PEPSI Screening 1

PEPSI Screening

Erika Islas

College of Southern Nevada

Dr. Ce Isbell

Edu 220-3002
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Abstract

For this project I got the pleasure to observe a 6-year old boy with autism. I got to observe his

five areas of development: Physical development, emotional development, philosophical development,

social development and his intellectual development. I have never interacted with any child that has

any type of disabilities so this was very interesting to me. Throughout this paper you will see how

unique this child is compared to ‘typical’ children. I will also introduce the Theory of Mind, and how

Jimmy (the 6 year old boy with autism) highly related to this theory.
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Introduction

The child that I chose to observe is a 6 year old hispanic boy named Jimmy. Jimmy is a young

boy with autism. Jimmy lives with both his parents, unfortunately he has no siblings and becauses of

his autism he cannot have any pets. Jimmy was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada; however both

his parents are Mexican-Americans. His mom was born in Jalisco, Mexico but moved to the United

State when she was about 10 years old and his dad was born in Baja California, but also moved to the

United States when he was young as well. Because Jimmy never grew up with any siblings or cousins

he became very antisocial, he does not like being around other people or animals. He lacks the ability to

talk or speak but he has a very intelligent and bright personality. He doesn't like loud noises.
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Physical Development

Jimmy is 6-years old, and around this time children , according to our textbook Psychology

Applies to Teaching are in this period of “relative calm and predictability in physical development,”

(Snowman, 2012, p.89). What this means is that growth in height and weight are more consistent and

moderate. However in Jimmy’s case, he has been the same weight since he was four. If you look at the

chart (figure 1) you can see that an average 6-year olds weighs 46 pounds. However, Jimmy weighed

approximately 43 pounds since he was 4-years old. His weight is very inconsistent, some days he

weighs more than others. He is not malnourished at all, his parents struggle to make him eat his full

meals three times a day but he has snacks in between, however he is a very picky eater (he loves salty

food and he stays away from sugars).

He is also extremely hyper and full of energy, which is perfect for his age; “Primary grade

children are still extremely active,” ( Snowman, 2012; p. 84). When he’s at home, he loves to run in

the backyard, around the house and in his room. He is fidgety and can’t really stay still in one place. He

loves to play and he could play all day, but he is very selfish and stingy when it comes to his toys and

he doesn't like to share at all with anything or anyone. He doesn’t like to play with anyone as well, he

loves to play on his own and by himself. He is very shy but he is also very affectionate, he loves hugs

he loves to be tickled, which speaks a lot about his household. Just from seeing him laugh, you can tell

he’s very happy in his household. His household must be filled with love, his parents make sure that he

feels love and accepted in his home, his parents overall make sure that he knows that he is loved.

Which helps a lot in development.

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According to raisingchildren.net, 6 year olds are now learning how the body moves, they are

grasping an understanding of their own body and their own strengths. “At this age this stage, children

are typically: able to draw and write with greater control and precision, move in time to the beat or

rhythm of music, ride a two-wheel bike, learn important swimming skills, have better balance and

coordination,” (“Physical Development: Ages 6-7.” 2018).

When it comes to Jimmy, he is not at that stage yet. He is not testing his strengths or body

mobility. He knows how to run, he loves to run but he does not know how to limit himself (in other

words he runs until he’s out of energy and out of breath). Because of the severity of his autism he isn’t

capable of writing, drawing, moving to a beat or rhythm, he is not learning to ride a bike, or go

swimming, but with time and practice and much hope, eventually he will get there.
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Figure 1
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Emotional Development

In the emotional development stage children of age six are starting to connect their feelings with

knowledge; they are starting to understand their emotions. “Students are sensitive to criticism and

ridicule and many have difficulty adjusting to failure” (Snowman, 2012, p. 86). Jimmy on the other

hand, doesn’t do well with emotions. Jimmy finds it very difficult to control his emotions and doesn't

know how to express his emotions freely and openly. Jimmy can’t analyze his own behavior therefore

he can’t distinguish right from wrong. It takes time for him to even understand certain concepts. Jimmy

can only show two different types of emotions: frustration and happiness, there is no in between. When

Jimmy is tired, hungry or frustrated, he yells, screams or cries. You can tell he is happy when laughs

and smiles, that is the easiest emotion he can express.

