School-Age and Adolescent Growth & Development Flashcards
School Agers
- Slow but steady growth
- They get taller and lose “baby fat.”
- Talking about kids age 6-12 years old
- Strength increases yet muscles remain functionally immature
- Toothless wonders/ ugly ducklings
- Overuse injury to muscles common to see in sports
GI
fewer stomach upsets seen
Bladder Capacity
Girls have a larger bladder capacity then boys.
Bones
Are now all calcified
Prepubescence
- time before puberty
- 2 years difference between boys and girls
- Girls average onset is 12-13
- Boys average onset is 14
Psychosocial Development
- Latency Period (Freud) kids are more tranquil
- Industry vs Inferiority (Erickson) kids are acquiring technical and social skills
- Ability to cooperate and deal with others
- Over Achievers: watch for compensation.
- Society values academics over athletics
- Repeated school failures will really defeat these kids
Cognitive Development
- Concrete operational stage (Piaget)
- Higher level thinking; can hold onto concepts
- Conservability: understanding of volume, mass. length
- Can now think backwards i.e. retrace previous steps
- Classification: means of grouping
- READING is the most significant skill a schoolager acquires.
Moral Developent
- Colburg’s Theory
- Young schoolagers (6-7 years) judge acts by their consequences; rewards/punishments drive actions.
- Older schoolagers are able to judge an act by the intention that prompted it. These kids are far less absolute and have an increased cooperation and level of respect.
Spiritual Development
- Want to learn about God
- Are fascinated with heaven and hell
- Find tremendous comfort in tradition
- Want and expect to be punished for misdeeds
- Find comfort in prayers
Language development
- Very efficient
- Can interpret directives without visual cues
- Develop metalinguistic awareness; jokes and riddles, magic kits.
Social Development
-Friends are now very important
-Joining groups
-Develop intimate friendships between same-sex peers “best friends”
-Clubs and cliques; security; exclusion of others may occur here.
Bullies: often defiant and antisocial-at greater risk for psych and criminal disorders
Self Concept Development / Self Esteem
- Nothing succeeds like success
- Self-confidence vs self-doubt
- Body image; comparison against others
- self-esteem is fragile
- parents, friends, teachers huge influences
- Grades and teachers/parents remarks can make or break a child
- Positive feelings equate to confidence in trying new things.
Sexuality Development
- Experimentalists
- Parents should assume the primary role in educating children regarding sexual behavior.
- School nurse: often caught in the middle of sex education.
- Be factual. Use proper terminology.
- Younger kids need the focus to be around respect and responsibility.
Play
- Kids need to be taught how to follow rules and how to be a “good sport.”
- Rules and rituals
- Team Play; can be very rough on kids if they aren’t taught about following rules and that they aren’t always going to win at everything they do.
Concerns related to normal growth and development
- Limit setting/discipline/restrictions is very important
- Withhold privileges
- Lying is viewed as normal
- Cheating is common; mostly unintended
- Stealing in younger kids is usually due to limited sense of property rights of others.
- Stress occurs from violence, fears, latchkey kids. Signs include crying, screaming, daydreams, acting out, aggression.
- Stress is highest in kids today compared to previous generations
- PTSD: replay over and over to help the child overcome the traumatic event.
Promoting optimal health
Nutrition: quality of food is very important. These kids will become junk food monsters if they are allowed to.
- Sleep and rest is now highly individualized but some kids will require 10 to 12 hours of rest a night.
- Physical fitness: kids need to participate in physical activity.
- Television and video games, may desensitize kids
- Dental health: more permanent teeth now in place
Anticipatory Guidance and Injury Prevention
- MVA: 2.5 x more fatalities as pedestrians
- Kids under 12 need to ride in the back seat of the car
- Head injury is the leading cause of bicycle fatalities
- Ride-on mower injuries
Health Problems
ADHD: developmentally abnormal inability to concentrate; etiology is poorly understood; treated with stimulants; behavior modification - time management, study skills, modify environment
Stages of Adolescence
Early Stage: 11-14 years old
Middle Stage: 14-17 years old
Late Stage: 18-20 years old
Adolescence
- period of profound biologic, intellectual, psychosocial, and economic change
- changes are shaped by the social environment in which the changes take place.
Tanner Stages
- Sequence of development of secondary sexual characteristics that occurs in a predictable sequence.
- This sequence has been divided into a series of five phases termed the Tanner stages.
- Although the sequence of sexual development is predictable, the ages at which these changes occur and the rate of progression vary considerably among individuals.
- Stage 1: immature
- Stage 5: mature
- Females: stages describe pubertal development based on breast size and the shape and distribution of pubic hair.
