1

P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Jennyfer Lopez

Principles of Educational Psychology

Dr. Isbell

April 12, 2018

 2
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Abstract

The purpose of this P.E.P.S.I screening was to apply my knowledge of the five areas of a

child’s development; physical, emotional, philosophical, social, and intellectual. I was to observe

a child between the ages 6 and 18 and write down my observances relating to the five stages of

development. This screening helped me get a better understanding of how the five areas of

development form the way a child performs. I was able to apply my previous knowledge to

determine if my subject was meeting, exceeding, or was below development expectations. Based

on my observations, I was also able to make suggestions to help the child.

 3
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Introduction

The child I chose to observe for my P.E.P.S.I screening was my niece, Isabella.

Sometimes we call her Bella or, as her dad likes to call her, “chicken butt.” She is 6 years of age.

She is my older brothers first and only daughter; making her my one and only niece. She has the

tendency to light up a room and make everyone laugh. Unfortunately, we do not get to see her

every day. Her dad and mom have split custody. She is at our house from Monday through

Wednesday. The rest of the days she goes to her mom’s house. Despite this scheduling, she

adapts well. On Wednesdays, she is aware she must go back to her mom’s house, and on

Monday mornings she knows her dad picks her up to stay at her dad’s house. Her primary

language is English. However, at our house we try to teach her some Spanish too. If someone

talks to her in Spanish, she will understand but only a few words. She loves the fact she can

count to 10 in Spanish. Isabella is currently in first grade. She loves going to school. Her favorite

part of going to school is recess time, art class, and physical education class. She is a friendly

little girl. She can be shy at first but is always willing to be friends with anyone. Her favorite

things include dancing, singing, drawing, playing, Ariel the Little Mermaid, Shopkins, dresses,

and pink. Observing her from a developmental point of view, I noticed a lot more about her.

Physical Development

Isabella’s physical development is right on track for her age. Primary grade children are

extremely active (Snowman and McCown, p. 84). Isabella acts like a spinning top everywhere

she goes. When I pick her up from school, she always runs towards me for a hello hug and skips

her way to the car. Since my little brother and she are the only kids in the house, they constantly
 4
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

play and talk with each other. I found it funny when I heard her tell my brother “Bryan, lets

fight!” She loves to fake wrestle with him. She does not hold back on her punches. She will jump

on the couches and run up and down the stairs if she must. My brother is obviously not as rough

to her as she is. She tends to underestimate the danger involved. I constantly had to tell her to

watch out for the furniture, not go up the stairs so fast, not be so rough, or to not jump on the

couches. 6-year-olds will become more adept at drawing and writing letters, and their pictures

and stories will look much more recognizable and legible (Physical Development: Ages 6-7,n.d).

She loves to draw pictures of anything. I found some drawings she had given me when she was

about four years old and compared them to the drawings on my wall she recently gave me. Her

most recent drawings were more recognizable and detailed. Her stick figures now had colorful

puffy dresses, crowns, fingers, a nose, more than one strand of hair, eyelashes, and sometimes

even a dialogue bubble. This also leads up to her fine motor skills. She can write full sentences,

even though not always neatly. As I watched her complete her homework packet, I noticed she

struggled to stay in the lines. At this age it is also noticeable if they are left or right handed.

Isabella is right handed. Her gross motor skills are on track as well. This means six-year-olds are

becoming more coordinated and should be able to dance, jump and move from foot to foot

without falling (Martinez, E. 2017). Isabella goes to ballet classes every Saturday. Going to those

classes helps her coordination even more. Even though I cannot go to her classes to observe her

because it is her mom’s day, she always talks to me about what she did in her ballet class. Her

class is going to have a stage performance next month, so she was constantly practicing her role.

She stood on her tippy toes, did a spin, did the splits, and bowed down. On top of ballet dancing,

she dances just for fun. She stumbles a little here and there sometimes but overall, she has great

coordination. I asked her if she wanted to play the game Just Dance with me and she said yes in
 5
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

a heartbeat. She followed the person’s moves on the screen as much as she could; from jumping

and kneeling to twirling and cha-cha sliding. She would even do the head shakes, which were not

necessary because the remote does not read that part of our body. Children at this age typically

learn important swimming skills (Physical Development: Ages 6-7, n.d). Isabella can swim well.

