Desired Results Developmental Profile
School Age Instrument
Kindergarten through Age 12
Child's Name: George (Chiemezyo George Olejeme)
Grade or placement: 5th grade (now promoted to 6th grade)
School: Scotts Branch Elementary School
Observer: Crystal Horshaw, SPED Paraeducator
Additional information gathered from interviews with the following
educators/service providers:
V. Bondurant, teacher
Meaghan Zelhoffer, special educator
Kristen Loscomb, Assistant Principal
Tyra Williams, social worker
Dates of observations: June 6, 2024; June 8, 2024
Introduction: Development and Characteristics of the Learner
George is almost an 11 year old male in a public elementary school. He
was born on June 28, 2013. George was a 5th grade student and has attended
this public elementary school since 2nd grade. George maintains acceptable
attendance with regard to the state of Maryland’s standards. George has not
been retained during any years of instruction.
George lives at home with his biological mother and three younger
siblings. The entire family speaks English as their primary language and Yoruba
as their secondary language. George’s father moved back to Nigeria last year
and the mother is now raising the four children solely. George speaks with his
father often and is actually moving to Nigeria to be with him for his junior high
educational experience. The mother arranged this in order for George to become
more adapted to his native language/culture and to possibly help with his
behavior problems. All of George’s younger siblings have been diagnosed with
emotional and behavioral disabilities including him. They all currently attend the
same elementary school that George was just promoted from. George has been
designated as the “man” of the home since the father has left and he is often
responsible for caring for his younger siblings. George has started to struggle
more this year in his behavior and his mother has been more difficult to reach for
conferences and rarely attends his IEP team meetings.
George has been identified as having a speech and language impairment
and receives services from the school’s speech pathologist.George was also
identified as having ADHD. As George has gotten older, the ADHD has
presented itself in more severity and he is currently on Medication.
As George has gotten older, he started externalizing his behavior in
disruptive and sometimes dangerous ways, which was demonstrated when he
assaulted his general educator during the course of his assessment. George
constantly calls out during instruction, does not follow instructions and is always
out of his seat. Subsequently, George meets with the social worker during a small
group setting once a week to meet his social, emotional, and behavioral goals.
George is currently still exhibiting many of the same behaviors.He still
calls out numerous times throughout a class period, will yell at other students,
and will talk back to adults or peers when he is unhappy with the outcome of a
situation.
Desired Results Developmental Profile Results
George was observed on two separate occasions, June 6 and June 8 for
the purposes of this profile. Additional information was gathered from discussion
with other teachers/admin staff and a service provider over the course of two
weeks.
Personal and Social Competence
In the areas of personal and social competence, George has displayed
various weaknesses. With regard to communication and language, George
enjoys telling jokes and will constantly “roast” other students. Most of the time
this does not go over well with other students because George does not know
how to determine other student’s feelings and/or boundaries.
George has expressed weaknesses in the areas of personal and social
competence. While George often seeks out opportunities to play games or work
in diverse groups during academic instruction, he often has difficulty
understanding and maintaining his role within a group. While George can begin
working in a group successfully, he will often disrupt the group to start arguments
or his group members will leave him after a short amount of time because of his
disrespectful behavior. This all goes back to his lack of respect for others’
feelings and/or boundaries. This often results from George trying to take charge
of the tasks that are to be completed and not being compliant. He is not a team
player and is very easily provoked. Adult intervention is minimally successful in
regards to assisting him in trying to use strategies to compromise or resolve
conflicts, George has difficulty regaining his role in the group because he will
argue until he is satisfied with the results.
Along with expressing difficulty with peer interactions, George also has
difficulty with self-regulation and managing his emotions. Often George will
become loud vocally to make others aware of his emotions and will scream at
adults or his peers. In addition, George will sometimes refuse to do work or
comply with the administration if he is unhappy with the outcome of an event.
This generally occurs with negative emotions, as opposed to positive emotions.
Finally, George has demonstrated weaknesses with regard to communication
and language. George speaks with a “stutter” and when his emotions are
heightened his “stuttering” will become more severe. However, George is able to
express his overall needs. Overall, George seems to have difficulty in the area of
social and personal competence.
Effective Learning
In addition to observing the areas of social and personal competence,
George was observed in the area of effective learning. In the area of Literacy,
George is beginning to make more meaning out of what he is reading. He also
requires “text to speech” during testing
George does not seem to display a strong interest in learning. He has
difficulty completing assignments, even when activities involve his interests. Also,
George does not experiment or explore new things when given the opportunity,
while he will participate in Academic learning apps.
In the area of math, George also has difficulty completing assignments
and demonstrating understanding at times but this isn’t an area that is sited on
his IEP goals. He does not meet with his special educator for the content of
Math. Finally in the area of Math skills, George has actually demonstrated the
most competency with regard to academics. Due to his disabilities in reading and
literacy George has struggled with academics for a portion of his time in school.
This may have led to his decreased interest in academic areas and for learning
effective strategies.
Physical and Motor Competence
George displays many strengths with regard to physical and motor
competence. George has strong gross motor skills. He can often be found
running around on the playground or playing basketball or soccer. George also
has some strong fine motor skills. It was noted, through observation, that
George has excellent keyboarding skills and is successful at playing video
games.
Safety and Health
George has demonstrated many strengths in the area of health and
exercise. Though eating habits at home were not observed, it was observed that
at lunch, George will eat his entire entrée including fruits and/or vegetables. He
comes to school with clean clothes and is always well groomed and clean.
Action Plan Summary
Overall there are three main areas that his future team should consider to
focus on with George. The three areas that should be considered are
self-regulation/self-concept, interactions with peers and adults, and finally interest
in academic areas. These areas are being addressed in some ways with the
assistance of the special educator, Assistant Principal and social worker, but in
order to increase George’s abilities in these areas, more interventions will need
to be put into place for him to be successful in 6th grade.
In the area of self-regulation and self-concept, George struggles greatly.
This area (in the future) will need to be addressed first, as it affects performance
and behavior in the other areas. Hopefully, his new environment, especially while
being in a different country, during the next school year will help him to be more
successful in this area.
In addition to self-regulation and self-concept, George also needs
instruction on how to more properly interact with peers and adults. By improving
these interactions, George may also feel more motivated in school, as his school
experience may become more positive. Maybe planning and collaboration could
take place with his new school staff members, if possible.
A third area of need that was seen in George’s developmental profile was
the area of academic interest. Many of the steps in the action plan for this area
would be conducted by a teacher that George works with in the following school
year.
Conclusions/Recommendations:
Considering the factors that have influenced George’s development, it is
apparent that George, while having some strengths, struggles with the day- today instruction in a general education setting. George’s struggles with
interactions and self-regulation have had a direct impact on his learning. Many
times his behavior warrants disciplinary action. As a result, George was
dismissed from the classroom for the remainder of the school year due to the
assault on his teacher. He remained in the in-school suspension status and was
not able to participate in commencement activities. Combined with a learning
disability, these factors have not helped George to develop in the area of
academics or behavior.
Because of the increased number of office referrals and negative peer
reactions, George has not had the most positive school experience. This has not
allowed George to develop a positive interest in academics or peer relations at
school. While George’s mother had initially been very involved and supportive of
George’s development in the early stages of his life, her involvement has
decreased in the past two years. This has caused a disconnect between school
and home, making it difficult to help increase George’s overall skills. Once again,
planning and collaboration with his new school staff members could be very
helpful to George meeting developmental milestones for academics and
behavior.