Physical Growth
First, it remains significantly critical to note that the school-age period is a long time span characterized by slow but extensive growth. The chief concern of the 9-year-old Warren Ralston is the fact that he is too fat and hardly fits into any clothes. Research continues to show that for any school-going child, the annual weight-gain should be between 3 and 5 lb. with a corresponding height increase of 1 to 2 inches for the same period of time. For Warren, several phenomena continue to happen in his body including brain growth and motor coordination which continue to develop up to 10 years. The immune system including the immunoglobulin and lymphatic tissues are in a constant growth process up to the age of 9. The heart, and in particular, the left ventricle is in a perpetual increase in size to pump blood to the body that is experiencing a dramatic increase in size (Rodriguez et al. 2013).
Motor Function
Before assessing the motor functions, specific essential considerations include the information regarding the extremities of the child. He is described to have a full range of motion with short and ragged fingernails. With a height of 4.5 ft., he looks very obese and alert-appearing. As a convention, many nine-year-olds need to show strong eye-hand coordination, and as they approach the age of 10, they should show the propensity towards perfecting their athletic skills. Most nine-year0olds like Warren are expected to play hard. Furthermore, they might show difficulties in their bed-time behavior due to the tendencies of wanting to play more. Their fine motor coordination also provides the children with an opportunity to engage in activities such as music and arts. It is at this age that the child will be exposed to social media activity that many parents are encouraged to supervise closely.
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Cognitive Function
Cognitive function is an essential part of human development as the brain and the entire psychology increase in capacity to coordinate various aspects ranging from the simple to the most complex. Children at the age of 9 depend on concrete operational thought due to their ability to learn various news concepts in their learning endeavors. The three main concepts in cognitive development include accommodation, conservation, and class inclusion. Accommodation involves developing or adapting various thought processes that enable the child to understand that there could be more than one reason why people act in a certain way. Conservation enables the children to understand that a change in shape does not necessarily mean that the size has also changed. The third crucial cognitive functioning aspect that takes place in these children is known as the class inclusion (Nursing Care of a Family with a School-Age Child). Children tend to appreciate that objects can belong to more than one class depending on the criteria of classification.
Social and Emotional Aspects
A 9-year-old will begin leveraging their emotional needs by learning and appreciating the essence of accomplishment. Accomplishment or industry involves the increasing desire of wanting to perfect actions. If children are hindered from achieving a sense of accomplishment, then they can suffer problems of inferiority complex. For an obese child such as Warren, the age presents them many questions since they view themselves with a degree of indifference from others. If he fails to envision how well he will achieve his desires with his current state, then Warren is likely to suffer an emotional breakdown. Other than emotional aspects, nine-year-olds also draw immense value from the social life. They become more interested in what the other children dress instead of focusing on what their parents expect them to put on. It is a period where children form groups and friendships (Nursing Care of a Family with a School-Age Child). However, children such as Warren, due to their obesity, can be perceived as different thus leading to a form of exclusion that can negatively impact his social life.
References
Nursing Care of a Family with a School-Age Child
Rodriguez, J., Applebaum, J., Stephenson-Hunter, C., Tinio, A., & Shapiro, A. (2013). Cooking, healthy eating, fitness and fun (CHEFFs): qualitative evaluation of a nutrition education program for children living at urban family homeless shelters. American journal of public health, 103(S2), S361-S367.
