Running head: PEPSI SCREENING OBSERVATION OF A 11 YEAR OLD GIRL

PEPSI Screening Case Study

Aurora Quinonez

College of Southern Nevada

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Biography

For my Pepsi Project I chose my boyfriend’s 11-year-old sister Rubi as my observational

subject. She was born October 31st, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is the youngest out of all

her siblings, and is the only female sibling. She has two older brothers-- Marco, who is 21 years

old, and Anthony who is 26 years of age. She is currently in 5th grade and goes to Tobler

Elementary School, and she gets taken to school and picked up every day by her mother or

another family member in the home. She will be attending Molasky Middle School next year.

She lives with her parents, two older brothers, and grandmother from her mother’s side of the

family. Her mother and father have been married for 27 years. She has all A’s and B’s on her

report cards because she knows she has to earn good grades and will have to go to school longer

than normal to become a veterinarian.

She has grown up and lived in the same house where her dad has horses and chickens in

the backyard. She has two dogs-- Panther, a 2-year-old mini-pincer, and Pepper a 3-year-old

long- haired Chihuahua-- which she has had since puppies. She goes horseback riding with her

dad to Red Rock Canyon where she rides a well-trained horse named Shadow and her dad rides a

horse name Chulo. Her career aspiration is to become a veterinarian and help as many sick

animals as she can.

She is a Halloween baby (born in close proximity to the Halloween holiday); her family

typically celebrates her birthday a week or two before Halloween every year and they invite

friends and family to attend her birthday celebrations. It is common for 100-150 people to attend

her birthday parties each year. She is very close to her cousin Gabriel who visits her every

weekend (Friday through Sunday) and sometimes a few days throughout the week. They like to

play Minecraft and Roadblocks together on their tablets while watching movies.
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Physical Development

Rubi has shown some signs of puberty which causes skeletal, muscular, and reproductive

changes; these changes usually happens to girls around the age of 10-13 years of age and could

start out as early as 8 years old. From what I can see, she does seem to have longer legs in

proportion to her body size. She is also using training bras (American Academy of Pediatrics,

2015).

Rubi weighs 105.8 lbs. and is 5’1”, which makes her above average in height to weight

ratio in girls her age who average a height of 5’9” and weigh 91.5 lbs. (Langtree, 2018). She is

physically active on a regular basis. She practices gymnastics every other day with her brother

Marco and is often flipping around the house or practicing gymnastics on her own. When she

trains with her brother they normally engage in 2-hour sessions that focus on reaching goals of

being able to do certain movements. She is also taken to an indoor trampoline location once or

twice a month by Anthony on the weekends where she jumps non-stop for 1-2 hours.

Her sleep schedule is strict. Sunday through Thursday she has to be in bed with the lights

off and be ready to sleep by 9:30pm-10:00 pm. An alarm on her tablet wakes her up at 8:00am

and she leaves the house to go to school at 8:40am. On the other days (Friday and Saturday) she

goes to sleep around 11:00pm-12:00am and wakes up around 9 or 10 in the morning. She gets

about the recommended amount of sleep for her age group (6-13 years old). It is recommended

that individuals between the ages of 6-13 to get 9-11 hours of sleep daily (National Sleep

Foundation, 2018).

Nutrition is something she would have to work on due to the fact that she likes to eat fast

food and it is readily available due to her brothers offering it to her every time they go out to get
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food for themselves. She eats fast food about four times a week, but she stays in relatively good

shape due to all the exercising she does. She eats three meals a day Monday through Friday, and

eats two meals a day plus snacks on the weekends.

Emotional development

Rubi has shown signs of egocentrism (Anthony, n.d.). This was demonstrated by her

asking if her experiences or wants and needs were the same as her mothers and mine at her age.

She asked me at what age I knew what I wanted to be and if I was ever scared of the dark.

Another sign that provides further evidence of her egocentrism is her occasional concern about

imaginary audiences. For instance, on one occasion she was crying because she thought her

family was laughing at her because she messed up a gymnastic move in the living room.

However, they were laughing about a completely different topic and it was just coincidence that

their laughter happened at the same moment she messed up on a gymnastic move. Another

example is she can be manipulated into wearing certain clothes that look nicer than the clothes

she is used to wearing or no longer fits due to her growth spurts. She has also started to ask for

suggestions and feedback about hairstyles and the opinion of others about what we think in

regards to the actions she takes.

