EDU 220- P.E.P.S.I.

Screening Project

EDU 220- P.E.P.S.I. Screening Project

Angelina Maisano

Elementary Education, College of Southern Nevada

EDU 220- Principles of Education Psychology

Dr. Vincent Richardson

April 11th, 2021

EDU 220- P.E.P.S.I. Screening Project

Biography

The child that is being observed is an eight year old female who lives in Henderson,

Nevada. She is a homeschool student in third grade. She is an only child, the daughter to a

massage/yoga therapist and a manager of a landscape company. They have a single story,

two-bedroom home, with an office and a pool. The child has a giant room and lots of toys, the

family office doubles as her playroom, and she has a little art table in the living room with all of

her paint and supplies she uses. She has a very close relationship with her parents, as she calls

them “buck-o” and gets super excited anytime they come home from work while in a tutoring

session.

This child was in public school up from kindergarten to second grade. When Covid-19

hit, her parents took her out of public school, and she has been homeschooled since. They hired a

homeschool tutor (me) to help her with weekly assignments twice a week. The days the tutor

isn’t there she does schoolwork on online platforms and printouts the mom finds on Teachers

Pay Teachers. She goes to the park with other homeschooled children once a week, goes to a

retired art teacher’s home once a week with the same homeschooled group, and is in karate.

Physical Development

The child is four foot and three inches, or 51 inches tall. Although she is petite, she is not

overweight or underweight. The student is around 50-55 pounds. “An 8-year-old girl has an

average height of 50 inches and an average weight of 58 pounds” (Galic, 2020). Evidently, I

would agree that she is average in physical development for her age.

The student has short brown hair and bangs. She always has a smile on her face. Her two

front teeth are newly grown in. St. Louis Orthodontist claims children start to lose their primary
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teeth at the age of six and lose their front teeth around the age of seven to eight (Fink, 2021). It

seems that she is on track with her teeth loss, height, and weight.

She enjoys doing cartwheels, going to the park, playing soccer, and attending karate

lessons. She has pretty good hand-eye coordination. She likes to dance with her dog, she holds

his front paws, forcing him to stand on his hind legs. She is playful and always a ball of energy!

“Providing youngsters with periodic breaks, such as recess, increases their ability to attend to and

perform well on subsequent classroom tasks” (Snowman & McCown, 2014, ch. 3). When the

child is being tutored, breaks are frequently used so she can get all her energy out and pay

attention. According to the Brain Balance Achievement Center, the average attention span for an

8 year old is, “16- 24 minutes.” The student falls at a pretty average standing according to this

research. During her math assignments her attention span will probably last 20 minutes at most.

While she is doing science experiments or writing assignments, her attention span is above

average. She could spend 30 minutes to even an hour working on an experiment or writing a

story. She loves exercising her body and brain. Her physical development excels over the

average eight year old.

Emotional Development

I have been this individual’s tutor/homeschool teacher since the upbringing of Covid-19,

in early 2020. The child has never thrown a tantrum or had a “bad day” while I have been with

her. She very frequently will complain about her work. If she does complain it is because I take

away her calculator during her math work; but she will quickly forget about it once she starts her

assignment. She doesn’t have emotional outburst, and if she does it is very rare. I have never

seen her cry or be frustrated. When a student is seven to eight years old, they are still learning

how to express their feelings through word choice, when they are unable to some may “resort to
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aggression or tantrums when upset” (Kostelyk, 2019). This student’s ability to express her

emotions is very advanced for her age. She doesn’t resort to tantrums.

She is motivated and wants to do well during her lessons. I notice a difference in her

attitude when I give her positive reinforcement for doing little things like put her name on the

paper. Our text suggests teachers should “Provide positive reinforcement as frequently as

possible and reserve your negative reactions for nonacademic misbehavior” (Snowman &

McCown, 2014, ch. 3). When I give her positive feedback, I gain her trust and she notices my

appraisal and will continue to want to “please the teacher” (Snowman & McCown, 2014, ch. 3).

Her parents have made a big impact on her emotional development, her mom is a yoga

instructor and massage therapist. The kid has therapeutic crystals in her room that give off

positive energy. She likes to hold them while she works. Some of her stones work as a “great

calmer and can help children think more clearly. It is a useful stone for any student and taking

this to school or placing it where children do their homework will help them ... focus” (Therapy

Directory 2014). Her Emotional development is extremely high for her age. She is very mature

and knows how to handle her emotions.

