at the same level they are playing at. Grace is excelling in
cognitive development, but a strategy I would use to help her improve her attention span
is working with her constantly to remind her to stay on task and to not stray away to
different activities or assignments before one is completed. Graces social-emotional
development is outstanding as well. Even though it seems as if her father has made no
negative impact on her ability to socialize, I would continue to reassure her that she is
doing great and monitor her for times when it seems as if he has negatively impacted her.
Doing this allows me to look after and teach her in order to improve her physical,
cognitive, and social-emotional development to even a higher level than they are already
at.
Grace is a sweet, seven year old girl who lives a good life with her mother and
two siblings. Grace has a few aspects of physical development that is just a little bit
behind the rest of girls her grade, but she has never let that stop her from achieving her
highest physical development possible. Cognitively, Grace has exceeded above many
girls her age; she is able to maintain amazing grades while also realizing the importance
of the tasks and assignments she does for school. Despite the few hardships Grace has
faced growing up with her father, she has developed at a steady and good rate when it
comes to social-emotional development. She knows how to socialize with people not
only her age, but people of older ages as well, which is important in her social
development in the future.

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References
Parsons, R.D., Hinson, S.L. & Sardo-Brown, D. (2008). Educational psychology:
College
of Southern Idaho. Belmont, CA: Thompson Learning, Inc.