Running Head: PEPSI Screening

PEPSI: A Screening and

Programming Tool for
Understanding Calvin Suh

Woo, Eun Jee

Principles of Educational Psychology EDU 220
PEPSI: A Screening and Programming Tool
03/09/2018
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Biography

Calvin Suh was born on June 18,2012, in Los Angeles, California. Calvin Suh is the first

child of the family to be born with cerebral palsy. He is a first grader attending Hobart

Elementary School. Calvin Suh is the only son of Mindy Lee and Jesse Suh. Both his parents

were born in South Korea and are immigrants to America before Calvin was born. Calvin was

born in the United States of America. Calvin’s family doesn't practice any religion but his

grandparents are believers of God. Calvin enjoys using the tablets and cell phones to play games

and do learning activities. Even though Calvin is about to turn seven, he is barely getting used to

the idea of potty-training and is still in diapers when he is napping, sleeping, and outside.

He is a very busy child having to attend therapies and school on the daily basis. He

practices physical and occupational therapy daily at home with his parents and goes weekly to

the hospital to check his progress and learn other techniques to enhance and maintain his

abilities. He also has speech therapist twice a week at school because his speech is delayed

compared to his peers. Both of Calvin’s parents are always near and behind Calvin in case

Calvin falls. His parents try to let him explore whenever he goes outside but is always watching

Calvin. Calvin loves to try new activities, new foods, and enjoys spending time outdoors.

Calvin is very friendly and kind to others. He knows how to respect people and be friendly

with others. He also knows when he is not appreciated by others and he will not approach people

who does not value his presence. He loves spending time with his parents and loves visiting his

aunt, Judy regularly at her house. Judy is Mindy’s younger sister and Judy enjoys having Calvin

over and help Mindy take care of Calvin whenever necessary. Calvin isn't a picky eater and loves

all kinds of foods. Calvin is loved by many closed family and friends and he has been a blessing

to his loved ones.

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Physical Development

The type of cerebral palsy Calvin has is called Ataxic cerebral palsy and is the least

common type of cerebral palsy. Calvin’s movements can be characterized by clumsiness,

imprecision, or instability. Movements are not smooth and may appear disorganized or

jerky.(Ataxic Cerebral Palsy) In the case of Calvin his Ataxia cerebral palsy affects his legs.

arms, hands, fingers and speech. He has trouble clapping and learning how to write. Calvin also

has unstable balance and is more likely to fall compared to his peers. We do not know exactly

how much of Calvin’s speech will be affected in the future because he is still learning how to

talk and form sentences so the school he is attending need more time to observe and evaluate

Calvin’s condition and see if he needs additional help besides speech therapy to help him speak.

Currently though the speech therapists at his school is stating Calvin is at CFCS level III, where

Calvin could communicate effectively with familiar people but will not communicate with

people he just met or strangers(CFCS). As of Calvin’s gross motor skills he is at GMFCS level

II, where he can walk in most settings and climb stairs using a rail.(GMFCS) He has trouble

walking long distances and has trouble balancing on uneven streets or uneven inclines. In the

future, Calvin may need physical assistance while walking using a handheld mobility device or

use a wheeled mobility device over long distances. Currently the school is placing Calvin on

special education for physical education that helps him improve his walking stability and helping

him form the right gross motor skills through helping him improve on jumping and running.

Emotional Development

Calvin is not as different as any other child. He wants to be able to fit in with his peers,

make friends, and be accepted and appreciated by his peers. However because of his disability,
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Calvin has a higher risk of developing emotional and behavioral difficulties compared with his

peers. “According to Dr. Allan Colver of Newcastle University, Institute of Health and Society,

one of the most common reasons children like Calvin who have cerebral palsy are more at risk to

emotional and behavioral difficulties is due to brain damage. When the brain damage occurred,

the pathways or networks that help regulate emotions may have been disrupted. The second

cause may be because the child feels self-conscious and embarrassed of their condition and as a

result experience emotional symptoms and feelings of isolation.(Colver)

Even though Calvin has his limitations physically, the limitations do not stop Calvin from

being a happy, outgoing, understanding person. Calvin does understand when people feel upset

or sad and when people feel glad and happy. One thing Calvin has trouble understanding is why

he gets in trouble when he misbehaves. If you start yelling at Calvin for his misbehaving, he will

ignore you, not make eye-contact, and shut down mentally. When you want to educate Calvin for

his misbehaving, it is more effective if you go to Calvin’s eye level and tell him exactly what he

did was wrong and why it is wrong in a firm low tone voice. There is eight stages of Erikson’s

stages of psychosocial every individual goes through throughout their life. In Calvin’s case, he is

experiencing and learning the initiative versus guilt. In this stage, children have the ability to

participate in many physical activities and use language to state initiative. Children at this age,

like to be active, explore the world, and experiment. They are more assertive in the things they

want and need from others.(Snowman)

During the ages of five- and six-years old, they become more aware of their emotions, and

they begin to recognize the same emotions in others. By recognizing emotions, empathy begins

to form. Empathy is the ability to identify with and understand another person’s feelings,

situations or motives.(Empathy) Calvin is still learning to recognize, understand his emotions

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and managing his emotions. Calvin has a hard time being aware of his emotions and others’

emotions and comprehending emotions in others. He could tell the huge differences of someone

being happy and sad but when the change is not as drastic he has a hard time understanding

emotions.