Philosophical Development

The student gets her humor from YouTube videos and tv shows she watches. Her

thoughts aren’t necessarily deep thoughts. She finds farting and butt jokes very funny. She has a

sticker on her water bottle that looks like the Cartoon Network logo, but it says Farting Network.

Scholastic has a motto which states, “What makes children laugh tells us much about the way

they think”. Her humor is very typical for her age. She listens to a song that is from a Minecraft

TV series and the song is called, “Shake my Axe”. She thinks the title of the song is hilarious,

even if it may be inappropriate. Before our tutoring sessions we may listen to this song to start
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the day off with a laugh. Scholastic also states, “Humor can set the stage for learning by helping

children release tension and focus on the task at hand” (Poole & Miller, 2021). I have noticed

this has helped the student focus on her task.

The child doesn’t have a strong idea about conserving money or the environment. When

she does science experiments, she could use a whole box of baking soda and not think twice

about wasting any. Then she doesn’t clean the mess afterwards. She dumps her waste in the grass

of her backyard. She wasn’t raised to be money conscious. She doesn’t think it is bad to use the

rest of her mom’s contact solution for her slime projects. She also uses so much tape! She can go

through an entire roll in one day, whether she is “laminating” paper or just sticking it to her lips

and face. She knows the value of money, but I don’t think she cares about the cost of supplies her

mom buys for school.

Her parents spoil her, as she is an only child. She sometimes demands her mom for food,

she will yell from her room, “Mom! Make me Mac N’ Cheese!” and I will quietly ask her,

“Please?” and then she will yell, “Please!” and the mom will bring her food. Psychology Today

defines spoiled children as this:

If a child refuses angrily to behave, and is permitted to get his or her way, that child is in

danger of being spoiled. Just showering a child with gifts will not necessarily spoil him;

but giving him gifts, even trivial gifts such as candy, simply because he demands it, will.

Similarly, a child who simply asks for special treatment will not necessarily be spoiled,

but if he stomps his feet and demands it, and then gets it, he will. Conversely, a child who

is dealt with firmly is not in danger of being spoiled (Neuman, 2017).

Her mom gives her anything she demands. The mom rarely tells her “No”. The kid is not

completely spoiled rotten, she will pay for her own toys with the money she makes. Her mom
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encourages her to be an entrepreneur and sell her old toys on a website. She has over $200 saved

and knows how to ship her toys out to other states, with her mother’s help. She spends her

money on stuffed animals called Beanie Boos that she believes one day will be rare and she can

sell them for a lot. She thinks about the future. I believe her philosophical development is

average for her age, although she doesn’t really do any deep thinking about life and existing, kids

her age typically don’t.

Social Development

The child in observation is a social butterfly. She can make friends wherever she goes.

She seems to get along with the other homeschool children in the area. They go to weekly park

dates and art classes together. She is in a club called Lankybox Covid Coux, if one isn’t a part of

the club they aren’t allowed to say certain phrases. I think only three or four other girls are in this

club with her. It is said that it is typical for her age to start to “complain about friendships and the

reactions of other kids” (Kostelyk, 2019). She tells me the drama in the club, saying so-and-so

“got kicked out of the club because she was being rude…” She interacts very well with peers,

until they make her upset. She has a selective friend choice. Snowman says, “Children become

somewhat more selective in their choice of friends and are likely to have a more or less

permanent best friend (Snowman, 3-2b)

She also loves her dogs. She calls her male dog her husband and her female dog her

daughter. They are always near her. When she is not outside playing with her friends, she is

inside playing and dancing with her dogs. She considers her dogs “family”. Dogs teach children

compassion, socialization, and responsibility (Barton, 2013). She calls her dogs “husband” and

“daughter”. She is very compassionate with her dogs, she always wants them near her. The

student has a very average social life. Third graders typically start to get involved with friend
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drama, start little clubs with their friends, and have emotional attachments to their loved ones

and pets.

