INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

Individual Difference Student Profile

Brittany Eastham

Professor Natalie Tau

EDUC 230: Introduction to Special Education

08 May, 2022
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Individual Difference Student Profile Essay

I recently had the opportunity to observe a funny and kind of boy whom I will refer to as

Michael. I was able to observe Michael and his seventh-grade classroom at one of the local

public middle schools. Michael is a 12-year-old American boy. He is disadvantaged in two ways.

The first is he has an intellectual disability. In the second he has a cleft lip. In the following

paragraphs, I will discuss Michael’s general information, physical development, cognitive

development, social-emotional development, and provide a summary of major findings.

General Development 

Michael is 12 years and 3 months old. He’s an American boy, who was born and raised in

Idaho. He has two disabilities that he suffers from: an intellectual disability and a severe speech

impediment. He has been a part of every speech program at every school he has attended. When

he was born, it was clear that he had a cleft palate, and his parents went through with the surgery.

Kids with cleft palates typically require a second surgery around the age of eight. Michael’s

parents did not choose to have this done and his speech is severely impacted because of it. I was

not able to meet or speak with his parents directly, however the teacher I observed had told me

that his parents are all for Michael having the second surgery. The teacher went ahead and

contacted the place that will do the surgery. The doctors were more than happy to do the surgery

and said that the parents can bring him in for a consultation and plan the surgery. It’s important

to note that the surgery would be paid for and there would be no out-of-pocket costs. Although

this sounds great for Michael, the parents have yet to take him in. The teacher is constantly in

communication with the parents and insists that he is brought in because it will help his speech

significantly. Michael’s parents claim that they will but have yet to in the last year that the
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conversation has been going on. The teacher did inform me that the parents do exhibit signs of

neglectful parenting. This is the only information I was given on his family life. 

Physical Development 

Michael has short brown hair, blue eyes, white skin, and a very contagious laugh. He is

always smiling and has not shown any signs of relational aggression. Compared to the other

students in his class, Michael is built a little bit bigger than many of his classmates but of

average height. His small muscle skills seem to be good as he does well with writing, coloring

and cutting. He takes part in Physical Education with other kids which tells me that his large

muscle skills are good as well. Despite his struggles with being a student with an intellectual

disability, Michael seems to be overall healthy. He rarely misses class and doesn’t seem to be

sick often. Michael is right-handed and has quite legible handwriting. His intellectual disability

makes it hard for him to remember how to spell words accurately. For Michael, his biggest

setback seems to be his speech. When Michael is reading, he has a very hard time separating

words with spaces. His words typically sound very muffled together and it gets very difficult to

understand him. He works with the speech therapist and has ever since he was in first grade.

Despite this, his cleft palate severely holds him back and will continue to do so until it is fixed.

Michael loves sensory time. This is when the students can partake in activities like playing on an

iPad or swing on the swings for a certain amount of time. Every time Michael is given the

chance to have sensory time, he always chooses the iPad and will always play Minecraft.

Minecraft is a huge hit in this special education classroom.

Cognitive Development 

Michael spends most of his time in his special education classroom with his peers of

varying age groups. He is in 7th grade but spends time with other students with disabilities at the
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6th, 7th and 8th grade levels. He leaves for his electives that he is currently in, which are physical

education and family consumer science. He leaves his homeroom for speech as well.  I was not

able to observe Michael during science, so I am not sure how he performs in this class. However,

Michael does join his regular seventh grade peers in World Civilization. He seems to do well in

this class and other students and his group are always more than happy to help him with his

work. His intellectual disability holds him back from being able to perform at this level

consistently. He receives a lot of help from the World Civilizations teacher and his Special

Education teacher. Although he does have an intellectual disability, when participating in math

with other kids that have disabilities in his class, he almost always finishes his work accurately

and quickly and jumps up to help other students. Michael does seem to have a slight

disadvantage when it comes to reading comprehension. While observing a lesson in reading

comprehension, I was able to see that Michael was hesitant on his answers and wasn’t confident

in the material. 

