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