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Pepsi Screening

PEPSI Screening on Alexander V.

Claudia Vouroulidis

College of Southern Nevada

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Abstract

Alexander is my youngest brother who I spent observing for this project. He is eleven

years old and in grade five currently. His ethnicity is white, and our family’s socioeconomic

status is middle class. He is a very bright kid, who has lots of energy and loves to run around

outside with his friends. He also enjoys playing video games and watching TV, just like every

other kid his age does. His favorite subject in school is reading, and he performs best in it. Math

is a challenge for him at times, though he does try his best.

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Physical Development

Alex is 85 pounds, which is a little above average for his age, but it can cause health

issues in the future. He has the same issue many students his age does, where poor eating habits

and lack of physical activity have caused him to become slightly overweight (Snowman &

McCown, 2015, pg.3-2B). In height, Alex is a little smaller, being 54.5 inches so he is due for a

growth spurt which should be when he begins to stage of puberty in the next few years,

(Kennedy & Jayme Kennedy, 2020). He can improve in this area by getting more exercise and

eating better because child obesity is a big issue that will affect him in his adulthood is

something is not done about it early enough, though he is a small kid so trying to get him to

enjoy vegetables is challenging (Snowman & McCown, 2015, pg.3-3a).

In his free time, Alex enjoys playing video games such as GTA or Five Nights at

Freddy's. He also likes to play with friends, but due to the corona virus and the new house we

live in he hasn’t met any kids to go outside to play with which has forced him to mostly stay

indoors. He says he misses his friends and playing with them at school which makes him sad and

a little lonely, but he knows this isn’t forever and his family is always there to spend time with

him.

Alex really enjoys being creative with playdough and modeling clay, spending his free

time making figurines of his favorite characters from movies, shows, or video games. He is

talented at it, and I encourage him to make more by giving him suggestions of what figurines to

create next. Despite his young age, he is extremely talented, and I genuinely believe he could
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become successful off his artistic talents in the future.

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Emotional Development

While observing Alex I noticed that his emotional development matched well for other

students his age. For example, he would often get easily frustrated while doing his work. Not

because he did not understand what he was learning or that he was confused, but because there

were so many distractions such as the TV playing or me spending time with my friends, along

with other things he wanted to do besides his schoolwork. Another factor that has affected his

emotions negatively is being at home all the time due to the pandemic. Alex struggles enough in

a typical classroom setting when it comes to concentration, so at home is even more challenging

for him due to distractions and not having his teacher physically there to help him, so he gets

more frustrated and upset easier when completely his school assignments.

To add, not having his teacher physically there to work with him has also been hard. My

parents and I can only do so much when it comes to Alex’s schoolwork, making it a challenge.

Plus, not having his teacher there physically make4s it more challenging for him to receive the

praise and recognition he needs. According to the textbook, students are sensitive to criticism

and ridicule and may have difficulty adjusting to failure. Young children need frequent praise

and recognition. Because they tend to admire or even worship their teachers” (Snowman &

McCown, 2015, pg. 3-2c). This means that praise and recognition is so important for students to

receive, but Alex is simply not getting it this year from his teachers due to everything being

online and the teacher must help twenty other students which can upset Alex.

During this school year Alex tends to have more negative emotions compared to previous

ones. I strongly do believe that not receive that emotional connection from his teacher is putting

a toll on him and his school performance. His emotional development could be helped by

allowing him more time to do his schoolwork and providing less distractions by giving him a
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quieter environment to complete his work in. As a family, we can provide more help to Alex by

sitting down with him to work on his assignments and answering any questions he may have

while working such as a teacher would.

Though one area Alexander excels in for his emotional development is his self-

description and self-esteem. Alex is very confident in the way he looks, often calling himself

handsome and very tall for his age because that is how he views himself (Snowman & McCown

pg. 3-3c). He does not let other’s opinions on his image affect him, which I think is a very

admirable trait he has. To add, his self-esteem is very high, and he has a lot of confidence in

himself and his looks. He is not bothered by other’s opinions or thoughts on him, and he is very

content with himself (Snowman & McCown, 2015, pg. 3-3c)

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Philosophical Development

Our household is personally not religious in anyway, we just believe in doing the right

thing and being a good, honest person. In our family, it’s always encouraged for everyone to be

honest, get their chores done, and be nice to others. Though like most younger children, Alex

will lie sometimes about silly things such as washing his hands before eating dinner or brushing

his teeth, but the adults make sure to discipline him when he does so. This is done by teaching

him to be honest and discipline him when he lies or breaks the rules, making sure to

communicate why he misbehaved before punishing. Though like most younger children, Alex

will lie sometimes about silly things such as washing his hands before eating dinner or brushing

his teeth. This is usually dealt with by scolding Alex for his silly lie and making him complete

the task, followed by a sincere apology (Markham, 2017). Besides the very rare lying Alex is

still a very honest and nice kid, showing kindness to his little sister and his friends as well.

