PEPSI Screening

EDU 220
Dr. Isbell
May 9, 2019
 Biography
Monica is my 11 year old niece and is currently in the 5th grade at C.P. Squires

elementary school. Her parents separated when she was young and they have not been the best

parents so she spends the majority of the week here at my house with myself and my mom being

her primary caretakers. She constantly goes from house to house and hardly sees her biological

mother and father which I feel has affected her in a negative way, especially when it comes to

academics. I can see just how the lack of attention from her parents have affected her as well.

She is quick to get mad and she cries and breaks down easily even when it comes to the smallest

of things. She is an interesting, funny and smart young woman so it is heartbreaking to see how

her family life has been such a negative impact in her life.
 Physical
Monica is 11 years old. At this time in her life, physical growth tends to be both rapid and

uneven and Monica lives up to this. She is 4’11” and weighs over 85 lbs. On average children

her age will grow 2 to 4 inches a year and gain 8 to 10 pounds per year. I have seen her around

her classmates and she is one the tallest and biggest kids in her class. According to the CDC, the

average weight and height for females her age were 81 lbs. and 4’11”. She is above the average

and it seems that she will continue grow. Whenever I pick her up from school, she seems to be

much taller and heavier looking than most of her fellow students. The majority of family on her

mother’s side are tall standing over 6 ft. tall so it is safe to assume that she will be tall herself.

Because she is growing very rapidly, she eats frequently to meet her energy demands.

Children at her begin to have more control over their eating habits than the younger children.

Because of this, there is a greater tendency to overeat, particularly junk food. She does not eat

many vegetables or meats unless it is chicken, she does enjoy eating a lot of fruit. I would say

her main weakness is that she loves to eat junk food especially chips and fast-food. She does
some physical activities in her afterschool program four times out of the week, however when

she is not at school she does not participate in many physical activities. She loves to spend the

majority of her free time watching videos and playing game on her tablet. She is not obese but if

she continues her current eating habits and lack of physical activities, obesity could become a

problem down the road.

. As you can see in the graph below, you will see that she is above the average in both

weight and height. Her height is a factor in why she is above average in terms of weight but we

do have to consider the fact that she does not do many physical activities and also her poor eating

habits. As she gets older, she will need to exercise regularly and she will need to start to make

healthier eating decisions in order to be healthier.

Emotional
Unfortunately for Monica, her living environment is unstable which affects her

emotions greatly. According to the Institute for Family Studies, by the time a child is in the

fourth grade, more than one-third of children will experience a change in their parent’s

relationship. These unstable environments have negative effects on children cognitively and

emotionally. Her situation might be more severe than most as she constantly moves from house

to house between her separated parents and also her grandparents so I can imagine the amount of

stress and sense of insecurity she must feel every single day.

When I would help Monica with her homework, she would get frustrated easily and that

frustration would turn in to anger and she would lose all of her concentration and focus solely on

her emotions. When I asked her why she would get frustrated and mad easily, she could not

really explain why she felt that way, it’s just something that she feels almost every day. I feel
that the anger and frustration that she feels is not because of the homework but something much

deeper that she refuses to speak to me about.

Besides anger, Monica is also quick to start to cry. She cries more out of being sad than

being angry. Whenever she gets disciplined, her first reaction is to start crying, she also cries

when she is extremely angry. I sat her down and asked her why she cries and she told me that she

cries because she is sad. I asked her what she is sad about and she says that it is because she does

not get to see her dad as much as she would like. All of the shuffling and moving around from

place to place has taken an emotional toll on her to where she resorts to anger and crying almost

immediately.

Comparing Monica to other children her age, I would say that her emotions affect

her more than most. While one-third of students her age are affected by their parents change in

relationships, Monica has an even less feeling of security because of the constant shuffling of

homes and her biological mother and father not being there to spend time with her like she would

like. Out of all the components of the PEPSI screening, I would say that emotions are her weak

point.

Philosophical

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that at 11 years old, most children

are not capable of philosophical thinking. At Monica’s current age, she is in the concrete

operational stage. At this stage, children become less influenced by perceptual centration and

egocentrism. Schemes are developing that are allowing a greater understanding of logic based

tasks as conservation, class inclusion, and seriation. They start to practice operational thinking

but they are limited to objects that are actually present or that they have experienced directly. In
other words, children at Monica’s age tend to react to each situation based on their concrete

experiences.

I sat down with Monica and asked her questions to see what her point of view was about

certain things to see if she had any philosophical views. To start it off I asked her how she thinks

the world works. Her response were the physical characteristics of the world, like space, weather,

and the different landforms. She took all of my questions literally instead of trying to break down

and try and think what these questions truly meant to her. I could see that at her current age, she

is unable to think critically. This observation aligned with the belief that Piaget had that students

at this age are not capable of philosophical thinking.