Philosophical Development

Calvin is not like the typical kid around his age. The way Calvin views the world and

experience the world is slightly different and unique than his peers. He is very considerate of

others and happy all the time. He enjoys life as it is and appreciate the things he is given and

knows and understands his routine. According to Piaget, how people view the world and

perceived the world are greatly governed through both physiological and mental functioning. For

example, there is a great similarity on how the biological process work and how intellectual

processes work. The digestion transforms food into energy which the body could use as fuel and

intellectual process uses experiences as a guideline for dealing with new situations.(Snowman)

Both the biological and intellectual process must be in sync and work independently to seek a

balance for the body to function correctly.

Calvin has a hard time understanding the concept of adaptation. Adaptation is the process

of matching between one’s conception of reality and the real-life experiences one

experiences.(Snowman) According to Piaget, adaptation is accomplished by two subprocesses

called assimilation and accommodation. A child may adapt by either interpreting an experience

so that it fits an existing scheme (assimilation) or changing an existing scheme to incorporate the

experience (accommodation).(Snowman) For example, when a child learns the word for dog,

they start to call all four-legged animals dogs.(Assimilation) When the child sees a cat, the adults
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tell the child no, that isn't a dog, its a cat and the child learns the difference between dog and

cat.(accommodation)

Calvin has a very positive attitude toward the world and loves everyone and everything. He

does not quite get the definition of the word hate or negativity. Because Calvin is always happy

and positive, the people close to him gets inspired by his positive view of the world. He is not

quite aware that he is different from his peers because of his disability. He thinks he is same and

not different from everyone. Calvin does ask and reason why he has frequent visits to the

doctors, speech therapists, and his accommodations at school. Even though he is questioning

about his frequent visits to the doctors and the speech therapists, it doesn't seem like Calvin is

aware those visits are to help him maintain and enhance his skills.

Social Development

Calvin was naturally born a happy, outgoing, and positive child. Because of Calvin’s

outgoing and positive viewpoint of the world, there is lots of people who enjoy Calvin’s

company in Calvin’s school, therapy, and at home. If you are having a bad day and you happen

to have a conversation with Calvin, he will brighten your day by transferring his positivity to

you. He loves to try new and different activities and enjoys spending quality time with people

that love him and care for him.

At school, Calvin is having difficulties socially because Calvin wants to play and interact

with his peers but because of Calvin’s disability, he has a hard time understanding and

interacting with his peers(Snowman). Calvin is aware of this issue and is working hard with his

teachers and therapists to overcome this issue and feel accepted by his peers and his teachers.

Whenever Calvin does well with his peers the teachers praise him for not getting frustrated

which is helping to build Calvin’s confidence. Calvin’s parents understand that for Calvin’s
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social development, it is crucial for Calvin to explore the world and interact with others without

being isolated or sheltered to form a sense of belonging and self-confidence.(Social Skill

Development)

Calvin understands that he needs to be respectful to his peers and adults when talking and

interacting with them all the time. He knows his basic manners saying thank you and please

when receiving and and asking for things. He also knows that he needs to wait his turn to speak

and not interrupt when adults are having a conversation. When people meet Calvin for the first

time, they are surprised at Calvin’s well behaved manners because of his disability. They think

that Calvin has intellectual disability as well as physical disability but in the case of Calvin’s

disability it is more physical than intellectual. Raising a child with a disability is not that much

different than raising regular normal kids. Raising a child with a disability might be more time

consuming and challenging but they could get the same results as any other child with the time

and support from the people who wish them the best.

Calvin is very good at expressing what he want or what he needs. If someone doesn't

understand Calvin’s speech he uses signs and gestures to help the other person understand his

point-of-view with things. If Calvin is having a hard time expressing his thoughts he uses

gestures, and drawing to help get his thoughts across to the other party. The other day, Calvin

wanted pancakes for dinner instead of rice and when he was served rice, he shook his head no

and went to pantry got a pancake mix and gave it to his mother. His mother understood what

Calvin wanted and made him some pancake for dinner. It was amazing to see how Calvin

communicated his needs so that the other person can understand him.

