PEPSI

“PEPSI” Screening for Isabell

Sarah Finch

Dr. Rochelle Hooks

College of Southern Nevada

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Background Information:

As children we develop in different areas that will shape us and determine who we will

become. There are five major areas that professionals study to see how a child is developing.

These five major areas are the physical, emotional, philosophical, social, and intellectual. The

PEPSI acronym is used to define the five areas of development and has become a useful model

for professionals to use when studying a child.

For this PEPSI study, we will be examining my 10-year-old cousin Isabella. Isabella, who

prefers to be called Isa. Her household consists of a mother and father, a twin sister, two younger

sisters, and a dog. Isa and her twin sister were born in Henderson, Nevada on June 30, 2009. Isa

usually plays with her younger sister Carrie and her twin Lexi, which leaves the youngest,

Esther, out. The sisters get along for the most part, but sometimes Isa complains about being left

out of Carrie and Lexi’s activities.

Now in the fifth grade, Isa enjoys a multitude of activities. She enjoys playing outside,

riding her bike, collecting anything pink and sparkly, and playing with children’s makeup. The

family has many activities that they do together. As a family they enjoy going on walks, having

dinner and conversating every night, and playing video games like Just Dance together.

Physical:

To begin this PEPSI screening, we are going to examine Isa’s physical characteristics. Isa

weighs 75.8 pounds and is 4’5” inches tall. For her age and sex this puts Isa in the 78th percentile

for her weight and the 20th percentile for her height (Center for Disease Control). According to

Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital, growth may deviate, and it involves the weight and height of
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the body. Isa is within the normal range for her weight and she is in the lower range for her

height.

At 10 years old, Isa is in the beginning stages of puberty and has become to look more

mature, which is normal at this age. To meet her body’s new demands as it grows, Isa eats

frequent semi-balanced meals. She burns a lot of energy through running, playing outside, riding

her bike, and doing the monkey bars that these frequent balanced meals have become essential

for her growth and development. “Healthy eating habits are more likely to stay with you if you

learn them as a child. That’s why it’s important that you teach your children good habits now. It

will help them stick with these eating patterns,” (“Nutrition Tips for Kids”, 2019) her balanced

meals and high activity levels are setting her up for success as an adult where she is less likely to

become overweight and develop chronic diseases.

While she is very active, this causes her to need extra sleep at night where she takes a

break from physical activity. At this age, rest periods are just as an important because it helps

children develop. Rachel Dawkins, a Medical Doctor with Johns Hopkins All Children’s

Hospital explains, “Studies have shown that kids who regularly get an adequate amount of sleep

have improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, and overall mental and physical health,”

(Dawkins, 2018). The recommended amount of sleep a child between 6-12 years of age should

get is between 9-12 hours of sleep. Isa on average gets 8-10 hours of sleep at night.

Sleep and physical activity go hand in hand, the more sleep a child gets the more active

they will be. The more energy that a child uses throughout the day usually results in a better and

longer rest period in children. Rest is also important for a child to develop emotionally and

intellectually.
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Emotional:

Isa is still in the stage that developmental researcher Erik Erikson calls industry v

inferiority. This stage is when a child develops a willingness to do things that they know will

result in a good consequence. For instance, children learn how to play within groups, rotate roles,

and elaborate. At this age girls tend to break off from a larger group in smaller groups or even

sometimes pair, this is especially true in Isa’s case with her best friends.

Sometimes at home Isa feels left out of the activities that her sisters and classmates

participate in and this can cause her to feel sad. Instead of encouraging the sisters to find

something for them all to do together, Isa’s parents sometimes tell her to find something else to

do without them. When a child is being left out of activities it is important for parents and

teachers to give advice but not fix things for a child. It is important to give advice and not fix

things because “doing so will go a long way in rebuilding self-esteem. It also helps to

build assertiveness, autonomy, and strength,” (Gordon, 2020). Instead of telling Isa to go find

something else to do, her parents should guide her in how to resolve the issue amongst her sisters

and peers.

Isa can sometimes be argumentative and defiant when it comes to following rules or even

getting her way. Doctor Michelle Anthony suggests that this deficiency at this age is due to a

child’s emotional want to be independent. While observing Isa, I was able to witness her try to

negotiate with her parents about getting a Facebook account, her main argument was that her

best friend, Hailey, had one so she should to. Isa’s parents just shut her down and told her flat out
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no without really hearing her side of the argument. At this age it is important for a child to feel

heard as it will help create self-esteem in them.

Emotions can affect how a child performs academically. For Isa, her grades are good,

scores above average in reading and writing but has a hard time in mathematics. The reason Isa

excels in reading and writing is due her high self-esteem and self-efficacy in the subjects.

Because she has a high self-efficacy in reading she is more motivated to do the homework and

excel at it. While doing math homework Isa gets frustrated with herself for having a hard time

finding the answer and will sometimes strike an argument with her parents to avoid the work. It

is important that while doing homework, students should be allowed to get frustrated as it helps

them unload some of the emotions they are feeling (“When Your Child is Struggling”, 2012) and

parents should remain patient as their child unloads their frustrations.