She can hold her breath underwater, float, do water flips, and even swim backwards. I remember

last year when we went to the lake, we were all impressed watching this little girl do all sorts of

water tricks. At about 6, children start to lose their baby teeth (Physical Development of a 6-

Year-Old, n.d). When she was five years old, she had some separating brackets inserted in her

bottom back teeth. The dentist said that the brackets would help her teeth stay in place. She has

lost about one or two teeth already. When I told her to smile big, she showed me her teeth. Both

of her front teeth were loose. When I asked her if she was scared that her teeth were going to fall,

she said no because it Physical Development

was a good thing and
4 4 4 4 4
the tooth fairy was

going to leave her

money for both of her

teeth. Overall, 3.8 3.8 3.8

Isabella seems on
FINE MOTOR SKILLS GROSS MOTOR COORDINATION ACTIVE
track with her SKILLS
Milestone Isabella

physical development.

Emotional Development

Kindergarten children tend to express their emotions freely and openly (Snowman and

McCown, p. 80). Isabella does a good job at expressing her emotions. When she’s at our house,
 6
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

she hardly gets angry. Even when she does her homework, she remains calm. Sometimes she

takes hours to do some of her homework, but she gets it done. The only occasion I heard her get

sort of upset was when my little brother pushed her while they were playing, and she fell towards

the couch. She quickly got up and said “Ow I’m going to tell grandpa and he’s going to hit you.”

But she never gets angry to the point she starts yelling at anybody. Isabella always has a smile on

her face. The one thing I notice she has trouble doing is expressing her sadness. I feel like she

tries to act like an adult and hide her tears. Kids typically tend to cry when they fall, hit

themselves, or when they do not get something they want. Isabella is the opposite. I accompanied

my parents and her to the store one day. While we were there, she saw a fish board game that she

wanted. She asked my dad if he could buy it for her and he said no because she already has a lot

of toys at the house and she is only going to play the game for a couple days. Isabella’s response

was a simple “okay”. I saw her slowly put the toy back and continue walking. As we walked I

could see it in her face that she wanted to cry. She was standing near the corner of the alley when

I heard her quietly say to herself “Its okay Isabella don’t cry, don’t cry its okay.” She discreetly

wiped some of her tears off. Obviously, my dad witnessed this too and gently approached her

and told her she can take the toy if she wanted it still. She approached the situation with so much

maturity it left me astonished. I always see kids start throwing a tantrum when they get a no. A

big part of this is the way my older brother raises her. When she is at our house she knows what

behaviors are expected. My brother told me that when she is with her mom, her mom must

constantly tell her to stop misbehaving. At this age, children also tend to develop a sense of pride

in their accomplishments (Social and Emotional Development: Ages 6-7, n.d). When I picked

her up from school, the first thing she showed me was a Carl’s Jr certificate she received from

her teacher. She said she got it because she was helping her friends. She was right. When I read
 7
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

the back of the certificate, her teacher stated that Bella showed great sportsmanship skills. She

felt so proud of the certificate that she showed everyone at our house. Another thing she takes

pride in are her spelling test and homework assignments. We hung any assignment she wants up

on our refrigerator. Of course, she only picks the ones that she got a good grade on. Children go

through periods of sulks, pouts, and worries (Ages 6-9: Development Overview, 2016). About

three weeks ago report cards were handed out for the students to give to their parents. I

immediately saw Isabella’s sad face when I walked towards her. When I asked Isabella what was

wrong she explained to me how she got an F and that her dad was going to get mad at her. It is

important to help children deal with disappointments and worries (Ages 6-9: Developmental

Overview, 2015). I hugged her and told her to not worry, to just explain to her dad why she got

an F, and that her dad was not going to get angry much less scream at her for that. She was just

worrying too much.

Emotional Development

4 4 4 4

3.5 3.5

SELF CONTROL SELF PRIDE EXPRESS EMOTIONS OPENLY

Milestone Isabella
 8
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Philosophical Development
Isabella’s philosophical development seems to be right on track for her age. At this age,

cheating usually increases since the child “has” to win (Ellsworth, J’Anne). I observed Isabella

displaying this. On Easter, she participated in an egg rolling game. She was up against another

little boy her age. The goal was to roll the egg use a spoon, no hands, and the first one to reach

the finish line was the winner. I noticed that Bella would use her hands from time to time when

her egg started rolling towards the side. Even though she lost the game, she still tried to win no

matter if she had to cheat a little. Children at this age begin to better understand cause and effect