Intellectual Development
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Intellectual development is how people organize ideas, thoughts, and their mind to make

sense of the world they live in. There are two main areas of intellectual development language

development and cognitive development. Language development helps us to organize thoughts

and make sense of the world around us and cognitive development is how we use our minds to

organize thinking to understand the world around us. (Introduction to Intellectual Development)

There is a wide variety of people who differ in culture, various intellectual and psychomotor

abilities and skills, in both general and specialized prior knowledge.(Snowman) The differences

in culture, intellectual and psychomotor skills and abilities in turn directly affect and relate to

how students’ learn and absorb information.

Each child is different and unique in developing intellectual and psychomotor skills and

abilities. Cerebral palsy is originally caused by damage to the brain specifically the centers that

transmit accurate information from several sources are impaired(cognitive impairment). Calvin

has trouble with cognition because his disability, cerebral palsy. Because of Calvin’s brain

injury, he has difficulty understanding and processing the information he receives. Calvin

specifically has short attention span and gets easily distracted, has difficulty processing emotions

and feelings, and speech proficiency, and comprehension. At school, Calvin has trouble

focusing on the teacher and the lesson plan, he frequently looks out the window and starts

making small circles with his eraser. Calvin gets distracted with every sound or small

movements made in the classroom as well as outside the classroom. If he hears a noise outside

the classroom he will start focusing on that noise until he finds out where the noise is coming

from. If one of his classmates’ fidgets then Calvin will focus on that classmate until that

classmate stops fidgeting.

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Graph

Recommendations for Parents and Teachers

Calvin Typical Child

100

80

60

40

20

0
Physical Philosophical Intellectual
Calvin should be encouraged to walk slowly and steadily everywhere he goes. He should

be encouraged to hold on to railing for stairs or walls. If possible to help Calvin improved his

balancing, he should be recommended a walker he can use everywhere. To help with his gross

motor skills, he should do activities like having a tape on the ground and asking Calvin to walk

only on the tape, and have Calvin balance small balloons up and down on his palm. He can also

have time at school with a speech therapist to practice language and writing letters. For

emotional support, Calvin should be encouraged when he did something correct or right and

disciplined if he did something wrong. To effectively discipline Calvin, you need to make eye

contact with Calvin and talk in a firm low tone to explain what he did was wrong and why and

give ways to correct the behavior. You can also help Calvin recognize his emotions of
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happiness, anger, sadness, disgust and help him find ways to deal and cope with each emotion in

a healthy way. You should teach Calvin the signs of play, happiness, sadness, disappointment,

anger and help him recognize them in his peers and teach him what is the socially accepted

response to each emotion. When Calvin is being polite with his manners and to his classmate

praise him and encourage him to continue. For intellectual development, you should take

teaching on the pace that Calvin learns at, repeat things couple of times, and simplify concepts

when teaching Calvin. You should also teach Calvin techniques to focus and techniques on how

to understand and process information, Praise Calvin if he is focusing and doing his work.

Reference

1. Foundation, C. P. (n.d.). Ataxic Cerebral Palsy. Retrieved February 23, 2018, from

https://research.cerebralpalsy.org.au/what-is-cerebral-palsy/types-of-cerebral-palsy/ataxic-

cerebral-palsy-ataxia/
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2.Foundation, C. P. (n.d.). Communication Function Classification System (CFCS). Retrieved

February 23, 2018, from https://research.cerebralpalsy.org.au/what-is-cerebral-palsy/severity-of-

cerebral-palsy/communication-function-classification-system-cfcs/

3.Foundation, C. P. (n.d.). Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS). Retrieved

February 23, 2018, from https://research.cerebralpalsy.org.au/what-is-cerebral-palsy/severity-of-

cerebral-palsy/gross-motor-function-classification-system/#collapseOne

4. S. (2018, February 12). Cerebral Palsy and Emotional Issues. Retrieved February 24, 2018,

from https://www.cerebralpalsyguidance.com/cerebral-palsy/associated-disorders/emotional-

issues/

5.Colver, A. (2010). Why are children with cerebral palsy more likely to have emotional and

behavioural difficulties? Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 52(11), 986-986.

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8749.2010.03721.x

6. Snowman, J., & McCown, R. R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Belmont, CA:

Wadsworth.

7.Ages & Stages: Empathy. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2018, from

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/ages-stages-empathy/

8.Cognitive Impairment. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2018, from

http://www.cerebralpalsy.org/information/cognition

9.S. (2018, February 12). Cerebral Palsy Cognitive Issues. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from

https://www.cerebralpalsyguidance.com/cerebral-palsy/associated-disorders/cognitive-issues/

10.Social Skill Development. (n.d.). Retrieved March 04, 2018, from

http://www.cerebralpalsy.org/information/socialization/social-development