1

PEPSI Screening

Bryttany Carson

EDU 220-1003

7/5/2021
 2

Biography

I will be conducting this PEPSI Screening on Brandy Carson. Brandy was born on July

21, 2007, at Summerlin Hospital. She is almost fourteen years old and is about to begin her

Freshman year of High School. She will be attending Arbor View High School. Brandy was born

and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, and has never moved out of state. Brandy’s interests include

watching anime, drawing, hanging out with friends, video games, swimming, and photography.

She also enjoys programming various video games. Her aspired career is to become a Graphic

Designer.

She currently resides in a household with her mother, father, brother, sister,

Grandmother, and Nephew. Rachel, her mother, is 50 years old. Her Father, Jon is 53 years old.

Brayden, her older brother is 17 years old and her sister Bryttany is 22 years old. Brandy’s ethnic

background is mainly of English descent. Her father is mainly European and Irish. Her mother

was a part of a closed adoption so there isn’t a lot of information available on her ethnic

background. Brandy also has an older half-sister from her mother’s side. She was given up for

adoption by her mother. Brandy remains in contact with her older half-sister.

Brandy’s family is very close and enjoys doing many activities together. Their main family

tradition is a trip to Disneyland every two to three years. Her family has taken many trips out of

the country. Some places she has visited include Belize, Honduras, Mexico, Hawaii, and Canada.

Her favorite place to travel to is Newport, California. Brandy wishes to move out of state and

eventually live in either Oregon or Colorado.

Brandy says that she feels that she has had a pretty easy upbringing. She feels very

comfortable in her home and has grown up in a non-strict household. She is very close with both

her mother and father. Brandy feels that she can always go to her parents when she needs to talk
 3

about any situation or problem she has in her life. Brandy is a very well-achieved person and is

very headstrong. She is on a good path to success.

Physical Development

“At 14 years old, the average girl may be as much as two inches shorter than her male

counterpart. This means that she is likely between 5 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 4 inches, or between

63 and 64 inches tall. If you're 63 inches tall, a normal weight for you is between 104 and 140

lbs. If you're 64 inches tall, a normal weight is between 107 and 145 lbs. (de Silva, 2017)”

Brandy is 5’4 or 163 centimeters and currently weighs 109 pounds. Her current BMI is 19.3

placing the BMI for age at the 50th percentile for girls aged 13 to 14. She physically looks

healthy and fit for her age. She is of thin stature. Statistically, many teens her age are labeled as

overweight. According to the text, “Approximately 16 percent of students are considered to be

overweight; 13 percent are obese” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008). For

physical activity, she enjoys swimming and riding her bike. Brandy enjoys going to the gym with

her older sister Bryttany, 3 times a week. She walks on the treadmill for about 20 to 30 minutes

and then proceeds to do strength training. Brandy’s desired workout is training her upper body.

She feels as though her upper body is not as strong as her lower body and wishes to strengthen

that area.

Brandy is relatively healthy overall. When she was about 2 years old, she had many

issues with her ears. Her ears would continuously fill up with fluid. As a result, she had to

undergo surgery to place tubes inside of her ears to drain the fluid. Since then, Brandy often

contracts swimmers' ears. Brandy also requires prescription glasses. Her eyesight is -1 and her

left eye is .75 worse than her right eye. Her vision would be classified as near-sighted.
 4

Brandy’s diet is more on the unhealthy side. She doesn’t consider the items she consumes. She

likes to drink soda and her favorite soda is Coca-Cola. Her favorite food is Mac & Cheese or

Alfredo Pasta. Brandy seems to have a very fast metabolism as she stays pretty thin even with

her diet. Her favorite dessert is Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce. Her favorite ice cream

shop is Dairy Queen. Even though she eats in an unhealthy way, her body displays a fast

metabolism. Teenagers around this age demonstrate faster metabolisms which require their

bodies to increase the intake of calories. According to new research, “The good news is that both

resting metabolic rate and basal metabolic rate are higher in pubertal teens than prepubertal

adolescents. Despite the increase in fat mass, teenagers can easily maintain their weight due to

their high energy expenditure” (Picincu, 2019).

As far as her physical appearance, Brandy has a very personal and unique style. She likes

to experiment with makeup and likes to dye her hair in different colors. Currently, her hair color

is box dyed dark pink and is cut at shoulder length.

Emotional Development

Brandy has had her fair share of emotional struggles over the past few years. Many

teenagers go through rough patches as they are growing and progressing through life. Brandy

says that the hardest thing she has ever faced was her grandfather’s loss in 2017. Family deaths

can take a huge toll on a developing teen. More recently, she has been dealing with her sadness

over losing her chihuahua, Khloe, who passed away on June 24th, 2021.

Amid the Pandemic, she feels more on the depressed side because she has been unable to

see her friends. The quarantine order affected her greatly because she was unable to interact with

family members. Besides the Pandemic, Brandy tries to remain positive and become more

independent. Similar to a lot of teenagers, Brandy has struggled with anxiety and depression. She
 5

primarily has social anxiety. Because of her social anxiety, she doesn’t enjoy going out to places

where she is not comfortable. She describes herself as a “homebody.” According to the text,

“Although emotional turmoil during adolescence is not universal, some students do find this to

be a difficult time and suffer from feelings of anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression.”

