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PEPSI SCREENING !

Pepsi Screening

Janahlaine Colmenar

College of Southern Nevada

EDU 220: Principles of Educational Psychology

Dr. Vincent Richardson

March 25, 2021


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Biography

The individual that I observed for this Pepsi screening is a 17 year old boy in his junior

year of High School. His dad is a Dialysis Technician and mom does not work. He is the

youngest, his sister is 21 years old. He was born in California, but moved to Vegas when he was

3 years old.

As he was growing up, he was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. He has difficulty

with social communication and interaction. With his delayed speech, he took speech therapy all

throughout Elementary and Middle School. In High School, he stopped taking speech therapy

and they’d just assess him every quarter and send an IEP report to his parents. They would also

have meetings to discuss his learning style and what is working for him and what he needs to

work on.

With his condition, he does not like change and always sticks to a routine. If something

interferes with his daily schedule, you’d have to let him know ahead of time. For his hobbies, he

enjoys his electronics. He keeps to date with all the sports events and scoring. He loves watching

commentary videos on youtube, for example he watches Minecraft or Super Smash Brothers

Brawl. Before, he used to be into trains and cars and would play all day lone on the floor and line

them up. He also loves to sing and dance, especially to his favorite artist Bruno Mars. When he

karaokes the first song he will sing to warm up is Versace on the floor. He fell in love with Bruno

Mars new song, Leave the Door Open.

Physical Development

When he was born, he was a chubby baby. Now, his physique is pretty thin, because he

tends to eat twice a day. During the day, he’d have a few snacks in between like cookies and
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pringles. He had a huge growth spurt when he hit 13 years old and he is now over 5’5. His dad

likes to measure how tall he is every 6 months and he reached over his dads height, which is 5’9.

A year ago, he started to grow facial hair. It isn’t much, just a few hairs that sticks out, but he

randomly picks at his goatee and mustache. 


As for daily exercise, he doesn’t do sports or any sort of physical activity. He spends

most of his time in his room either sleeping or on his phone. His family goes out every Sunday,

but he’d rather just stay home. He is content by himself and does not like to be bothered.

According to Interactive Autism Network, it says that “Children with below-average

motor skills may struggle with everyday activities such as using a spoon, toothbrush or crayon;

riding a bike; or fastening their clothes”. In this case, he is very dependent on his mother. His

mom still needs to make him food or else he won’t eat. He can make simple foods like toast

waffles and make chocolate milk, but for lunch and dinner his mom handles that. He can’t dress

himself properly, so his mom picks out the clothes for him to wear. In a page from the Australian

parenting website, it says “…be easily upset by change and like to follow routines – for example,

they might like to sit in the same seat for every meal or have a special order for getting ready in

the morning”. He does have a set routine every morning and everything has to go how he likes it.

For school, his mom has to wake him up every morning and remind him to do his homework and

when to log in for class throughout the day. For most kids, the age where they should start

learning how to do things on their on is when they are 9 to 10.

I’ve noticed that he has a few sensory issues including being over sensitive to sounds.

Even with the tiniest noise, he’ll cover his ears. He is also very reactive to the lightest of touch.

For example, when you are trying to fix his shirt or his hair he will flinch. He hates getting wet
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or dirty and will throw a fit when he does. If he takes a shower and goes out, he will take another

shower. From an American Addiction Centers Resource, it says that “To illustrate, children who

are hypersensitive to touch sensations may tantrum when they are touched, while hypo-sensitive

children may crave and seek out strong hugs that provide deep pressure”.

Emotional Development

With Asperger’s, he has difficulty managing his emotions. In an article from Asperger/

Autism Network called Asperger Profiles: Emotions and Empathy it says, "People with Asperger

profiles absolutely do have feelings, although they may have difficulty identifying and

discussing them. In fact, many feelings – such as fear, anger and joy – seem to be experienced

more intensely by those with Asperger profiles than by average people”. With the pandemic, it

has decreased his motivation in school.

