Running head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD

Individual Difference with ADHD Mohammed, Trey Instructor: Dr. Egbert EDUC 205: Development / Individual Differences

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD Abstract As the essay shows the general information about this young male that has ADHD, a learning disorder. He has great physical development, average cognitive development, and does really well in socio-emotional development. This student has troubles staying busy and sitting for a long period of time. According to the summary and the findings in this essay, you will see the same.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD Individual Difference Student Profile I had the opportunity to meet with a student that attends Morningside Elementary. This student was tested for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD.), a disorder characterized by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity, and frequently observed in individuals with learning disabilities. This student was not diagnosed with ADHD; however he still has it. The parents didnt want their son to be categorized with this learning disability. Therefore, the student has this learning disability, but is not on medication for ADHD. The teachers know about his learning disability, and also know that he is not on

medication. Section 1: General Information The interviewed student is eleven years old; his birthday is in the middle of October. His ethnicity is a white male. This student has a mother (Michelle), father (Steve), and an older brother (Cody). Cody is in the eighth grade and is fourteen years of age. Cody turned fourteen on October 29, 2010. His mom works for Solo cup and his dad works for his dad in marking land. This students parents and his older brother inspire him to play sports. He has to walk to his sports practices. His practices are usually right across the street from his house, at OLeary Middle School. Sports run a lot of his energy off as well. This student attends Morningside Elementary from 8:40 am to 3:25 pm, Monday through Friday. He is currently in the fifth grade. However, he gets two recesses while he is in school, one recess is from 10:35 to 10:50 am and the other one is from 2:05 to 2:20 pm. He also has lunch from 12:20 to 1:05 pm. During his recesses he plays a variety of different games and talks to all his friends during this time. Recess and lunch runs a lot of his energy off. The way he gets home from school every day is by the bus.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD Section 2: Physical Development This student is four feet ten inches tall and weighs seventy-five pounds. His hair is a light brown color, he doesnt like his hair long, and so he keeps it really short. This students physical maturation compared to other students is the same. He looks the same as all the other students. The only thing that is different from the other students is that he is very skinny.

However, his parents are very skinny also. I know that this student does not make himself throw up to make sure that he is skinny, which means he doesnt have bulimia. This student has great vision. He has 20/20. He has really good hearing too. He says he always passed all his tests that hed taken in the past for hearing and for his eye sight. Hes never had hearing problems and hopes to keep it that way. He doesnt have any chronic health problems; however, he does have asthma, characterized by difficulty breathing from narrowing of small airways in the lungs. His nose will clog up, where he cannot smell out of it too. He takes medication for this problem with his nose; he also has an inhaler for his asthma. This student also has really bad allergies, which he also has to take medication for when it starts acting up. When this child writes, he uses his left hand. However, in everything else, he uses his right hand to do things. This student plays three sports, and the sports always change every season of the year. He plays football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and plays baseball during the spring and the summer. His parents make him eat a lot of healthy foods. His family will always make sure that there is a salad at every dinner. He has his fruits and vegetables every day too. He has a lot of defined muscle on his body. He really loves to play sports and is really good at them too. He can do all the small muscle development too. However, he doesnt like to do them for long because it doesnt keep him busy enough. One thing that he doesnt like to do is cut paper because he thinks that it is really boring for him.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD Section 3: Cognitive Development This student has always received As and Bs. He has always been in the regular classroom. When I visited with him, he told me that, I usually struggle in the beginning of the year, but when it comes to about 5 weeks in the year. I start to pick up a routine and will start to get the material.He is really strong in Math subjects. He has always been in advanced classes for Math. His Zone of Proximal Development (ZDP) (Vygotsky), description for the difference between an individuals current level of development and his or her potential level of development, is always high in math than any other subject. He likes math because it is scaffolding, learning and problem solving; the support could be clues, questions, prompts, breaking a problem down into steps, and anything else that helps a learner become more successful. Another thing that he is really strong at is Art. He could spend all his time doing art work; he really enjoys it because it keeps him busy and lets his mind roam free.

