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PEPSI Screening: Anthony Arenas

Sujey Villagrana

EDU 220-1002/Summer 2017

Dr. Rochelle Hooks

College of Southern Nevada

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PEPSI Screening: Anthony Arenas

Anthony Arenas is a healthy 8-year old male. He was born on March 8, 2009 to Maria

Arenas and Anthony Arenas Sr. in Las Vegas, Nevada. He currently resides in an upper middle

class neighborhood in Henderson, Nevada with his parents, 3-year old brother, paternal

grandparents., a paternal uncle, and the family’s dog. Anthony completed the 2nd grade and was

awarded a Straight A Honor Roll Student certificate. He is set to begin the 3rd grade in the fall

with enthusiasm as he will be attending a new school. Christianity plays a significant role in his

family and home life and he enjoys being a part of the children’s ministry at his local church.

Anthony prefers the time he spends focusing on his hobbies with other family members and

friends. He loves assembling challenging and complex Lego sets like MINECRAFT The

Mountain Cave with his grandfather. At other times, he likes watching movies and television

with his mother and grandmother. Exploring and swimming are other hobbies that Anthony

especially enjoys with his friends. They explore the Clark County Wetlands Park often as it is

literally in his backyard, and they love swimming at the Cowabunga Bay Water Park located near

his house.

Anthony has reached the majority of the physical developmental milestones for a child

his age. He is 54 inches tall, weighs 60 pounds and appears slim and healthy. According to his

grandmother, beginning at the age of three up until November of 2016, Anthony has had three

ear surgeries to insert tubes that help to drain fluid from them due to frequent infections. Three

weeks ago, his doctor informed his mother that he will not be needing anymore surgeries as his

eardrums show signs of healing. There are no other real health concerns or illnesses that

Anthony must deal with on a daily basis, other than the occasional cold and the glasses that he
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wears due to Myopia, otherwise known as nearsightedness. Contributing factors to his good

health could be that his immunizations are all up to date and he eats a well-balanced diet.

As mentioned by author Karen Petty (2016), Anthony has mastered the gross motor skills

needed for an average 8-year old to demonstrate good body coordination (p.73). He displays

excellent control of his large muscles by having the ability to move swiftly and balance with

ease. This is observed in his ability to swim, run fast, jump rope, ride a bike, ride and maneuver

a hoverboard, and jump on a trampoline while also performing flips on it. As stated in Snowman

and McCown’s (2015, 2012) work on Physical Characteristics of Primary Grade Children,

Anthony’s physical activities can be extreme and can lead to injuries (p.85). He plays flag

football, and has taken on wrestling as an additional sport. Considering that he engages in such

high energy activities as any well-developed 8-year old should be taking part in, Anthony has not

endured any serious injuries such as broken bones or deep lacerations that have required medical

attention (Petty, 2016 p.74).

As observed in his school work and daily activities that require use of his fine motor

skills, Anthony displays good hand-eye coordination. In contrast to the statement that some

believe to be true, that gross motor skills dominate fine motor skills, Anthony has no trouble

using a pencil and writing legibly (Petty, 2016 p.74). When assembling his Lego sets, which can

contain miniature pieces, he can handle them easily while putting them together. And without

the assistance of an adult, he is also able to dress himself and tie his shoes. Through observation,

Anthony is physically ready to continue his growth development and should be able to tackle any

challenges that come with it.

Anthony’s living situation allows for his emotional development to be nurtured, while at

the same time his display of love and affection can be unreciprocated. There are no signs of
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concern for his physiological needs, such as food and water, as they are met on a daily basis.

Furthermore, he does not worry about shelter for his home is the only place of residence he has

had since birth. However, as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains, Anthony does express a

desire for belongingness and love (Snowman & McCown, 2015, 2012 p.407). According to his

grandmother, she and his grandfather tend to meet most of Anthony’s emotional needs. When he

“gives affection and waits for it in return,” most often his parents will either briefly embrace it or

not return it at all. As Karen Petty (2016) states, children at this age are very capable of

expressing their emotions and his grandmother has observed this when at times he tells her that

“daddy doesn’t love me” after moments like this occur (p.76). As this level of hierarchy

discusses, aside from the affection children can display, they can also show and feel sadness

(Snowman & McCown, 2015, 2012 p.407). Anthony is observed to display such strong

emotions and his grandmother always attempts to reassure him that his mother and father do love

him regardless of the rejection he is sometimes subjected to. Although he does not have a strong

emotional bond with them, he has a very close attachment to his grandparents. As his

grandmother continued to shed some light on the reason for this, she disclosed that Anthony’s

parents were absent from the home for a period of two years when he was three years old. For

the purpose of this screening, she kindly asked that the reason for their absence not be included.

Even though the family is reunited, they continue to struggle as a whole to mend the negative

effects due to the separation. According to author Petty (2016), children at this age need to trust

those who care for him. And Anthony has developed complete trust with his grandparents. He

often spends time with them alone and feels safe with them (p.75).

Regardless of this emotionally developmental challenge that Anthony faces, he is a

competent young boy. He often receives praise and is always encouraged to do well in his
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school work and activities. His family members are his biggest cheerleaders and his efforts are

recognized without considering first if the outcomes will be positive or negative. As a result of

the support he receives in this area of his life, Anthony has developed a “sense of industry” and

takes pride in the things he does well. The works of Snowman and McCown (2015,2012)

confirms this based on Erikson’s Industry Versus Inferiority Theory that is discussed based on

the “characteristics of the stages of personality development” (p.29).

