IDSP Paper 1

Individual Student Profile Paper

Tiffany C. Machado

Professor Natalie Tau

EDUC: 230- Intro to Special Education

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Individual Student Profile Paper

A few months ago, I was given the opportunity to do a classroom observation on an

exceptional student, in this writing I will refer to them as gray. The exceptional student I

observed was a fifth grader, He was attending Archoe Elementary School which is from August

to May. Gray is a little boy who has ADHD. In the following Paragraphs I will discuss Grays

general information, physical development, cognitive development, socio-emotional

development, and provide a summary with my important findings.

General Information

Gray is a 10-and-a-half-year-old small white boy. Grays only impediment is that he

suffers from ADHD. Gray lives with his family which consists of his father and sister on some

occasions then others with his mother and sister. His parents are currently split up, so they switch

weeks. His sister is 12 years old, when his sister was younger, she was born with tongue tied so

she has some issues with her soundings of words. Gray attends his school from 8:00am to

2:45pm most days, except for Wednesdays which are early days, and they dismiss at 1:30 PM.

Most days after school gray and sister are either picked up by their grandmother or their dad

based on the work schedule of the father. When at home gray likes to play on his tablet and

watch YouTube videos.

Physical Development

This 10-year-old person is able to get all his friends to smile with jokes all the time. His

smile seems to radiate happiness when it comes to his friends, He tends to get a little wild and

distractive with those same friends though. This boy has a dark brownish hair color, and it could

almost be black because of dark it is. The physical maturation of gray was the same as any
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other non-exceptional student of his age. He has good health, and he seems to be very athletic

when it has come diverse types of exercise. He does not wear any glasses or seem like he has any

chronic health problems that would prevent him from doing anything. As I observed the boy, he

would generally use his right hand to accomplish most of his work, I did ask the teacher to

double check, and he had said the boy is right-handed. Even though he was right-handed the boy

tends to grab things first with his left then bring it right as sort of like a habit. For his reading he

was put in a reading program just because he needed a little help when it came to his reading.

For his physical fitness he would be considered physical fit for his age group and is very well

when it comes to those physical activities. When it comes to P.E., he enjoys playing soccer and

leads with right foot when kicking. He is able to participate in all games and activities at school

without any restrictions.

Cognitive Development

When observing gray, I observed all the unique qualities in him. Gray is a 10-year-old

student whom I observed very closely. He is in a 5th grade classroom in an elementary school, he

spends about 6 hours a day in a classroom. Though he was not placed in a special education

program, gray was considered an exceptionality because of his ADHD. He was put in a

classroom where the teacher stays with the same students when to go up a grade level. Due to

grays Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, it helps that he sticks with a teacher who knows

about it and is able to access certain situations to make him focus. With the help of his teacher

gray should be able to keep focus and maintain the knowledge to be able to meet his annual

goals.

In terms of academic strength, he has lots of them. Gray is a very talented boy and is able

to sometimes learn at the same speed as others in his classroom. The only exceptionality is his
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focus on the classwork and assignments that he is given, other than that he is very smart. He is

able to play, participate and do all the things that classmates do inside and outside the classroom.

In the classroom, he learns at a slower yet normal pace. He knows his basic knowledge when it

comes to knowing his family, he knows multiplication, and slowly catching up on his reading

effort. When the students are given free time gray tends to be loud and wild, so often he led

outside to calm down with the teacher. He is very interactive when it comes to class activities,

the favorite subject is math because they often make models in class. He tends to be loud and not

focused on what the teacher is explaining the correct answers to their assignments. He follows

the concrete operational plan in the Piaget Cognitive Development Stages. He can be incredibly

quiet but is focused is strayed most the time to different things happening around the classroom.

His attention span is not the best and though he does have his moments where he is able to

focus. He is an excellent student, and his way of learning is just a little bit extra compared to

others but great for him.

Socio-Emotional Development

Gray is a boy with a heart full of so many different emotions, but he is so very caring and

thoughtful. He is an exceedingly kind kid and always offers to help his friends with their

assignments if he has already completed his first. He plays with many of classmates when they

are at lunch and recess. His interaction with his classmates seems to be good besides the few

times he has gotten into an argument with them. I was not able to observe gray with his family

members at drop off or pickup, but he seems very fond of his family members. At the school he

tends there is not a lot of family interactions on campus that I have noticed it is just because the

school is in the country.

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In terms of grays self-esteem, I observed he was noticeably confident with his friends but

when it came to answering questions in front of the class, he lost his sense of pride. Besides in

the classroom, gray seems happy with himself and has a good sense of self-esteem. Gray is in

stage 4 Industry vs. Inferiority of Erickson Socio-Emotional Development Stage. As I observed

gray, he had great initiative when it came to making the math functions into a 3D model, he does

seem to get a sense of failure if he is not able to solve the problem correctly. Those specific are

able to help me identify that he is developing correctly in this stage.

Conclusion

After observing gray for 15 hours, I was quite surprised in his ability to learn while

having the need to focus on other things while learning. His focus was all over the place on most

days but sometimes he would be able to stick to the topic that was being discussed without

disruption. Assessing gray in the above-mentioned categories I will discuss what he is. For

physical development he can be considered a typical student because he looks and is physically

the same. He does not have any physical disabilities, or genetic deformities. For cognitive and

socio-emotional development he could be considered a non-typical student for his attention

disorder. His ADHD is associated with his cognitive development since his attention is based off

his focus, he can be considered a non-typical student. His loss of pride when it comes to public

speaking could lead to embarrassment which can lead to some socio-emotional deficits. It is not

so common for a child to get so down about the fact of them getting a wrong answer. The

majority of the time the students tend to get madder and then forget that they got the question

wrong in some type of way. Grays strengths is that he is a truly kind student who is always up

for building a new 3D model and is able to work on keeping focus with the help of his mentors.

He excels in most of learning goals for his progress for the end of the semester. He is very
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capable of being able to keep his focus on one thing for a certain amount of time. Observing gray

has made me realize all the different learning or intellectual disabilities children can have. If i

had this type of student in my own classroom I would find assignments that would be able to

keep, their interests and have times where the student is able to try and get out much energy.

While I would also provide quiet time to ensure that the student wouldn't have as many

distractions as possible in place.