Pepsi Screening

McKenzie Turley

EDU 220

Biography
 Sophie is a 13 year old female student that is currently in eighth grade.

She was born on April 24th, 2008. She is the youngest of 5 children, with 3

brothers and 1 sister. Sophie started attending school at age 4 and has always

been seen as a good student.

Sophie’s parents experienced marital difficulties for the majority of her

life, and they seperated in 2016 when she was 8 years old. A year later, they

divorced completely and Sophie and her siblings were required to move from

their dads house to their moms and vice versa twice a week. This stress on such

a young girl is what is suspected to have caused Sophie’s depression and

anxiety.

Sophie had a self-harming incident when she was in 5th grade. A friend

had informed her mother who told the school staff and Sophie was taken to a

mental health clinic where she stayed for ten days. After her stay, Sophie was

referred to a therapist and put on antidepressants. She attended therapy

sessions for 1 year. She no longer sees the therapist but she continues to take

her medication. She is also supervised closely by the school staff to make sure

she continues on a healthy path. She has had no further incidents after this.

Physical Development
 Sophie is a 13 year old female student. Her height is 5 feet and 2 inches.

She weighs 107 pounds. According to The World Health Organization (WHO),

Gerontology Research Center (National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA), and

the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average weight

and height for a 13 year old female is 101 pounds and 5 feet and 1.7 inches. This

puts Sophie in the 50th percentile for height and the 70th percentile for

weight. (CDC, 2000)

Sophie does not take part in much daily exercise. It is recommended that

children get 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise for 1-3 hours per day.

(Department of Health, 2020) Her lack of exercise could be the reason for her

being in a higher weight percentile than the average female of her age. During

the school year, she walks about 30 minutes a day going to and from school,

but during summer she gets virtually no exercise.

Sophie’s diet tends to stray on the unhealthier side. Most of her meals

are home cooked, but she usually does not touch many of the healthier options

served to her. A balanced diet is also very important for physical development

in children. Poor diet can be linked to many health issues including childhood

obesity, depression, anxiety, diabetes, high blood pressure, and orthopedic

problems. (Lesser et. al. 2016) Having a more regulated diet and exercise

regimen may help Sophie to become a healthier individual, physically and

mentally.
 Emotional Development

Sophie’s emotional regulation is not very good. Little things can set her

off on a rampage. She usually decides to stomp away, slam doors, and send

glares towards the people she is mad at. “Anger isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Anger is an important part of our emotional lives, but anger gets a bad rap

because the urges that come with it — yelling, fighting, being unkind to others

— can be destructive and upsetting.” (Lauren Allerhand, PsyD, a clinical

psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, 2021) According to this research,

anger in a teenager of Sophie’s age is normal. Although it is frustrating, it is

also normal in how she decides to express and deal with it.

Sophie’s struggles with depression reflect heavily upon her self-esteem.

At the age of ten, Sophie was confused if she identified as a boy or girl. She has

so far decided to identify as female, but I believe she does not act completely

certain of her decision. This must further conflict with her feeling of self, and

therefore how she must feel about certain things.

Sophie tends to escape into her room instead of dealing with things she

does not like. This is a big side effect of her anxiety. Anxiety in teens has been

on an incredible rise since the 80’s. Nearly ⅓ of teenagers have an anxiety

disorder. (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2019) Almost ⅓ of those cases also

go untreated. Since getting treatment and help for her disorder, Sophie has

been doing better, but it would be beneficial for her to have continuous care.

Overall, I see Sophie as slightly below average in her emotional

development because of her depression and anxiety. With further treatment, I

believe her emotional development could come a lot farther.

Philosophical Development

Sophie is in early adolescence, and so she should start being able to use

more complex thinking focused on personal decision-making in school and at

home, begin to show use of formal logical operations in schoolwork and begin

to question authority and society's standards. (Stanford Children’s Health)

Sophie is starting to do some of these things. Being so early into adolescence, it

is expected that Sophie would still be learning how to do some of these items.

Sophie is able to make most decisions for herself confidently. She knows

what she wants or does not want most of the time. She is also very good at

making sure she finishes her tasks on the timeframe set for her. She does not

often have late assignments at school or chores that are left undone. However,

her sense of self is not as matured as it is expected to be at this age. She is

experiencing a lot of conflict on who she believes she is regarding her gender,

and that has not allowed her to make other decisions about herself and the type

of person she would like to grow up as.