He is the type of student that likes to do all of his homework at school, and with

everything being online he got lazy. His grades were dropping drastically and that made his

parents concerned. They’d keep asking why his assignments were missing and why he isn’t

doing anything. From the Australian Parenting website it says, “Most aggressive outbursts

happen because your child has feelings building up and can’t communicate them. By managing

your own feelings and staying calm and quiet, you won’t add your emotions to the mix”. When

his parents were yelling and asking why he is always on his phone and not focusing on school

work, that made him lash out. It caused him to say certain words that were very upsetting to hear.

Of course, he didn’t mean to say it but with the level of stress he and his parents were on, it did

not help.
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There was a time when he went to California to visit his grandma who was very sick. He

was there for 2 months, so it was a big change for him. She passed away and it took a toll on him

emotionally. He knew he was there to visit and spend as much time with her, but his family

didn’t get the time to sit down with him and explain what was going on and what was gonna

happen. It was challenging for him to see so many new and different changes going on around

him. After a triggering moment, he went alone and was shouting. He expressed this saddened

emotion that his parents never thought he would feel. In the Autism Empowerment website it

says, “Learning to process and express emotion is an important developmental step for your

child with Aspergers. Children with Aspergers sometimes act out because they are frustrated and

don’t have the language to express what is bothering them”. After that happened, his mom

explained what had happened and calmed him down.

Philosophical Development

In simple terms, the study of Philosophy is defined as the study of nature, reality, and

existence. But when looking at the bigger picture, the broad complexity of philosophy, can lead

many to a long path of questioning, and evening looking at different theories in order to discover

what it is that they seek. Among the different branches and concepts under Philosophy, arises the

topic of Philosophical growth, which ultimately leads to the question of whether or not children

are capable of philosophical thinking, and if so, at what age does it start?

With him, I will be following his philosophical development over the years. Jean Piaget’s

theory of Cognitive Development states that most children under the ages of 12 are not capable

of philosophical thinking in the first place because of the depth of reasoning and questioning that

this line of thinking entails (Piaget, 1933). However, this statement has been refuted in multiple
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writings, such as from American Philosopher Gareth Matthews, who believed that children were

more than capable of philosophical thinking, and even sustained Philosophical discussion

(Matthews 1980). In his research, he conducted an experiment with multiple children at different

levels to follow their lines of questioning at each age. With these findings, recollect many

parallels in my own brother’s philosophical development.

Between the ages 2-4 most children start asking the question”why?” This is also true in

Matthews’ study. At the age of 4, He was very curious about the world around him and was no

more content with simple answers. He wanted to know the “how” behind the “why?”. One time

pulling up to the house he asked how the garage opens, and when we replied that you push the

button to open the garage, he wanted to know more about the mechanics, specifically questioning

how something could move when there is nothing moving it. As he got older and started to attend

school and became more interested with the idea of space and pondered upon our existence in the

world. The idea that we were nothing but mere specs in the universe led him to wonder if we

were even real. When he turned 11, he started playing video games, and was very interested in

movies such as The Truman Show and Inception, to the point that he asked me what I would do if

this life was all a dream or a video game. Moving forward, as old as he is, he starts to develop

opinions about life and think about what is right or wrong. With the recent events and

controversies, I find him seeking more and more for the answers and solutions to the things

going on in the world and I watch his philosophical development progress more and more each

day.

And while Philosophy is a complex subject to dissect, it can be done through multiple

approaches, including that of cognitive development (Beck 1974). Dissecting each stage of his
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philosophical development, it have seen parallels in the way that each stage of his life and new

way of thinking was reached through a new peak in his cognitive development as a whole.

Social Development

Outside of school, he does not participate in any social activities. Developmental Stages

of Social Emotional Development in Children it says, “ Examples of early childhood social-

emotional disturbance include autism, reactive attachment disorder, social anxiety disorder,

generalized anxiety disorder, attention-deficit hyperactive disorder, bullying, oppositional defiant

disorder, conduct disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, among others”. His mom worries that

since he is very much to himself, that he might get bullied at school. Since he is a lot different

than most boys at his age, he is more likely to stand out to other kids.