According to pbs.org, children of the age of six children “can express needs and wants in

appropriate ways, but may express self impulsively.” However in Jimmy’s case, he can’t express needs

or wants, because Jimmy can’t communicate using words, Jimmy uses a strange way of

communicating, he starts yelling. Yelling is Jimmy’s way of communicating. Jimmy hates being told

what to do or in other words he hate commands, for example putting his toys away or leaving his

preferred room (the playroom). It’s very challenging to get Jimmy to do something. When he is

demanded to do something, Jimmy starts to scream or cry. When he is frustrated and can’t understand

something, he starts yelling. Frustration leads to terrible emotional behavior. When Jimmy is pushed to

his limits or is extremely frustrated with himself or others, he tends to become violent and throw

tantrums. His acts can range from hitting himself to throwing objects, uncontrollably spitting, or biting.

Jimmy is also sound sensitive meaning any unpleasant sound (like a dog barking, a vacuum or a car

honking) he starts to yell or scream.

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According to raisingchildren.net.au, by age 5-7 years old, children with autism “can recognize

happy and sad, but they have a harder time with subtle expressions of fear and anger. By adolescence,

teenagers with ASD still aren’t as good at recognising fear, anger, surprise and disgust as typically

developing teenagers.” By this we can conclude that Jimmy is right on track in developing emotions.

We can also conclude that it’s going to take a while for him to fully grasp an idea of his feelings but for

now where he stands is good for his emotional development. Figure 2 helps us understand further the

Emotional Development of an Autistic child with that of a typical “normal” child and a “recovered”

child which is a child with highly treated Autism; the numbers on the right are percentages, by age 6 we

can see that a “typical” child almost reaches 40% of understanding their emotions compared to a child

of 6 with autism who is reaching 20%.

Figure 2
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Philosophical Development

When it comes to a six year olds Philosophical Development, children are learning about rules

and consequences, understanding theft, cheating, lying etc… Children are making their way and

transforming their mind into a reasoning mind; where children are starting to think more logical, this is

the stage where they are learning how to express several of emotions such as embarrassment and guilt

(if they are caught lying or stealing. Jimmy in this development resembles the development of a three

year old. Jimmy is nowhere near understanding emotions of embarrassment or guilt. But just as Jimmy

is nowhere near that, Jimmy is nowhere near stealing, lying or cheating (“Teaching Respect to Self and

Others”). Instead Jimmy s is at a Pre-Moral stage, where Jimmy is not aware of right or wrong but he

somewhat understands and recognizes his parents frustration or anger (when he does something

wrong). Jimmy also shows no way of intentionally doing things, he has no idea of why he does things

the way he does, but he does follow rules, occasionally.

Jimmy has his own sense of mind, just like any other child. However, Jimmy is hard to control,

he likes doing what he says and when he says it. He is driven to have everything done his way (much

like the philosophical development of 3 years old). Children also at the age of six are discovering to

ways to “understand that there are different ways to know things and that some ways are better than

others,” (Snowman, 2012, p. 87). However since Jimmy is underdeveloped he needs a constant routine

pattern which he does have at home.

According to helpguide.org, one of the techniques that help mothers with autistic children is to

provide structure: be consistent, stick to a schedule, reward good behavior and create a home safety
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zone. Jimmy’s mom does exactly that, she is very consistent when it comes to her schedule; she has a

morning routine, lunch/evening routine and a dinner routine. By her kitchen she has a printable visual

schedule where each morning she goes over what they (her and Jimmy) are going to do for that day, on

this printable schedule she has little magnetic stick on cards with activities on the front (a toothbrush, a

sandwich, a hair brush, clothes etc.). She also has a calendar that’s filled with stickers and each day that

