Growth and Development of the School-aged Child (Nursing)

00:00 All right, let's go over some important school aged child developmental milestones.

00:05 We're going to review growth, motor, cognitive, and language milestones for the school aged child, which is technically age 6 to 12.

00:14 We're going to start with growth.

00:15 So school age children come in a wide range of shapes and sizes.

00:21 And their growth is really dependent on factors that are related to them in their family.

00:27 So genetics, their nutrition, their exercise and their habits.

00:31 We do know that children at this age who are sedentary and who don't get enough exercise are much more likely to be obese and have heart disease as adults.

00:40 School aged children generally will gain about 2 to 3 kilos or 4.7 pounds per year until they reach puberty.

00:48 And they grow up at a steady pace as well about 6 to 7 centimeters or 2 to 2 and a half inches per year.

00:55 All right, let's go over some motor milestones for the school aged child.

01:00 School aged children are usually starting school around age six.

01:04 And they enjoy many activities such as jumping rope, and riding a bike, unless they're Jenna.

01:10 So my child, one of my children is Jenna, and she was discussed earlier on in the growth and development lectures for infant, and toddler, and preschooler.

01:19 One of the things that I mentioned in the infant lecture was that she didn't get a lot of tummy time when she was a small infant because she didn't like it.

01:26 And unfortunately, I let her get away with that.

01:28 And I didn't make her do it too much.

01:30 So she never developed a lot of strength in her upper arms and in her core, which is something that they develop when they have tummy time and they're able to play a lot on their stomach and really start pushing up.

01:42 So, partially, as a result of this, she did not ride a bike, at the same age as many other children learn to ride a bike.

01:49 It took her a while to really gain that strength.

01:51 But most kids 6 or 7 can do so.

01:54 Around 8 or 9, they're pretty graceful in their movements.

01:57 They can jump like we do, they can skip and chase, and they can use household tools.

02:03 Simple household tools that are safe.

02:05 They can also usually do fine motor activities such as sewing, and painting, and art classes.

02:13 All right, let's review the cognitive milestones for the school aged child.

02:16 The school aged child actually moves through two separate stages of cognitive development.

02:22 Starting in the preoperational stage.

02:26 Remember the magical thinking that we talked about in the preschooler growth and development lecture? Well, the younger school aged child still does some of that.

02:35 They still make a logical connections between some things that are completely unrelated.

02:39 For example, they may still truly believe that if they make a wish before blowing out their birthday candles that wish will be granted.

02:45 On a sadder note, they may make connections between things like their own behavior and the fact that a parent got a divorce, or that somebody died.

02:54 These things are really common misperceptions in these children and really needs to be clarified.

03:01 The younger school aged child may also still display some animism.

03:05 Meaning that they may believe that inanimate objects such as clouds or trees have human qualities such as feelings.

03:11 They don't engage in the magical thinking and animism as much as they did when they were preschoolers.

03:15 But they may still do it just enough to keep life interesting.

03:20 Around age 7, the magical thinking and animism fade as the child moves into the concrete operational stage of cognitive development.

03:27 This is the stage when rational logical thinking develops, also known as operational thought.

03:34 The development of operational thought is a major cognitive milestone because now the child is capable of applying logic and reason to physical objects.

03:43 They're also able to understand more complex concepts such as conservation, and reversibility.

03:50 I know that's a lot of words, but let me give you an example.

03:53 A child who is playing with playdough, and they spread it out on a table, and then they roll it up and put it in the playdough container.

04:01 They realize it's the same quantity even though it looks like there's a lot more of it when it's stretched out.

04:06 The child who understands reversibility knows that some things that have been changed can go back to their original state but others cannot.

04:14 For example, water can be frozen and then thawed to become liquid again.

04:18 But eggs cannot be unscrambled. Once they're scrambled.

04:22 By 6 or 7 years old, they know left and right.

04:25 They can copy complex shapes, tell time, understands three step commands, and explain objects and their use.

04:35 They can also count backwards by the time they're 8 to 9.

04:38 They can understand the calendar components.

04:41 So the months, the days, and the years.

04:43 They can enjoy reading, drawing, and painting and understand fractions.

04:49 By 10 to 12, they write stories and letters easily.

04:52 They read well, and they use the telephone.

04:55 This is the age where most of them will start begging for a cell phone if they haven't already.

05:00 All right, let's cover the language milestones.

05:05 By age six, the children can usually follow three commands in a row.

05:09 By early school age, they should be using complete sentences that average about 5 to 7 words.

05:15 And by elementary school, they should use grammar and that are normal similar to an adult's.

05:22 By 10 they can follow five commands in a row.

05:25 And that wraps up language milestones That also wraps up growth and development of the school aged child.

05:31 Thank you.