Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Breehanna Hausman
Principles of Educational Psychology
EDU 220 -1002
Professor: Dr. Rochelle Hooks
I chose to do my pepsi screening on my best friends little sister Megan Hancock. Megan
is a thirteen year old kid who is about to enter into teenage years of her life. She is female and
has two older sisters, Ashley and Veronica. She is the youngest of three children in that family.
Each sister is exactly seven years apart from each other. Megan is thirteen and my friend Ashley
is twenty and her older sister is twenty seven. Megan is much into the arts and loves to draw
and paint pictures. She likes to express herself with clothing and borrows her older sister
clothing a lot of the time. She does not play any sports. Megan is a Christian and is very active in
her faith. She is involved at our church and is in an organization called wild life that introduces
adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith. Megan is very active in that,
and goes to summer camp every summer and participates in all the events for wild life. She
goes to Lied Middle school in Las Vegas Nevada, and will be going to Shadow Ridge High school
when she begins high school. Megan is a typical teenager, loves to hang out with her friends
and go to the movies and hangout with her older sister. Megan has lived in Vegas her whole life
and likes growing up here. Megan says she wants to be a doctor when she is older, and hopes
to go to college at UNLV to stay close to her family. Her hobbies consists of drawing and riding
her skateboard or long board around the neighborhood. She has a small collection of her skate
boards in her room that she loves to show people. One other hobby she has is nail painting, she
will always have designs on her nails for every holiday and season. She also has three little
nieces and nephews from her oldest sister. She often babysits those kids after school and on
weekends. The kids are two twin boys that are six years old and a girl who is four. Megan’s
family’s socioeconomic status is normal and Megan has not had a job before because she is not
of age yet. Her status in her school is average, and she gets good grades
This rapid physical development begins for teens when they begin to get puberty and soon
adulthood begins. Megan is in her early teenage years which is the time where most physical
changes occur. One of the major things that happen is, skeletal growth is marked in long bone
and joint plates. Bone and skeletal attachment damage can easily occur, suggesting less zealous
sports would be appropriate (Northern Arizona University). When girls reach the age of eight to
thirteen they start their growth spurt, and have rapid growth till the age of ten to sixteen. Most
girls are done growing height wise by late teenage years. Megan is about 5’7 and according to
live strong magazine 5’3 or 5’4 is the average height. Several factors can influence potential
height such as genetics and nutrition, as do certain medical conditions and medications that
interfere with digestion and appetite. Also other physical developments are, body mass and
muscle mass while also adding body fat. During adolescence, girls' percentage of body fat will
increase, relative to muscle mass. This additional fat is deposited in her body's midsection, all
this is due to puberty. Megan has experienced this growth during this time and has started her
puberty. All these changes result in body awareness and this is the time where parents need to
assist their kids with their self-acceptance. According to this, Megan should be experiencing all
Another form of the screening process is to evaluate the emotional side of the child.
and regulation of emotions from birth through late adolescence. It also comprises how growth
emotional development theories are proposed, but there is general agreement on age-related
milestones in emotional development. The age that Megan is at are dealing with the physical
changes in their body like puberty and emotionally as well as physically. This will cause young
teen to feel uncertain, moody and be sensitive to what others think of them, especially their
peers about (parenting.com). The question of “who am I” is not one that teens think about at a
conscious level (University Of Delaware). Teens usually tend to get their opinions from their
peers and not so much their parents. Those people are ones who they think share the same
values and beliefs as they do. Erikson reminds us that there is a crucial shifting in the
personality. The crisis is not limited to who they see themselves becoming. The child works to
define their self and their identity in life. Megan is at this time period with her emotional roller-
coaster. She has just stared to dress differently and pick up her habit of art. She was a very
different kid then she is now as a teenager. I believe she is at the normal stage of development
when it comes to emotional feelings towards herself. Erikson’s stages of development from 12
to 18 years are where Megan is currently at. According to him the, “who am I like I,” as I
previously discussed is very important. Meagan is experiencing this, for example, Erickson says
they like to change their occupational goals a lot; Megan has changed her goal many times to
different careers. This is all due to the changing physiology in adolescents in that age group. The
basically says how kids and adults respond to certain situations in their lives. He proposed that
people pass thru a series of six stages of moral judgment or reasoning (educational Psychology).
He decided to group all six, in to stages called, preconventional, conventional, and post
conventional. These stages are defined by how the person defines their moral behavior. Each
child is different and will pass thru the stage at different times during their lives. For Megan’s
case she is at the conventional stage in her life. This stage consists of, the individual adopts
rules and will sometimes subordinate own needs to those of the group (Educational
Psychology). Meaning, they have behavior to please or get approved by others. This stage also
is one to be under authority and will maintain respect for it. The ideological pursuit for personal
belief system is littered with parental parameters and demands, peer belief and a sense of
powerlessness to change life (Norton Arizona University). These are all things that consist of the
philosophical development of kids. A student is often overwhelmed with the chaos and
restructuring, so rules and expectations become onerous and area negated as "nothing but
social notions (Norton Arizona University)." Normally at this age in a young girl’s life they are
making friends and they become the most important part of the child’s life. They need this peer
acceptance or status within their groups of friends at this age. Megan is at this stage because
she is making new friends and they are staying friends for a longer period of time. When kids
are at the elementary level they make friends for a short period of time and may have a new
one shorty. Friend making is just based of same sex and similar interests, while middle school
friendships are more mature and will tend to last longer. Megan is at her philosophical
development at the normal pace for her age but I do believe she has not hit that rebelling stage
that teens tend to have at that age. Megan still respects authority and does not question and
much. She is just more recently questioning authority and having her own thoughts and feelings
toward different situations. The next developmental stage of a child is their Social
Development.
