Physiologists and hygienists have firmly established that if a child begins to attend school before he has passed his mid-growth leap, this has a sharply negative effect on his health, primarily mental, and extremely rarely brings success in learning.
In preschool age (usually 5-6 years), children experience a “mid-height growth spurt,” which consists of a significant lengthening of the arms and legs. A simple Filipino test will help parents decide whether their child has passed the stage of growing up and whether it is time to send him to school or not. The result of the Philippine test quite accurately characterizes the biological age of the child, since it reflects not just the characteristics of skeletal development, but something much more important - the degree of morphofunctional maturity of the body. This is primarily due to the level of maturation of the nervous system and the ability of the brain to perceive and process information.
In order to find out whether this growth spurt has passed or not yet, you need to ask the child to touch his left ear with his right hand, passing his hand above his head. A 4-5 year old child cannot do this - his arms are still too short. The age at which this half-growth leap occurs can vary significantly. For some children it is completed by the age of 5, for others - only after 7 years. It is clear that at this age, a difference of two years is a lot.
Half-height jump— one of the important critical periods in a child’s life, during which many of the body’s functions change qualitatively. At the same time, the physiological consequences of a half-height leap are very simple: the body becomes more reliable in the biological sense, and therefore more efficient. From a physiological point of view, we can generally talk about performance only after completing the half-growth leap. Before this, the child does not yet have true working capacity (neither mental nor physical). After all, the basis of performance is such an organization of nervous, energetic and other processes that is capable of ensuring work in a “stable mode”. There is no need to talk about any stable regime before the half-growth leap - the cells of a child’s body under 6 years of age are simply not suitable for this.
But after the half-height leap is completed, the child has real functional capabilities for diligent, fairly long work at an even pace (of course, still small ones - they will quickly but unevenly increase as they grow older, but the foundation has already been laid). Good luck to you, patience and understanding towards yourself and your children!
According to some data (European Congress on School and University Medicine), less than 22% of children entering the first grade of school are completely healthy. After the first year of study there are even fewer such children. This is partly due to the fact that the first-grader’s body was simply not ready for serious stress.
Doctors insist that parents of a future schoolchild need to prepare not only a beautiful uniform, a briefcase and a bouquet for September 1, but also the child himself.
1. Teach your child the rules of personal hygiene. If a new student’s habit of regularly washing their hands has become automatic, then the chances of not catching every second infection increase significantly. It is important to convey to your child the idea of the need to wash their hands before eating, after walking and going to the toilet.
2. Monitor your child's nutrition. It is very important to develop healthy eating behavior in your child before school, thereby protecting him for a very long time from the tendency to eat junk food. It is necessary to remove chips, carbonated drinks, sauces, semi-finished products, and fast food from the menu, preferring dishes made from boiled or baked foods.
3. Let morning exercise become the norm. A schoolchild spends almost his entire life sitting, and modern children spend their leisure time in this position. As a result, by the fifth grade, half have scoliosis, and by adolescence, the first signs of obesity. To prevent this, you need to instill in your child a love of movement. And it is worth noting that the strongest motivation in this case is personal example. If your baby sees how mom or dad, or everyone together, starts every morning with exercise, jogging (perhaps with the dog outside!) or even dancing to energetic music, he is unlikely to stay away.
4. It wouldn’t hurt to teach your child breathing exercises. This type of exercise is a good way to both reduce the frequency of colds and strengthen the child’s nervous system and develop endurance.
5. Create a clear daily routine. When your day is planned out, it becomes easier to form good habits and easier to complete your homework. The child should fall asleep no later than 22 hours, the duration of sleep should be at least 9-10 hours. The optimal duration for outdoor games is 2-3 hours.
6. Form a healthy psyche in your child. To do this, psychological comfort must reign in the family. The most important thing is not to sort out adult relationships in front of the child and not to speak ill of his abilities in front of strangers. It is necessary to strengthen his self-confidence and encourage his success in every possible way. Teach your child to be independent, help him form his own opinion and spend more time with him.
7. It is very important to visit doctors before school. to find out the weaknesses of the child’s health. The doctor will give useful advice on how to adapt the child to the school year, taking into account the existing problem and, possibly, prescribe a course of necessary therapy.
And the last thing worth thinking about, especially for those parents who consider their children to be geniuses: Is your child physiologically ready for school?. Often children are sent to first grade a little earlier, for example, at six years old. However, there is a wonderful test - Philippine: The child is asked to reach over his head with his right hand to his left ear. If he reaches it, it means he is formed enough to go to school. If not, then it’s too early.
