Running head: PEPSI SCREENING !

PEPSI Screening for Juan Valderrama

Sarah N. Green

College of Southern Nevada

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough PEPSI screening for Juan

Valderrama. To begin a biography will be included to provide context of the students

background. There will be five major developmental areas covered; physical

development, emotional development, philosophical development, social development,

and intellectual development. Observations for each developmental area will be covered

as it pertains specifically to Juan. An assessment of Juans ranking for each area will be

determined. Lastly recommendations and suggestions on how to improve each

developmental area will be listed. The sole purpose of this paper is to examine the

needs of the student and provide him with a proper education according to his specific

needs.
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PEPSI Screening for Juan Valderrama

Biography

Juan Valderrama is a male who was born on April 23, 2007 (currently 9 years

old). He was was born in the United States and for most of his early childhood was

constantly traveling between the U.S. and Colombia. His first language was Spanish.

Juan has siblings who are much older than him, and at this point his only interactions

with children his age are when he visits with his cousins. At the age of 5, when he

started kindergarten the constant traveling had stopped and he remained in the U.S. to

begin his early education. In his home life he had family members who spoke Spanish

as well as English, which would aid his learning of the English language along with

teachers and classmates in school. In his kindergarten elementary school Juan was

placed in a class that taught only in english. This particular school did not offer separate

classes or programs for English language learners. Learning the English language was

not found to be a barrier for Juan. Due to the integration of the English language in the

school environment and in the home life he was able to become fluent quite rapidly. In

the present day Juan is still fluently speaking both languages daily.

Physical Development

Juan is active daily in the classroom. It seems as if the regulated activity time

during recess is not enough to calm his energy. Juan is constantly getting out of his seat

for various reasons. His reasons include to put something away, to use the restroom, to

sharpen his pencil and to get a drink of water. His high energy is causing him to get

distracted resulting in him to loosing focus of what is being taught in class. According to

the cognitive immaturity hypothesis (Snowman & McCown 2015), Juan could possibly
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benefit from multiple periods of 1 minute exercises randomly thought out the day. The

minor distractions could boost his attentiveness to the subject matter. Not only will the

physical activity decrease his fidgeting, he could also benefit educationally. Haapala &

Poikkeus (2014) found that more physical activity, specifically in males grades 1-3,

improved reading fluency skills. While Juan his home he spends little to no time being

physically active and because he is 9 he naturally very active. There is not where else

for him to exert his extra energy with only 30 minutes of recess and physical education

classes twice a week for an hour. His energy is at the level it should be however, we

must work to help guide it to positive energy.

Emotional Development

Juans emotional development seems to be mature for his age. Instead of being

brought down or sad when a classmate does not want to play with him he seems to just

brush it off and move on. Juan does try very hard to please others but is remarkably

unaffected when things don't go his way. Unlike the majority of children his age

(Snowman & McCown 2015), Juan is not sensitive to the negative opinions of others.

When given constructive criticism he is able to soak in the information and apply it to

future situations. It seems as though Juan is very aware if morals and applies them to

every decision he makes. A specific example would be him refusing to take an exam.

He understood that failing to take the exam would result in a zero in the grade book. He

knowingly refused to take the test considering that he could afford to receive a zero and

still pass his class. Although it is frowned upon that he did not want to take the test, it

showed much thoughtfulness on his part. Juan ended up taking the test after a

discussion, however I applaud his thought process. His mature emotional development
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could be due to the amount of time he spent in Colombia. Wilson and Raval (2012)

studied the emotional development differences between children from the United States

and children from India. The study found that children from India showed a greater

restraint with displaying emotions than those of the U.S., much like Juan does.

Colombia and the United States are very culturally different countries. Taking into

consideration that Juans mother relates to the Colombian culture most, it will have a

tremendous influence on Juans views and perspectives. Cultural contexts continue to

be a major determiner of a childs emotional development (Mauss & Butler 2010). Of

course a majority of behavioral characteristics is learned from parents followed by

siblings.

Philosophical Development

As stated before Juan has reached a level of understanding as it pertains to

moral and reasoning. Juan is making knowledgeable observations that would be above

average for his grade range. An example from Snowman & McCown (2015) involves

students predicting who one a race based on two pictures. The example states that

students would more often pick the runner who had the fancier shoes because their

cognitive reassigning has not developed to the next level. In a similar situation while

reading a story Juan was asked why he thought the Abominable Snowman did not have

any friends. Instead of answering somewhere along the lines of, because he was mean

or scary, Juan replied He is nervous around people because the always act scared

around him. This reply led to a depth conversation which covered topics such as

always being friendly, outgoing and never judging a book by its cover. Surprisingly,

although the discussion was constructivist-oriented, Juan contributed many thoughts

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and ideas on his own. In other similar situations Juan seemed to understand and use

simple problem framing to acquire all of his hypothesis. Interest is a major motivator for

students and can influence the determination a student expels (Murray 2011). Having

siblings thats are currently in college it appears that Juan realizes its importance even

though he has not had any experience in the adult world yet. Juan regularly mentions

going to a university and receiving a diploma. Although he has not decided on a career,

which is not expected this young in age, he is motivated to continue his higher

education which is promising. His cognitive skills as it relates to reading fluency,

comprehension and reasoning are raked one grade level above (Tighe &

Schatschneider 2014). Therefore he is scoring above grade level on those related skills.

Social Development

Socially Juan is very outgoing. He often approaches classmates and asks them if

they want to play or work together on projects. As previously mentioned if his attempts

are rejected he is not discouraged and will move on to the next classmate. At this point

in time Juan does not have one main best friend as is predicted by Snowman &

McCown (2015) but rather he has a group of really close friends that are always

hanging out together. Out of the 4 in the group it is not certain whether any of them

consider a specific person to be their best friend. According to Ji, Flay & DuBois (2013)

as there is no accurate representation of a grading scale for social development we can

only make comparisons. For example we can compare Juan to other male students in

the class and use the majority of social characteristics to distinguish a small scale.

