PEPSI SCREENING 1

Xavier C. Perry

College of Southern Nevada

EDU 220: Professor R. Hooks

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Biography

The individual that I chose to do this PEPSI Screening on is my younger brother, Izaiah.

Izaiah is fifteen years old and a sophomore in high school whom by all appearance seems,

“normal”. He maintains exemplary grades, taking all honors and A.P courses and prides himself

in his excellent attendance. In addition to Izaiah’s scholastic achievements, he is also an active

and proud member of his high school football and track teams. He maintains consistency in the

gym, even during the off seasons. Izaiah is Catholic and maintains his moral value through both

verbiage and his daily behavior. Being half Italian and one half African American, he takes pride

in his ethnic history. Izaiah aspires to graduate high school, then college and medical school,

with the desire to become a Cardiologist. Izaiah was born in the small rural town of Templeton,

California on a beautiful spring morning. Izaiah is the outcome of my mother having been raped

sixteen years ago. Shortly after Izaiah’s birth, Izaiah, my mother and myself moved to the

slightly larger suburbs of Paso Robles, California, wherein my brother lived a happy, healthy and

comfortable socioeconomic life until the age of ten when we moved to Chandler, Arizona.

Moving to Arizona provided a rise in our family’s socioeconomic status, but also left Izaiah

conflicted with moving from a small town to a major metropolitan area. Two years after moving

to Arizona, Izaiah now twelve, found out that he was the product of a rape that our mother

endured, and life changed. Two years following that information, our family moved to

Henderson, Nevada, where we have resided for almost two years. Izaiah has established a

growing adolescent support system, maintained praiseworthy academic standing, has a

phenomenal family support structure at home, mother, step-father (whom he/we call dad) and

brother and continued to thrive in all facets of his adolescence.

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Physical Development

Physical development is one of the largest concerns for young adolescent boys today.

“Most boys are more concerned about delayed physical developments in the teen years as these

delays can lead to things such as bullying and social anxieties” (Dworkin 2017). Izaiah as a

younger child, ages 7-10 was on the shorter size for a male. Nonetheless, there never seemed to

be a concern as so many of an individual’s features, eye color, height and hair color can be

inherited. Izaiah’s mother is five feet three inches. Izaiah did experience some stages of bullying

being a shorter and heavier child prior to ten years old. Izaiah remained the same height until he

turned fourteen years of age wherein he sprouted up to six feet two inches and now an additional

year later at fifteen stands at a towering height of six feet four inches and counting. During these

dramatic growth spurts, Izaiah began to work out more often, going to the gym six days a week

at a rate of two times a day. His body became lean and muscular. It has been said that “changing

bodies may lead to changes in circle of peers (McNeely & Blanchard 2009). Although, this

assumption never applied to Izaiah’s physical development. Regardless of his “Clark Kent to

Superman” (Perry 2017) transformation, his circle remained the same. Izaiah, regardless of

height or weight has always maintained much detail as it pertains to his appearance. Yes, he is

the teenager who looks in the mirror more in one day than most do in a month. “Other

developing factors are bone development and mineralization” (Mersch 2017). These physical

ailments/developments effected Izaiah enormously. For an entire year he was with ongoing pain

throughout his major joints. Most days the pain disabled him from getting out of bed on his own.

Although, he is past the worst of the pain spurts, he still experiences some joint and muscular

pain due to excessive growth. Today, Izaiah stands 6 feet 4 ½ inches tall, weighing 186 pounds at

fifteen years old and his primary care physician, Susan Fernandez MD, believes he will grow to
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be at the very least six feet seven inches (Fernandez MD). I’m just going to say the word and get

it out of the way, “Penis”. It’s become blatant and redundant throughout many articles, journals

and books regarding teenage male physical development that penis size can be a struggle for

young teenage boys. Rather than discuss that, as its overdone, I sat with my brother and

discussed eating disorders. There seems to be a common misconception that the idea of a young

male having an eating disorder is either taboo or not possible. Meanwhile, many teenage males

are plagued with an eating disorder. In 2013, ten to fifteen percent of teenage boys suffered from

anorexia or another type of eating disorder (Metzger 2013). This percentage has grown

drastically. Izaiah and myself discussed a time during Izaiah’s preteen adolescent stage wherein

he would ultimately starve himself for days and then eat incessantly for a 24 hour period, in an

effort to lose weight. Eventually, our mother devised a plan to help Izaiah establish good eating

habits and maintain an exercise routine that provided him with the tools to overcome his eating

disorder and learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle without giving up all the things he loved or

starving himself. Eating disorders are thriving in young males and it’s important to address them.

