Running heading: PESPI SCREENING

PESPI Screening

Emilia Cervantes

College of Southern Nevada

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PESPI Screening

Max is a seven year old who is in second grade; he is young for the grade level. His

ethnicity is Hispanic and he was born and raised in Las Vegas. His primary language is English

and he does not speak Spanish well but understands it. He lives with both his mom and dad.

Both of his parents are bilingual and are American citizens. He has one brother and two sisters.

His brother is five years old and his two sisters are four and fifteen years old. Their

socioeconomic status is low class.

Physical Development

The normal height for a seven year old boy is 46.6 - 49.5 inches and normal weight is

46.5 - 56.8 pounds (Your childs, 2010). Maxs height is 49 inches and his weight is 54

pounds, showing that his weight and height meet the normal standard for his age group. During

this period, childrens fine (involves the use of small bodily movements like fingers or hands)

and gross motor skills (involves the use of large bodily movements like legs) continue to

improve (Physical Development, 2016). Thus, children love to run, jump, leap, throw, catch,

climb, and balance (Physical Development, 2016). In fact, Max told me he enjoys activities

like riding his bicycle, playing soccer and basketball. Even touching, exploring, feeling the

other kinesthetic activities become exciting with love for coloring, drawing, marbles, jacks,

doing puzzles, making model giving great pleasure (Ellsworth, 1999). I noticed Max likes to do

elaborate drawings and was excited when I brought coloring pages with me. As child grow

physically in middle childhood, they become more adept at gross motor activities (Physical

Development, 2016). When Max would draw or write things down, the writing often appeared

messy but as I was leaving one time, I saw that he was able to ride his scooter well. Beside

physical development, general health improves with many children of this age (Ellsworth, 1999).
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When I asked his mother if he was physical healthy, she said yes and I saw no vision problems.

This child to me seems to be physically developing normally, so I encouraged the parents to

continue to provide him with opportunities for physical activities like allowing him time to ride

his bike or scooter. I also recommended that the parents provide the child with healthy meals,

including plenty of fruits and vegetables. I suggested to the parents to limit his TV, video game

and computer time to 1 or 2 hours, as well.

Emotional Development

In Eriksons psychosocial development theory, children in middle childhood enter

industry versus inferiority stage. In this stage, children learn to win recognition for producing

things (Snowman & McCown, 2015, p. 29). If they are encouraged in their efforts to make, do

or build practical things (whether it be to construct three houses or airplane modelsor to cook,

bake), are allowed to finish their products, and are praised for trying, they start to develop a

sense of industry or competence (Elkind, 1970, p. 11). However, if their efforts at making and

doing are seen as mischief, bothersome or unsuccessful, a sense of inferiority develops (Elkind,

1970, p. 12). Consequently, they may not take pride in doing at least one kind of thing really

well and may believe they will never excel at anything (Snowman & McCown, 2015, p. 30).

During my observation, I noticed Max successfully went through this stage by developing a

feeling of competence. For example, he often initiated his homework when he remembered he

had to finish it and tried his best to do it on his own. He also told me that he enjoys reading, even

if he struggles, with it and likes trying new things. Even when I asked him what things he can do

or was good at, he was able to tell me a couple of things he could do like new a trick he learned

for soccer. As school-age children develop their sense of competence, it is also a time that

children start to develop their self-concept, the attributes, abilities, attitudes and values that they
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believe define them (Oswalt, n.d.). When I asked Max to draw how he saw himself, he drew a

big baby attacking people and himself like a superhero. He also saw himself as a happy kid and a

helpful friend. At this age, children can start to develop a high or low self-esteem, which could

impact their self-concept. Children who can better cope with frustrations and challenges are more

likely to think of themselves as successful, valuable, and good, which will lead to a higher self-

esteem (Oswalt, n.d.). In contrast, children who have low self-esteem may become easily

frustrated and discouraged, which can lead them to start to believe that they can not be successful

and are not valuable (Oswalt, n.d.). I can tell that Max is a child who has high self-esteem. In

fact, I often brought games for fun with me when I observed him. Sometimes I would win and

he did not get upset at all. He often asked me to the bring the same games with me again.

Furthermore, I could tell he was someone who does not give up easily but keeps trying. This was

evident when I saw him concentrating really hard on his math homework and staying seated until

he was done. I think the parents should encourage him to create things and praise him for trying,

to help him focus on his strengths. Moreover, I recommended that the parents teach him to

recognize his feelings. I also suggested continuing to teach him ways to control negative

emotions.

