Unit 3: Child Assessment

Unit 3: Child Assessment EF310-01 Tiffany Stein Kaplan University November 6, 2012

Unit 3: Child Assessment Physical activity and exercise should be an important part of everyones daily routine.

However, not all people including children get the recommended amount of physical activity in a day or week to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It is important for anyone who would like to begin any type of physical activity to contact a health and wellness professional to ensure that they do not have any underlying health problems. There are some great resources available to ensure that everyone starts their physical activity journey in a healthy way. There are also many questionnaires, resources and fitness tests that will allow a health and wellness professional to know where each person is in their physical activity journey. My test subject for the day is a healthy ten year old named Joey. I am going to evaluate Joey and provide Joey and his family with some healthy recommendations to keep him on track with his health and wellness journey. Healthy History The PAR-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire) and the HSQ (Health Status Questionnaire) are great tools to ensure that my subject is healthy enough to begin physically activity. My subject Joey is a healthy ten year old boy who is 48 and weighs 80 pounds. Joey has been given a clean bill of health by his doctor. Joey was able to answer no to all of the PAR-Q questions. He has never been told by a doctor that he has a heart condition and does not feel pain in his chest when doing physical activity and has not had any pain in his chest within the past month when he was not doing physical activity. Joey does not lose his balance or become dizzy and has never lost consciousness. He does not have bone or joint problems that will worsen by a change in his physical activity. He is not on any prescription drugs for blood pressure or a heart condition and there is no other reason why he should not do physical activity. The HSQ is a great questionnaire to determine whether or not it is appropriate for a person to become physically activity. Joey listed all of his personal and emergency contact

Unit 3: Child Assessment information and general medical history. There were no boxes checked to indicate to me that Joey has any medical problems to cause concern.

Risk Factors and Precautions

Cardiovascular issues are one of the most important issues that a health professional should screen for. Exercise-related deaths are rare in children but they are most commonly linked to congenital heart defects and acquired myocarditis (Fitness Professionals, 2012). My subject does not have any cardiovascular risk factors so he would be considered at low risk for cardiovascular problems.

Medications Section 4 of the health status questionnaire covers medications and I am happy to state that my subject is not on any medications.

Recommended Tests

I chose the Presidents Physical Fitness test for Joey in order to recognize his level of physical fitness. Joeys fitness test consisted of curl-ups, a shuttle run, an endurance run, pullups, and the sit and reach.

Test Results Curl ups: 40

Unit 3: Child Assessment Joey is at 75 percentile for his curl-ups. In order to achieve 95 percentile he would need to increase his curl ups by 10.

Shuttle run: 12sec Joeys time puts him just above the 50th percentile according to the National Physical Fitness Award Qualifying Standards.

Sit N Reach: 27cm

Joey is almost at the 75 percentile for his age, he is off by one centimeter. In order to achieve 95 percentile he would need to increase his sit and reach by six.

1 mile run: 10:35 Joeys mile run is 2 minutes and 38 seconds longer than that of the average ten year old.

Pushups: 8

Joey is in the healthy range for his age for push-ups. If he wants to push himself into the high category for his age he would need to bump up his push-ups to 21.

Health and Lifestyle Related Behaviors Joeys activity level is good but there could always be room for improvement. He participates in basketball and baseball at school and likes skateboarding and playing with friends. Joey also loves his Playstation and computer games. It is important for Joeys parents to allow him to play these games in moderation and make sure they put a time limit on how long he can play them every day.

Unit 3: Child Assessment Body Composition

Body mass index (BMI) is used to screen patients and correlates the levels of fat in ones body. Joeys body mass index is an 18 which makes him underweight for his age. Joey falls into the 25.9 population average.

Nutrition Joeys daily nutrition consists of a granola bar for breakfast, pizza or some other hot lunch at school, and a big dinner. Joey also loves ice cream and chips and doesnt like vegetables but will eat fruit. I would recommend that Joeys family begin incorporating more vegetables into his diet and also add some healthy calories into his daily food intake. I calculated Joeys recommended daily caloric goal on LIVESTRONG.COM and in order for Joey to gain 1 pound per week it suggested that Joey consume 2,374 calories a day. Joey does not like vegetables so I think it is important that his parents try to incorporate more vegetables as well as healthy proteins into his diet. One great way to do this is to get Joey cooking in the kitchen. I think when kids can get their hands dirty and see the fruits of their labor they are more likely to try something. Another great tool is the Deceptively Delicious cookbook that incorporates vegetable purees into your regular dishes to get your daily amount of veg. I also recommend trying to make fruit and vegetable smoothies that you cant even taste the vegetables in.

Motivational Strategies Joeys family needs to find fun ways to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines. Some great examples are to rake leaves together in the fall, ride bikes together, take hikes as a family, or go on nature trail walks together. I think the key issue to help keep Joey

Unit 3: Child Assessment motivated is for his family to be active role models for him. I also think organized sports are a great way for Joey to get physical activity. His family could join the YMCA together and all benefit from all they have to offer. I think that it is important to make sure that Joey is always having fun while he is involved in physical activity. I think as long as he is having fun and enjoying what he is doing than physical activity will never be a struggle or issue.

Evaluation and Recommendations

It is important when designing a Cardio respiratory Endurance Exercise program to incorporate the FITT Guidelines. The exercise program needs to fit each individual needs and consist of physical activities that are right for your body and endurance level When proceeding with an exercise program you need to make sure you warm up and cool down follow the FITT guidelines, Frequency, Intensity, Type and Time to make sure you progress safely. The frequency of exercise requires of fine balance. Intensity is the amount of effort that is invested into a training program. The Type or kind of exercise is important so that you choose to achieve your training goal and the Time is how long you should be exercising for. Joey is already an active ten year old who shows great interest in physical activity. I think it is important for Joey to continue to maintain his level of physical activity and to even go beyond that. I would recommend that Joey and his family join the YMCA to be able to have fun together as a family. I would also recommend an organized sport for Joey to get involved in. I used the Presidents Physical Fitness Challenge with Joey that consisted of five easy physical fitness activities that included Curl ups, shuttle run, endurance run/walk, pull-ups, and the sit and reach. According to the Presidents Physical Fitness Challenge Award Qualifying

Unit 3: Child Assessment Standards, Joey scored well on all of the tests and I think he will continue to stay within the top percentiles if he remains physically active. When working with an individual to establish a fitness program it is important to maintain a positive attitude and motivation strategies that will the help them succeed, achieve and maintain their goals. Health care professionals need to show care and concern for their

clients as well as compassion. First and foremost it is important for a health care professional to be a positive a role model for their clients so that they know that they practice what they preach. Maintaining all of these things will help others stay on track and motivate them to live a healthier lifestyle.

Unit 3: Child Assessment References Sports fitness advisor. (ukn). The FITT Principle of Training. Retrieved 3 November 2012 from http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/fitt-principle.html

EXRX.net. (ukn). Youth Fitness Test Norms. Retrieved 3 November 2012 from http://www.exrx.net/Testing/YouthNorms.html

Livestrong.com. (ukn). Daily Caloric Intake. Retrieved 3 November 2012 from https://www.livestrong.com The Presidents Challenge. (ukn). Choose a Challenge. Physical Fitness Test. Retrieved 3 November 2012 from https://www.presidentschallenge.org Howley, E., Franks, B.D., (n.d.) Fitness Professionals Handbook 5th Edition, Human Kinetics;

Marcus, B. H., Forsyth, L.H., (2009). Motivating People to Be Physically Active, 2nd Edition. Human Kinetics; Champaign, IL.