They aren’t nonexistent or taboo, but instead society has made them such. Today, Izaiah is a

physically healthy, developed six feet, four inches, 186 pounds, male with tremendous

confidence, but it was a journey getting to this point.

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Emotional Development

Emotional development was a subject matter that I was excited to embark upon with

Izaiah. The emotional development of adolescents seems more complex as the world changes

and becomes more challenging. The most common type of emotional disorder during

adolescence is depression (Peterson 2014). My brother and I are very close and when he found

out the circumstances surrounding how our mother became pregnant with him, I recall waiting

for a storm. He was twelve years old and everyone was convinced that this information would

somehow alter his emotional being forever. He didn’t speak to my mother for weeks. The two of

them walked around the house as if there was a giant equator dividing it and neither was going to

shift to the other side. And then one day, Izaiah, marched toward my mother vigorously and

embraced her. He hugged her as if he had just been given the best Christmas gift in the world. As

he pulled away from her, his hands still on her, he asked her, are you okay? My mother looked

confused, almost as if he was speaking a foreign language. My younger brother guided our

mother to the couch and asked her just to listen. He explained to her that he had spent the last

few weeks feeling so angry, sad and hurting because of what he now knew she had gone through

and someone did to her. Our mother sent him to therapy hoping that it would help Izaiah deal

with this new and traumatic information. Finally, after five months of therapy, the therapist

requested to speak to my mother. She found out that shockingly, the therapist felt Izaiah didn’t

need therapy. She further explained, that considering the new events in his life, he is more

adjusted, loving and considerate than most teenage boys. He showed no apparent signs of

depression and has a healthy support system and family dynamic. Depression and unstable

family situations place adolescents at risk for suicide (Peterson 2014). The circumstances and

situations that Izaiah has positively persevered through in his own life has proved to make him a
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more sensitive individual. He is intuitive to the feelings of others and appears to task himself

with the duty of empathy for others. I often wonder if this emotional development, the necessity

to empathize, could become a later severe stress or burden emotionally and mentally on him in

adulthood. With empathy, you will feel their stress, anxiety and anger in your body (Reynolds

2017). If you let these emotions sit in your body, you can feel emotionally hijacked (Reynolds

2017). Taking on the feelings of others can often be used by some as an avoidance technique as

well. By no means am I implying that to be the nature of Izaiah’s empathy for others, although I

do believe it is a characteristic that his loved ones should remain aware of, as it could inevitably

lead to depression, stress, anxiety, among other emotional issues.

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Philosophical Development

My case study, Izaiah, all adversities considered has maintained extremely positive

philosophical development. By definition, he has, consistently “shown a calm attitude toward

disappointments or difficulties” (Oxford 2017). Izaiah has a clear understanding of the timeline

of traumatic events that have affected his life. Affected is an interesting word. Naturally, people

seem to always assume the negative rather than the positive. He has knowledge and all pertinent

information with regards to traumatic situations that have transpired and he actively chooses to

not dwell over it in a negative way, but instead, he thrives with positivity. Much like cognitive

development, the process of acquiring intelligence and increasingly advanced and problem-

solving ability from infancy to adulthood (dictionary.com). Izaiah has throughout his

philosophical development displayed a casually calming demeanor while executing decisions

when faced with any type of turmoil or adversity. When I sat with Izaiah and questioned him as

to how he manages to remain and appear so untroubled in situations that would usually cause an

individual stress or anxiety, he simply replied, “there is no point in getting myself worked up,

either way I’m going to have to deal with whatever is thrown my way and I would rather make

good decisions because I’m cool, than bad decisions because I’m not in a good state of mind”

(Izaiah 2017).
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Social Development

It has been said, “not surprisingly that most conflicts between parents and their

adolescent children are about such peer-influenced issues as personal appearance, friends,

Internet and cell phone use, dating, hours and eating habits” (Snowman Ch.3: Age-Level

Characteristics p. 103). This has never been my observation of Izaiah. Izaiah has been raised

with the understanding that he is defined by his choices, decisions and actions and to be prideful,

but not arrogant in his convictions. Izaiah is a social butterfly, but has always been a born leader.

