Running head: P.E.P.S.

I SCREENING 1

P.E.P.S.I Screening

Dustin Davis

College of Southern Nevada, EDU 220 – 1002

March 22, 2020

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Biography

Mikael is a six-year-old girl born and raised in Las Vegas Nevada. Her parents are

divorced and are both very young. She alternates between her mother and father’s homes

throughout the week. Mikael’s parents divorced when she was two years old, so she is used to

the routine that comes along with it. Mikael’s mother has a boyfriend that is around at her

mother’s house who also acts as a father figure to her. Mikael is an only child for now, but her

mother is pregnant with a second child from her boyfriend. At both households her grandparents

and other family play a huge role in taking care of her. Both of Mikael’s parents work full time

jobs so most of her time at home is spent with her grandparents. Mikael’s grandparents are often

the ones working on schoolwork with her. At both households the families seem to be in a strong

economic situation, so Mikael does not seem to be struggling in any way in that sense. Mikael is

in first grade and has had some difficulty adjusting to behavior in a school setting, but she is very

intelligent. She seems to get board easily at school and become disruptive to the class.
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Physical Development

Mikael is 46 inches tall and weighs 51 pounds, just above average for a child her

age (Callaway, C., 2019). In terms of physical development, she is above average with her motor

skills and hand eye coordination. Mikael is very active at both households always having a

family member to play with and keep her entertained. Mikael’s teacher has informed her parents

multiple times that she has trouble staying on task during lessons and she has a sort of play all

the time mentality. When doing schoolwork, both at home and at school, Mikael often tries to

move to doing something else or begins to talk out or make noises. This kind of behavior is often

to be expected from children her age and many children release their energy through nervous

habits such as pencil chewing, fingernail biting, and fidgeting (Snowman, J. & McCown, R.

2015). Mikael’s father is very active with her and taught her how to ride a bike and play sports,

but she becomes very competitive when it comes to winning games. Mikael is an only child so

most of her play time is with her family of mostly older boys and adults so she can get fairly

rowdy with them at times.

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Emotional Development

Mikael struggles with her emotional development due to the many parental

figures she deals with in her life. Due to her parent’s divorce and both of there situations

she is constantly being parented by different people throughout her day. Her grandparents

act as the main strict parental figures so her relationship with them is not the best.

Mikael’s grandparents are often the ones who keep on top of her schoolwork and

discipline her when she acts out. Her grandparents say she acts out a lot and rarely wants

to stay on task when they are trying to do homework with her. According to a 2019 article

from World Psychiatry, “divorce is associated with an increased risk for child and

adolescent adjustment problems, including academic difficulties, disruptive behaviors,

and depressed mood (D’Onofrio, B. & Emery, R. 2019). On the other hand, Mikael is

very loving to her parents, but it is often in response to them giving her something and

rarely being the ones to punish her. Another thing that Mikael often struggles with is her

name. According to the text, Psychology Applied to Teaching, children at this age are

often very sensitive to ridicule and Mikael is often embarrassed by her name because

people often mispronounce it and peers say it’s a boy name (Snowman, J. & McCown, R.

2015).
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Philosophical Development

Mikael’s philosophical development has skyrocketed recently but in a negative way as

she has realized how she can manipulate situations to get her way. Mikael often acts out, but it

generally seems like a means to gain attention from her parents. She is very smart, and she has

set the standard high for herself, so it became hard for her to gain positive recognition from

anyone but her teacher in academics and she has resulted in doing negative things to gain others

attention. When Mikael is asked why she acts out, she seems to know what she did was wrong,

but she does it anyways. Snowman & McCown state, “A child entering school is at a point in

development when behavior is dominated by intellectual curiosity and performance. ‘He now

learns to win recognition by producing things…He develops a sense of industry’” (Snowman, J.

& McCown, R. 2015). Based on this you can see that because Mikael is not receiving any

attention from her family for the positive things she is doing in school, she has resulted to a new

industry in gaining negative recognition. In a 2016 article by Micheal Schreiner, he stated “kids

don’t differentiate between positive and negative attention, they just want attention, they want to

know they matter to you, that they’re important, that you see them, ” and since Mikael is not

receiving the positive attention she wants, she has found a way to receive attention in another

way (Schreiner, M. 2016).

