Health and Wellness Appraisals

You are a teacher in a 4-year-old classroom and begin each day with your

daily health and wellness check. You notice that a child who is

dropped off looks very tired and is uncommonly quiet as she walks into

the classroom. She was dropped off by bus so you have no additional

information.

Given the above scenario, choose one of the following possible causes

for the change in the child. Please indicate the cause you selected in

the subject line of your discussion post.

1. Sickness/Illness
2. Trauma
3. Abuse
4. Oral Health Issue: Tooth ache, poor oral health
5. Nutritional Concern: Inadequate nutritional intake, food allergy, food intolerance
6. Hearing Concern: Ear Infection, ear ache
7. Vision Concern: Eye infection
8. Social-Emotional Issue

Examples of some of these common situations are described further in

Chapter 7. After you select one of these as a possible cause for the

child’s change in demeanor, use your imagination to develop it further

discussing what you may see when you conduct your observation of the

child. Be mindful to detail what you might look for and how you will

document your observations. Based on your fictitious observation,

create a plan of action for how to proceed. This plan should include

both immediate and long-term actions that you will take.

Address the following points in your discussion:

• Fictitious elaboration of what you observe in the child
  including the possible cause. Include enough so that you can make a
  plan of action

• Short-term plan of action detailing the procedure of how you will address the issue immediately or by the end of the day
• Long-term plan of action detailing the procedure of how you will follow-up your short-term plan of action
• Specific discussion regarding how you will support the child during this time