Izaiah has always worn clothing that he liked, regardless of what the current fads happened to be

at the time. I tried many of times to convince him to change before leaving the house (smiling).

He wears his hair with pride as he gels, styles and re-checks it at least ten times prior to leaving

the house even though most of his closest friends are the wash and go kind of adolescents. Izaiah

wanted to get his ears pierced and his best friend expressed thinking that it was a ridiculous idea.

Izaiah got his ears pierced and proudly rocks his shiny studs and now his friends want their ears

pierced as well. Izaiah isn’t trying to set trends, but instead comfortable being himself.

Establishing one’s identity is a huge factor in social development. Adolescence is a period of

development and consolidation of the social self, of one’s identity and understanding of the self

in relation to the social world (Coleman & Hendry 1990). Although, Izaiah is still developing his

individual self and relating it to the world, he is in fact about individualism. He doesn’t see a

place in society for judgments or relationships based on things such as; hair styles, clothing

brands or accessories. Instead, he is about finding out who he is and where his intended place in

this world will end up being. Izaiah is extremely social, loved by the girls, admired by other guys

as a tall lean athlete and he isn’t enamored by any of that nor does he indulge in your
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stereotypical high school cliques’, but instead, he has friends throughout his school whom vary

in appearance, intellect, athletic ability and other indifferent characteristics. This modeling was

stereotypical high school cliques’, but instead, he has friends throughout his school whom vary

in appearance, intellect, athletic ability and other indifferent characteristics. This modeling was

surely an example provide by his mother, as she has friends from all walks of life as well and has

always said, “never ignore the individual getting on the bus, he/she could be venturing to do

something great” (mom 2017).

.
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Intellectual Development
Intellectually, Izaiah is above average. He is currently enrolled in all Honors and A.P.

courses at his high school. Izaiah has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and does often

become bored with his curriculum. I believe it’s important to address his disorder through

intellectual development. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with

substantial heterogeneity in terms of its cognitive correlates, changes in brain development and

genetic influences (Banaschewski 2010/Nigg 2005). It would make perfect sense for an

individual to assume that an adolescent with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder would

drastically disrupt the process and correlation between cognitive development and intellectual

development as a joint entity. Intellectual development requires thinking, reasoning, relating,

judging and conceptualizing (Intellectual Development 2008), while cognitive development

requires the construction of thought processes, remember, problem solving and decision making

(Wells 2004). Initially, when Izaiah was diagnosed with the disorder and after our family became

more knowledgeable about the disorder, certain previous behaviors suddenly made perfect sense.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has been linked by many psychologists, physicians and

scientists to genetics. This was another connection that immediately made sense as our mother

has the disorder as well. I asked Izaiah if it ever occurred to him, once he found out he had the

disorder, that his mom had it as well and his response was fascinating. He replied, “I always just

thought mama was like wonder woman, she’s a really good multi tasker, she can do like twenty

things at a time” (Izaiah 2017). When Izaiah was initially diagnosed, a physician placed him on

medication which unfortunately plagued him with horrible side effects. Eventually after several

medication attempts, the decision was made to remove medication as option entirely. Instead our

mother took classes and workshops on how to establish routines and mechanisms that would

work for Izaiah and help him succeed. Today Izaiah utilizes tools such as scheduling and routine
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management. He is extremely meticulous in keeping track of his assignments at school and

completing them ahead of time rather than on time to ensure consistency. Izaiah does attribute a

great deal of his intellectual development to the support of his family. Unfortunately, if Izaiah’s

academic routine is in the slightest way disrupted it can pose as a problem.

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Recommendations for Teachers & Parents

Physical Development: I think reiterating that healthy eating and regular exercise as a lifestyle

is important. Being that he previously had an eating disorder, I think it’s pertinent to be

conscious and aware of his eating habits or lack of.