Intellectual Development

The student is very intelligent. Her favorite subjects are science and writing. Every

Tuesday, her and her tutor will research a different type of animal, she loves drawing pictures in

her science journal of them in their habitats. Ellsworth suggests that third graders “[are] often

fascinated with real world animals, stars, science in general (Ellsworth, 1999). The student can

spend hours on science experiments. She especially likes the messy projects. She is definitely a

hands-on learning student. Tactical learners are students who “prefer to touch, move, build, or

draw what [they] learn, and [they] tend to learn better when some type of physical activity is

involved” (Anonymous, 2020). This makes sense because her physical development is very high.

She is creative and energetic. Since she is creative, she loves writing as well. She likes to write

letters to her favorite Youtubers and friends. She also loves writing about her dog.

With her love for writing, she is naturally skilled at reading. Although her reading skills

are advanced, she dreads having to read paragraphs in articles or chapters in books. Her reading

level is above average, she can read chapter books. The book she is reading now is called The

Prairie Thief, It has 240 pages and is said to be a 5.6 ATOS reading level (Wiley, 2013). She

finds a handful of words difficult, but she still understands what is going on in the story.

She loves learning new experiments and writing stories, but she absolutely hates math. It

is strange because math is very similar to science, but she loses interest in mathematical

worksheets that have to do with multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division. there are

some math subjects that she is more drawn to, like money problems and skip counting with a

karaoke microphone. She is proficient in her multiples zero through twelve.

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Recommendations

The student who was being observed is a very average eight year old. She excels in her

emotional and intellectual development. She is very hyper, and her physical development can be

easily handled if learning tools and resources are used. If the student is getting anxious, she can

be given a three to five minute break. During her break she likes to play with her slime or dance

with her dog. She needs physical activity to keep her emotional development under control. If

she feels stressed, encourage stretching, breathing, or holding her crystals. Her philosophical

development is typical for a third grader. Most third graders are not thinking deep thoughts or

about the future. She disregards philosophical conversations and would rather talk about what is

presently happening in her life, like how she is going to the park after her tutoring session. She is

a very social student. She has to see her friends often. Sometimes she will facetime them in the

morning while she is eating breakfast. Her parents do a good job keeping her busy in social

activities. Lastly, her intellectual development is gradually increasing every week. The advice I

would give to someone teaching her is to incorporate tactical lesson plans since she is a hands on

learner.
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References

Anonymous. (2020). What's your learning style? The learning styles, Pennsylvania Higher

Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA). Retrieved from

www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-styles.shtml#:~:text

=If%20you%20are%20a%20tactile,of%20physical%20activity%20is%20involved.

Balance, B. (2021). “Normal attention span expectations by age.” Brain Balance Centers.

Retrieved from

www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/normal-attention-span-expectations-by-age#:~:text=6

%20years%20old%3A%2012%20to,old%3A%2024%20to%2036%20minutes.

Bojana, G. (2020, July 14). “The average height and weight by age.” LIVESTRONG.COM,

Leaf Group. Retrieved from

www.livestrong.com/article/328220-the-average-height-and-weight-by-age/.

Ellsworth, J. (1999). “8th Year.” Teaching Respect for Self and Others, Northern Arizona

University. Retrieved from

jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/PEPSIObserv/year8.html.

Fink, D. (unknown). “Orthodontics and the premature or delayed loss of baby teeth.”

When the Timing of Losing Baby Teeth Becomes an Orthodontic Issue. Retrieved from

www.stlouisbraces.com/baby-teeth-loss-st-louis-orthodontist.

Kostelyk, S. (2019, May 21). “Social emotional developmental milestones.” The Chaos
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and the Clutter. Retrieved from

www.thechaosandtheclutter.com/archives/social-emotional-developmental-milestones.

Neuman, F. (2017, August 27). “Spoiling a child.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers.

Retrieved from www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fighting-fear/201708/spoiling-child.

Poole, C, and Susan M. “Ages & Stages: Don't Forget to Laugh! The Importance of

Humor.” Scholastic. Referenced from

www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/ages-stages-dont-forget-laugh-im

portance-humor/.

Snowman, J and McCown, R. (2015). Age-level characteristics. Psychology Applied to

Teaching, 14th ed. Cengage Learning: Stamford CT 06902.

Wiley, M. (2013). “The Prairie Thief.” DOGObooks.

www.dogobooks.com/the-prairie-thief/book-review/1442440570.