(Snowman & McCown, 2015).

Brandy displays mood swings at times. Her peers also have a great influence on her

behavior. When around friends, she is energetic and enthusiastic. In other social situations, with

people that she is not comfortable with, she is reserved and quiet. She can be extremely

introverted at times. Somedays, she feels that she doesn’t have much emotion, and other days,

she’ll feel all of the emotions.

Brandy feels that she has low self-esteem. She struggles with her confidence. Because of

today’s standards, she finds it hard to live up to society’s wishes. Brandy does not wish to

conform to the norm. She has exclaimed that she doesn’t like her body image because of her

thinness. She blames this on society’s standards. In school, she feels pressured to dress a certain

way, act a certain way, and stand out. She prefers to wear black and baggy clothing. Brandy feels

that when she wears baggy clothing, she has less of a chance of being sexualized. Academics is

another source of her low self-esteem. She has struggled with Mathematics for quite some time.

Brandy believes that if she understood the concepts of Math, that she would feel more confident

in herself and her academics. According to the text, “because of these personal and

environmental stresses, the self-concept, academic motivation, and achievement levels of

adolescents decline, sometimes drastically” (Snowman & McCown, 2015). Besides her struggles

in Math, she feels that a lot of her struggles stem from her educators. She says that certain

teachers of hers didn’t help with any of her problems. She feels that a lot of the material wasn’t
 6

properly explained. These certain teachers, she says, displays emotions of not enjoying their

work. She says this also adds to her low self-esteem in the classroom. When she attends a class

with an enjoyable teacher, she says that she will thrive in their courses. “In one study, most

middle school students (grades six through eight) characterized their classroom activities as less

inter- testing and enjoyable and as providing fewer opportunities for choice than did students in

grades three through five” (Gentry, Gable, & Rizza, 2002).

Philosophical Development

Brandy grew up in a non-religious household but came to find religion as she got older.

Her mother and father were both Baptized into the LDS church but did not practice the religion

thoroughly. Bryttany, Brandy’s sister, was baptized into the Mormon religion when she was 9

years old. This inspired Brandy to want to attend church meetings and learn about the gospel.

Rachel, Brandy’s mother, began attending church again once Brandy was baptized. Brandy is

firm on her beliefs that there is a greater being that controls everything.

Brandy supports peaceful protesting. She supports the BLM movement, women’s rights,

and sexual assault awareness. She believes that there is a lot wrong with today’s society and that

a lot of things that shouldn’t ever happen end up happening countless times a day and it isn’t

talked about. With women’s rights and sexual assault awareness, women are seen not as people

but as objects and are constantly used and hurt every day. Sexual assault happens daily,

sometimes even in broad daylight, but a lot of the time ends up going by with no punishment or

isn’t brought up at all. With Black Lives Matter, she believes that no matter people’s skin tones,

you shouldn’t be treated differently, hurt, or killed. “Noddings’s development of care theory

supports Gilligan’s criticisms of Erick- son and Kohlberg (2008). Together, they have suggested

that a “caring orientation” to social and moral development is an alternative to the

 7

justice/fairness/individual rights orientation that has emerged from Kohlberg’s theory, and one

that may lead to more socially just practices and policies.”(Snowman & McCown, 2015).

Brandy believes that mental health is very important and that a lot of today’s society puts

down those with mental illnesses. Statistics show that suicide is the second-highest cause of

death across the world and depression is the leading illness among those aged 15 to 24. (Suicide

Statistics and Facts –, n.d.) Brandy wishes to bring awareness to this cause.

Social Development

Brandy does not consider herself a social person. She describes herself as “socially

awkward.” When Brandy was a child, she was a social butterfly. Always wanted to be around

others. She believes that as she has gotten older, that technology is to blame for her social

awkwardness. Brandy typically sticks to her few friends and family. She has issues with

interactions on the phone or with strangers in public. She likes to keep to herself and hang out

with only close friends and family and avoids conversation with those she’s not comfortable

with.

During conversations with strangers, she is very quiet and reclusive. She’s very dry with

details and tends to avoid eye contact. When it comes to anyone close, like friends or family,

Brandy can be loud and is very open with her thoughts and emotions. It’s like she’s an entirely

new person around her friends and family. Brandy expressed that she has an easier time

interacting with children her age, unlike adults. “When it comes to social experiences, Piaget

believed that peer interactions do more to spur cognitive development than do interactions with

adults.” (Snowman & McCown, 2015). She feels as though she doesn’t need to worry about

doing or saying something weird since she’s around someone familiar to her. Her social anxiety

shows to be pretty severe when interacting with adults. She feels that she can thoroughly
 8

communicate with peers her age and can come out of her shell. Brandy described most adults as

having an authoritarian personality that makes it harder to interact with them without being

intimidated. “The balance of power between children and adults is simply too unequal. Not only

are most children quickly taught that adults know more and use superior reasoning, but also the

adult always gets to have the last word: argue too long, and it’s off to bed with no dessert. But

when children interact with one another, the outcome is more dependent on how well each child

uses her wits”(Light & Littleton, 1999).

