case study contents
DESCRIPTION
sample of psychological case studyTRANSCRIPT
I. Purpose
The client was referred to the group by the informant Ms. Mary Rose Lacaba. She is a
neighbour of the said client; Mr. John Harold Abalarao. She reported that the child showed
symptoms of Attention-Deficit Hyper-Activity Disorder.
The informant told the group that she noticed that the child talks a lot about random
things, was very energetic and tends to run around a lot, was restless, dash around and
seldom stay put or sit in one place. She also said that one time, the child followed and walked
behind her and her friends without any reason.
II. Case History
John Harold Abalarao is a 7 year-old Grade 1 student at the Patubig Elementary School
in Malolos, Bulacan. He is the only child, and is currently living with his parents at Grand
Royal Subdvisions in Pinagbakahan, Malolos City. He is the 5 th honour student of their class
and had awards like Best in Oral Discussion and Best in English back when he was still in
kindergarten.
Harold is generally a healthy child and so are his parents. His father used to be a driver
but now both his parents are currently unemployed. His mother is a smoker and his father
often drinks alcohol.
During our sessions, Harold showed signs of being a bright child. He had many ideas that
he was able to share and though he showed that he was very excited for he was always
jumping around while we were talking to him, he was still able to follow our instructions to
him.
III. Assessment Tools
Puppet Interview (August 11, 2014)
Car Racing (August 18, 2014)
Spence Children Anxiety Scale (August 20, 2014)
Kinetic Family Drawing (August 30, 2014)
Intelligence Test (September 16, 2014)
IV. Assessment
For the first session, the puppet interview showed that Harold is an intelligent child and is
a kid who had only one friend at their neighbourhood, but has a number of friends at school.
He is an active child and enjoyed playing games with his friends. He also said that he enjoys
reading and he is much behaved at school. Drawing is one of his hobbies too and he enjoys
painting pictures of houses. Filipino is his favourite subject and he said that school was very
fun for him. But unlike other kids, he enjoyed watching horror movies like Chucky (Child’s
Play) and told us that he is very brave and do not get scared by those kinds of movies. Harold
was also very aware of their status in life. He, for a couple of times, told us that they are not
very much privileged and they don’t even go out to malls
The car racing was the second session and from there we were able to infer that Harold is
a creative and resourceful child. He took a few chairs from their house and arranged it to be a
racetrack. He also displayed politeness and playfulness. The child showed that he was
enjoying the activity and had a difficult time choosing the car that he liked the most.
The third session where we administered Spence Anxiety Test revealed that John Harold
has normal level of anxiety but was extremely low. Contrary to that, based on our interview,
he said that he is scared of spiders and other big insects.
Administering a projective test, specifically, the Kinetic Family Drawing, was the fourth
session for the client. According to the interpretation of the group on the drawing, Harold
seems to have a tendency to be an aggressive child and it looks like he views himself as
someone who is as equal with the other member of his family. He tends to be someone who is
not very open to new and more information and his father is the member of his family he is
closest with. Aside from his family, to gather more information, we also told him to draw
things that he likes. In return, he drew a toy car, a television and their house, with the exact
colours of their actual house. He told us that he drew a toy car because he wanted to own one
since he doesn’t have one yet. The television was one of the three things he drew for he enjoys
watching television with his family and it was their family bonding whenever he doesn’t have
classes. He was also fond of drawing houses and he drew their abode and was very particular
with the colours as he copied exactly the same colours of their house. It seems like he was
happy with the house they were living in and he told us that they’ve been living there since he
was a baby and it has many memories in it already.
The last session for Mr. Abalarao was for him to answer the intelligence test. The result
of the test was 19 points for his raw score which was converted to percentile score of 100 and
is verbally interpreted with the description of average intelligence.
V. Diagnostic Impression
DSM-V’s criteria for Attention Deficit Hyper-Activity Disorder suggested that for a child
to have the disorder, the symptoms have persisted for at least six (6) months to a degree that
is inconsistent with developmental level and that negatively impacts directly on social and
academic activities. Thus, the client, John Harold Abalarao is a normal child and doesn’t fit
into the criteria of ADHD. He showed some signs of being hyper but only minimal and
doesn’t affect his overall functioning.
According to Desfanis, a 7-year old boy’s motor development is starting to be well
developed, allowing the child to do gymnastic movements and the like making him explore
his world through movements. A 7-year-old enjoys a multitude of physical activities, from
playing in the backyard to shooting a ball through a basketball hoop. These activities help
make him/her physically adept and provide her with strong large-motor skills. Fine-motor
skills are still developing, making handwriting and tying shoes still difficult (Aiger, 2013).
VI. Recommendations and Interventions
The parents of Harold should explain to him the status of their life, but still
encourage their child that it shouldn’t be the cause for him to have low self-esteem.
Once in a while, the whole family may go to a mall or have a quality time
together outside their house to build his self-esteem regarding their family status.
The parents should also give more support to their child in terms of his education
because Harold is a bright child.
The parents should discipline Harold in a private manner and not publicly.
For his fear of insects, the researcher suggest to make Harold watch cartoons
about insects, second is to expose him to live insects like going to zoo, wherein he can
eventually experience what it is like to hold a live insect like spiders.
In terms of Harold being perceived by others as a child with an ADHD, Harold’s
parents may use reinforcement on the child to develop proper behaviours and help him
behave better. The parents could start by giving him praises and small gifts when he
behaves correctly around other people and discipline him when he behaves naughtily.
Parents should also engage Harold in active playtime and give him exercise activities,
and control his sugar intake to minimize his hyper behaviour and focus his energy on
other activities.
Appendices
The researchers conducting the Puppet Therapy
Harold doing the Kinetic Family Drawing
The researchers with Harold playing the puppet
Harold’s Kinetic Family Drawing
Harold answering the Spence anxiety scale
Bulacan State University
College of Social Science and Philosophy
City of Malolos, Bulacan
In partial fulfilment
Of the requirements
In Psychology of Exceptional Children
Case Study
(John Harold Abalarao)
Submitted by
Bernardo, Kim
Camalig, Krismer Abigael
Caparas, Angela
Del Rosario, Rhealyn
Galvez, Eliseo John III
Manalaysay, Jackelyn
Sumala, Sharmaine
Submitted to
Mrs. Ma. Adora C. Tigno, RGC