Erikson’s theory of industry vs. inferiority states that during the ages of 5-13 children

become competitive and want to do the same things other girls can do at their age (Psychology

Notes HQ, 2016). Rubi does look up videos of other girls doing gymnastic moves and wants to

do them even though some of the girls on the videos have been doing gymnastics for a longer

period of time compared to her. She has also shown the flip side of that-- sometimes if she fails

or is unable to mimic the same gymnastics moves as the girls in the videos, she believes that she

is not as skilled as them.

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She has started to show some distance from family matters, which is common for

children her age. Adolescents who are in the 11-14 year old age group often become more

independent from their family (WebMD, n.d.-a). She will at times go to her room and just watch

videos on YouTube or play Minecraft on her tablet with her headphones on so no one will

disturb her. She is granted more alone time due to her brothers stepping in when their parents

want her to come out and socialize. Her brothers assert that when they were her age they wanted

alone time and that she will eventually come out of her room and socialize, which she does.

Philosophical Development

Using Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development I would say Rubi is transitioning

between two levels (Psychology Notes HQ, 2016). The first is the Conventional Moral

Development Level and [Stage Two: Authority and Social Order] which states children think

that the fixed rules are what keep the peace. The second is the Post-Conventional Moral

Development Level and [Stage Three: Social Contract] which states that the child starts to see

that just because something is a rule does not always mean that is it morally right and which

rules seem useful rather than attractive.

The reason I believe she falls in between the two aforementioned levels of moral

development is, she understands the rule pertaining to the dogs not being permitted to go into the

rooms due to them leaving/shedding hair or the possibility of them causing an accident. She also

understands that she has to play and exercise with them. She will sometimes be running around

the house with the dogs chasing her and run into her room where the dogs will jump up on her

bed and she will wrestle with them on the bed. Another example is how she will sometimes

repeat the rules placed on her back to her family. She will be told to move off a chair from the
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dinner table if someone has already placed a drink or their plate and she will sometimes make a

fuss about moving but will grab her drink and pick another available seat at the table.

Given these examples, I can see that she understands the rules that have been put in place

for her and she will choose which rules to follow depending on the amount of gain or

punishment placed upon them (Veritas, 2017). She expects that the rules set for her are the same

for the others in the family, which fits into Kohlberg’s second stage of the Conventional level

(Sanders, 2018). When she follows the rules based on what she believes is okay compared to the

actual rules she is transitioning into the first stage of the Post-Conventional level.

Social Development

Rubi is at the age where she will start secondary school, also known as middle school,

and with this comes a learning environment that has “less guidance and direction, and increased

academic demands” (WebMD, n.d.-b). I think this is true given I have gone through middle

school already and the change was noticeable from elementary school from social to academics.

When she asked her brothers how was middle school they each gave her a different answer. One

stated that it was easy and the other stated that it was easy but to make sure she does her

homework or else she will have to attend summer school.

She is at the age where she will compare herself with others and is able to assess her

abilities. As I stated before, she compares herself to other gymnasts she watches online and tries

to be at their level even though they have had a lot more formal training (Kids Matter, n.d.).

Another way she compares herself is by giving scenarios to family members and asking what

they would do. An example of that would be her asking if another girl came up and pushed her or
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called her a name what should she do. Her mother responded that she should tell the teacher and

if she does not address the problem to let her know and she will have a meeting with her.

She is also more frequently stating she would rather stay home and play on her tablet

with her cousin Gabriel than go out to dinner or other family members’ houses with her parents.

According to the American Psychological Association, “one of the most obvious changes in

adolescence is that the hub around which the adolescent’s world revolves shifts from the family

to the peer group” (American Psychological Association, n.d.). I think due to her spending so

much time with Gabriel he has become one of her peers and also another friend who sleeps over

about once a month Sahara a girl her age from her 4th grade class she still stays in contact with.