And it’s early because this test shows exactly biological age of the child, since it reflects not just the characteristics of skeletal development, but something much more important - the degree of morphofunctional maturity of the organism. This is primarily due to the level of maturation of the nervous system and the ability of the brain to perceive and process information. It is not for nothing that the Philippine test is often considered one of the main criteria of “school maturity”.
PHILIPPINE TEST - SCHOOL MATURITY CRITERION! In preschool age (usually 5-6 years), children experience a “mid-height growth spurt,” which consists of a significant lengthening of the arms and legs. In order to find out whether this growth spurt has passed or not yet, you need to ask the child to touch his left ear with his right hand, passing his hand above his head. A 4-5 year old child cannot do this - his arms are still too short. The result of the Philippine test quite accurately characterizes the biological age of the child, since it reflects not just the characteristics of skeletal development, but something much more important - the degree of morphofunctional maturity of the body. This is primarily due to the level of maturation of the nervous system and the ability of the brain to perceive and process information. It is not for nothing that the Philippine test is often considered one of the main criteria of “school maturity”. Physiologists and hygienists have firmly established that if a child begins to attend school before he has passed his half-growth leap, this has a sharply negative effect on his health, primarily mental, and extremely rarely brings success in learning. The age at which this half-growth leap occurs can vary significantly. For some children it is completed by the age of 5, for others - only after 7 years. It is clear that at this age, a difference of two years is a lot. The midlife leap is one of the important critical periods in a child’s life, during which many of the body’s functions change qualitatively. At the same time, the physiological consequences of a half-height leap are very simple: the body becomes more reliable in the biological sense, and therefore more efficient. From a physiological point of view, we can generally talk about performance only after completing the half-growth leap. Before this, the child does not yet have true working capacity (neither mental nor physical). After all, the basis of performance is such an organization of nervous, energetic and other processes that is capable of ensuring work in a “stable mode”. There is no need to talk about any stable regime before the half-growth leap - the cells of a child’s body under 6 years of age are simply not suitable for this. But after the half-height leap is completed, the child has real functional capabilities for diligent, fairly long work at an even pace (of course, still small - they will quickly but unevenly increase as they grow older, but the foundation has already been laid). We are Speech-Language Therapists Altruists, and we advise parents for free via chat on our website
The assessment of anthropometric indicators is based on anthroposcopy (somatoscopy), which involves determining the degree of severity of descriptive characteristics (racial, constitutional, postural characteristics, shape of the spine, sternum, legs, the presence of flat feet, development of muscle and fatty tissue, secondary sexual characteristics, etc.) and , to a greater extent, on anthropometry (anthropos - person, metreo - to measure) - a set of methods and techniques for measuring the morphological characteristics of the human body. All anthropometric indicators can be divided into two groups: basic (body length, body weight, chest and head circumference) and additional (other anthropometric indicators, for example, leg length, head height, etc.). Analysis of the main anthropometric indicators at the time of the examination makes it possible to assess the physical condition of the child and, in dynamics, the rate of physical development. Additional anthropometric indicators can be used as indicators of biological maturity (calculation of proportionality indices) or as indicators of the child's nutritional status (for example, the Chulitskaya index). A number of anthroposcopic indicators (assessment of the condition of the spine, chest, etc.) are given in the relevant sections. This chapter covers in detail the methodology of anthropometric research and methods for assessing the physical condition and development of a child.
ANTHROPOMETRIC STUDY
An anthropometric study necessarily includes the measurement of basic anthropometric indicators (height, body weight, chest and head circumference). In a number of cases (more accurate assessment of the child’s nutritional status, determination of biological maturity based on anthropometric data), measurement of additional anthropometric indicators is also used. The most common measurements are the circumference of the shoulder, thigh, lower leg, leg length, head and upper face height. It is also important to conduct the “Filipino test” and determine the midpoint of the body.
Body length in children of the first year of life is measured using a special stadiometer in the form of a board 80 cm long and 40 cm wide.
On its side there is a centimeter scale, along which a movable transverse bar slides.
The child is placed on the stadiometer on his back so that the top of his head fits tightly against the stationary transverse bar of the stadiometer. An assistant fixes the child's head in a position in which the outer edge of the eye socket and the tragus of the ear are in the same vertical plane. With light pressure on the knees, the legs are straightened and the movable bar of the stadiometer is firmly placed under the heels.
The distance between the movable and fixed bars corresponds to the length of the child’s body.
