Physical Assessments Among School-Aged Children
When conducting a medical assessment of a school-aged child, a medical professional must evaluate their cognitive, physical, social, language, and learning development. Additonally, Giddens (2019) emphasizes the impotence of identifying children who have special needs during these assessments because they may require additional support from their parents and educators. When conducting the assessment, a medical professional has to modify the approach, such as the data source. For example, for a child below the age of 5, most of the information will be gained from their caregivers, while older children can provide some information about themselves (Giddens, 2019). With young children, observation is another technique used to get insights. An assessor can also use standardized tests, ratings from parents and caregivers, and portfolios. Again, each technique should be modified based on the capabilities of a child, for instance, a five-year olf will most likely have difficulty writing the answers for a standardized test, and the medical personnel should write the answers for them. A twelve years old child, however, should have no difficulty in completing this test by themselves.
Stages of Development
For a ten-year-old child named R., the typical developmental stages are one should consider during an assessment are include cognitive development, physical growth, and language skills. R. should have grown by approximately 2.5 inches and gained 7 pounds (Giddens, 2019). permanent teeth should replace baby teeth at a rate of about four per year. From a perspective of cognitive development, R. should name dates, understand complex sentences, and read chapters of books (Giddens, 2019). Additionally, R. should be able to write simple stories and perform basic math operations.
The stages of R.’s emotional development can be assessed by evaluating whether he enjoys spending time with friends, likes team activities, and show interest in their parents. Next, at this age, children should be able to talk to people of different ages and be engaged in full conversations(Giddens, 2019). Finally, the sensory and motor development of R. can be assessed by examining the control of large and small muscles, endurance, and fine motor skills. Therefore, at the age of ten, R. should be able to show skills in conversation, writing, reading, math and grow at a pace of about 2.5 inches per year, which allows assessing his development stages.
Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s theory focuses on a child’s cognitive development. The basis of this theory is the idea that cognitive skills develop in stages, and R. fits into the “concrete operational” stage (Giddens, 2019). Based on Piaget’s theory, a ten years old child is on the verge of developing the cognitive skills and patterns they will use in the future as adults. Hence, an assessment would include testing if a child can process information internally, for example, by asking R. to converse weight (Giddens, 2019). To offer explanations during this assessment, one should say that a conversion test allows examining if R. comprehends the idea that something stays the same if quantity even after R. converses it. Offering a simple explanation of Piaget’s theory and this test to his caregivers allows cooperating with them. Potential findings should include R. being able to converse weight, for example, from pounds to kilograms. To conclude, a medical professional should understand the differences in child development to complete physical assessments correctly since some techniques have to be adjusted based on a child’s age.
Reference
Giddens, J. F. (2019). Concepts for nursing practice e-book (3rd ed.). Evolve.