Philosophical Development

Kholberg elaborated Piagets ideas on moral thinking by including three levels of moral

reasoning: Level 1, preconventional morality; Level 2, conventional morality; and Level 3,

postconventional morality (Sowman & McCown, 2015, p. 61). Each level contains two stages,

eight stages in total (Sowman & McCown, 2015, p. 61). Children up to the age of nine typically

are at the precoventional level because they have not yet understood the rules of society

(Sownman & McCown, 2015, p. 61). In the preconventional level, the two stages are
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punishment-obedience orientation and instrumental relativist orientation (Snowman & McCown,

2015 p. 61). To assess Maxs philosophical development, I showed him an interactive video on

YouTube of a moral dilemma short story called Heinz Story. Toward the end, Max had to click

on one of the three options the video gave him. He clicked on the second option, which was that

Heinz should not steal the drug since he would be breaking the law. This choice proves Max is

most likely at level 1. When I asked Max why Heinz should not steal the drug that could save his

wifes life, his answer was because Heinz would break the law and could go to jail. His answer to

my question revealed he is in stage 1of level 1 because it was about not getting caught. Stage 1

is punishment-obedience orientation in which the physical consequences of action determine

goodness or badness, authority figures have absolute power, and children avoid punishment to

stay out of trouble (Hersh & Kohlberg, 1977, p. 54). Childrens internal sense of right or

wrong is developing too (Ellsworth, 1999). This sense of what is right or wrong was noticeable

when I showed Max a list of behaviors and he had to check some that he considered to be wrong,

like he believed that cheating and lying were wrong. There were other behaviors that he checked

that he believed are always wrong, no matter what, including stealing. Children at his age start to

hold a single absolute idea of appropriate behavior (Ellsworth, 1999). Children also determine

guilt the by amount of damage done (Ellsworth, 1999). To see if Max focused on the amount of

damage done and not on the intention, I told him two stories. The first story was about a little

boy called Julian who played with his fathers ink-pot while his father was away and made a

little blot on the tablecloth (Snowman & McCown, 2015 p. 59). The second story was about a

little boy called Augustus who noticed that his fathers ink-pot was empty and thought of filling

the ink-pot to help his father so that when his father came home, he would see it full. But while

Augustus was opening the pot, he made a big blot on the tablecloth (Snowman & McCown,
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2015, p. 59). When I asked Max which of the two is naughtier and why, he said that Augustus

was naughtier because he made a big blot or a bigger mess. At this stage, the child believes

rules must remain unchanged (Ellsworth, 1999). When I asked Max if rules are important he

said yes. I also asked him if we should obey rules and why. He said yes so that other peoples

feelings were not hurt. One time when I brought a game with me, Maxs brother played it with

us. Max pointed out to his brother the rules of the game while we played it. As I recommended,

the parents should continue to teach Max about empathy or considering another persons point of

view. The parents should also continue to show support and love. Furthermore, I recommended

the parents continue to set reasonable high expectations and to model positive behavior.

Social Development

Friendships help to improve childrens social cognition, or experiential knowledge and

understanding of society and the rules of social behavior (Social cognition, 2016). In fact,

Max talked about how sharing and being honest is important, especially when being a good

friend. Researchers report that the majority of childrens mutual friendships are with same-sex

peers (Rubin, Chen, Coplan, & Buskirk, 2005, p. 476). When I asked Max if most of his

friends are boys or girls, he said that it is equal, but when I asked him to draw a picture of a game

that he and his best friend like to play, I found out that his best friend is a boy. I asked him about

school, if he plays more with the boys or girls. He told he plays more with the boys because they

help each other out. From an early age, children are attracted to and choose friends who are like

themselves in observable characteristics. For example, it has been reported that children are

attracted to peers whose behavioral tendencies are similar to their own (Rubin, Chen, Coplan, &

Buskirk, 2005, p. 476). Max and his best friend have things in common; he told me they both

like to make up their own games and are both good team players. Beside childrens friendships,
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parent-child issues start to arise in middle childhood. Parents start to determine whether to give

their children more responsibility like whether to require them to do chores and whether children

should be paid for household work (Maccoby, 1984 p. 10). For example, Max told me about the

chores he was required to do; he gets paid a dollar for each time he does his chores like washing

dishes. Overall, he seems to be having normal development in his peer and parent relationships.