During children's younger years, their social sphere included their family, a few friends, a
couple teachers, and perhaps a coach or other adult mentor. But during adolescence, teens' social
networks greatly expand to include many more people, and many different types of relationships.
Therefore, adolescent social development involves a dramatic change in the quantity and quality of
social relationships (Angela Oswalt 2005.) Normally at this age in a young girl’s life they are making
friends and they become the most important part of the child’s life. They need this peer
acceptance or status within their groups of friends at this age. Megan is at this stage because
she is making new friends and they are staying friends for a longer period of time. When kids
are at the elementary level they make friends for a short period of time and may have a new
one shorty. Friend making is just based of same sex and similar interests, while middle school
friendships are more mature and will tend to last longer. Also, preoccupation with and
oversensitivity with self, appearance and others' possible awareness of self may literally plague
the youngster (J'Anne Ellsworth 1999). Megan is at her philosophical development at the
normal pace for her age but I do believe she has not hit that rebelling stage that teens tend to
have at that age. Megan still respects authority and does not question and much. She is just
more recently questioning authority and having her own thoughts and feelings toward different
situations. Intellectual development is the last stage of development a child will encounter in
life.
their life. Most boys and girls enter adolescence still perceiving the world around them in
concrete terms like, things are either right or wrong. Children rarely see the future has to hold
for them, which explains younger teens’ inability to consider the long-term consequences of
their actions (2003 American Academy of Pediatrics). According to (Bondless.com) detail the
changes in the brain and cognitive processes that occur during adolescence is their intellectual
side of things. Jean Piaget describes adolescence as the stage of life in which the individual's
thoughts start taking more of an abstract form. This allows an individual to think and reason in
a wider perspective on things and have their own views and thoughts on the situation.
Development of executive functions, or cognitive skills are the brain being able to control and
coordination of thoughts and behavior. When kids are experiencing this development they are
shaping their personalities and how they will think as an adult. According to (Boundless.com)
there are actual biological changes in brain structure and connectivity within the brain that will
interact. This is happening my all the increased experience, knowledge, and changing social
demands to produce rapid cognitive growth. These changes generally begin when puberty
starts or a little after. Megan has developed intellectually because she now thinks more in
depth to thinks and does not just follow what the adults are doing. Megan’s capacity to solve
complex problems and to sense what others are thinking has sharpened sense she has grown
up. According to child (develomoent.com) they say this is because she is still relatively
inexperienced in life, but as she gets older she will apply these new skills to her life and now she
This is a pepsi graph for a gifted student I took from the author J'Anne Ellsworth from the NAU OTLE
Faculty Studio.
.
This will be Megan’s Graph, she is right at the line for normal for her age group in every category. The only
one I believe after studying her is the intellectual one, I think she is higher than the normal because she shows
signs of being intellectually developed a little more than normal for her age.
There are some recommendations for teachers and parents to see what their child is
placed in according to these developmental stages. Teachers need to know how to assess a
child incase of a special needs situation, where they need to place them in normal classes or
special classes. In assessing a child, particularly a special needs child, our lens is a crucial factor.
Adding an understanding of the nature of growth and development of children and help
teachers and parent’s change of focus in education. This knowledge could make it so we can
teach better and educate the whole child. Some recommendations are for every teacher to
assess the child they are trying to understand more. This will help them decide how to go about
teaching this child and what level they can understand. The PEPSI model provides an
importance for parents as well. Parents can now identify patterns in child behavior, and
perceived misbehavior, and know how to better deal with the problem. By charting the child's
behaviors and reactions and then comparing those to developmental sequences parents and
teachers can see where they fall in their stages of developmental stages. It is possible to
recognize where a child under the age of 18 stands socially, morally and emotionally. One other
recommendation is to take social and cultural expectations into account when forming a
screening. Gender, place in the family, family expectations and social and cultural scripts can
contribute to the child’s development. Not every child will develop the same and we need to
take that into account. Teachers need to attend to the whole child and understand the areas of
development. After screening my friends little sister I saw her as a whole and can now
understand how she thinks a little better and I can now understand if I was her teacher or
parent how to deal with her as a student. Megan Hancock is the 13 year old teenager who
ranks normal in her development but a lot of children do not, and it is up to us as parents and
teachers to understand the importance and know how prepare these kids for life.
Reference Page
Slavin, R. (1997). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn
and Bacon.
http://www2.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/assign2-1-1.html
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/teen/Pages/Stages-of-Adolescence.aspx
https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/human-
development-14/adolescence-73/cognitive-development-in-adolescence-283-12818/
Oswalt, A. (2005). Seven Counties Services Inc. Retrieved June 25, 2015, from
http://www.sevencounties.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=41167&cn=1310