PEPSI Screening 1

Rosie Dietz

March 26, 2017

EDU 220

PEPSI Screening
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The child I have been observing is my favorite child, my neighbor, and my “son”. Darren

Le was born on September 15, 2006 in Reno, Nevada. He is now 10 years old and he lives in Las

Vegas, Nevada with his parents and his half-brother. His parents are Jackie Le and Michelle

Chau, and they have been married 13 years. His brother is Christopher Nguyen, and he is 16

years old. His parents are from Vietnam. He and his brother speak Vietnamese around the house

with their parents. Darren is mostly alone in the house with his brother while both of his parents

are working. Jackie works with a tour bus, which is driving people around all day. Michelle

works at a nail salon giving pedicures and manicures. The times of the fathers’ arrival is always

different, but the mother usually comes home around 6 or 7. During these times Darren attends

Marc Kahre Elementary School from 8am to 2:11 pm on weekdays. Once school is over, he

walks home alone. When he arrives to his house, he usually stays inside for a while to either eat,

do homework, or relax, and then around 3pm he will go outside and stay out for the rest of the

day. Outside we hang out in the cul-de-sac with children of all ages. We all range from 6 years

old to 18 years old (which of course is me).

There is a big variety of physical development for a 10-year-old child. These are the

times when your child is not a kid and not an adolescent either. Darren likes to play with his

Legos at sometimes but then he also swears a lot. At the age of 10, the gross motor skills are

developing more. They have better coordination and agility. Darren has very good hand eye

coordination. He is good at playing football. His agility is also good. He also knows how to

skateboard and do some tricks on it. Darren loves to be outside and play. He says that he enjoys

PE very much. His favorite thing to do in PE is run, jump rope, and play basketball. Darren is 79

pounds and 4’4’’. His BMI is 20.1, which is considered normal weight. Darren is very healthy

and energetic.
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During the stages of a 10-year-old child, they tend to have many mood swing because

there is so much that they are trying to keep up with in life. Darren is going through hormonal

changes and tends to have mood swings at times. During his mood swings he will start crying

and yelling at the same time when something triggers him. One thing that he would get the

maddest about would be when one of his friends start to annoy him. He also gets very annoyed

with his brother. “At age 10, you can expect your child to have more control over emotions, and

may see them handing more conflict and negotiating solutions with friends.” Said Katherine Lee

in her article Why is your ten-year-old child so emotional. This I believe is something that Darren

struggles with because I feel that Darren does not know how to express his feelings with words.

Instead he like to express his feelings with anger and throwing things and cussing kids out. I feel

that Darren is lacking a role model in his life because he is always with his brother, and his

brother has anger issues as well. I try to teach him better, but sometimes he still lacks

improvement. “One component of social and emotional growth in 8- to 10-year olds is their

desire for increased independence from parents and siblings, and their increased desire to be seen

as intelligent and knowledgeable.” Said Michelle Anthony in The emotional lives of 8-10 year

olds. This I also feel Darren is also lacking. His parents never say, “Oh son I’m proud of you.”

His parents only care that he gets good grades or he will get in trouble. His brother also never

motivates him either or give him positive comments. He usually calls Darren stupid. I feel this

puts Darren in a negative attitude. An example, I was trying to tell Darren that he is so smart but

he kept trying to pull himself down by saying “No I’m stupid, not smart.” There is no motivation

in his life.

Philosophical development is telling right from wrong. When Darren is told that he did

something wrong, he gets mad at first but then he follows it. Usually he would listen to me when
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I tell him something is wrong, he would get mad at me for being mad at him, but later he will

come up to me and say sorry and won’t do it again. He usually is a good kid, but again, once

something triggers him, he would be rude to everyone. I also taught Darren to ALWAYS tell the

truth, even if it’s bad. He usually gets scared to tell the truth because he knows his brother is

going to get mad at him, so usually I’m the one he tells. He always thinks of consequences and

then usually gets scared to speak up. Darren usually tries to be a good kid though.

“Ten-year-old children are experiencing a natural need to have some distance from

parents and family and are gravitating toward more social activities with peers” said Katherine

Lee in 10 year olds and Social Development. Kids now want to be out of the home to go hang

out with friends. It always going to be the hardest thing for parents but parents got to let go

someday. Darren doesn’t go out much because all his friends are here in the neighborhood.

Usually if he does go out, he would go out with his brother and his friends, or he goes out with

me and some of the kids from the neighborhood. Darren is around teens most of the time. I guess

that is why he tends to swear a lot because he learns it from all the teens. “Children this age are

also becoming more interested in their appearance” said Katherine Lee. Darren loves to do his

hair and always dresses up nice for special occasions.

Darren’s intellectual development is low for his age. He tends to struggle a lot with

meanings of words and reading and math. Darren struggles to speak proper language because he

usually speaks Vietnamese with his parents, and he has some kind of accent and says words

wrong. An example of Darren’s speech is when he tries to say “Animal”, he will pronounce it

“Aminal”. Usually no one will correct him, but maybe he will know how to speak better when he

is older. He also struggles with sentence structure and grammar. Usually when he texts me

something, I have to read it several times to understand what he is trying to say to me. Darren
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also struggles with math, he struggles with many things as well in Reading. In Class the kids

read a book, and Darren has trouble finding the main idea, plots, and themes of the story. In

math, he has trouble with decimals, multiplication, and division. He says he can’t ever focus

when he does work. He gets distracted by friends or just by the clock. He thinks that he has a

problem, but I always try to keep him positive in work. I always try to give him positive

comments if he does something good in class. The other day he received a Student of the Month

certificate and I told him how proud he was. When I told him how proud I was, he was happy at

first, but then he mentioned that his parents don’t care about it. He always tends to bring himself

down. Darren can improve a little bit in everything but deep down I know Darren is a good kid. I

love “my son” so much.

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Abstract

In conclusion Darren is a good kid but has his moments. Darren lacks attention from his

parents and his brother. He also needs to improve in language and in school. Darren could

improve on how he expresses his feeling and making sure that he stays positive. He has good

health and is very energetic. When something makes Darren, he can try to keep his anger down

instead of letting it get out of control.

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Work Cited Page

Lee, Katherine. "Why Is Your 10-Year-Old Child So Emotional?" Verywell. N.p., n.d. Web. 26

Mar. 2017.

Miller, Christa. "Physical Development of 10-Year-Olds." LIVESTRONG.COM. Leaf Group, 18

June 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2017

"The Emotional Lives of 8-10 Year Olds." Scholastic.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.

Lee, Katherine. "How Do 10-Year-Olds Socialize?" Verywell. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.

"Cognitive Development in 8-10 Year Olds." Scholastic.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.