(Academic Learning Among 6-7 Year Olds). Isabella understands that she must get her

homework done to be able to play. She understands that if she eats too much candy, they will rot

her teeth. If she leaves the water on while she is brushing her teeth, she is wasting water. All

these examples show how Bella understand how one thing leads to another. At this age they are

still in a world of make believe rather than reality (Child Development Tracker). Bella likes to

dress up and pretend she is a princess. She was talking to me one night about how she cannot

wait to go to Disneyland in June. She believes that all the princess live there and she cannot wait

to see Ariel. To continue to prove

this observation, I brought up Philosophical Development

Santa Claus. She told me she
4 4 4 4 4
already had one item to write

down in her letter to Santa this

3.5
year. Obviously, Bella still has a
CAUSE AND EFFECT REALITY AND MAKE MUST WIN
big imagination. UNDERSTANDMENT BELIEVE

Milestone Isabella
 9
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Social Development

At age 6, one milestone of social development is displaying good sportsmanship. They

should treat other with respect during play in non-stressful circumstances (Social and Emotional.

Child Development Tracker, 2003). Isabella displayed both features. On one of the days I

observed her we went to a family members house for a small birthday party. I decided to stay

close to her and use this as an opportunity to observe her social level. She did not care if she did

not know all the children or if they knew her. She tried talking to anyone no matter the age or

gender. I noticed she was a little shy a first. Little by little, she talked to a couple more children.

After a while, a group of kids started playing freeze tag. Isabella of course joined the game. She

was respectful to other kids even if she did not know all of them. If she was “frozen” she waited

her turn to be “unfrozen.” Some of the other kids cheated and pretended they had not got caught;

not Isabella. While they were playing, she accidently bumped into a three-year-old girl. Her

immediate reaction was to stop, help her up, and say I am sorry. This shows how respectful

Isabella is towards others. Another milestone for social development is learning to make

decisions with others (Social and Emotional: Ages 6-7, n.d.). Children at this age start thinking

about others too. I observed Isabella doing this constantly directly with me. Tuesday nights I am

in charge of putting her to bed and watching over her because her dad goes to school late. There

were a couple situations when Isabella made decisions with me. One was when I would ask her

what she wanted to watch on Netflix to leave playing until she falls asleep. Her response was

always “whatever you like auntie Jenny.” Of course, I was not going to put on How to get Away

with Murder while she was trying to go sleep. She was saying it because she was aware that I

was included into the equation. It is not all about her anymore. A second time was when she was

coloring in her color book. She wanted to use my sister’s colorful pens she had in her room.
 10
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Instead of taking them immediately, she told me if I could call my sister and ask if it would be

okay if she could use her color pens. At this point she is aware about other reactions and feelings.

She did not want my sister to get angry because she used something that wasn’t hers, so she

asked for permission. Children at this age will frequently enjoy sharing snacks, toys, and other

things with friends at school and at home (Lee. K., n.d.). Isabella did not mind sharing any of her

snacks when someone in my house would ask her. She came home from school with a half a

slice of pizza one day. When I asked if I could have her half, she said yes. When I asked her, if I

could grab some of the strawberries my mother had cut for her, she passed the bowl to me. When

my brother asked her if he could use her playdough for a craft project he had to do, she said yes.

Isabella never hesitates to help others.

Social Development

4 4 4 4 4 4

3.5 3.5

SPORTSMANSHIP DECISION MAKING SHARING AWARE OF

WITH OTHERS SURROUNDINGS

Milestone Isabella
 11
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Intellectual Development
Isabella shows some signs of being on track in intellectual Development. Talking aloud to

oneself reaches a peak between the ages of six and seven (Snowman and McGowan, 2014). I

observed her multiple times talking to herself when she does her homework. She sat on the table

reading her problems aloud and repeating to herself what she must write. When she would work

on her math problems, she also counted out loud and counted down or up with her fingers for

some problems. Children at this age also believe that inanimate objects and animals think and

feel like humans (Cognitive Development in 6-7 Year Olds, n.d). Isabella displays this well.

When she goes outside to play with our dog, she gets scared and frustrated when our dog jumps

on her. I tried explaining multiple times that he does not understand when she tells him to not

jump anymore and that he is not aware of how big he is, so he just jumps. She believes that our

dog does it on purpose because he does not like her and does not want to listen to her. Obviously,

this is not true, but Isabella thinks this way. At this age, reading will start to take off (Lee, K.)