His factors like learning and language difficulties can affect his social development. In

the American Addiction Centers Resource it says, “advanced cognitive development enhances

the quality of interpersonal relationships because it enables youth to better understand the wants,

needs, feelings, and motivations of others”. Since he has trouble with that area of development,

he has a hard time holding conversations and making friends.

Intellectual Development

Since the pandemic, all students have switched to virtual learning. It has taken the

opportunity away from students meeting face to face. For this boy, he thrives better at school and

he has this switch where when he is at school, he is on focus mode. He gets all his homework

done at school, so when he gets home he has the free time.

As for his intellectual development, he is a smart kid. He meets above grade level in

certain subjects. For that subject it is math, in his freshman year of High School, he took
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Geometry. Geometry is taken when students are in their Sophomore year. Now that he is in his

junior, he is taking a senior math class which is pre-calculus.

From the Human Growth and Development resource it says, “Concentration – ability to

pay attention. Children concentrate more if they are interested in the task/activity. They need to

concentrate to be able to store and sort information”. His dad gave him this rubix cube to

stimulate his brain, and every now and then he plays with it. He times himself to see how fast he

can solve it and his fastest time is under 5 minutes. The cognitive area is very important to his

intellectual development.

Graph

PEPSI CHART

Normal

Physical Emotional Philosophical Social Intellectual


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Recommendations

For his physical development, I recommend he does more daily exercise and an increase

in his diet. At this age for boys, they should be intaking more calories since their bodies are still

growing. I also suggest that he limits his phone time and spend more time with his family rather

than being locked up in his room all day.

To help with his emotional development, his parents need to work on his verbal skills. He

needs to learn and understand how to say how he feels. He should understand the different type

of emotions and also teach copying skills. Instead of lashing out, he needs to be talked down in a

calming manner.

To fully benefit his philosophical development he needs to understand basic life skills.

Teaching skills like everyday tasks at home, how to dress appropriately and being polite.

Everyday should be a routine for simple chores that need to be done by him, so he is doing

something rather than being in his room not doing anything.

Start practicing on holding conversations, he can begin with his family first. Once he has

gotten used to it, he can build up with other friends one at a time. This can help is social

development that he lacks.

He needs to be more disciplined at home, which can result in may having his phone taken

away. By what I observe, his phone is the ultimate problem that keeps him distracted by not

turning in his assignments on time. If his phone being taken away not an option, then a schedule

that helps him keep track on his homework and assignments.


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Works Cited

Adolescent social development. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://
www.mentalhelp.net/adolescent-development/social/

Aggressive behaviour: Autistic children and teenagers. (2020, November 18). Retrieved April 12,
2021, from https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/behaviour/common-concerns/
aggressive-behaviour-asd

Asperger profiles: Emotions and empathy. (2017, March 07). Retrieved April 12, 2021, from
https://www.aane.org/emotions-and-empathy/

Autism Empowerment Helping your Child with Autism Develop Empathy by Jack Ori
September 23. (2017, October 21). Emotional management for children with asperger
syndrome and asd. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.autismempowerment.org/
2013/01/17/emotional-management-for-children-with-aspergers-autism-guest-blogger-
jack-ori/

Malik, F. (2020, November 29). Developmental stages of social emotional development in


children. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/
NBK534819/

Physical deficits. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.mentalhelp.net/autism/


physical-deficits/

Signs of autism in older children and teenagers. (2021, February 15). Retrieved April 12, 2021,
from https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/learning-about-autism/assessment-diagnosis/
signs-of-asd-in-teens

Social development. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2021, from http://resources.hwb.wales.gov.uk/


VTC/2012-13/22032013/hsc/eng/unit_2/hsc_u2_hgd/hsc_u2_social-dev.htm

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