When discussing Anthony’s philosophical development, his grandmother attributes his

good morals and beliefs to being raised in a Christian home. Although he does not have a good

sense of what it is to have socially acceptable morals yet, he can distinguish between right &

wrong, and good & evil. Anthony’s moral strengths are that he is kind, compassionate, and

expresses a desire to help others. During 2nd grade, he was congratulated and recognized by his

elementary school for helping to spread kindness. On one occasion, his teacher caught him

being kind when there were not enough computers for everyone to type and Anthony gave up his

computer for someone else to use. Another time, his “Be Kind” certificate stated that he helped

clean up coats on the classroom floor and put them in the coat bin without being asked to do so.

His compassion and desire to help others became apparent as he was being observed playing the

board game Life. This game allows the individual players to make thoughtful decisions about

the direction in which they choose to go and how they want their life to develop as they approach

retirement. During his turn, he needed to explain how he uses his career skills as a doctor to help

a charity. He said he could take care of homeless people who needed medical help, and that he

wished to contribute half of his annual income to charities that feed needy children. When asked

if he would do the same in a real life situation, he said he wants to be able to help people in any

way he can.
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As described in Kohlberg’s Six Stages of Moral Reasoning, Anthony knows that his

parents and grandparents have full authority over the rules set before him, and tends to obey

those rules in order to avoid punishment. This coincides with the Preconventional level of

morality (Snowman and McCown, 2015, 2012 p.61). Often when he breaks certain rules or

behaves in a manner that is unacceptable, Anthony will not take responsibility and lie in order to

avoid punishment. Unaware that he was being observed, an example of this behavior occurred

when his mother saw him shove his little brother and Anthony refused to acknowledge that he

had done it because he knew he was in trouble. Although he knows that the right thing to do is

to tell the truth, his moral thinking does not always lead to moral behavior as discussed in

Psychology Applied to Teaching (Snowman and McCown, 2015, 2012 p.64-65).

After observing Anthony and interviewing his grandmother, it is apparent that his social

development is not delayed. He is an outgoing young boy, displays the characteristics of a leader,

and easily connects with others. As Killen and Coplan discuss in Social Development in

Childhood and Adolescence, “peers afford children support, intimacy, and companionship

outside of the familial environment” (2011, p.154). Anthony has found this companionship in

his best friend Michael, who is one year older than him. Throughout the school year, Michael

visits on the weekends and spends the night at Anthony’s house. While in the summer months,

Michael spends several weeks at a time with Anthony in his home. Although at times they can

disagree with each other about things, their disagreements are short lived and they quickly move

on to whatever it is they are doing together. Snowman and McCown (2015,2012) state this to be

true in primary grade children like Anthony (p.85). They play outside, watch movies, exercise

use of the video game box, build forts in the loft, play board games, wrestle, and play jokes on

others. On a day when Anthony’s paternal aunt visited his home, he placed a plastic spider on
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the stairs in order to scare her as he is well aware that she is terrified of them. His tactic worked

and he found humor in scaring her. Author Karen Petty (2016) recognizes this type of humor as

an “opportunity to connect” with others for children in Anthony’s age group (p.75).

Anthony’s social skills are also well developed in school. He is well known and liked,

and has many friends. He has been known to come home on occasion with a note from a girl

who finds an interest in him and has no problem expressing it. On the last day of 2nd grade this

spring, Anthony came home with a construction sheet of paper with comments written from his

teacher and fellow classmates. His teacher’s comment was simple; “Leader.” Other comments

included, funny, class clown, nice, kind, handsome, awesome, and cool. This is an example of

the type of characteristics that Anthony exhibits in his social surroundings.

When asked if he could describe three things that he would want others to know about

him, one was that he is smart. Followed by the question of how he knows he is smart, Anthony

said that he gets straight A’s on his report card and that he was the only student in his classroom

to be awarded for his excellent math skills. It appears that his family and teachers also believe

this to be true and base it on his grades and recognitions. Anthony is an accelerated reader, a

member of the Straight A and A/B Honor Roll, and a superstar in math. He finished the 2016-

2017 school year with the letter grade A in all content areas of Language, Mathematics, Reading,

Social Studies, Speaking and Listening, Writing, and Science. He made excellent progress in all

learner behaviors such as observing and following school and classroom rules, and independent

and cooperative works. In the comments made by his teacher, he scored at a 5th grade, 3rd month

level on the STAR reading comprehension test. Additionally, he has mastered all of the concepts

in math for his grade level. Anthony was considered and tested for the GATE (Gifted and

Talented Education) program during the last school year. Although he did not pass the test,
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according to Snowman and McCown (2015,2012), he still possesses some of the characteristics

of a gifted and talented student (p.224).

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References

Killen, M., & Coplan, R. (2011). Social Development in Childhood and Adolescence. (n.p.):
Wiley-Blackwell.

Petty, K. (2016). Developmental Milestones of Young Children (Revised ed.). Retrieved from
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csn/detail.action?docID=4094531.

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015, 2012). Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th ed.).
Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
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