RUNNING HEAD: PEPSI Screening 1

PEPSI Screening

Abigail Luna

College of Southern Nevada

RUNNING HEAD: PEPSI Screening 2

Biography

The subject that this PEPSI observation will be about is a six-year-old girl who will be turning

seven-years-old in December of 2020. She was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her biological parents are

separated, and she lives with her mother and stepdad. The subject has two siblings, an older brother

who is 13 years old and a younger brother who is 3 years old, making her the middle child. The subject is

from Mexican decent, both of her parents are Mexican Americans. She is exposed to her Mexican

culture just as much as her American culture. She is currently attending the first grade virtually, since in

class teaching is currently at a halt, but she still enjoys it. The subject is a light-hearted, optimistic girl,

she is always looking at things in a positive perspective. The subject thinks about her siblings and

parents’ well-being constantly, she likes to be considerate of other people and thinks of their needs

before her own. The subject enjoys all the different kinds of arts. She enjoys listening to music and

dancing to the music. She also enjoys painting, drawing, playing with slime, and any sort of arts and

crafts. She enjoys teaching her little brother how to draw certain things, she expressed wanting to be a

teacher when she grows up. Her and her little brother like to spend time watching FGTeeV on YouTube,

they are a family on YouTube who play popular video games like Roblox, among us, etc. She also enjoys

watching the YouTuber JoJo Siwa, which is a young girl who vlogs about her daily life and always wears

big hair bows. She enjoys watching different Disney movies, specifically the new live action movies

Disney has recently been releasing. The subject’s favorite movies are Frozen and Frozen 2. She has

dressed up as Elsa, the main character from both movies, for Halloween since she was 3 years old. The

subject is, what is described as, a “girly girl” she enjoys indulging in feminine behavior like playing with

makeup, trying on dresses, playing “princess dress up.” Her favorite color is purple, and her favorite

store to shop at is a tie between Claire’s and Justice which are both stores who target the young girl

crowd where they sell sequin covered backpacks, hair bows, scrunchies, etc. These things would be

typical for a six-year-old girl, so the subject does not show interests strange to her age group.
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Physical

As stated in the prior section of Biography, the subject is a six-year-old girl who will soon be

turning seven-years-old. The subject is the average height of a six-year-old girl, she does not tower over

her peers, but neither is she lost amidst them. Her mother and stepdad are both very physically active

people. Due to this, they like to keep their children as active as they possibly can. The subject enjoys

joining her stepdad on runs he takes; they also help them understand different movements such as

squats and pushups. Most children like to remain physically active; they have a lot of energy, so they

need to burn it somehow. It is beneficial for the subject to be active since classes are currently being

held remotely, she is not able to have a recess period, which is important in the development of children

her age (Snowman, J. & McCown, R., Age-Level Characteristics, 2015 p.84). The subject follows a strict

sleeping schedule during the school week, which she is not very fond of, but it is essential to her

performing her very best during the school day. When she does not follow her sleeping schedule it is

very apparent, the subject becomes moody and does not want to follow directions of any sort. She also

becomes moody when she is hungry, so her parents also have her on a strict eating schedule to ensure

she’s always in a good mood. According to Snowman and McCown (2015), providing proper rest during

the night and rest periods during the day is crucial for children’s behavior. She does enjoy eating sugary

and fatty foods, her parents do a good job at limiting the intake of these foods without making them

seem like negative or guilt foods. This will help the subject continue a healthy relationship with food

(Kuijer, R. G., Boyce, J. A., & Marshall, E. M., 2015). The subject has suffered some mild medical issues.

When the subject was about 10-12 months old, she was diagnosed with alopecia areata, an

autoimmune disease where the immune system mistakenly attacks the hair follicles creating bald

patches on the scalp. In the month of September in 2019, the subject was diagnosed with appendicitis

and had an emergency surgery to remove her appendix. Aside from the health issues that were already

acknowledged, the subject seems to be a healthy six-year-old girl.

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Emotional

Emotions are a very important part of childhood, allowing children to express emotion is crucial

to their upbringing. It is also important to understand children’s emotions and their emotional

competence, a child’s understanding of emotions is clearly not going to be the same as an adult’s

understanding of emotions. These understandings are important as educators because it will aid in

dealing with situations with students in a manner that will help them in the future.

Hoffmann, J. D., Brackett, M. A., Bailey, C. S., & Willner, C. J. (2020) found the following:

The Meta-Moment reflects emotion regulation as a process that unfolds over time. Four steps

guide people to (a) notice shifts in their cognition, physiology, and behavior (identification), (b)

pause and breathe, (c) activate an image of their best self—the person they aspire to be—and

(d) choose and use a helpful emotion regulation strategy before acting (selection and

implementation).

As for the subject, she is a highly emotional individual. She likes to express her emotions, no matter

what they are, whether it is happiness with a lot of smiles and laughter, or sadness with crying. She also

likes to express her love to her parents and siblings very frequently through physical affection and telling

them she loves them. The subject does not like to feel any sort of negative feelings and she does not

respond well to criticism, especially from her parents or teachers. Therefore, as written by Snowman &

McCown (2015), she does have a difficult time also accepting failure. Since the subject is such an

emotional individual. it is in the subject’s interest to learn to control her hyperactive emotions.