The body length of children over 3 years old is measured using a stadiometer with a folding stool.
or a mobile anthropometer. There are 2 scales on the vertical stand of the stadiometer: one (on the right) for measuring standing height, the other (on the left) for body length (sitting body length). The child is placed with his feet on the stadiometer platform with his back to the scale. His body should be straightened, his arms should be freely lowered, his legs should be straightened at the knees, and the groans should be tightly pressed together. When positioning the child correctly, the heels, buttocks, interscapular area and back of the head should touch the vertical post of the stadiometer. The head is placed in a position in which the outer edge of the orbit and the upper edge of the tragus of the ear are in the same horizontal plane. The movable bar is brought to the head without pressure:
Measuring body length while standing
The body length of children aged 1 to 3 years is measured using the same stadiometer, according to the same rules, only the child is placed not on the lower platform, but on a folding bench, and the body length is measured using the scale on the left.
Along with the body length, you can measure the height of the head, the height of the upper part of the face (upper face), leg length, determine the position of the midpoint of the body, and the ratio of the upper and lower body segments.
The height of the head is determined by measuring the distance between the movable bar attached to the top of the head and a perpendicular drawn to the stadiometer scale from the most prominent part of the chin:
Location of points for measuring head height and upper face
The upper part of the face is determined by measuring the distance between a movable bar attached to the crown of the head and a perpendicular drawn to the stadiometer scale from the inferior nasal point (vestibule of the nose). The position of the head when measuring the height of the head and upper part of the face should be the same as when measuring height.
To determine leg length, use a measuring tape to measure the distance from the greater trochanter of the femur to the base of the foot. The method for measuring leg length is shown in the following figure:
Location of points for measuring leg length of the lower segment
If it is difficult to palpate the trochanteric point, the child bends the leg at the hip joint several times before measurement.
To determine the midpoint of the child’s body, its length is divided in half, and the resulting result is projected onto the midline of the body. The location of the midpoint of the body is noted (at the navel, between the navel and the symphysis, on the symphysis, below the symphysis) and the distance to the navel. The lower segment is measured from the upper edge of the symphysis (pubic point) to the base of the foot along the midline of the body. The upper segment is defined as the difference between the body length and the lower segment.
Determination of the body weight of children under 3 years of age is carried out on cup scales with a maximum load of up to 25 kg (measurement accuracy - 10 g), which consist of a tray and a rocker with two division scales: the lower one - in kilograms, the upper one - in grams. Before weighing begins, the scales are balanced. Then, with the yoke closed, a completely undressed child is placed on the scales and the previously weighed diaper so that his head and shoulder girdle are on the wide part of the tray, and his legs are on the narrow part. When weighing, the lower weight, which determines body weight in kilograms, should be placed only in the notches on the scale. After determining the body weight, the rocker is closed, the child is removed from the scales, and then the result is read (the weight of the diaper must be subtracted from the scale readings).
Recently, electronic scales have been widely used, which greatly simplify weighing.
Body weight measurements for children over 3 years of age are carried out in the morning on an empty stomach, preferably after urination and defecation. Most medical institutions use Fairbanks-type lever scales (measurement accuracy - 50 g). After a preliminary check of the balance of the scales, the undressed child should stand in the middle of the scale platform with the yoke closed. Further tactics for weighing and recording the results are described above.
Circumferences are measured using a centimeter tape. It is necessary to ensure that the tape fits tightly to the soft tissues, and the readable result is in front of the examiner’s eyes.
For head circumference measurements a measuring tape is placed at the back of the occipital protuberances:
In front, the measuring tape is located along the brow ridges:
At chest circumference measurement The measuring tape is applied at the back under the lower angles of the shoulder blades with the arms extended to the side. Then lower your hands and pass the tape in front to the place of attachment of the 4th rib to the sternum:
In girls of puberty with well-developed mammary glands, the tape is applied over the gland at the junction of the skin from the chest to the gland.
Shoulder circumference is measured with relaxed muscles of the arm at the border of the upper and middle third of the shoulder perpendicular to the length of the humerus:
Thigh circumference is measured in a lying position with relaxed leg muscles" under the gluteal fold, perpendicular to the length of the femur:
Calf circumference is measured also in a lying position with relaxed leg muscles in the area of greatest development of the calf muscle:
To monitor the body proportions changing during the growth process, in particular the increase in the length of the limbs, which is most clearly visible for the first time in the period of the first extension, the “Philippine test” is used. To perform it, it is necessary to place the child’s hand transversely through the middle of the crown with the head in a vertical position. The arm and hand fit tightly to the head. A positive test (when the fingertips reach the opposite ear) marks the end of the first stretch period (6-7 years of age).
On the left the test is positive, on the right it is negative.
