Nursing Assignment: Physical Assessment Comparison in School Children

This nursing report provides a comparison of physical assessments among school-aged children, focusing on children aged 5 to 12 years old. It outlines the differences in assessment techniques based on age and developmental stages, emphasizing the importance of parental presence and child cooperation. The report includes a case study of a 5-year-old boy, detailing his developmental milestones and applying Erikson's theory of psychosocial development to guide the assessment process. The report suggests using audio-visual aids and play-based activities to engage the child and assess gross motor skills, fine motor skills, emotional development, and social behavior. The goal is to gain unbiased results and create a comfortable environment for the child. The report also references several sources to support the information provided.

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Comparison of Physical Assessment Among School-Aged Children from 5 to 12 years
Physical assessment at the age of 5 to 8 years mainly involves assessment of weight with
respect of height, assessment of the overall general appearance like head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth
and teeth along with respiratory rate (RR), blood pressure (BP), basal metabolic index (BMI),
pulse rate (PR) and the body temperature (temp)(Whitcomb, 2013). The physical assessment of
the children 9 to 12 years of age also deals with assessment of height, weight, BP, RR, OR and
temp and BMI. Additional physical assessment will include muscle weight gain, genital
maturation (growth spurt is faster among the girls and in case of boys it last longer who end up
taller). Additional physical assessment will include checking the tenderness of skin, development
of joins and other signs of puberty development(Whitcomb, 2013).
The physical assessment technique for the children between 5 to 8 years must be
undertaken in front of their parents as presence of parents provides the child a mental assurance
of being safe and secured. At times the child might oppose to cooperate with the overall process
in that case, he or she is required to be distracted or lured through objectives like chocolates or
other fancy stories or toys(Ball et al., 2013). The physical assessment of girls between 9 to 12
must be undertaken in front of their mother and that boys must be done in front of their father.
This is because at this age, they are entering in their puberty and their privacy and confidentiality
is required to be maintained. In order to earn their co-operation the importance of the physical
assessment is required to be mentioned(Ball et al., 2013).
Typical Assessment for a Child of a Specific Age
Child selected: A 5-year old boy

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The first developmental milestone by the age of 5-year is physical development. The
physical development is characterized by development of the gross motor skills and fine motor
skills. Gross motor skills are characterized by ability to run, jump and hop. Fine motor skills
include development of wrist muscles, ability to tie shoe lace shirt buttons(Bellman, Byrne
&Sege, 2013). Other aspects of physical development include handling forks and knives. Apart
from physical development there occurs emotional development like sense of empathy, anger,
fears and other tantrums. Social development is also a part of this age and this includes formation
of relationships or making new friends(Bellman, Byrne &Sege, 2013).
Developmental Assessment of a Child Using a Developmental Theory
Erikson’s Theory of Psychological Developmental Theory mainly focuses on the socio-
cultural development. It consists of 8 different stages which are known as stages of psycho-social
crisis. Erickson stage of development during the age of 5 to 12 ages deals with industry and
inferiority. This signifies that children mature with their own level of self-awareness and logical
understanding. This logical understanding increases the sense of knowledge about the scientific
facts and other matters that are taught in school. The logical understanding increases the
competitive sense among the children and thus inflicting competitive attitude. They want to do
things that the students of their age do and failing in doing the same makes them feel inferior.
Keeping the Erikson Theory in mind, I would first educate the child about the importance
of taking physical assessment. This will help them to understand the importance of the physical
assessment and thereby increasing their co-operation in participation. The educational approach
will mainly be drive through audio-visual representation and as this will help to grab their

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attention and interest. Diagrammatic yet colorful representation will be used to denote each
physiological parts(Dunton et al., 2014).
The potential findings from the assessment will mainly highlight the rate of the gross
motor skills and the fine motor skills and this will be accessed through running, climbing,
jumping and throw ball tests. The play-full activities will further increase their level of
participation. In the domain of emotional development, it will include how the child is exhibiting
emotions, friendliness and urge to know more(Van Hoorn et al., 2014). The social behavior will
be accessed on his degree of liking towards reading story books, playing games with friends or
drawing from imagination. The emotional and social development assessment will done through
blinded tests where the child will not be aware that he is going through test in order to get
unbiased results. If the child loves to paly grames in groups, them he or she likes to socialize,
reading story books signifies that he is an introvert and wants to spend time alone or has a hunger
for knowledge while drawing from imaging will highlight the creative sense of the
child(Eisenberg, Spinrad&Knafo‐Noam, 2015).

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References
Ball, J. W., DrPH, R. N., Bindler, R. C., & Cowen, K. J. (2013). Child health nursing.Prentice
Hall.
Bellman, M., Byrne, O., &Sege, R. (2013).Developmental assessment of children. Bmj, 346,
e8687.
Dunton, G. F., Huh, J., Leventhal, A. M., Riggs, N., Hedeker, D., Spruijt-Metz, D., &Pentz, M.
A. (2014).Momentary assessment of affect, physical feeling states, and physical activity
in children. Health Psychology, 33(3), 255.
Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., &Knafo‐Noam, A. (2015).Prosocial development. Handbook of
child psychology and developmental science, 1-47.
Van Hoorn, J. L., Monighan-Nourot, P., Scales, B., &Alward, K. R. (2014). Play at the center of
the curriculum. Pearson.
Whitcomb, S. A. (2013). Behavioral, social, and emotional assessment of children and
adolescents.Routledge.