Resources

Checkups at 6 Years

[6 Year Old Quiz]

What Can Your Child Do at Six?

• He can ride a bicycle well.
• She is able to tie her shoelaces.
• He can skate.
• She knows her right from her left.
• He can throw and bounce a ball quite well.
• She draws a person with many parts including clothing.
• He reviews school reports with his parents, gets along with his classmates, and follows the rules at his school.

What Can Your Child Eat?

• She should have a balanced diet.
• Discourage frequent snacking by him other than with fruits or vegetables. Do not add extra salt to his diet.
• Increase her intake of fiber with cereals, whole-grain breads, fruits, and vegetables.
• Make sure he brushes his teeth at least once a day.
• Encourage her to engage in physical activity and to limit passive play such as watching television or playing video games.
• He should not have red meat and eggs daily.
• Your eating habits are the models she uses for her eating habits. Make mealtime a pleasant time which includes conversation with her.
• A multivitamin once a day may be a good idea if he is a picky eater.

Immunizations

She should be up to date on immunizations and not require any more for several years.

Tests to Be Done

He may have an analysis of his urine on his next checkup. This checks for kidney disease, diabetes, and bladder infections. Silent kidney infections in young girls can lead to kidney damage over time.

Your child needs a lead test if:

1. He lives or regularly visits a house built before 1960, an old house with peeling or chipping paint, a home with lead plumbing, a home on a major highway, or one near a lead-producing or battery recycling plant.
2. You have given her any home remedies that contain lead.
3. Any of his friends or brothers or sisters have had lead poisoning or he eats paint chips or dirt.
4. She is around an adult who works with lead in construction, welding, pottery, bullets, fishing weights, a firing range, stained glass, refinishing furniture, or car repair.

A tuberculin (TB) skin test may be needed if he has been exposed to someone with TB, a chronic cough, IV drug use, HIV disease (AIDS), recent prison time, time in a developing country, or if required by his school or insurance.

Accident Prevention

• She needs to know a safety plan to get out of your home in case of fire.
• Teach him that he should not cross fast-moving streams and should enter ponds or lakes feet first and only with adults watching. Life jackets should be worn by everyone in a boat.
• Air rifles and pellet guns should be treated as cautiously since they have been made more powerful and have caused many deaths.
• She should know her home phone number, 911 for emergencies, and that she should never go anywhere with strangers.
• He should wear a safety helmet at all times while riding a bicycle. Teach him to look for cars both ways at the curb or driveway.
• She should not swim without adult supervision.
• It is not safe for him to ride in the back of a pickup truck at any age.
• She should not sit in the front seat of a car with airbags.
• Teach him to avoid strange animals.
• Keep her away from power tools, electrical equipment, matches, guns, sharp tools, and poisons.
• The number for Poison Control is 1-800-POISON 1 (1-800- 764-7661). Have Ipecac in your home but do not give it without talking to your doctor or Poison Control.

Emotional and Social Development

• Teach him that there are private parts of his body that even relatives should not touch.
• She should be doing some chores to learn responsibility. A weekly allowance will help her learn to use money wisely.
• Each parent should have time alone with him. Encourage him to read for fun.
• Be quick to praise and slow to anger with her. Never belittle or embarrass her, and avoid harsh criticism whenever possible. You will encourage her to change her behavior much more readily if you act tenderly towards her.
• Extensive television and video games limit family interaction and discourage his creativity.
• He will readily accept fair discipline at this age.
• Pay attention when she talks to you.
• You cannot show too much affection toward him.
• She should have a regular bedtime.
• Be involved with his schoolwork as much as possible. Involvement with a parent-teacher organization will give you some say in how he is taught. If you are not happy about his school, by law, you can be granted a conference with his teacher, principal, and school counselors to discuss your concerns.
• Make every effort to attend athletic events, plays, recitals, and other special occasions that occur in her life. Few things you do for her will be so important.
• He may have a lot of questions about sexual differences and where babies come from. If you answer his questions as they arise with general answers initially, it is usually not difficult to discuss more detail with him in a few years.