“In middle school, students are starting to become more self-conscious, and may begin to expect

things to go “badly” when they are around peers or at school. They might be overly concerned

about others looking at them or talking about them in a bad way. In addition, these students

recognize that school is becoming important and may begin to fear the perceived negative

judgment by others of their work.” (Social Anxiety Disorder, 2019).

Intellectual Development

Brandy has been pretty successful with her academics. In elementary school, she was

enrolled in the GATE program because of her impressive grades. Brandy maintained straight A’s

throughout all of Elementary school. As she progressed into higher grades, she struggled a lot

with Mathematics. Brandy’s favorite subject is Science or Art. Throughout middle school, she

maintained a B average in all subjects.

One of Brandy’s difficulties is her short attention span. She has a hard time focusing on

material that is not interesting to her. Her brain can switch from one thing to another pretty fast,

which can make working on schoolwork or focusing in class hard. Because of this, she has

problems with being able to get assignments done on time. According to childhood development

experts, typically a 14-year-old’s attention span is between 28 to 42 minutes. (Balance, n.d.)

 9

Another one of Brandy’s difficulties is that she has short-term memory loss. She can

forget things within seconds, which makes learning and studying difficult. Things she doesn’t

find important or interesting are more likely to be forgotten. She can forget things she worked on

during class, assignments, and due dates, which is another thing that messes up her being able to

get assignments done on time.

Since a young age, Brandy has struggled in mathematics. It has been one of her worst

subjects since around third grade. She has been behind on learning simple things like

multiplication tables and long division. She also tends to struggle with algebra.

“They may have trouble with solving math calculation problems that involve multiple steps, such

as long division or problems in algebra because to solve these problems they need to access

information about math facts from long-term memory while remembering what they have just

done and what they need to do next.” (Thorne, 2020)

Regardless of this, she’s always maintained higher than average test scores. For example, the

average score for MAP testing for the fall of the 2020 school year for mathematics was 225.

Brandy scored a 244 (Test Prep Online, n.d.).

Recommendations

Regarding Brandy’s physical activity, I recommend that her parents supervise her eating

habits a little more regularly. With the research I conducted, I found that metabolism will begin

to slow down around 16 years old. With her eating habits, her body may start to hold onto more

of the bad products soon if she doesn’t start making some changes.

Brandy’s emotional health is a little rocky. I suggest her parents be a little more cautious

with her sensitivity. I examined her and noticed that she is struggling to figure out her life. I

think with the right support from home, she will be able to boost her confidence. I can tell that
 10

she requires some extra support so I think that a little push from her loved ones can potentially be

very beneficial.

I think Brandy’s views are very inspirational. I think that she is on the right track,

wanting to bring awareness to these specific causes. I think a lot of what she has learned comes

from her peers and teachers. I think it is important that teachers talk appropriately about these

injustices going on in the world.

Brandy’s social skills need improvement. She struggles daily with necessary interactions.

It is vital to her life and future career that she works on her social skills. Brandy’s parents need to

encourage Brandy to adventure out and meet new people. I think that this may improve her

social ability. As for teachers, I think that promoting collaborative assignments may help with

this issue as well.

Brandy’s grades are average for her age. For improvement, I think her parents may want

to supervise more with her school work. I think if her parents become more involved, there may

be a drastic change in her academics. Brandy needs to become more focused since she will be

moving on to High School this coming up year. I recommend that the parents supervise her video

gaming as well. As technology can be a huge distraction for teenagers.

11
 12

References

Psychology Applied to Teaching by Jack Snowman (2014–02-24). (2021). Cengage

Learning

Picincu, A. (2019, June 3). How Many Calories Does a Teen Girl Burn Daily When at

Rest? LIVESTRONG.COM. https://www.livestrong.com/article/458662-

how-many-calories-does-a-teen-girl-automatically-burn-a-day-without-exercise/

Suicide Statistics and Facts –. (n.d.). SAVE. Retrieved July 6, 2021, from

https://save.org/about-suicide/suicide-facts/#:%7E:text=Nearly%20800%2C000%

20people%20die%20by,leading%20cause%20of%20disability%20worldwide.

Social Anxiety Disorder. (2019, April 1). Anxiety Canada.

https://www.anxietycanada.com/articles/social-anxiety-disorder/

Balance, B. (n.d.). Normal Attention Span Expectations By Age. Brain Balance. Retrieved

July 11, 2021, from

https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/normal-attention-span-expectations-

by-ag

N. (n.d.). MAP Test Scores: Understanding MAP Scores. TestPrep-Online. Retrieved July

11, 2021, from https://www.testprep-online.com/map-scores#:%7E:text=To

%20calculate%20MAP%20assessment%20scores,her%20scores%20on

%20previous%20tests.&text=Since%20the%20MAP%20test%20is,test%2C

%20scores%20are%20immediately%20available.

Thorne, G. (2020, January 27). What Are Some Problems Students Have With Memory?

The Center for Development & Learning.

https://www.cdl.org/what-are-some-problems-students-have-with-memor