- Males: stages describe pubertal development based on the size and shape of the penis and scrotum and the shape and distribution of pubic hair.
Cognitive Development
- Future-oriented thinking
- Can still “lose their mind” and do “silly” things; abandon rational thought
- Formal operational thinking
- Think in abstract terms, can theorize
Psychosocial development
- Identity vs Role confusion
- Develop autonomy; monitor friends
- Sense of sexuality is forming in these kids
- Intercourse by age 15: B 33%, G 20%
- Intercourse by 12th grade: B 64%, G 65%
- Immunize against STD’s: Hep B, HPV
Social Environment
- Family: divorced homes/dysfunctional; increase in lack of supervision in the home.
- Poverty increases drop out rates
- Peer groups: fill the void when no support available at home.
- Work: unskilled laborers; monitor their money and what they are spending it on
- Community: health promotion and education
Drinking/Peer Groups
Extremely common in teens!
Factors promoting adolescent health
- Mental pathology & alcoholism in parents are amongst most difficult challenges for kids.
- Coping skills for increased success is working, going to the library and playing team sports.
- Show competence in reading and language arts skills
Factors Hindering Adolescent Health
- Grade School: holding back destroys self-esteem
- Drugs, alcohol, smoking, criminal activity, and pregnancy before 18 are all unconventional behaviors that increase potential for greater troubles.
Adolescent Health Problems
- Acne: self-esteem challenges, tx with bcp’s or antibiotics; some meds may cause depression and suicidal ideation
- PID: upper genitourinary pain w/ motion or manipulation. Can lead to infertility
- Eating disorders: most common in over-achieving white females. May be related to traumatic conflict.
- 1:6 teens has had an STI
- Gonorrhea has highest rates in 15-19 year olds
- Chlamydia is most common STI in the U.S.
H.E.A.D.D.D.S.S.
Home Education Activities Depression Drugs Diet Sex Safety
Rape
- Highest rate in adolescent girls
- Vast majority of perpetrators are not strangers to the victim.
Intentional & Unintentional Injury
- You cannot release a suicidal child without intervention.
- Intentional injury accounts for 72% of adolescent death
- Leading cause of injury death is MVAs involving alcohol; unintentional injury
- Homicide is 2nd leading cause of death in adolescents, usually involving firearms
- About 8% of high schoolers report having attempted suicide once; gay/lesbian kids at very high risk; s/s include melancholy, dropping grades, family trouble, drugs, gay/lesbian; Girls usually attempt by O.D. and Guys usually complete via gun/hanging.
What accurately describes physical development during the school age years?
Child grows an average of 5cm (2”) per year.
What is characteristic of the psychosocial development of school age children?
Feelings of inferiority or lack of self worth that can be derived from children themselves or from the environment.
What describes the cognitive abilities of school age children?
They have the ability to place things in a logical order, to group and sort, and to hold a concept in their minds while making decisions on that concept.
What describes moral development in the younger school age child?
They know the rules and behaviors expected of them but do not understand the reason behind them.
A group of boys ages 9 & 10 have formed a “boys only” club that is open to neighborhood and school friends who have skate boards. This should be interpreted as:
Characteristic of social development at this age.
Bullying can be common during the school age years. The nurse should recognize that bullying;
Can have lasting effects on children.
What should the nurse include when giving parents guidelines about helping their children in school?
Communicate with teachers if there appears to be a problem.
Sleep problems in the school aged child are often demonstrated by:
Delaying tactics because they do not wish to go to bed.
The parents of an 8 year old girl tell the nurse that their daughter wants to join a soccer team. The nurse should suggest:
Sports participation is encouraged if the type of sport is appropriate to the child’s abilities.
The school nurse is discussing dental health with some children in 1st grade. What should be included?
Emphasize importance of brushing before bed.
When determining the etiology of a skin problem, which of the following is essential to the diagnosis of the lesions?
Careful inspection
The term used to describe an abnormal sensation such as burning or prickling is:
Paresthesia
Which of the following factors promotes wound healing?
Moist, crust-free wound environment.
A child falls on the playground and has a small laceration on the forearm. The school nurse should do which of the following to cleanse the wound?
Rinse the wound with sterile water or saline, using a syringe to generate mild pressure.
When applying wet compresses or dressings to the skin, the nurse should do which of the following?
Apply desired solution on cotton gauze or soft cotton cloths, such as clean handkerchiefs.
An important nursing consideration when caring for a child with impetigo contagiosa is which of the following?
Thoroughly wash hands and maintain cleanliness when caring for an infected child.