However for the most part these students will be of different races, cultures and wealth

classes. As mentioned before, different culture behave in different manners and can
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have slightly different moral reasonings (Wilson and Raval 2012). In this case Juan

being outgoing can be a characteristic of the Colombian culture, where as in the Asian

culture it would be a sign of disrespect for a child to be outgoing, specifically toward an

elder. In these cases it is important to look at every student as an individual an examine

their behavior. Juan has exemplary development in the social category. He is always

ready to make new friends and get involved.

Intellectual Development

Juan is highly intellectual when it comes to technology. Currently technology is

involved in all aspect of modern life. Since children are so used to using technology in

their home life it is a goo idea to integrate it in the school environment. Students learn

better using what they are comfortable with and what they believe to be fun. For most

students that involves technology. Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Shia state that,

technological environments provide opportunities for students to engage their practical,

creative, and analytical abilities in ways not always available in traditional classroom

environments (as cited in Snowman & McCown 2015). In addition to his high cognitive

skills, Juan displays a high level of knowledge and understanding when technology is

involved. At times he is even able to show his elders tips and tricks that they were

unaware of. He does in fact use his creativity to analyze and think outside of the box.

When technology is involved the task at hand seems to become fun for Juan. He views

the programs as games he must win and his competitiveness pushes him to do better

and try harder. Programs used in class are accessible at home with a login so that the

learning doesn't stop at home. Juan exhibits excitement when he is at home and has

home work to do on a tablet or computer. As stated earlier, Juans cognitive skill are
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above what is expected at his age. His thoughts during discussions are reflective rather

than impulsive. You can easily watch him analyze questions and use what he already

knows to come up with an educated answer. As depicted by Williams (2008) overall

intelligence is a combination of social and emotional intelligence. To take is a step

further I would also include physical and philosophical developments. All skills and

developments combine to produce an overall intellectual student. Based on all of Juans

developments his intellectual development slightly excels standards and criteria as it

relates to male students in his age and grade.

Graph of Developments

Juan Valderrama

100

75

50

25

0
Physical Emotional Philosophical Social Intellectual

Developments
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Recommendations

As far as Juans physical development is concerned, the following are

recommendations are to aid and improve in the areas where he is lacking. Since Juan is

currently very active throughout class time it causes and unnecessary amount of

disruption. The disruption often leads to him being disciplined for reason which are out

of his control. To relieve some of his activeness he should get involved in activities

either before or after school. The school provides programs such as safe key that

provides students with activities to do before and after school. As previously stated an

immediate solution is for the teacher to take a few minutes out of each day to do small

exercises with the class. The minor distraction will get their blood flowing and their brain

working clearer. After a few quick exercises Juan should be ready to focus again. He

may also be disruptive because of the students he sits next to or perhaps he has trouble

seeing the information the teacher is displaying on the board. A new seating

arrangement may be needed. His new seat should be away from students he will be

tempted to talk to, as well as up close where he will not have an issue seeing or hearing

the teacher.

Juans emotional development is great as for as him not letting the negligence of

other students get him down. However, he should realize that he will not always get

along with everyone. There will be times when someone does not want to be his friend

and he will insist on making it work. A good conversation may help him become less

eager about trying to please everyone. A simple explanations regarding the different

types of people and cultures could allow him to understand why not everyone will be

friends. This will also go hand in hand with his social development because a large part
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of your emotion is caused by the people around you. Your social circles determine your

emotional state as well as other factors. Which that being said social and emotional

development will apply to one another.

Philosophically Juan excels. As long as he keeps doing what he is doing he

should continue to thrive. If the content is not meeting his needs and he is getting bored

then he may need to be placed in higher level classes or programs. If he becomes

bored with the content in could cause more disruptions involved with his physical

development.

Intellectual development as stated before will require a combination of the above

developments. This developments will deal most with educational content. The more he

is able to learn and apply his knowledge the better off he will be. He will strongly benefit

from instilling the Multiple Intelligences theory. That would mean applying what he

already knows in school and then taking that knowledge and applying it in his everyday

life. If he constantly thinks outside of the box and reelect on what he has learned is

intellectual development will ascend.

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References

Haapala, E. A., Poikkeus, A., Kukkonen-Harjula, K., Tompuri, T., Lintu, N., Vist, J., . . .

Lakka, T. A. (2014). Associations of physical activity and sedentary behavior with

academic skills - A follow-up study among primary school children. PLoS One,

9(9), e107031. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.010703

Ji, P., Flay, B. R., & DuBois, D. L. (2013). SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL AND CHARACTER

DEVELOPMENT SCALE: Development and initial validation with urban

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9(2), 121-147. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 1449822489?accountid=27953

Mauss, I. B., & Butler, E. A. (2010). Cultural Context Moderates the Relationship

Between Emotion Control Values and Cardiovascular Challenge Versus Threat

Responses. Biological Psychology, 84(3), 521530. http://doi.org/10.1016/

j.biopsycho.2009.09.010

Murray, A. (2011). Montessori elementary philosophy reflects current motivation

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Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). 3. In Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th ed., pp.

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Developments
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Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). 3. In Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th ed., pp.

360-363). Stamford , CT: Cengage Learning.

Problem Solving

Williams, H. W. (2008). Characteristics that distinguish outstanding urban principals.

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expression and control in school-age children in india and the united states.

Merrill - Palmer Quarterly, 58(1), 50-76. Retrieved from

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10.1007/s11145-013-9435-6