Parents should continue to establish rules and boundaries, allow the child to make decisions, and

allow opportunities for the child to interact with other children his age.

Intellectual Development

Piagets cognitive development theory shows that children around the age of seven may

still be in preoperational stage but accomplish some skills in concrete operational stage. These

milestones include the decline (although not the obliteration) of a childs egocentricism (his

belief that what he thinks and feels is felt by everyone else as well) and the taking into

consideration of other peoples points of view or feelings (Anthony, n.d.). To see if Maxs

egocentricism had decreased, I took a cardboard box and taped a paper circle to one side and a

paper square to the other side and took it with me. Then I showed him a paper that gave him four

options; I asked him how the box looked from my side. He was able to pick the correct answer

and mentally take into account how it would look from my perspective. Another milestone

includes greater attention span and impulse control (Anthony, n.d.). These behaviors were

noticeable when Max got excited when I brought the games with me to do for fun, but first I told

him I needed him to do the worksheets or activities I had planned for that day. These worksheets

and activities were used to evaluate him on each developmental area; he was able to pay

attention to the activities first and got them done before we played the games.
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Cognitive skills that develop at this age include childrens metacognition or the ability to

think about thinking. As a result, school-age children start to develop and choose specific

strategies for approaching a given learning task, monitor their comprehension of information,

and evaluate their progress toward completing a learning task (Anthony, n.d.). For example,

when Max did his math homework, he would count on his fingers to help him get the answer.

Furthermore, children at the concrete operational stage can engage in classification, or the

ability to group according to features, and serial ordering, or the ability to group according to

logical progression (Cognitive Development, 2016). I gave Max an activity where he had to

cut and glue correct words to the corresponding sections (body, fruit, and animal). He was able to

correctly do this activity and hardly ask for my help. I also wrote numbers from one to ten but

not in order. I asked him to put these numbers from smallest to greatest, then put the same

numbers from greatest to smallest. He was able to accomplish this assignment without any help.

However, he was not able to accomplish all tasks on the concrete operational stage and is still

working on some tasks that put him in the preoperational stage. According to Snowman and

McCown (2015), preoperational children have difficulty with conservation problems--those that

test their ability to recognize that certain properties stay the same despite a change in appearance

or position (p. 41). I carried out an experiment to see whether if Max would be able to solve

conservation problems. This task required me to pour water into two identical short glasses and

ask him if the two glasses had equal amount of water. Once he agreed, I poured water from one

of the short glasses into a tall, thin glass then I asked if the tall glass contained more water or if

the short glass contained more water, or if it was equal. He told me that the tall glass contained

more water. Some of the main impediments that preoperational children like Max have to

overcome are perceptual centration (a strong tendency to focus attention on only one
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characteristic of an object or aspect of a problem) and irreversibility (Snowman & McCown,

2015, p. 42). When I asked him why he thought the tall glass contained more water, he said it

was because it was tall and long. This shows that he only focused on one characteristic of an

object, in this case, the tall, thin glass. He was also not able to understand that the amount water

in both glasses stayed the same, even though the tall glass made it seem like there was more

water. These experiments show that Max is in between preoperational and concrete operational

stages. I also recommended the parents help the child to be aware of difference in situations or of

individual differences. Additionally, the parents should try to incorporate thinking games that

involve concentration and reasoning, like Uno or Bingo. Furthermore, parents should try to

understand Maxs method of learning. Is he a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner? By figuring

out what style Max best learns from, it could help to know how he learns.

During my observation, I noticed Max is progressing at a normal rate in all five

development areas. In physical development, he has met the standard for height and weight in his

age group. His fine and gross motor skills continue to improve too. In emotional development, he

has successfully entered the industry versus inferiority stage in Eriksons psychosocial

development theory by developing competence. He also has high self-esteem and is starting to

develop a positive self-concept. In philosophical development, he has showed typically moral

reasoning by being in stage 1 of level 1 in Kholbergs moral development theory. He even has

started to develop his own sense of what is right and wrong. In social development, he seems to

have normal social characteristics like having mutual friends of same-sex peers and chooses

friends who were similar to him. In intellectual development, Max is in between the

preoperational and concrete operational stages in Piagets cognitive development theory. He has

accomplished some concrete operational skills like being able to understand classification and
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serial order but does not understand conservation problems. Overall, the parents are doing a

great job at making sure the child is reaching his milestones.

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Child Development
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Child Development
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References

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