Intellectual Development

According to a study done by Stanford on children’s health, an early adolescent begins to

question authority and society standards and begins the transition from concrete thinking to more

complex thinking (Standford, n.d.). I have noticed that she has started to question why she has to

do certain things around the house. An example would be when her mom told her to take the

dogs out and she only wanted to stand at the door while they were outside. Her mom told her to

walk out towards the rocks and she replied with “Why?” and her mom stated that they would not

poop unless she walks out towards the rocks. This means that she will start to question not only

orders given to her but why certain rules are in place and how they came to be. An example of

that was her oldest brother told her that she has to do her homework and she said “I don’t want

to” and he responded, “that’s fine, however you will have to go to summer school if you get bad

grades and I can help you do it if you want.” She stood there for about two minutes and then

went inside her room and grabbed her homework out of her backpack.
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Next year she will be going to Molasky Middle School, and that will be more challenging

than elementary school. However taking into account that her current lowest grade is a B she will

most likely do fine at the middle school level. Another advantage she has is that her two older

brothers help and make sure she does her homework and that it is done correctly. Her family has

also prepared her by telling her that she will have a different teacher for about every subject and

that school is bigger (Morin, n.d.). One of her brother went to that school and will be going with

her to check out the school and see where her classes will be and help her understand her

schedule.

She is at the “adolescence period during which young people behind to consider career

options, although most do not have a clearly defined goal” (Psychology Today, n.d.). Rubi has

decided to become a veterinarian and her family has told her how long she will have to go to

school for after completing high school and the grade point average she will have to maintain

while in school. She did have the career goal however; her family is guiding her towards her

goal.

Recommendations

My recommendations for Rubi would be to enroll her in a gymnastic gym so she can base

her skills off other normal girls who do not have a YouTube channel due to them being so good

at gymnastics.

Another recommendation that could affect her in the short and long run would be to

change her diet and stop eating junk food and fast food that can be detrimental to a child’s

development. I would recommend that her brother stop offering her food or to stop eating that

food to remove temptation. I would suggest maybe having some fruit or healthy snacks available
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for her to eat from when she gets home from school to when her mom makes dinner for the

family. I believe her family eats well-balanced meals for dinner however breakfast can be

inconsistent at times.

Her sleep schedule is set however; there are times that her family have noticed that she

uses her tablet after turning off the light in her room. They knock and have heard her scramble to

put away the tablet and they tell her that she should be sleeping because she has school the next

day or they something planned for that day. I would recommend they continue to monitor her

because sleep is a very important factor in an adolescent.

Fourth recommendation would be to have her family to continue the same level of

involvement into her school work to ensure her success. However the hard part will be to find the

right moment to let her start figuring it out and only going to her family as a reference or guide

instead of them planning it out for her.

Finally, I think that the transition to adolescence will take its toll due to her already

starting to worry about being accepted by her peers. This may be a normal phase for them to go

through, however she needs to realize she is an individual and it’s okay to stand out or not fit in.
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Pepsi Chart

Figure:1 Below illustrates Rubi’s physical, emotional, philosophical, social and

intellectual traits compared to a typical child.

PEPSI Chart
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0
Physical Emotional Philosophical Social Intellectual

Series 1 Series 2

Figure: 1

Series 1: Typical child

Series 2: Rubi
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References

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2015). Physical changes during puberty. Retrieved March 25,

2018, from https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-

stages/gradeschool/puberty/Pages/Physical-Development-of-School-Age-Children.aspx

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Developing adolescents: A reference for

professionals. Retrieved March 25, 2018 from

http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/brochures/develop.aspx

Anthony, M. (n.d.). Social development in 11-13 year olds. Retrieved March 31, 2018, from

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/stages-milestones/social-

development-11-13-year-olds

Kids Matter. (n.d.). Social development. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from

https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/mental-health-matters/social-and-emotional-

learning/social-development

Langtree, I. (2018). Average height to weight chart - Babies to Teenagers. Retrieved March 25,

2018, from https://www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/height-weight-teens.php

Morin, A. (n.d.). Middle school challenges for kids with learning and attention issues. Retrieved

April 29, 2018, from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/choosing-starting-

school/moving-up/middle-school-challenges-for-kids-with-learning-and-attention-issues
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National Sleep Foundation. (2018). How much sleep do we really need? Retrieved March 25,

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need

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Psychology Today. (n.d.). Adolescence. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from

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Sanders, C. E. (2018). Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Retrieved April 21,

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development

Stanford Children's Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2018, from

http://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=cognitive-development-90-P01594

Veritas, Dr. (2017) Kohlberg's Theory of moral development. Retrieved April 14, 2018, from

https://www.acpeds.org/kohlbergs-theory-of-moral-development

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