They may be able to write a short paragraph and learn how to use punctuation and capitalization

of letters in sentences. This area is where I observed Bella not reaching the milestone. She

struggles remembering to capitalize her

Intellectual Development
first word in a sentence. She went back

multiple times after I told her to look 4 4 4 4

over her answer. When it comes to 3 3

2.8 2.8

writing paragraphs, she has the ideas in

her head but struggles when it comes to

writing them down. She has trouble THINKING COMPLEX READING LEVEL WRITING LEVEL
OUTLOUD THINKING OF
OTHER OBJECTS
spelling small words and remembering AND ANIMALS

Milestone Isabella
to put punctuation where it is needed.
 12
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Conclusion

In conclusion, I observed Isabella being mostly right on track for her age. There are some

suggestions I would consider giving my brother to help my niece stay on track and improve in

some areas. For her physical development, I would encourage my brother to take her to the park

more often to remain active. She is not the stay still kind of child. Her dad should continue to

buy her coloring books and sketch books for her to continue her detailed drawing. For her

emotional development, I would encourage her dad to continue to be supportive of her

accomplishments. No matter how big or small, he should encourage her good work. He should

calm her down when she is worried about something, like her grades. Her dad does a good job at

this and it helps Isabella know what to expect. For her social development, I would encourage

her dad to take her a little early to school, so she can play on the playground before class starts.

Isabella loves to make new friends. This would be a great opportunity. It is going to take

determination from her dad to wake up a little earlier. But it will help Bella continue to be a

social person. Reminding Isabella from time to time to always be kind to others can also help her

to understand what is expected of her. For her philosophical development, I encourage her dad to

explain how things work around the word. By this I mean for example that animals do not think

the way we do. Also, to continue to play with her in her make-believe fantasies. She loves

playing dress up so why not play along with her? For her intellectual development, I encourage

her dad to make her write practice sentences. He should get her the paper that has dotted lines on

them, so Isabella can practice staying between the lines. Her dad should have her read a book for

at least thirty minutes each day. With summer break coming up, he should still have her read

books and write so she can catch up to her reading level. All this practice will help her become a
 13
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

better reader and writer. Altogether, these suggestions for her dad can definitely come in handy

to help Isabella continue to be an on track 6-year-old.

Child Development
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Physical Emotional Philosophical Social Development Intellectual
Development Development Development Development

Milestone Isabella
.
 14
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

REFRENCES
Academic Learning Among 6-7 Year Olds. Scholastic Retrieved April 20, 2018, from
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/thinking-skills-learning-
styles/academic-learning-among-6-7-year-olds

Ages 6-9: Developmental Overview. (2015, April 10). Retrieved April 05, 2018, from
https://www.parentfurther.com/content/ages-6-9-developmental-overview

Child Development Tracker. PBS. Retrieved April 20,2018, from

http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/six/index.htm

Cognitive Development in 6-7 Year Olds. (n.d). Retrieved April 20, 2018, from
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/stages-milestones/cognitive-
development-6-7-year-olds
Ellsworth, J. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2018, from
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/PEPSIObserv/year6.html

Lee, K. (n.d.). How Your 6-Year-Old Makes Friends and Interacts with Peers. Retrieved from
https://www.verywellfamily.com/6-year-olds-and-social-development-621089

Martinez, E. (2017, June 13). The Physical Development of a 6-Year-Old. Retrieved April 05,
2018, from https://www.livestrong.com/article/126109-physical-development-year-old/

Physical Development: Ages 6–7. (n.d) Retrieved April 05, 2018, from
https://www.kidcentraltn.com/article/physical-development-ages-6-7

Snowman and McCown, (2014) Psychology Applied to Teaching. Stanford, CT. Wadsworth
Publishing. p.80

Snowman and McCown, (2014) Psychology Applied to Teaching. Stanford, CT. Wadsworth
Publishing. p.84
 15
P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Snowman and McCown, (2014) Psychology Applied to Teaching. Stanford, CT. Wadsworth
Publishing

Social and Emotional Development: Ages 6–7. (n.d) Retrieved April 05, 2018, from
https://kidcentraltn.com/article/social-and-emotional-development-ages-6-7

Social and Emotional Growth. Child Development Tracker. (2003). Retrieved April 20, 2018,
from
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/six/socialandemotionalgrowth.html

Social and Emotional Development: Ages 6–7. (n.d). Retrieved April 20,2018, from
https://www.kidcentraltn.com/article/social-and-emotional-development-ages-6-7