DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Intern Name: Erin Kisch

Name of Patient: Alison (name has been changed to maintain confidentiality)

Date: 4/18/19

Age: 12y

1. Describe patient and family.

Patient lives with her mother and stepfather and has two older brothers. Patient visits biological
father, stepmom, and step brother every other weekend. Mother is always with patient and
rarely takes breaks throughout the day, but engages in helping patient with crafts. Father has
called mother to receive updates.

2. Describe patient’s hospital experience.

Patient was admitted after a stay at a psych facility following dramatic changes in patient’s
personality. Patient was also threatening her mother and reporting hallucinations. Although
patient was previously typically developing, she has now exhibited delayed social skills.
Frequent vitals and daily blood draws do not appear to upset patient.

3. Describe the patient’s coping style.

Patient is constantly asking for more crafts and for Child Life to do activities with her rather than
on her own. She looks forward to taking breaks from her room by going to the teen lounge when
possible. During labs, patient chose to hold blob ball and look at a search and find book while
engaging in conversation with intern.

4. Social Development:

Patient is highly interactive and playful and prefers engaging in cooperative play rather than
solitary play as she asks for a CCLS to complete crafts with her. Patient easily engages in
conversation and waves at staff in the hallway. Although patient appears to enjoy searching on
the internet for craft ideas herself, she willingly accepts and asks for help due to the IV in her
hand restricting finger movement. When staff enter her room, she will proudly show the crafts
she has made over the course of the day and describe how she did it. I would consider patient
to be typically developing in Erikson’s Industry vs. Inferiority stage.

5. Emotional Development:

I would consider patient to be somewhat inappropriate due to encephalitis diagnosis rather than
an actual delay. According to well child visit note, patient was developmentally appropriate prior
to symptoms of encephalitis. However, patient now has an unvaried tone of voice. Although her
tone sounds happy, it is always the same and does not fluctuate. Also, when patient laughs, it
sounds like a fake or forced laugh although it appears to be genuine in the context of the
conversation. When patient is excited, she will clap her hands and bounce up and down since
she does not have the energy to jump. For patient’s lab draw, during the initial poke, patient
said, “Ow,” with a flat tone that did not convey pain or distress.

6. Motor Development:

Due to patient’s IV site in her hand, several meds being given, and an LP that required a large
amount of CSF taken, patient has been weak, easily fatigued, and struggling to complete tasks
that require fine motor skills. However, patient has demonstrated the ability to walk to and from
the teen lounge, hold a marker with a pincer grip, and reach across her midline. Once meds are
finished, I would expect patient to return to typical motor development.

7. Language Development:

Patient speaks clearly in complete sentences. She is able to maintain the topic of a
conversation appropriately and speak of both past and future events. I would consider patient to
be typically developing.

8. Cognitive Development:

Patient demonstrates the ability to recall memories such as her stay at the psych facility and the
names of staff members. In addition, patient has used problem solving to come up with uses of
art supplies to create crafts on her own or simply based off a picture. Patient used clues to find
pictures in a search and find book (i.e. Your finger was close to it just now). I would consider
patient to be typically developing in Piaget’s Abstract Operational stage.