This student does great on most of his tests. However, when he doesnt do really well on his tests, then he is put into time outs, which is a student who is acting inappropriately is removed to a non-reinforcing setting, which he would be grounded for a week. The reason why he is a great student is because his mom and dad forces him to do all his homework and study. His parents are Authoritarian, favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom, when it comes to school. His parents also makes sure that he writes down all his homework in his planner, then when he does, the teacher has to sign off that it is correct. His ZDP in English is always a lot lower than where he should be. He really struggles in English; he always has troubles writing papers and with his speech. When he reads, he uses the phonic approach, reading instruction that urges students to sound words they read. He has to sound out a lot of words, to get the full understanding of the word, or even to

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD pronounce it. He is really good at word decoding, the ability to break down words that blend

together to identify what the word is. Another reason why he doesnt like English is because his language and literacy is not very good. He has troubles with homophones and the English language. When he is in class, his attention span is really short. The teacher makes him the class leader, so when the teacher needs any kind of errand to run, he is the person that does it. This is a great positive reinforcement, desired follow-up stimuli added to strengthen a behavior. If he wasnt the person to do these kinds of jobs, then he would have a problem with private speech, childrens self talk, which guides their thinking and action. He loves to talk, and so he would blurt out a lot or speak out of turn. When his private speech happens, then he will have some kind of punishment, follow-up stimuli used in operant conditioning to decrease the strength of the performance of undesired behaviors. This student cognitive development (Piagets) is at the stage of Concrete Operational, the third of Piagets four major stages, characterized by childrens ability to think logically, but only about concrete problems and objects. He is going to leave this stage soon. He is going to leave Concrete Operational stage soon because he has mastered classification, reversibility, and decentering. However, he is still having troubles with conservation. He will be in the Formal Operational stage by next year. Next year, he should be hitting puberty. Section 4: Socio-emotional Development This student has very good interaction with his peers. Like most kids, they will turn their behavior when they hang out with someone that is more aggressive. This is how this child that I interviewed is. He turns into a different person when he is by some of his friends. When he is in the classroom, he gets moved a lot because of his friends neobehaviorism, theory which

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD believes that changes in behavior are observable and influenced by internal processes. When he is by his parents, he is a good kid. He is very polite to other adults. Another thing, when he is around adults, he has great personality. This child could make anyone laugh. When this student thinks about self-concepts, the way in which an individual perceives or thinks about him - or herself, he sees himself as an athlete. He doesnt really like school, so he doesnt think about school. He always talks about him being a better athlete than his brother.

He always talks about how good of an athlete that he is. His self-esteem, value each of us places on our own characteristics, abilities, and behaviors; is a little too high. He seems to be a little too over confident with his ability to play sports. It is good to be confident about the sports that he plays; however, he thinks he is a little too good. He told me, My brother is really good at sports; I got all the talent in this family. This student is in a half and half stage right now in Erik Erikson stages of Development. He is in accomplishment/industry vs. inferiority and Identify vs. Role confusion. He is learning how to accomplish school first to do the things that he wants to do. He is also finding the abilities that he has with sports and school. He is now getting the understanding on how hard school can be. Section 5: Summary, Conclusion, and Implications If this student was put on medication, as seeing other students with ADHD that have been on medication, they have all been able to succeed in life and in school too. This student has troubles staying in his seat, if he is not busy. I strongly suggest that this student would get on medication, so that he would be able to sit through the whole class and pay attention to everything that the teacher has to say. He would be able to excel in reading, or would give him a

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD better chance to succeed in this subject because hed be able to sit down for a longer period of time. Another thing that this child should have is an Individual Education Plan (IEP),

One thing that I found out about this student is that he needs to run off a lot of his energy to make sure that he can focus. He also cannot sit down for a long time, unless he is doing something. If he is doing something while he is sitting than he can sit for a longer period of time. However, he cant sit for that long still. This is why recess is so important for him. This is where he gets most of his energy out of the way. Some of his strengths are Math and Art. He excels in these areas because it gives him a challenge and also it lets his mind work. He is a right brained student. One of his weaknesses is English and language. He really doesnt understand the language and why we use certain words. Some strategies that he uses to learn are he has to relate things to something that he knows a lot about. He uses the schema, a mental network for organizing concepts and information, style of learning. If he relates things to things that he knows a lot of things too, then he would retain the information a lot faster than if he just tried to remember it. This student shouldnt be treated any different from other students. Strategies that should be in classroom are: dont let him work in groups, make sure when he is at recess, make sure that he is running around getting all his energy out, and the teacher should have a lot of steps for him to follow. A strategy that the parents use is to make sure that he is at the dining room table when he is doing his homework. He needs to be in a silent place, or else he will get distracted to easily.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WITH ADHD References Gargiulo, R.M. (2009) Special education in contemporary society (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thompson Learning, Inc.

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