School-Aged Child Developmental Assessment: Techniques and Theories

This report delves into the developmental assessment of school-aged children, examining physical assessment techniques like inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation, and how they are modified to match the child's age and developmental stage. It discusses the characteristics of a five-year-old child, focusing on their play, physical abilities, and emotional expression. The report then applies Erikson's stages of psychosocial development to assess a child, detailing how to offer explanations, gain cooperation, and anticipate findings at each stage (trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, and identity vs. role confusion). Strategies include providing for needs, encouraging independence, fostering initiative, and promoting a positive self-identity. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of physical assessment in identifying developmental issues and highlights strategies to gain cooperation and achieve accurate findings in the assessment process, referencing relevant literature.

Running head: DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT 1
Developmental Assessment
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT 2
Introduction
Assessment is used to enhance the learning of students and the teaching of teachers since
both of them respond to the information it delivers. It is an ongoing procedure that arises out of
the connection amidst learning along with teaching (Wiliam & Thompson, 2017). What makes
an assessment for learning productive is how better the information is utilized. Among the
school-aged students, assessment is utilized to identify special needs, monitor trends, support
learning as well as evaluate school accountability and program.
Question 1
Physical assessment is based on inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation,
generally in that order (Narula, Chandrashekhar & Braunwald, 2018). With inspection, the nurse
examines the whole body area and then focuses on specifics like movement, size, shape, and
color. During palpation, the sense of touch is utilized to make judgments on vibrations and
pulsations and locate structures and masses. Here, the nurse is allowed to ascertain the
characteristics of various body parts like size, mobility, texture, tenderness, size, and warmth.
Then percussion follows, using quick, sharp tapping on the hands or fingers to produce
sounds. It is done to locate the density, size, and position of the underlying structures (El-Shafie,
El-Nemr, Allam & El-Afifi, 2015). On the other hand, auscultation involves eliciting and
listening to body sounds created in the blood vessels, heart, lungs and abdominal viscera. The
nurse uses a stethoscope and diaphragm is utilized to assess high-pitched sounds and the bell to
assess low-pitched sounds (Kaj, 2017).
With the observation-based assessment technique, I will concentrate more on what the
child says, does and what they know. As such, I will match the age as well as the developmental

DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT 3
phase of each child. Moreover, with the mosaic assessment technique, I will help the child to be
cooperative in developing a perception regarding their lives.
Question 2
A child of five years has probably left their teetering toddler years and is well on their way to
becoming more organized and decisive in their activities as they enter the school-age years
(Press, 2015). The child’s ways of playing are different because they contain drama as well as
fantasy. As their small muscles become more fine-tuned, the child at five years can dress
himself, handle zippers and buttons and learn how to tie their shoes. Moreover, the child
becomes aware of specific things like food and days and tends to talk a lot and can at times talk
to himself (Vatavu, Cramariuc & Schipor, 2015). Besides, his moves are well-coordinated and
he likes displaying new skills which he has learned while playing or in school. This child may
convey his feelings better and there might be few cases where he has an eruption of anger or
sadness (Lieberman, 2017)
Question 3
Assessing a child depends on the level of development as well as his age. According to
Erickson, there are eight phases of emotional development which cover a lifetime (Kropf &
Greene, 2017). Phase 1 is the trust versus mistrust that happens amidst birth and the first year. To
know the child’s development status, I would provide for the child and notice the mistrusting or
trusting nature.
Phase 2 is the autonomy versus shame and doubt that happens amidst two to three years.
In case the parents encourage the child to perform things independently he develops a sense of
autonomy but if the parents shame the child for a bad character he develops self-doubt and not
sure what to do on his own (Syed & McLean, 2017). On the other hand, phase 3 is the initiative

DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT 4
versus guilt which happens amidst four years and five years. A child who is permitted to express
himself via speech learns how to initiate. However, a restricted child develops guilt and is afraid
to initiate. Phase 4 is industry versus inferiority which happens amidst six and eleven years. In
assessment, a child who shows industrious nature or a feeling of inferiority has good emotional
development.
Furthermore, phase 5 is the identity versus role confusion which is the period amidst
twelve and eighteen years. While assessing the child, if he portrays self-identity or role
confusion depending on patients’ reaction he has healthy emotional development (Syed &
McLean, 2017). Phase 6 is intimacy versus isolation which happens in young adults trying to
create relationships. Accessing this child who is in a relationship or exhibits signs of loneliness is
developing healthily. Moreover, phase 7 is generativity versus stagnation where the person is
grown up with children and phase 8 is integrity versus despair which is the final development
phase that happens to old people.
For the first phase, the appropriate strategy is to provide for the needs of the child and the
finding would be to gain trust in case the child is developing accordingly. In phase two, the
strategy would be to give the child an assignment to do in their pace and the finding is to
improve their autonomy. In phase three, the child is encouraged to ask questions and give him
the freedom to socialize. The child would then develop a sense of initiative and add to autonomy
(Kerpelman & Pittman, 2018). In phase four, the child is encouraged to do things and praised for
trying. The child then develops an industrious nature of always willing to do things. Lastly, in
the fifth phase, the strategy would be demonstrating a positive reaction to things which they do
as they attempt to upgrade. The anticipated outcome would be that they should be able to
develop a sense of identity.

DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT 5
Conclusion
Physical assessment is vital in a child's development. It examines the status of the
development to recognize if there are problems with the child if the child does not conform to the
stages of development at each age bracket according to Erickson's theory. To gain findings from
the assessment of these children, certain strategies are carried out like providing to gain trust,
encouraging children to ask questions and also try things at their pace. Moreover, exhibiting
positive reactions to what these children attempt to do helps to gain cooperation and findings in
the assessment.

DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT 6
References
El-Shafie, A. M., El-Nemr, F. M., Allam, A. A., & El-Afifi, A. M. (2015). Correlation between
clinical examination and ultrasound of liver and spleen span in normal children between
12 and 18 years of age. Menoufia Medical Journal, 28(2), 382.
Kaj, M. (2017). Cross-Validation Of Methods Assessing Maximal Oxygen Consumption In
Hungarian School-Aged Children (Doctoral dissertation, Hungarian Academy of
Sciences).
Kerpelman, J. L., & Pittman, J. F. (2018). Erikson and the relational context of identity:
Strengthening connections with attachment theory. Identity, 18(4), 306-314.
Kropf, N. P., & Greene, R. R. (2017). Erikson’s eight stages of development: Different lenses.
In Human Behavior Theory (pp. 75-92). Routledge.
Lieberman, A. F. (2017). The emotional life of the toddler. Simon and Schuster.
Narula, J., Chandrashekhar, Y., & Braunwald, E. (2018). Time to add a fifth pillar to bedside
physical examination: inspection, palpation, percussion, auscultation, and
insonation. JAMA cardiology, 3(4), 346-350.
Press, R. (2015). Developmental milestones of young children. Redleaf Press.
Syed, M., & McLean, K. C. (2017). Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development.
Vatavu, R. D., Cramariuc, G., & Schipor, D. M. (2015). Touch interaction for children aged 3 to
6 years: Experimental findings and relationship to motor skills. International Journal of
Human-Computer Studies, 74, 54-76.
Wiliam, D., & Thompson, M. (2017). Integrating assessment with learning: What will it take to
make it work?. In The future of assessment (pp. 53-82). Routledge.