Overall I feel that Monica is right where she needs to be in terms of her personal

philosophy. Most children her age are incapable of thinking philosophical including herself. She

hasn’t had to think that way or even work on that skill but I am confident that as she gets older,

she will build on that skill and be able to have her own philosophical views.

Social

At her age, the peer group becomes powerful and begins to replace adults as the major

source of behavior standards and recognition of achievement. During the early school years,

parents and teachers set standards of conduct and most children try to live up to them. By grades

4 and 5 children are more interested in getting along with one another without adult supervision.

The rules for behavior within the peer group are not quite the same as the rules within the

classroom or family. At this age, children are increasingly concerned with the acceptance of their

peer group and do not have self-assurance to oppose group norms.

Friendships at this age become more selective and gender based. I asked Monica if she

had a best friend and she responded that she does have one. There is a girl in her class that she
has known since pre-school. I also asked her if she had any friends that were of a different race

then her and she responded no but that is only because her class is made up of only Hispanics.

She did however say that she does not have any friends of the opposite sex. At this age children

of this age only interact when directed by a teacher or parent, they will avoid the opposite sex

when they are on their own. Monica told me that she has no interest in making friends with the

opposite sex as they are too rough and loud.

Outside of school, Monica is a shy and quiet person around strangers. Even when around

children of her own age, she does not like to interact with the other kids unless it involves

playing on a playground of some sort. I cannot say how she acts while she is in school but it

seems that she is at where the majority of the students are at her age. She is influenced by her

peer group and her friend selection has become more selective and gender based.

Intellectual

I started this section of the PEPSI screening by testing Monica and finding out what her

learning style was. She ended being a primarily kinesthetic learner with visual being her

secondary learning style. Being a kinesthetic learner means that you learn best by taking part in

physical activities rather than listening to a lecture or seeing it. She learns best by doing rather

than seeing.

For this portion of the PEPSI screening, I went with Sternberg’s triachic theory of

intelligence. Sternberg believes that intelligence has many facets or dimensions and that

traditional mental ability tests measure just of fraction of these facets. The triarchic theory has

three main parts. The first part if practical ability, which is applying knowledge to everyday

situations, using knowledge and tools. Monica’s practical ability is just below average comparing

it to her grades. The majority of her grades were either C or lower. She struggled with math and
reading, however she has been receiving tutoring in math and has made drastic improvements in

not only math but reading.

The next part of the triarchic theory is the creative ability. It could involve discovering,

imagining and supposing. I would say that Monica’s creative ability is below average but I

would attribute that to her age because at her age they have not necessarily learned the skills yet.

The next part of the triarchic theory is the analytical theory which involves breaking down ideas

into their component parts, making judgements, evaluating, comparing and contrasting and

critiquing. At her current age, Monica has learned some of these abilities, but has not developed

them enough to make them skills. This again would be attributed to her age as they have not

gone in depth on analytical skills.

The intelligence portion of the PEPSI screening is the toughest to measure because it is

complicated to measure intelligence, however I feel that Monica is right where she needs to be.

At the beginning of the school year, she struggled heavily in school, especially in Math and

Reading. Most of her grades were D’s and F’s. She has made drastic improvements as the school

year went on. As she gets older, she will definitely improve on all three components of the

triachic theory.

Monica was an interesting subject to study. Because of her upbringing, it has for the most

part affected her negatively to not only her own emotions but also how she does in school. She

has made giant leaps in her education to help her catch up to all of her classmates. Monica is a

funny, dynamic and overall smart person but lacks the self-confidence to help herself break out

of her mold and take her education to the next level. She is not only my niece but my best friend

also and I am excited to see how she grows up to be the amazing woman I know she will

become.
 Philosophical

Monica

Social Average 11
year old
 Physical Graph

4’11” Average weight of an

11 year old female
4’8”
Monica’s Height

91 lbs
Average weight of a 11 year
old female
81 lbs.

Monica’s weight

Emotional Graph

Monica

Average 11
year old

Intellectual

Monica

Average 11 year
old
 References
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Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/height-

weight-teens.php

Dowshen, S. (Ed.). (2015, October). All About Puberty (for Kids). Retrieved March 26, 2019, from

https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/puberty.html

Mcleod, S. (2018, June 06). Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development. Retrieved from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

Pritchard, M. (2018, December 14). Philosophy for Children. Retrieved from

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/children/

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Australia: Cengage

Learning.

Social Development in 11-13 Year Olds. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2019, from

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/family-life/social-emotional-learning/development-

milestones/social-development-11-13-year-olds.html