From my perspective, I can understand why Alex would lie about such small thing

because he wants to avoid consequences, or he has other things he would rather spend his time

doing, and even just to try out lying because he is curious (Arky, 2020). But beside these little

hiccups that rarely happen, Alex has a very strong sense of right and wrong. He doesn’t steal, he

goes to bed on time, he gets his schoolwork done, and he is a very delightful kid to spend time

with.

Alexander has an older brother named Aiden and me, the oldest sister, in which he “looks

up to” in a way. He often comes to my brother and me for advice, and I can tell he wants to be

more like his older siblings, and he looks up to us as role models in how to behave. An article I

found says that older siblings are also role models for younger children, being someone that they
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often look up to and want to be like (Science Daily, 2018). I believe if my older brother and I

continue to be good influences for Alex, the more he will grow philologically.
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Social Development

Alexander is successful in his social development. He does not struggle with

communicating or making friends, being an excellent speaker and communicator, and this is

most likely due to his high social interaction with other children around his ag e both in school

and around his neighborhood (Snowman & McCown, 2015, pg.2-2c). He is never shy to let those

around him know when he needs or wants something, talking to us sometimes a little more than

we would like. His favorite is showing me funny videos on his phone, though sometimes they

can be long. I would describe his personality as extroverted, Alex never being the shy type to

where he will easily have chats with children or adults he has never spoken to previously.

Before the pandemic and when Alex went to school, he had a lot of friends he would play

with. They would often spend time together in the classroom, then take the short walk to our

neighborhood as a group. Then afterwards they would run around all afternoon to play. I believe

that Alex’s exposure to other students in school really helped his social development. Our text

says that, refining the skills of self-direction and self-control, learning how to join the play

activities of others, and fostering the development of such cognitive skills as planning and using

symbols (Bergen & Fromberg, 2009) are important for his physical and mental growth. So,

interacting with other children his age teaches him how to get along with others, teaches him

self-direction such as right and wrong, and self-direction when it comes to making his own

decisions, and these skills will help him develop into a health adult.

Alexander lacks social consciousness, often not paying attention to other people feeling’s

and focusing on the way he feels. He is still younger and sometimes struggles to even express

how he feels, but he can emphasize with people when they are sad or frustrated about something.
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This skill could be refined by pointing it out to Alex, or simply explaining how other’s feel to

him so he can comprehend it better (Snowman & McCown, 2015, pg.9-3d).

Alex is very self-reliant when it comes to keeping himself entertained when needed and

to get a snack if he’s hungry. He lacks this skill when it comes to schoolwork, though I believe

that is because he just does not want to do it and decides to ignore his online classes, which

means he usually needs a reminder to complete his assignments.

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Intellectual Development

For in class-ability grouping Alex performs mostly average, except for two topics.

Though Alex does perform well in though, he struggles with math and tends to do the worst in

that class but excels in reading. His reading comprehension skills are very high, making English

the subject he performs best in. He now reads books above his grade level, which is very

impressive.

In our family, we work every day to make sure Alex gets his schoolwork done and tries

his hardest. This is done by sitting at the table with him and going through every assignment, so

he receives the attention and clear instructions he needs to perform successfully (Hoffses, 2018).

The extra help he received has helped him tremendously, especially through these hard times due

to the pandemic. I found that when students are assisted with their schoolwork by parents or

siblings, it helps create positive learning behaviors, refreshes students on what they have been

learnings in the classroom, and enforces how important education is (Daniel Hamlin Assistant

Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, 2020).

Alex has learned that he is not the only child in the world, though I believe that having a

baby sister taught him this very quickly. He does not want all the attention on him, only when he

has something that he wants to show to others is most often when he wants attention (Mertes

2020). But besides that, the family time of just watching tv together is all he needs, and he

understands that the adults have other things to do besides tend to him all hours of the day.
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References

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19). Why Kids Lie and What Parents Can Do About It. Retrieved November 25, 2020,
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Daniel Hamlin Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. (2020, March
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Hoffses, K. (Ed.). (2018, August). 10 Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in Elementary School
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