Philosophical:

Jean Piaget, a famous philosopher, believed that children under the age of 11 years old do

not the have the ability to think philosophical because they are not able to think about thinking.

New studies show that this may be wrong as children who are given the opportunity to ask deep

questions often do so more often (“Philosophy for Children”, 2002). Isa has asked me some

thoughtful and insightful questions in the past. For example, after we had a discussion about the

rainforest during the Amazon Rainforest Fires last year and she asked me “if a tree falls down

and no one hears it, did the tree really fall down?” of course that was not the first time I had

heard the question and you cannot to be sure she wasn’t just asking it to ask it but then through

my response she said “how do we know which trees fell on their own and which ones did not?”.

It was through this discussion months ago that I can recognize that Isa is able to think about

questions deeply and try to find the answer to them.

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At this age, Isa is able to recognize right from wrong and that her actions have

consequences. This notion is often referred to as a moral philosophy. Isa understands that lying

about things even if they are small, is wrong. While her morals may change in the future,

researcher Lawrence Kohlberg suggests that moral development is done in stages, these stages

can vary for children of the same age groups.

Social:

Isa has many friends, she is very shy at first. It takes her a long time to warm up to

people. She has a group of friends that she is comfortable with and her best friend Hailey. Doctor

Sears, a family physician, proposes that shyness is a personality trait and is not neither good or

bad. When it comes to a shy child, shyness can become damaging when the child withdraws and

avoids eye contact with peers so they will stay away (“8 Ways to Help”). While Isa does not

avoid classmates, she is not the first one to spark up conversation.

During recess, Isa likes to play on the playground with her friends or walk around the

field. She often complains about a little boy in her class named Johnny, who chases he around at

recess. It is around this age with puberty and the development of their minds that children

become aware and even develop crushes on the opposite or same sex. While children at this age

will rarely refuse to be around a member of the opposite sex, they will go out of their way to

avoid them (Snowman and McCown, 2015). This is especially true with Isa as she avoids Johnny

and does not engage with him unless her friends are around.

Intellectual:

At 10 years old, Isa is in the fifth grade and about to go into middle school. At this point,

Isa’s favorite subject is English because she excels at it. She can read chapter books at a 7th grade
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reading level, construct and understand complex paragraphs, and can write in cursive. Isa does

not excel in the area of math and barely reaches the within normal range.

Isa is usually excited to do her English homework but when it comes to math it is usually

a struggle. She can become irritated easily if she doesn’t get the problem right away. She uses

phrases like “I am good at reading why can’t I be good at math?” or “I suck at math I am never

going to be good at it”. Homework time can be frustrating for her and parents as well as they do

not know how to help her. Some students benefit from a tutor, some benefit from more

individualized instruction at school, and some just need extra guidance when solving a problem.

Isa’s teachers should recognize that she is having a hard time, but her parents also need to

contact the teacher and create a plan of action.

Recommendations:

Isa is growing and developing within the normal ranges of her peers. Although she has

self-esteem issues, is starting puberty, and can have a hard time at school, her parents and

teachers need to communicate more to make sure she is being involved in activities and

receiving extra guidance during math lessons. It is equally important for her parents to create a

better environment for her to do her homework, instead of becoming frustrated when she is

frustrated her parents should find a way to level the playing field.

The PEPSI acronym is a tool for professionals to use to analyze the development of

children in five areas. Isa is developing and will continue to develop physically, emotionally,

philosophically, socially, and intellectually. It is important as future educators that we seek to

understand each of these areas so we are able to determine where our students may need help.
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Works Cited
Anthony, Michelle. The Emotional Lives of 8-10 Year Olds. Retrieved from

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

milestones/emotional-lives-8-10-year-olds.html

BMI Percentile Calculator for Child and Teen: Results on Growth Chart. (2018, June 29).

Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/bmi/resultgraph.html?&method=english

&gender=f&age_y=10&age_m=0&hft=4&hin=5&twp=75.8.

Dawkins, Rachel. The Importance of Sleep for Kids. (2018, March 12). Retrieved from

https://www.hopkinsallchildrens.org/ACH-News/General-News/The-importance-of-sleep-for-

kids

Gordon, Sherri. (2020 February 6). Retrieved from https://www.verywellfamily.com/help-your-

child-deal-with-being-ostracized-460790

Growth, Range of Height and Weight. Retrieved from https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health

/g/normal-growth

Kohlberg, Lawrence. The Child as a Moral Philosopher. (1968, September). Retrieved from

http://www.indiana.edu/~koertge/Sem104/Kohlberg.html

Nutrition Tips for Kids. (2019) Retrieved from https://familydoctor.org/nutrition-tips-for-kids/

Philosophy for Children. (2002, May 2). Retrieved from

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/children/
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When Your Child is Struggling Academically. (2012 August 16). Retrieved from

https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/when-your-child-is-struggling-academically

8 Ways to Help the Shy Child. Retrieved from https://www.askdrsears.com/topics/parenting/

child-rearing-and-development/8-ways-help-shy-child