According to Nook, E. C., Vidal Bustamante, C. M., Cho, H. Y., & Somerville, L. H. (2020) when emotions

run too high, they can impair functions, so learning to control them is essential.
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Philosophical

There are children who can uphold a conversation with someone and seem like they are older

than their actual age. These children can be considered philosophically “deep” where their thought

process may go farther than someone else of the same age. Philosophy is connected to critical thinking

and it is important to spark the deeper thinking in children. Following a constructivist learning theory,

students can benefit from their very own curiosity and oversee and acknowledge what they believe and

enjoy (Scholl R, Nichols K, Burgh G, 2016). My subject is connected to her philosophical side, she

understands herself and her thoughts. As stated before, she underwent emergency surgery due to

appendicitis. Shortly after this she gained a curiosity about death, which is not unseen in young children.

The subject asked her parents questions like: Will I ever die? Will you ever die? What happens after we

die? A clinical psychologist by the name of Robert Brooks, Ph.D., when someone close to the child dies,

they could become concerned with their own safety (Kluger, B., 2003). Although someone did not die,

the subject did fear for her safety thus awakening the fear for her own safety. This also shows the

subject not only has gained the understanding of mortality but has also gained a fear for her own safety.

The subject shows an understanding of basic moral values and has learned this through experience. She

bases herself on the main golden rule, “treat others the way you wish to be treated” anytime she feels

she is being treated unfairly, she does not hesitate to ask why. It is important for children to not only be

taught moral values, but they also need to have the opportunities to learn them from experience. This

gives the child a deeper understanding of what the moral values are, what they mean, and why they are

important to follow (Cassidy, C., 2012). Therefore, the subject has a deeper understanding and applies

her moral values to her daily life. For example, an incident occurred with a four-year-old girl whom the

subject was playing dolls with, the four-year-old simply told the subject she was not nice, and the

subject expressed a great amount of disappointment and sadness because of this. She clearly feels it is

important to be a nice person and understands the importance of these moral values.
RUNNING HEAD: PEPSI Screening 6

Social

Socialization is arguably one of the most important parts of childhood. A child’s ability to

socialize is one way to understand the child’s development. When a child wants to socialize with other

children their age, that is normal, and it shows the child is developing normally. The subject enjoys

socializing, with everyone and anyone. She can be considered what is known as a social butterfly, she

really enjoys talking to new people. The subject frequently talks about the friends she makes in school,

she likes to talk about who is it that she considers her best friend and why she also likes to talk about

the other girls in her class and if they like to talk to her or not. Although the subject likes to make

friends, she is picky about her best friends. She usually has the same girls be her best friends, which is

normal behavior in a girl her age. (Snowman, J. & McCown, R., Age-Level Characteristics, 2015 p.86)

Since the subject is more on the sensitive and emotional side, she does like to have a lot of friends so

that the people who surround her are showing her love and kindness. Obviously, children are not always

going to get along and fights may occur, but they are learning experiences for the children. They can

learn how to deal with conflict in a non-violent manner. (Snowman, J. & McCown, R., Age-Level

Characteristics, 2015 p.86) Currently, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools within the subject’s

district are remote. Due to this, the subject is only seeing her classroom friends through a computer

screen and is not getting the full socialization she would if she were attending regular in-person class.

Therefore, the subject frequently asks to see cousins, friends, etc. because she does want the

socialization with other people. As stated in a New York Times article, children around the age of seven

can find ways to have their social needs met (Grose, 2020). Although, she does enjoy spending a lot of

time with her younger brother the subject enjoys meeting new people and making new friends. Also,

the subject is very enthusiastic to be able to show her parents her friends through the screen, she likes

to explain her friendship dynamic with many of the other girls in her class. This shows the subject is

developing as a normal
RUNNING HEAD: PEPSI Screening 7

Intellectual

The intellectual aspect of this observation is where the subject shines brightest. Prior to entering

the school system, her parents exposed her to basic learnings (i.e. ABC’s, 123’s, colors) and the subject

was able to catch onto the content quickly. This may have helped the subject when entering school

since, according to Vygotsky, the child embraces their intellectual life around them (Beltchenko, L.,

2020). The subject is, as stated before, in the first grade, but she is taking it remotely due to the

pandemic. She expresses passion for school, and really enjoys talking about school. The last school year

she was attending kindergarten, her kindergarten teacher considered all her student’s caterpillars and

until they achieved a certain amount of goals. Such as learning specific sight words and learning other

math skills throughout the school year, once they achieved these things, they would become butterflies.

Becoming a butterfly signified the student would be prepared to enter the first grade. The subject was

one of the first students in this class to become a butterfly, which is evidence she was ahead of most of

her class. The subject likes to show her parents and the people around her the new things she learns

whether it would be from school or online. Her current teacher also constantly tells her parents that she

does a really good job. She knows how she likes to learn; she uses certain tactics to help herself learn.

