Running head: GROUP A: CASE STUDY 1

Group A: Case Study

Casey Ayer

Kaplan University

GROUP A: CASE STUDY 2

Background

James is a 6 year old who has just been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.

James tends to be sensitive to loud noise, smells, and tastes. He is also sensitive to too much light

and becomes distracted by these things. James lives in a traditional family household with both

parents, Tammy and Steve, working outside the home. He has a 3 year old sister, Katie, and an 8

year old sister, Maddie. James enjoys playing house with his sisters and seems more comfortable

with them than other children. His family is very supportive and understands his disability.

James’s parents are concerned that he is not making friends at school and then he doesn't

act "male." His parents want to know what they can do to get James to play with and be

interested in male toys and play. When they initiate conversation about it, James often shies

away and gets a little upset. James’s teacher states that he is being criticized by male peers for

playing with the female students. When James tries to play with the boys, they ignore him.

James’s teacher says that he is does well with direct, repeated instruction and does not engage or

interact with other students very well. James does not react to comment when others seem sad,

happy, or any type of emotion. He also tends to group similar objects together, regardless of the

color of those items. For instance, he will line up all the trains in one line and all of the cars in a

separate line. James plays with the female students in class and enjoys playing house, tea party,

and with baby dolls as he does at home with his siblings. When playing, he does not engage in

direct eye contact and tends to have repetitive, one sided-conversations.

Assessment

Tests used: Drawing assessments, Wechsler Scale-III (WPPSI-III), Kaufman Assessment Battery

for Children (KABC-II), and Standford-Binet (SB5).

James was asked to draw whatever he felt like drawing. This gave me a chance to view

his perception and what he was thinking about. I was not able to find any information about his

GROUP A: CASE STUDY 3

emotional state, but was able to check his cognitive and motor skills after asking him to draw

specific items that were easy to sketch for his age. This process took time to accomplish due to

James’s lack of focus and getting easily distracted.

After measuring James’s IQ with the aid of the WPPSI-III, it was found that his IQ

ranked in the 70th percentile. This can be concerning because this rank demonstrates mild

retardation. James has to be evaluated further because his IQ results could be influenced by other

factors such as his Asperger’s, not his intelligence according to his age.

The next assessment administered to James was KABC-III. This test took 40 minutes to

administer, in which he ranked in the 66th percentile, which shows that he has difficulty with

fluid or inborn intelligence as well as his crystallized or learned intelligence that is affected by

cross-cultural differences and the environment. Other problems he has are in the areas of visual

processing and shot and long-term memory.

The last assessment administered to James was the SB5 and it took 45 minutes to

administer. According to the results, James nonverbal score was 36 while his verbal score was

18. The nonverbal subsets included: fluid reasoning, knowledge, and visual-spatial processing,

and working memory. His inability to stay focused could have determined a low score in these

areas as well as his incapacity to sit still. Due to his low score in verbal communication, it is

imperative that he is referred to a physician to check for the possibility of more severe physical

disabilities, other than Asperger’s.