Comparison of Physical Assessment Among School-Aged Children from 5 to 12 years

The parameters of physical assessment of school-aged children from 5 to 12 years include weight, general appearance, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, pulse rate, basal metabolic index, and body temperature. The technique of the physical assessment must be conducted under the presence of parents, and it is recommended to conduct the assessment in front of the mother for girls and in front of the father for boys. The article also discusses the typical assessment for a child of a specific age and the developmental assessment of a child using Erikson's Theory of Psychological Development.

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Comparison of Physical Assessment Among School-Aged Children from 5 to 12 years
The parameters of physical assessment of the children between the age group of 5 to 8
years deals with assessment of the weight of the child with respect to height and a detailed
assessment of the general appearance of the child like eyes, head, nose ears, mouth and teeth.
The major physical assessment apart from the assessing the physical appearance include
examining the heart rate, respiratory rate (RR), blood pressure (BP), pulse rate, basal
metabolic index (BMI), pulse rate (PR) and measuring of the body temperature (temp) (Ling
et al., 2014). Children between the age group of 9 10 12 years are also accessed on the scale
of their height (gender based), weight (body mass index), BP, RR, OR and body temperature
along with the assessment of the basal metabolic rate. Additional physical assessment
includes study of the muscle mass or muscle development, assessment of the genital
maturation (growth of the genital organs is faster among the adolescence or pre-pubertal girls
and in case of pre-pubertal boys it lasts longer ending up attaining a taller height). Further
physical assessment will include proper examination of the tenderness of skin, proper
development of joints and finding other signs of pre-pubertal development (Ling et al., 2014).
The technique of the physical assessment for the children between the age group of 5
to 8 years must be conducted under the presence of their parents. Presence of parents gives
children mental assurance of being safe and secured. In some cases, children refuse to
cooperate or becomes agitated or tensed, hampering the assessment procedure. It order to
manage this condition, the health professionals takes interventions like distracting the
children or tempting them gifts like chocolates, toys or telling them fancy stories (Cvejić,
Pejović & Ostojić, 2013). It is recommended to conduct the physical assessment of girls (9 to
12 years) in front of their mother and in case of boys (9 to 12 years), in front of their father.
This is because at during 9 to 12 years is the pre-pubertal stage and privacy and

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confidentiality is required to be maintained. In order to gain adolescence co-operation and
consent, it is the duty of the healthcare professionals to educate them about the importance of
the physical assessment (Cvejić, Pejović & Ostojić, 2013).
Typical Assessment for a Child of a Specific Age
Child selected: Boy, age: 5 years
The first and fore-most milestone in the developmental history of a 5-year boy is
physical development. According to van der Fels et al. (2015), a process of developing gross
and fine motor skills defines physical development. Gross motor skills are characterized by
the development of ability to walk, run, jog, jump and hop. Fine motor skills include proper
development of the joint of the wrist muscles, ability to the child to tie the lace of the shoes or
zipping up the shirt buttons. Other important aspects of the physical development of a boy of
5 years of age include proper handling and use of forks and knives with proper co-ordination.
Emotional development also occurs alongside the physical development during 5 years of
age. Emotional development is characterized by development of sense of anger, empathy,
sense of fear, anxiety and other tantrum. Social development occurs at this stage of life like
formation of new relationships or making new friends (van der Fels et al., 2015).
Developmental Assessment of a Child Using a Developmental Theory
Erikson’s Theory of Psychological Developmental focuses on socio-cultural
development. It consists of 8 different stages characterized by the stages of psycho-social
crisis. Erickson stage of psychological development during 5 to 12 years of age is defined by
industry and inferiority. This highlights that children underwent maturity with their level of
self-awareness along with logical understanding. Logical understanding increases knowledge
about the scientific facts, logical reasoning and general knowledge taught in school. The

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logical understanding also increases competitive sense among the children, generating
competitive attitude among them. Due to this competitive attitude, the child of 5-year of age
want to do things like their friends in school and inability in doing so decreases they self-
esteem, they start feeling inferior (McLean & Syed, 2014).
Keeping the Erikson Theory in mind, I initiate the physical assessment by educating
the child process of physical assessment and its importance. It will help them to understand
the importance of conducting physical assessment. Effective understanding will help to
increase their effective participation with cooperative attitude. My educational approach will
guided by the use of audio-visual representation (power-point presentation or videos). Use of
audio-visual presentation will make the tutorial or educational program more engaging.
Diagrammatic representations full with colors will be used educated the child about different
physiological parts (Svetina, 2014).
The findings from the assessment will help in understanding the gross motor skills
and fine motor skills development of the child. Studying the extend of the development of
this skill will be done through physical activity like running, jumping, climbing and throwing
the balls inside the baskets. The play-full activities full will excitement and rewards will help
to increase their effective participation of the child. Assessment of the emotional
development will include the examination of how the child is exhibiting the emotions like
anger, fear, tension, anxiety, excitement and friendliness (Svetina, 2014). The social behavior
will be accessed based on the child’s degree of interest in reading storybooks or playing
games with a group of friends or drawing colorful pictures from imagination. The emotional
and social development assessment will be done through blinded tests. This means that the
child will not be aware regarding why he is asked to do such things like drawing, playing or
reading books. Blinded intervals will help to fetch unbiased assessment results. If the child
loves to play games in groups, then socializing skills of the child will be highlighted. Reading

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story books will signifies that he is an introvert and wants to spend alone time alone or has a
craving for knowledge or uncovering what is unknown. Drawing from imagination will
highlight creative sense of the child and knowledge of the use of contrasting colors (Cote &
Levine, 2014).

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References
Cote, J. E., & Levine, C. G. (2014). Identity, formation, agency, and culture: A social
psychological synthesis. Psychology Press.
Cvejić, D., Pejović, T., & Ostojić, S. (2013). Assessment of physical fitness in children and
adolescents. Facta universitatis-series: Physical Education and Sport, 11(2), 135-145.
Ling, J., King, K. M., Speck, B. J., Kim, S., & Wu, D. (2014). Preliminary assessment of a
school‐based healthy lifestyle intervention among rural elementary school
children. Journal of School Health, 84(4), 247-255.
McLean, K. C., & Syed, M. (Eds.). (2014). The Oxford handbook of identity development.
Oxford Library of Psychology.
Svetina, M. (2014). Resilience in the context of Erikson’s theory of human
development. Current Psychology, 33(3), 393-404.
van der Fels, I. M., te Wierike, S. C., Hartman, E., Elferink-Gemser, M. T., Smith, J., &
Visscher, C. (2015). The relationship between motor skills and cognitive skills in 4–
16 year old typically developing children: A systematic review. Journal of science
and medicine in sport, 18(6), 697-703.