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PEPSI Screening Case Study

Colby Prather

College of Southern Nevada

Professor Richardson

EDU 220
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Biography

The student I observed is a six-year-old white American male named Jackson Vetter. He

is in kindergarten and has an upper middle-class socioeconomic status. His parents waited to

have children until they were older, and both had finished college degrees with successful

careers. The student also has a younger sister close in age. The student is currently enrolled in

public school and attended preschool three days a week for half days. The rest of the time he was

taken care of by grandparents. He is not involved in many other activities outside of school.

Physical Development

Jackson has taken to a more intellectual line of interests and thus has minimal outdoor

activity. Aside from the lack of activity, he still shows average physical development. The

students parents do well for his diet with limiting fast food intake as well as providing decent

nutrition and this allows for the student to maintain a proper physical body mass index and helps

the body develop even without proper exercise. The worry here is that as he ages and has

increased choice in his food, the lack of physical exercise could lead him into obesity (Snowman

and McCown 2015, 88). He is showing signs of better balance and coordination when he walks

instead of wobbling around like he used to. When he gets excited, he hops around and does well.

His father is trying to teach him some sports on his down time, mostly baseball or T ball, from

work and is hoping to keep him more active in the future. Jackson, however, prefers to build

things with his Legos or play with toy trains and build tracks in his home. The problem here is

his father is more often at work and does not have the time to allow for as much physical activity

as recommended which might affect his motor skills in the future. Less physical activity at a

young age can affect the development of fundamental motor skills (Xiangli 2016, 871-881). As

of now, he is developing normal and has decent coordination for his age. Something about the
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student is that he is not sure what physical activity really does for him. He feels it is not as

important as the books he is reading which shows he has little physical activity knowledge.

Physical activity knowledge is not quite common in students his age, which is starting to

contribute to childhood obesity (Nemet, Geva, Meckel, and Eliakim 2012, 2). Currently, with

COVID-19 being an issue, he has been inside more than ever and not able to go out for much

physical activity even more so than before. This seems to have an impact on him having random

outbursts of energy and excitement throughout the day with nothing to do except play with his

toys. Jackson also has gotten good at walking for long distances. His parents like to take him on

trips to the zoo or to go camping and during those times he does a lot of walking. There are

moments he asks to be held because he is tired but as time goes on, he is developing to walk

longer distances and be happy during those distances as well. He also likes to do a lot of

crawling through tight spaces and feeling enclosed in some areas.

Emotional Development

Jackson is eager to tend to his schoolwork and enjoys learning. He is mostly a happy,

bright smiled, individual, but there are times he can explode when he is not getting something he

wants. He tends to do this often and dislikes being told no. This is normal because students in his

age often share there emotions freely and have anger outbursts (Snowman and McCown 2015,

80). He shows his emotions freely and expresses himself when he feels it is necessary to do so.

He also seems to be easily distracted and forgetful. All these signs can suggest potential ADHD.

The idea of him having ADHD would suggest he would turn more aggressive toward rejection

and have higher hyperactivity levels (Motamedi, Bierman, and Huang 2016, 322-339). He also

seems to have a large attachment to his mother, seeing as she stayed home with him while he

was growing up a little bit before kindergarten, and now that COVID-19 is happening he is
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experiencing no time away from his mother. The student’s parents are both very educated about

the topic of raising their child and work hard on ensuring him to be healthy emotionally. They

often reward the good actions of their son and do-little punishment without talking it out first to

allow him to understand what happened and why things are wrong. It is important to be engaged

and listen to your student when considering their emotional development (Biringen, Brown,

Donaldson, Green, Krcmarik, and Lovas 2000, 200). Jackson seems to portray mostly normal

emotional development despite the affects of COVID-19 for now, but this is something that

could affect him long term if he is not prepared in the future and if he doesn’t develop the way he

should.

Philosophical Development

Jackson is growing up with a sister in a Christian household. These are both strong

indicators of philosophical ability. Jackson shows the ability to think about his sisters wants and

needs, even though he does not always follow through with them. This is particularly important

in developing his line of thinking. Having siblings can increase the relationships you have with

everyone else in your life especially family relationships (Buist, and Vermande 2014, 529). This

should allow for Jackson to become aware of other thoughts and feelings as he continues to age

and should affect the way he thinks and feels about his peers. He has started showing signs of

guilt when in trouble which is good because he can learn better when he knows what went wrong

and genuinely feels like he could have done better. Guilt is a good way to help young students

learn and be socialized if parents use a little bit of control (Kochanska, Barry, Jimenez, Hollatz,

and Woodard 2009, 322-333). He expresses guilt often after throwing fits or doing something

wrong in general which proves he feels like he messed up and should help his development as he

gets older. Jackson is being raised in a Christian household. Religion can have major effects on
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Philosophical development. A student with a spiritual background is more likely to help other

students, say kind words, and think about other students’ emotions and feelings. Having a

religious background can increase a student’s diversity and well-being (MacDonald 2004, 293-

300). He seems to think a lot and have a healthy mindset on others views so far even at an early

age. He does well with sharing with his sister and expresses guilt when not sharing with some

classmates he had. He has good structure for a promising philosophical development in the

future. His parents really focus on how he treats others including his sister and family members

and correct him whenever is needed and let him know why what he said or did was wrong. With

his Christian background he is being taught what his family is right and wrong. He seems to

grasp these things very well and strongly believes in doing the right thing by God. His parents

can explain the things he should be doing, and he can sometimes recall it as a wrongdoing.

