The Case of "Jeffrey"

Case Study # 102476

Child, Youth Issues
Psychology > Case Studies
Psychology > Child and Adolescent

A case study of a young boy's developmental behavior.

1,574 words () | 101 sources | APA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This is a paper on the subject of child development which reviews the case of a young boy who, although quite bright, lags significantly behind other children his age. The paper reviews his psychosocial, biosocial and cognitive development and provides a lengthy assessment of the boy and his actions. The author also explains his behavioral predilections, his background, the responses of those adults in his life and notes what can possibly be done to rescue an otherwise promising child from future troubles and under-achievement. The author has also included the research sources used in the paper.

From the Paper:

"There can be little question that children are the most valuable (and malleable) human resource in any society; they are, after all, the future of any society. With that in mind, it is essential to come up with a means of dealing with these behaviors in such a way that classroom learning and child development are not both hampered any further than they have been already. The case of "Jeffrey," a troubled child attending a local Calgary elementary school, is proof of just how important early, fast, effective treatment can be to the successful amelioration of a problematic situation.
"To begin with, "Jeffrey" is eight years old and in the third grade; he was born March 1, 1999 and grew up in home with parents who separated when he was three. As it turns out, Jeffrey's father was quite abusive to Jeffrey's mother and the family struggled financially; it is also worth noting that Jeffrey's mother was an adolescent when he was born. Finally, the parents are Caucasian and Jeffrey was/is an only child. According to his teacher - and according to the impressions recorded by this writer - Jeffrey's cognitive skills are quite strong; in fact, he is best described as exceedingly bright - a bit of an anomaly considering neither of his parents has much formal education. In all of the scholastic activities this observer witnessed, Jeffrey was always among the first done with his work and he consistently scored near or at the top of the class in both language arts and in arithmetic evaluations; indeed, Jeffrey appears to possess an unusually high aptitude when it comes to problem-solving. Overall, this writer came away with the sense that Jeffrey's cognitive skills were not - are not - the issue; rather, the issue for him is his bio-social and psycho-social development."

Sample of Sources Used:

Algozzine, R. (1990). Problem behavior management: Educator's resource service. Rockville, MD: Aspen.
Barbetta, P. (1990). GOALS: A group--oriented adapted levels system for children with behavior disorders. Academic Therapy, 25, 645-656.
Budlong, M. J., Holden, M. J., & Mooney, A.J. (1991). National residential child care project: Therapeutic crisis intervention trainer's manual. Ithaca, NY: The Family Life Development Center, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University.
Carr, E.G., & Durand, V. M. (1985). Reducing behavior problems through functional communication training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18, 111-126.
Carr, E.G., Robinson, S., & Palumbo, L.W. (1990). The wrong issue: Aversive versus non-aversive treatment. The right issue: Functional versus nonfunctional treatment. In A. C. Repp & N. N. Singh (Eds.), Perspectives on the use of nonaversive and aversive interventions for persons with developmental disabilities (pp. 362-379). Sycamore, IL: Sycamore.