According to (Snowman, J. & McCown, R., 2015) speaking aloud to yourself peaks between the ages six

and seven, this is one of the tactics used by the subject to help herself learn. The subject is also very

proactive in finding different ways to continue to educate herself. For example, she enjoys learning in

general so even when she is not in school, she finds pleasure in watching YouTube videos that teach her

how to create different kinds of arts and crafts. The subject is highly inquisitive, but she is more than

likely not going to believe what you tell her without some evidence. She is showing the beginning of her

scientific thinking, she likes to be explained why things happen but a “because they do” will not suffice.

(Snowman, J. & McCown, R., Age-Level Characteristics, 2015 p.87)

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Graph

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10

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P E P S I

The graph above shows the comparison between an average child and the subject which this

observation is on. Each aspect of the PEPSI screening is displayed on the bottom of the bar graph, the

numbers on the side represent how the subject compares to an average child their same age. For

reference purposes, the number 8 on the graph will be the middle marker, or the marker for the average

child comparison. For the first aspect, physical, my subject is at exactly average. Although she has a

sweet tooth (which almost every child has) and loves eating, she does get in enough physical exercise to

be able to stay a healthy weight. I placed the subject above average for emotional because I do think she

is more in touch with her actual feelings and she is very comfortable expressing those feelings to other

people. Philosophically the subject seems to be a little above average, since her surgery the subject has

engaged in more philosophical conversation. The subject appears to be a social butterfly and loves

making friends with almost everyone she meets, placing her above average. Finally, intellectually the

subject is above average as she’s able to understand content, at times before her classmates can.
RUNNING HEAD: PEPSI Screening 9

Recommendations for Teachers or Parents

The subject seems to be succeeding in her six-year-old life. The physical aspect of this

observation is average, so my recommendations to her teachers and parents are not about her actual

physical exercise but her relationship with food. In school, weight gain can lead to bullying, so many

students learn unhealthy coping mechanisms to either deal with the bullying or to lose weight quickly,

so they do not have to deal with the bullying any longer. For this reason, my recommendation to the

teacher is to begin to teach the students the importance of food nutrition and understanding what is

unhealthy (eating only junk food, not eating, etc.) and what is healthy (having balanced meals, listening

to your body, etc.) The subject’s parents do a good job at feeding her balanced meals and limiting but

not eliminating sugary foods, I recommend when limiting the child from junk food explain more about

why and why they should eat more nutritional foods. The subject has shown to be a very emotional

individual, due to this her teachers should help her understand her emotions and teach about all kinds

of emotions, what they mean, what she should do with them, etc. Her parents can help her also

understand her emotions more, especially since home is where she is comfortable it is where she will

express her feelings the most. Since she will learn about her emotions at school, her parents can help

her control them and reinforce what the teacher taught about what to do with her emotions. Since the

subject is already having philosophical thoughts and questioning a lot about life her teacher can help her

use that analytic thinking and apply it learnings in school. Her parents should be able to help her apply

her deeper thinking to things in life, explaining more about the questions she asks will promote her

individuality. This will help her form her own personal beliefs and moral values. Socially the individual is

thriving, she has no issues making friends. Nevertheless, both her parents and teachers can help her

understand stranger danger since she does like to speak to almost everyone. Intellectually I think both

the parents and the teachers are doing a good job ensuring the subject gets the most out of school, and

she also shows an understanding of the importance of her education.

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References

Beltchenko, L. (2020). Talent, Ability, and Potential: Tapping into the Needs of Advanced and Gifted

Literacy Learners: Intellectual Pursuits of Young Children Through Picture Book Literacy, Focusing on

Italian Preschools. Illinois Reading Council Journal, 48(2), 74–86. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/10.33600/IRCJ.48.2.2020.74

Cassidy, C. (2012). Philosophy with Children: Learning to Live Well. Childhood & Philosophy, 8(16), 243–

264.

Grose, J. (2020, September 30). Will the Pandemic Socially Stunt My Kid? New York Times.

Hoffmann, J. D., Brackett, M. A., Bailey, C. S., & Willner, C. J. (2020). Teaching emotion regulation in

schools: Translating research into practice with the RULER approach to social and emotional learning.

Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 20(1), 105–109. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/10.1037/emo0000649

Kluger, B. (2003). The toughest questions kids ask. Parenting, 17(6), 134.

Kuijer, R. G., Boyce, J. A., & Marshall, E. M. (2015). Associating a prototypical forbidden food item with

guilt or celebration: Relationships with indicators of (un)healthy eating and the moderating role of stress

and depressive symptoms. Psychology & Health, 30(2), 203–217. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/10.1080/08870446.2014.960414

Nook, E. C., Vidal Bustamante, C. M., Cho, H. Y., & Somerville, L. H. (2020). Use of linguistic distancing

and cognitive reappraisal strategies during emotion regulation in children, adolescents, and young

adults. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 20(4), 525–540. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/10.1037/emo0000570

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