Social Development

Socially, Jackson seems to struggle a little bit. He tends to be very shy and not want to be

around anyone outside his home. This has become a bit of an issue at school because he does not

seem to want to make any friends and has a hard time when he is not around his mother. It is

possible that because he is an older sibling, he feels like he does not get enough attention and

thus become dissocialized (Motamedi, Bierman, and Huang 2016, 322-339). Jackson struggles to

make friends at school, especially now that COVID-19 is an issue, he is not making any friends.

Usually students his age have one or two best friends, even though they change friends

constantly (Snowman and McCown 2015, 78). In the classroom he is well behaved, but he

always plays by himself and seems to prefer it that way. He tends to be creative and play with

trains or building materials rather than playing outside with friends or on the playground. It

seems that he might be afraid of most other people which could be a sign that he might develop a
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social anxiety disorder (Brooker, Kiel, and Buss 2016, 997-1010). He has not shown any signs of

aggression towards any other students, but he has been very self-isolated and does not talk much

to the other students or the teacher. Jackson is struggling with socializing which makes me

believe he should be doing more fun social things to help him potentially come out of his shell.

Over time with practice and repetition he will likely become socialized especially if he goes to

public school and sticks with it through the potential of social anxiety. His attachment to his

parents can be normal if he gets socialized and gets used to is but with him being at home due to

the pandemic, he is not getting the socialization he needs. This might cause problems in his

social development if things are not resolved soon. Jackson is friendly, he just seems to be too

quiet and shy around others and will wonder off to do something by himself. Even at home he

prefers to play alone and can get frustrated easily with his sister when she tries to play with his

toys. It has not been too much of an issue and when he is told to share, he usually listens and

does fine. He also has a hard time being social with family at times and can hide behind his

mother even with family he knows well.

Intellectual Development

Jackson has shown amazing intellectual development and continues to show interest in

learning new things. By the time he was two years old he was reading sentences without being

taught and doing simple mathematical problems such as addition or subtraction. He has shown

far superior intellectual development from an exceedingly early age and his parents encourage

his development by continuously supplying new intellectual things for him to do including math

books and chapter books to read. He walks down the street currently saying the numbers on a

mailbox or house being up in the thousands. He seems to be fully aware of when he dreams

verses when he is experiencing things because he tends to talk about the dreams he has had in
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different nights. This is very normal for his age to have been able to differentiate dreams from

reality (Snowman and McCown 2015, 81). Jackson has a good strong sense of self and can be a

bit stubborn at times too because he knows what he wants. He shows extraordinary ability in

mathematics, which are all mostly self-taught. Most preschoolers are capable of mathematics but

most of the time they don’t start learning it yet (Dobbs-Oates and Robinson 2012, 371-386). He

continues to work on math problems daily even if they are not part of assigned homework. His

parents want to make sure he continues to have some sort of challenge so that he does not get

bored in his studies and become depression. Most depression in young students has to do with a

lack of challenge in academics (Swartz, Musci, Beaudry, Mary Beth, Heley, Miller, Alfes,

Wilcox 2017, 1970-1976). His parents have done a great job at keeping him challenged and

happy! This has encouraged immense development in his intellectual skills and the way he

processes things. The only problem is that some people associated with him might think his

antisocial behavior and high mathematical skills might be early signs of autism. Now if he does

have some autism, it is uncertain where on the spectrum he would lie. It is easy to understand

why people might think that of him, but as of now it is not certain, and he should be more

focused on socializing more to help him mature out of being antisocial. With his current

advanced intellectual development, if he continues to be challenged, he could mature with a

remarkably high intellect in his future. He is already such a bright kid; he should continue to

improve his vocabulary and learn more about math and science as he ages.
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Physical Emotional Phylisophical Social Intilectual

Average

6 Years old

PEPSI
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Recommendations

For physical development I recommend playing outside more often and letting him run

around to grow muscle and stay on track with his bodies needs. Maintain a healthy diet and allow

him to ride a bike or climb some trees to get out into the world like kids are supposed to do for

him to grow healthy and strong for the future.

I recommend strong communication as it is normal for him to have outbursts of emotion

for his age. Keep teaching him that emotions are good to feel but can be expressed in more calm

manner. He might have some ADHD but that can be grown out of and does not have to be a life

changing factor due to him being so smart he can work through it with hard work. Stay on top of

him and keep him focused. Teach him what is good to express and what is not through his

emotions.

Jackson displays good reasoning and thinking skills, but for philosophical development I

recommend he keeps learning right from wrong and continue teaching him how to be a big

brother! Keep letting him read books and help him continue his thinking and reasoning skills.

Jacksons social development is a little bit behind. I recommend Jackson to make some

friends and have time to play with them often. He should see how he does spend the night at a

friend’s house and playing games with a group of people. Take it slow and try and introduce

young kids to him and see how they do.

Jackson has exceeded expectations in intellectual development and should maintain his

extraordinary brain by continuing to be challenged. Students can become depressed and

unmotivated if they are faced with boredom, so he always needs to have things to learn. Pick up

extra math books and problems for him to solve or find things he would be interested in

studying. Maybe try a private school that has a higher curriculum than public schools.
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References

Biringen, Z., Brown, D., Donaldson, L., Green, S., Krcmarik, S., & Lovas, G. (2000).

Adult Attachment Interview: linkages with dimensions of emotional availability for mothers and

their pre-kindergarteners. Attachment & Human Development, 2(2). https://doi-

org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/10.1080/14616730050085554

Brooker, R. J., Kiel, E. J., & Buss, K. A. (2016). Early social fear predicts

kindergarteners’ socially anxious behaviors: Direct associations, moderation by inhibitory

control, and differences from nonsocial fear. Emotion, 16(7), 997–1010. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/10.1037/emo0000135

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with child competence and problem behavior. Journal of Family Psychology, 28(4), 529–537.

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