Tools For Promoting Good Health for Children

1
Tools For Promoting Good Health for Children

• Chapter 2

2
Caregivers Cant Diagnose

• As caregivers we cannot diagnose a physical,
  mental or emotional health problem or learning
  disorder. We can describe symptoms and refer
  families to appropriate professionals for
  diagnosis and treatment.

3
Health Policies

• The strategies we use to manage health risk.
• Important strategies include
• Observation and documentation
• Evaluation
• Daily quick check
• General and mental health appraisal
• Screening for growth and development
• Nutritional assessment

4
Observation Documentation

• Observations can be
• general, ie. for health status (physical and
  emotional)
• specific ie. symptoms
• Observation tools
• Be objective, not subjective
• Dont over-generalize
• See chart p. 56
• Documentation includes checklists (p 58),
  normative charts (p 439), symptom record (p 433),
  incident report (p 435)

5
Daily Morning Quick Check

• Symptoms that are listed in your exclusion policy
  that are observed during quick check are grounds
  for sending the child home right away
• See list, p. 58-59. I would add acts feverish

6
General Health Appraisal

• More in-depth and long term observation than
  Quick Check
• Appraisal is the regular process of evaluating
  health or developmental norms. May be triggered
  when warning signs of possible illness are
  observed over time. Ex frequent sneezing may
  indicate an allergy to something in the
  environment
• Best if conducted with co-operation of parent
• May lead to referral to a health practitioner

7
Screening For Growth and Developmental Norms

• Done periodically (quarterly)
• Be aware of cultural/racial differences in norms
  ex. Asian children tend to be shorter and less
  heavy than African-Americans
• Height and weight (p 439-42)
• Vision and hearing (p 68)
• Motor development (p 62-3)
• Speech and language (p 69)
• Nutrition (p 76)

8
Suspecting Problems

• If a caregiver suspects a health problem, a
  screening may not provide enough information to
  make a determination
• If a problem is suspected the child should be
  referred to a health professional for in-depth
  assessment

9
Implications for Caregivers

• Be culturally sensitive approach parents about
  concerns within a cultural context that is
  meaningful to them. Ex. Hmong beliefs about
  illness
• Provide supervision As staff size grows,
  supervision needs increase as we insure the
  health of the students in our care