PEPSI SCREENING ON A TEN YEAR OLD CHILD 1

Pepsi Screening on a Ten Year Old Child

Evelyn Morales-Ramirez

College of Southern Nevada

PEPSI SCREENING ON A TEN YEAR OLD CHILD 2

Pepsi Screening on a Ten Year Old Child

Kathy is a ten year old fourth grader that was born November 13, 2006. She was born

into a family with two other kids that were the ages of twelve (male) and ten (female) at the time

of her birth. Having agreed to having only two kids, her parents were surprised when they found

out she would soon be with them within a matter of nine months. She has had the privilege of

being raised with both of her biological parents in a household with both of her siblings,

something that is not as common anymore nowadays. After her birth, Kathy’s mom decided that

she would not go back to work until Kathy was old enough to go to school. Kathy’s mom wanted

to be able to raise her without having to constantly be leaving her with different babysitters,

something she was not able to do with her other two children. Being a rather small family,

Kathy’s family tries to spend as much time together as possible, especially since they are very

much family-oriented. Kathy has grown up in a Roman Catholic household where her parents try

to hold those values as close to the family as they can. Both of her parents immigrated to the

United States more than two decades ago from Mexico, making her Mexican-American.

Although neither of her parents speak fluent English, Kathy struggles when speaking Spanish

and sometimes even resorts to speaking to her parents in English, which they don’t understand.

This sometimes creates a language barrier between Kathy and her parents and one of her siblings

then helps Kathy communicate what it is she is trying to say. Her older brother constantly

reminds her that she must practice her Spanish in order to become fluent and and successfully

communicate with her parents without needing others help.

Kathy weighs 100 pounds and is 4’11’’. Based on the calculations and chart provided by

the “MedCalc: Interactive Growth Charts” website, Kathy seems to be a healthy girl. Her BMI is
PEPSI SCREENING ON A TEN YEAR OLD CHILD 3

15.1 and she falls within the 84th percentile for girls her age. Kathy seems to have a relatively

swell eating schedule. Before going to school she usually eats a bagel or waffles along with a

breakfast smoothie or she’ll eat whatever it is they have to offer for breakfast at school. On

average, her mom packs her a lunch that includes a sandwich, some sort of fruit, a yogurt and a

juice box. Once she gets home from school Kathy typically eats the dish her mom has made for

dinner. Fast food is not something that is eaten on a normal basis in Kathy’s household, if it is

eaten it is usually on the weekend, but for the most part she has a homemade dinner on the

weekdays. Although Kathy only has physical education once a week, she attends an after school

program Mondays through Thursdays where she actively participates in a group called “Dance

Works.” Most of her exercise comes from that program rather than her physical education class.

At home, Kathy lacks the activeness she performs at school. Brent Kelly writes, “Television,

video games, and the Internet have largely been blamed for the decrease in physical activity.”

This happens to be the case with Kathy. At home she usually watches television or Youtube

videos on her tablet, rather than being active. Even though she lacks physical activity at home,

she makes up for most of it at school in her after school program, which prevents her from

becoming completely physically inactive.

Kathy’s emotional development is crucial to her growth. At the age of ten she finds

herself in the concrete operational stage from the stages of cognitive development, which means

she should be able to have, “a greater understanding of such logic-based tasks as conservation,

class inclusion, and seriation” (Snowman, 42). She should be able to tell how the concept of

conservation works, something that would be difficult for a child a bit younger. At this age

Kathy should be showing increasing signs of independence from her parent, which she does, for
PEPSI SCREENING ON A TEN YEAR OLD CHILD 4

the most part. Although Kathy is able to decide for her own now what she chooses to wear and

how to wear her hair, she still shows various signs of dependency on her parents. Kathy

frequently has troubles finding things that she is looking for on her own even after she is told

where it is she can find them. As a result, she requires help when situations like these occur

remaining dependent on her parents for something she should be able to do on her own. Being

the youngest of the family, it is expected that Kathy is spoiled by her family with not only

materialistic things, but also the help she is granted by her family members. For the most part

Kathy has proven to be a strong ten year old, but there are moments when she can be quite

sensitive in the sense that she will get teary eyed or pout and become serious if something is said

to her that she does not like.

For her philosophical development, she is on average for kids of her age. She has gone

through the stage of learning right from wrong and actively shows that she indeed knows the

difference. Even after unconsciously making mistakes, if she is called out on it, she will

immediately realize what she has done wrong and tries to fix it or apologizes if she is not sure

how to fix her wrong doings. Kathy has neighborhood friends whom she plays with outside on

occasions and there are a couple who she knows use profanity and participate in inappropriate

behavior and instead of joining in on it she will let them know that that is not the proper way to

act and keep playing with those not participating in that kind of behavior.

At around the age group that Kathy falls into is when kids begin to be highly influenced

by one another. They want to be like one another in order to seek approval from the rest of their

peers. Snowman writes, “The peer group becomes powerful and begins to replace adults as the

major source of behavior standards and recognition of achievement” (90). For Kathy, that
PEPSI SCREENING ON A TEN YEAR OLD CHILD 5

happens to be true on some aspects, but not all. She is not afraid to admit that she likes things

that would typically be seen as “boy stuff” such as practicing martial arts with her older brother,

play fighting, and watching Dragon Ball Z. She was never one to be amused by dolls and

Barbie’s which many of her friends were. This sense of security and pride in not being ashamed

of liking these kinds of things did not always come easy for her. When she was in third grade she

abruptly decided that she no longer wanted to wear skirts to school. Her mother found it odd

since she had normally always enjoyed wearing them. It was not until her mom basically pried it

out of her and Kathy told her mom that she did not want to continue to wear skirts to school

because one of her classmates had told her that she was “such a girly girl.” Although for most

people it would not seem like an insult, Kathy took it as one and stopped wearing skirts for the

remainder of the school year. She also had a small purse she would take to school with along

with her backpack which she also stopped using. Her sister would constantly tell her to not care

about what others had to say about her and just wear what she liked, but it was hard to get that

across to Kathy. This year she wears what she desires without worrying about what her

classmates say, as long as she likes it. She is a young girl, full of life and it shows in her

classroom and outside as she seems to be a social butterfly and is able to make friends rather

easily.

Kathy’s intellectual is average for her grade level. She went into fourth grade at the

average grade level and began to exceed in mathematics and reading toward the middle of the

school year. Based on her tests performances in class her teacher was able to determine that

Kathy is performing above standards in reading, as she excels in the words per minute area.

Writing is the subject matter she struggles with most. It seems hard for her to stay focused and
PEPSI SCREENING ON A TEN YEAR OLD CHILD 6

not lose her train of thought. As a result of her being easily lost in what may be daydreaming or

not being able to know how to get her words down on paper, she fails to complete her writing

assignments at times. Her teacher explains that she should practice her writing more and do some

at home and with that practice she should get significantly better.

http://www.medcalc.com/growth/chart.php
PEPSI SCREENING ON A TEN YEAR OLD CHILD 7

Brett, K. (2002, Summer). Active kids, healthy kids: Exercise & healthy eating: The keys to our

children's health.​ Family Health, 18​, 34-35. Retrieved from

http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/222684565?accountid=

27953

References

Brett, K. (2002, Summer). Active kids, healthy kids: Exercise & healthy eating: The keys to our

children’s health. ​Family Health, 18, 3​ 4-35. Retrieved from

http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/222684565?ac

countid=27953

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2012). ​Psychology Applied to Teaching (​ 14th ed.)