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Social Development

Mikael is very social and wants to make friends with almost everyone. Most of

Mikael’s friends at school are male, which is uncommon for most children in her age group

(Snowman, J. & McCown, R. 2015). Although Mikael tends to be very social, she is also very

independent and does not really have a single close friend or best friend. At school Mikael seems

to have a lot of friends but does not create a strong bond with those friends and none of her

friendships really extend beyond school. Outside of school Mikael plays with her family for the

most part but also has some friends through her mother’s friends’ children. Mikael’s mother’s

friend’s children are all younger than Mikael; four and five years old. When Mikael plays with

those children, she is very bossy and is always the leader of every situation. Mikael is very rough

and aggressive with the boys in the family and likes to wrestle and fight, but she has never done

it out of anger. According to J’Anne Ellsworth’s screening guidelines she says children at this

age may become “street wise”, and I think this is an excellent way to describe Mikael (Ellsworth,

J.).
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Intellectual Development

Mikael is very smart for her age and can easily become bored with her

schoolwork which may be contributing to her behavior problems. Mikael’s grandparents

were very consistent with teaching her new things as a child and she can read and write

very well for her age. Mikael has a decent understanding of numbers and simple concepts

that are on par with the standards set for first grade students ("Read the Standards").

Mikael is always interested in learning new things but has trouble staying on task in

school if the work is too easy. According to the expectations set by the P.E.P.S.I

guidelines, “ Concentration of energy is focused on either reading or hand writing for

mastery instead of both,” but Mikael seems to have a good grasp on both of these things

already (Ellsworth, J.). Based on the guidelines set for children in her age group, she

seems to be well beyond the expectations set for intellectual development by Ellsworth.

Although Mikael is very smart and knows the material, her schoolwork still suffers

because she has trouble staying on task. “Providing youngsters with periodic breaks, such

as recess, increases their ability to attend to and perform well on subsequent classroom

tasks,” and this has shown to be beneficial to Mikael (Snowman, J. & McCown, R.

2015). At school, Mikael’s teacher has said she is much more focused after lunch and

Mikael’s grandparents often find success in getting her back on task if they stop and take

a short break.
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Graph

P.E.P.S.I

Physical Emotional Philosophical Social Intellectual

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Recommendations

Based on Mikael’s screening, she has above average results in most areas but

there are some key things that should be worked on. Mikael’s development is on par with other

children in her age group and I believe most of her misbehavior stems from boredom with

schoolwork or lack of positive reinforcement at home. In terms of Mikael’s academics, I believe

you should continue to challenge Mikael with new material and request a gate screening at

school to see if Mikael qualifies. To curb Mikael’s other bad behaviors, I believe more positive

reinforcement is necessary over negative reinforcement. If Mikael acts up, you should try to

address it in a short and direct way that does not bring unneeded attention to the situation. You

should also go out of your way to recognize the good things Mikael does, no matter how small,

and reinforce that with positive language and attention. For Mikael’s social growth, you should

try to set up more play time with children Mikael’s own age and intellectual level so that Mikael

can build strong friendships with children more suited for her.
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References

Callaway, C. (2019, February 11). The Average Height and Weight by Age. Retrieved March 22,

2020, from https://www.livestrong.com/article/328220-the-average-height-and-weight-

by-age/

Donofrio, B., & Emery, R. (2019). Parental divorce or separation and childrens mental health.

World Psychiatry, 18(1), 100–101. doi: 10.1002/wps.20590

Ellsworth, J. A. (n.d.). 'PEPSI' as a Screening Tool. Retrieved March 22, 2020, from

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/lesson2-1-1.html

Read the Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2020, from http://www.corestandards.org/read-

the-standards/

Schreiner, M. (2016, November 2). Kids Don't Differentiate Between Positive Attention And

Negative Attention. Retrieved from https://evolutioncounseling.com/kids-dont-

differentiate-between-positive-attention-and-negative-attention/

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Australia: Cengage

Learning.