Jimmy completes his schedule he gets a sticker, by the end of the month depending on how many

stickers Jimmy gets, he will be rewarded a surprise. Jimmy’s mom has seen that by using the printable

visual schedules, it helped with Jimmy’s inappropriate behaviors, it made him a bit more calm, it also

boosted his self-esteem as well as helping her get a bit more control of Jimmy. As you can see in Figure

3, you can see the yellow line representing the typical Philosophical Development of a 6-year old,

being compared to that development of a 6 year-old Autistic child, that is highly under-developed.
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Figure 3
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Social Development

“Six-year- old children will naturally gravitate toward more independence and will increasingly

begin to focus more on friendships with peers and show interest in adults outside of the family, such as

friends’ parents or teachers,” (Lee, 2018). By the age of six most children don’t need their parents help

with meeting and creating friends. Children may be a little shy and may need a little push but more than

that they probably will not need. However maintaining friends are the problem, children tend to be

bossy as well as selfish; they have issues sharing their toys or just belongings in general. They are also

“reverts” to poor manner, asocial stance and rudeness. Children can be very blunt and say things

without thinking causing them to be looked at as rude.

Jimmy is much delayed when it comes to his social development, he does not like people.

Jimmy hates interacting with people (even people he knows sometimes). His world revolves around his

toys and his parents. He does not like participating in social activities let alone he does not like social

events/social rooms. He prefers to be by himself and loves to isolate himself. This is completely normal

when dealing with an autistic child, difficulties with social relationships and interactions have been a

challenge with autism. Autistic children prefer to be alone but are attached to their parents. “Kanner’s

(1943) original description of autism suggested that the basis for the social difficulties lay in a child’s

inability to form emotional ties,”(The National Academies Press, 2001). A huge factor that plays a role

with social skills the lack of empathy that autistic children have, they fail to see things through another

perspective. This is where we can connect the Theory of Mind with autism,

“Theory of mind refers to the notion that many autistic individuals do not understand that other people have

their own plans, thoughts, and points of view. Furthermore, it appears that they have difficulty
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understanding other people's beliefs, attitudes, and emotions,” (Edelson, 2018). This is the main reason

why autistic individuals have such a hard time with developing their social skills; they fail to

understand that there are other people revolving around their world, and that these people have feelings,

thoughts and their own perspective. Along with the Theory of Mind, it is also very common for autistic

individuals to get frustrated when they are having difficulty understanding things; which fits Jimmy’s

characteristic perfectly.

In Figure 4 you can see the level of improvements of children with ASD (another term for autism).

Jimmy is classified with high to very high levels of ASD; his improvement is very slow.

Figure 4
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Intellectual Development

Intellectually by the age of six we tend to see that children tend to put what they learn to

practice; meaning we see that children are starting to show and put into place their skills that they have

learned throughout the years. They practice logic by mental imagery to integrate ideas in their daily

tasks. We also tend to see that the attention span increases, they start to enjoy learning, we can see this

through their concentrations of energy when it comes to reading or hand writing, the idea to master

them, we can also see their eagerness to learn more new skills as well as enjoying utilizing the skills

they have previously learned. “Continuing neurological development and limited experience with

formal learning tasks,” (Snowman, 2012 p. 87), children start to recall the techniques that they have

learned.

Jimmy also is much delayed in this portion of his development. He can show progress but he

can’t practice what he learned on his own. He needs someone to push him, he can’t work

independently. His development is between those of a one year old through a three year old. He is

currently learning to use his five senses; he’s learning to understand certain sounds and smells.

According to parentfurther.com, “Your child will become more sophisticated in understanding the

concept of time. They enjoy hearing about times past. By age 6, most children can count to 100.”

Jimmy is on the right track, he is not learning to count to 100 but he is learning to count to 10. He is a

visual learner and he learns by repetition, however he doesn’t need something repeated 3 or 4 times he

needs something to be repeated for about 2 or 3 weeks on-going, every day in order for him to grasp a

certain concepts like counting; also it has to catch his interest, if he isn’t interested in learning he will
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not learn. He will not bother to pay attention to you but if it has to do with him being interested he will

pay attention. The secret to catching his interest is by using things he likes, using his favorite snacks to

count, or using his toys. Something that motivates him and grabs his interest is the way to go.