Moral Development of Your Child

• She will learn more from your example than from what you tell her. If you model smoking and frequent drinking, she will likely do these when she is older. If you model divorce or sexual activity with many partners, she will likely repeat this in adulthood. If you eat too much, swear often, and are self-centered, your child will likely be just like you 15 years from now.
• You should limit his exposure to undesirable influences such as the undisciplined child next door, television, movies, and some printed material. All of these affect the way he thinks and the values he develops. Let him be a child for as long as possible.
• Television and movies are special problems because children watch so much, adult activities such as sex and violence can be "understood" to a degree by young children, the impressive technology appears "truthful" and they appear more exciting than ordinary life, giving your child a skewed view of reality.
• Actively set limits on the amount and type of programs she watches and teach her what is morally good and bad about what she sees.
• Irresponsible sexuality is shown on television as glamorous and without risks. About 80-90% of the sexuality shown on television is premarital, extramarital, or violent, and most of the marital sex is depicted as unenjoyable. Seldom is an unintended pregnancy, disease, or divorce mentioned. Most parents disagree with this type of irresponsible sexuality, yet do not seem aware that their child is being trained by what he sees.
• Violence as shown in the movies and television is usually self-serving or vengeful. If parents do not want her to think of violence as acceptable behavior when she is angry or selfish, they need to limit her exposure to that philosophy.
• It is philosophically difficult to maintain firm moral standards without some form of religious instruction. Traditional Christianity and Judaism place value on the individual, the healthy family, and compassion toward others. The media and most other world views emphasize selfishness, irresponsible lives, and hunger for possessions. This is one of the main reasons so many children, teenagers, and young adults are confused and in trouble.
• We strongly encourage you to provide your child with religious instruction. Otherwise his values will be shaped by others with whom you may not agree. One of the greatest gifts you can give your child is to join a traditional Christian church or Jewish synagogue that has a good children's program.
• Moral instruction begins at a young age. Waiting to begin until she is a teenager is too late.

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Head Circumference__________ percentile ________

 

6-YEAR-OLD QUIZ

Circle the Right Answers

(Parents probably need to read the questions to their child at this age)

These questions, based on research, are meant to teach your child facts that will help him or her have a fuller life.

1. Drugs make people unhappy (yes or no).
2. Seat belts help you to be safe in a car (yes or no).
3. Smoking cigarettes gives people more coughs and colds and makes their clothes smell bad (yes or no).
4. If you eat breakfast every morning you will do better in school (yes or no).
5. Being married makes people happy (yes or no).
6. Being nice to people makes you feel nice (yes or no).

Answers and Explanations for Parents

Questions:

1. Yes. People who start taking drugs in the first place are often unhappy or depressed due to family problems, depression, or other difficulties. Although the drugs do give a temporary "high" or good feeling, they cause so many new problems that the person is worse off than when he started taking the drugs.2. Yes. Seat belts and other improvements in car safety have dramatically reduced fatalities in bad car wrecks and should be worn at all times even if your car contains airbags.3. Yes. People who smoke have their normal defense mechanisms in the lung reduced and so they tend to have more colds, bronchitis, and are more likely to give colds to other people they smoke around (due to secondhand smoke).4. Yes. Eating breakfast is important to lower the chances of having a drop in sugar in the blood in the midmorning time which makes children feel lethargic and less able to concentrate.5. Yes. Studies show that people who are married tend to be happier than people who are not married or people who are cohabiting. Humans are social animals and even though a person may have sex with her boyfriend or his girlfriend or may be cohabiting, studies show the level of commitment is usually lower, the anxiety level is higher, and the chance for the relationship to be dissolved much, much higher.6. Yes. Treating people nicely tends to help people to feel better about themselves and of course they in return are usually treated nicely by the people to whom they are kind.