 Because Sophie has the tendency to stay away from any type of conflict,

that may be what is stopping her philosophical development. Including

children in topics, issues, and current events are key to helping them develop

good social skills. (Stanford Children’s Health) If Sophie prefers to be alone,

then she is not getting included into these conversations.

Social Development

Outside of school, Sophie does not participate in many activities that are

not electronic. She is a part of her school's student council. They meet to plan

school events, assemblies and school games. She seems to really enjoy this,

and has made a couple of friends from doing so. Before she had gone to the

mental health clinic, Sophie had a lot of trouble making friends. She was

bullied a lot in school and this took a big toll on her ability to talk and play with

other kids. After she got back, the school made it a big point to the kids that

were bullying ehr that their behavior would not be tolerated. She has not

mentioned any occurrences involving bullying since then, and she seems a lot

happier.

She has also made a lot of friends online, and even met her boyfriend

that way. “New communication technologies enable youth to create and

to maintain social bonds in completely different ways: e.g., email,

chat rooms, mobile phones with "texting," online social networks such
as Facebook® and Twitter™, video communication such as Skype®, and

online gaming.” (MentalHelp.net) She talks with these friends a lot

and plays games with them online, it seems like a very low-stress way

for her to make new friends and interact with them.

Children also have started dating at quite a young age these days. On

average, they start gaining romantic feelings at “twelve and a half for girls,

and thirteen and a half for boys.” (American Academy of Pediatrics) Sophie

seems to be right on par with this statistic.

“Youth must also learn to balance multiple relationships that compete

for their time, energy, and attention.” (MentalHelp.net) Sophie seems to do

well with this concept, she has a good relationship with her teachers and

friends, and she knows the difference between having a “friend” and an

“acquaintance.”

Intellectual Development

At 13, children start to be able to think abstractly. (Fraser Health

Authority 2021) Their problem-solving skills should be good, but they are not

able to think about the future clearly. “It’s common for 13-year-olds to think

they’re immune from anything bad happening to them. As a result, they may

be more likely to engage in risky behavior.” Sophie exhibits behaviors beyond

that of the average 13 year old. She is able to think about the consequences of
her actions very easily. She stays out of trouble because she knows that

whatever she wants to do is not worth the punishment that would follow.

She also knows she wants to be a lawyer when she's older, and that was

one of her biggest influences in joining student council because she wants

experience working as a team and standing out as a leader. Being able to think

about your future that far ahead is a skill that not a lot of kids her age would

have.

She has also shown an interest in faith, which none of my family are

active in the church so it was a choice fully made on her own. Of course, she

had influence from her friends and peers at school, but it was still a choice that

she needed to make for herself.

Recommendations

Physical:

For Sophie, I would recommend working on getting her to eat a larger

variety of healthy foods, as well as getting more daily exercise.

Emotional:

I would recommend getting Sophie treatment for her depression and

anxiety to help her emotional development mature in a healthy way.

Philosophical:

Sophie should be welcomed into more conversations with her family

about her opinions and thoughts on different topics.

Social:

To help with her social development I would ask Sophie if she had any

interest in after school groups or sports, and let her try a couple things out.

Intellectual:

I think SOphie is above where she should be for intellectual development,

so I would provide stimulation that would normally be appropriate for an older

child in hopes that she can stay above where she should be.
Works Cited
13-Year-Old Child Development Milestones
Your child’s growth and development at age 13
By Amy Morin, LCSW
Medically reviewed by Tyra Tennyson Francis, MD on May 23, 2020

About Kids Health: Cognitive development in school age children

Health, Social Care and Children's Services: Introduction to intellectual
development
University of Rochester's Medical Centre: Health encyclopedia
HealthLink BC: Growth and development milestones
HealthyFamilies BC: Social and emotional changes in adolescence

MentalHelp.net

Department of Health (Does your child get 60 minutes of physical activity

every day?), Department of Health (Physical Activity Guidelines 13-17yrs),
Raising Children (Children’s physical activity and injury prevention), Women's
and Children's Health Network (Physical activity for children)

American Academy of Pediatrics