From his actions, I can tell that Michael is in Jean Piaget’s Preoperational Stage, in

which the lack of logical operations forces the child to make decisions based on his own

perceptions. Michael displays the characteristics of the stage by tending to be more egocentric as

in, he struggles to see things from the perspective of others. He is improving in language and

thinking, however thinks very concretely and is unable to grasp logic. 

Socio-emotional Development 

Michael is very sociable inside the classroom with both his teachers and classmates. The

interactions he has in the classroom are very good and is often referred to as the class clown. He

is constantly making jokes and funny remarks to all the teachers and students in the classroom.

The students seem to laugh at his jokes instead of getting annoyed. He is often seen identifying
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with other students his age that do not have a disability. I have noticed that when he is off topic,

any of the four teachers involved in the classroom will tell Michael, “Nope, pay attention buddy”

and just like that, he instantly gets back on track. Since Michael is the class clown, he is very

sociable and interactive with the classroom, and he seems to have good self-esteem. Currently,

he’s in stage four of Eric Erickson‘s theory: industry vs. inferiority. He has a sense of pride in

the classroom with his peers that makes me feel as if he is in this stage and he is constantly

striving to be good at the task at hand. For example, when he is doing multiplication problems,

he strives to be quick and faster than the other students. There are many people around him who

are encouraging him academically, which helps him develop a positive attitude about his

abilities. The positive encouragement he is getting seems to be what drives him to succeed more

each day, even though he is struggling academically. There will be times when Michael needs

more discipline than some of his peers, so as a special education teacher, it is crucial that you

make sure he takes initiative.

Summary 

Michael will continue to need his peers and teachers to provide him with guidance,

encouragement, initiative, and help to succeed academically. Michael does have more than one

disability and is disadvantaged when it comes to speech. While this doesn't mean he won't

accomplish his academic or home goals, he'll have to work twice as hard as his classmates.

Michael is very fortunate to have teachers who go the extra mile to help him succeed at school,

however, I do fear that Michael will not receive the surgery that he needs to help his speech

impediment.

Conclusions
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Despite his disadvantages, Michael seems to be a very happy kid. He is always making

jokes and always smiling. Michael has tendencies to misbehave through things like cracking

jokes at inappropriate times or being too talkative during a lesson, but he is very easy to get back

on track. He does not seem to become emotional if he is told to stop talking but just simply says

“sorry” and continues with his work. He may not be at the same developmental level that other

12-year-olds are at, and he probably will never be able to get there because of his intellectual

disability. However, he is very capable of independent tasks and following directions. He is also

very kind and listens well. He is developing skills necessary to having an independent life of his

own when he is an adult.

Implications 

Michael is a very sweet child who loves both his teachers and peers. He is always

bursting with energy and is eager to learn new things. However, he does suffer a language

barrier that typically prevents his peers from understanding him. Michael will continue to need

speech therapy and will most likely continue to be behind his peers academically. Michael needs

teachers that will encourage him and laugh with him. He loves jokes and he loves pranks, and he

seems to just love people. Michael would rather play and hangout with his friends instead of

doing assignments, but he doesn’t display any negative emotions about being told to do them.

His teacher will always need to keep an eye out on him since he does tend to get off track easily

because he loves jokes. His teacher needs to stay in communication with his parents and try to

get his parents to take him to the surgeon. Through related services such as special education and

speech therapy, Michael will be able to manage his disabilities a little better. I do fear that

without the surgery to help his cleft palate, he is going to struggle with communication and may
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need to find another alternative to communicating like sign language since it is quite difficult to

understand him. 

In conclusion, Michael can manage his disabilities but needs support from the school

when it comes to his intellectual disability and needs support from his parents when it comes to

fixing his cleft palate. Although he might be a little older than others who receive the surgery, it

is extremely important that his teachers and parents work together to get this done because this

will be one of the most important aspects to making his disability a little easier on him.
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References

Lightfoot, C., Cole, M., & Cole, S. (2018). The development of children. Macmillan Education.