Emotional Development: Given some of the traumatic circumstances and situations that Izaiah

was made aware of and even with him seemingly handling them well, I believe it is pertinent that

those close to him keep him aware that at any point he feels the need to discuss things, the door

is open. Izaiah seems to go out of his way to seek perfection and ensuring that he is aware that an

emotional melt down won’t make him imperfect.

Philosophical Development: Continue to keep him surrounded by positive support groups in

addition to his positive family dynamic.

Social Development: Izaiah excels in this area. I would recommend giving him positive

feedback for his independent choices and continue to keep him involved in social activities,

sports, and close family activities as well.

Intellectual Development: I would continue to help Izaiah stay consistent in all his daily

routines and while allowing him to maintain a high academic standard, I would caution his need

for perfection as I have a concern that it could pose as a later melt down that he may not be

prepared to deal with. Continue to encourage organization as well so that he can thrive

academically.
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PEPSI Screening Graph

5
4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Series 1
Physical 4.5
Emotional 4.5
Philosophical 4.5
Social 4.5
Intellectual 4.5

This PEPSI Screening chart represents the average normal levels of a teenage adolescent male as
it pertains to all five developments.
Average Norm of a Teenage Adolescent Male Measures: 2.5
Above Average for a Teenage Adolescent Male Measures: 4.5
Case Study: Izaiah Results: Izaiah is above average in all areas of development, but it’s my
belief that he occupies himself with the issues of others to avoid any possible issues of his own.
Physical Development: 4.5
Emotional Development: 3.5
Philosophical Development: 3.5
Social Development: 4.5
Intellectual Development: 3.5
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References

Banaschewski, T., Becker, K., Scherag, S., Franke, B., & Coghill, D. (2010, March). Molecular

Genetics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: an overview.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20145962

Biological and Physical Changes. (n.d.).

http://www.extension.umn.edu/family/families-with-teens/resources-parents/whats-

normal-for-teen-development/biological-and-physical-changes/

Cognitive Development. (n.d.) Dictionary.com Unabridged.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cognitive-development

Coleman JC, Hendry L. The Nature of Adolescence. 2nd edition. Florence, KY: Taylor &

Frances/Routledge;1990

DeZeeuw, P., Schnack, H.G., Van Belle, J., Weusten, J., Van Dijk S., Langen, M., Durston, S.

(2012 April 20). Differential Brain Development with Low and High IQ.

http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035770

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nin.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3335015

Dworkin, Jodi. (2011). Biological and Physical Changes.

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http://www.extension.umn.edu/family/families-with-teens/resources-parents/whats-

normal-for-teen-development/biological-and-physical-changes/

FAAP, Mersch, John, (n.d.). Teen Child Development: Get the Facts on Adolescence.

http://www.medicinenet.com/teen_child_development/article.htm

Fernandes, Susan MD. (2017). Horizon Ridge Pediatrics. Henderson, NV.

http://horizonridgepediatrics.com/the-practice

Intellectual Development. (2008). International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-

magazines/intellectual-development

Izaiah. Case Study: PEPSI Screening. 2017

McNeely, C & Blanchard, J (2011). The teen years explained: A guide to healthy adolescent

Development (1st edition, Vol. 1, P 7). Baltimore, MD: John’s Hopkins Center for

Adolescent Youth.

Metzger, L. (n.d.). What I’ve Learned About Eating Disorders and Teenage Boys [Web Log

Post].

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lois-metzger/eating-disorders-in-teenage-

boys_b_3805176.html
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Nigg, JT & Casey BJ. (2005) An integrative theory of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

based on cognitive and affective neurosciences. Dev Psychopathol, 17 (3): 785-806

Peterson, A.C. (2014). Chapter 3: Age-Level Characteristics. In Psychology Applied to Teaching

14th EDITION. (14th ed., p.104). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Philosophical/Definition of philosophical in the English by Oxford Dictionaries. (2017)

http://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/philisophical

Reynolds, M. (2017, April 15). Can You Have Too Much Empathy?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wander-woman/201704-can-you-have-too-

much-empathy

Snowman, J & McGowan, R. (2014). Chapter 3: Age-Level Characteristics. In Psychology

Applied to Teaching 14th EDITION. (14th ed., p. 103). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning

Wells, K.R. (2004). Cognitive Development.

http://www.healthofchildren.com/c/Cognitive-Development.html