The intellectual development of an autistic child is also highly connected to the Theory

of Mind, “ individuals with autism or those with milder characteristics may not respond as well to

praise or punishment in the classroom,” (Understanding Minds 2012) because autistic children lack the

ability to understand and comprehend certain situational settings.

Figure 5
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Recommendations

Physical:

For his physical development I would recommend that Jimmy eats more veggies. I know he is a

very picky eater but maybe integrating more veggies into his diet might help him grow a little.

Emotional :

One recommendation that I suggest for Jimmy’s emotional development is to teach him how to

recognize when he needs a break. You can do this by watching him trying to complete a task, when you

see him get frustrated because he can ‘t complete it or he is having difficulties doing it, say “Jimmy

let’s take a break, let’s go outside and get some air.” Repeating this motion will prevent Jimmy from

having a melt down or throwing a tantrum. This will take Jimmy out of the situation, temporarily until

you feel like Jimmy has calmed down and is ready to continue with whatever he was doing.

Philosophical :

One recommendation that I would suggest is, each time an activity is present to go over your

schedule to remind your child of their routine. For instance, go over the routine before and after, meals,

brushing of the teeth, playing outside etc.. “Ok, Jimmy now that we are done with eating our lunch, lets

go brush our teeth, after we brush our teeth we can go outside and play.” Reminding Jimmy of his

routine, will insure that there is enforced structure around the house and that he is not in command, that

you are.

Social:

One recommendation I suggest is to start introducing more people to Jimmy. Since Jimmy grew

up, basically alone, he is used to being only alone and doesn’t like company, making him very isolated.

I suggest taking him slowly out of his comfort zone, making sure that he knows that he is accepted in a
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social setting. DO NOT bring everyone at once, slowly integrate one or two people at a time, preferably

one.

Intellectual:

One recommendation I suggest for the Intellectual part is to keep up with autistic research. Keep

up with the latest findings by reading news articles, studies, etc.. Keeping up to date with new findings

of autism is highly important because new information is always being presented; thus giving you a

better understanding of your child and autism itself (like understanding exactly what autism is, how it's

happening, and update treatments of autism).

References:

Physical:
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Emotional development in children with autism spectrum disorder. (2017 January 1). Raisingchildren.

Retrieved from

http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/autism_spectrum_disorder_emotional_development.html

Physical Development: Ages 6-7. (2018) Kidcenteraltn. Retrieved from

https://www.kidcentraltn.com/article/physical-development-ages-6-7

Snowman, J. (2012) Psychology Applied to Teaching. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Emotional:

Richdale, A. (2017) Raisingchildren. Retrieved from

http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/autism_spectrum_disorder_emotional_development.html

Snowman, Jack (2012) Psychology Applied to Teaching. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Social and Emotional Growth. (2013). Pbs. Retrieved on April 13, 2018, from

http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/six/socialandemotionalgrowth.html

Philosophical:

Ellsworth, J. (1999) ESE504. Retrieved from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/

Smith, M. (2018 March) Helpguide. Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/autism-learning-

disabilities/helping-your-child-with-autism-thrive.htm

Snowman, Jack (2012) Psychology Applied to Teaching. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Social:

Autism Research Institute. (2018) Theory of Mind. Retrieved from

https://www.autism.com/understanding_theoryofmind
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Lee, K. (2018 April 25). Verywellfamily. Retrieved from https://www.verywellfamily.com/6-year-olds-and-

social-development-621089

The National Academies Press. (2018) Educating Children with Autism. Retrieved from

https://www.nap.edu/read/10017/chapter/8#68

Intellectual:

Parent Further. (2018) Ages 6-9 Developement. Retrieved from https://www.parentfurther.com/content/ages-

6-9-developmental-overview

Snowman, Jack (2012) Psychology Applied to Teaching. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Understanding Minds. ( 2012 January 27). Some of the Cognitive Characteristics in the Autism Spectrum

Retrieved from http://www.understandingminds.com.au/blog/some-of-the-cognitive-characteristics-in-

the-autism-spectrum/