NSG 250 EXAM 2 PRESCHOOLER TO SCHOOL-AGED | COMPREHENSIVE
PEDIATRIC NURSING STUDY GUIDE, PRACTICE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
2026/2027
From Toddlerhood to Preschooler - ANS ✔✔Gross motor
Less clumsy, better balance
Run with legs close together, rhythm
Better strength and endurance
Starting to skip, balance on one leg
Preschooler - ANS ✔✔slow and steady growth(body elongates)
Motor skills refined
automaticity
20 teeth
toilet trained
nightmares and night terrors
The brain and cognitive - ANS ✔✔first neural pruning, rapid neuron development/synapses
organized thoughts, 90% right handed. recognition and recall, magical thinking animism, reification
• Lateralization of the brain: - ANS ✔✔Left: verbal tasks, controls the right side of body
Right: visual recognition, non-verbal imagery, controls the left
Physical Growth - ANS ✔✔• Ossification- when the cartilage is replaced by hard deposits of calcium
phosphate and stretchy collagen, which are the main two components of bone.
• Deciduous teeth- baby teeth
• High center of gravity- affects balance changes as the child ages and develops. They tip forward when
they make quick stops and tip backwards when catching a ball.
Motor Skills - ANS ✔✔• Gross: Less clumsy, better strength and endurance
• Fine: able to draw, color, hold a pencil
• Automaticity- the ability to perform motor activities without consciously thinking about them. They
gain thin skill in preschool and gradually loose it with age.
Habitual Response - ANS ✔✔• Eating: have a full diet, learn to eat what is offered to them, and stop
eating when they are full
• Sleep: about 12-14 hours a day including naps
• Elimination: usually day trained, nighttime and daytime accidents are normal around age 6. Often kids
are too engaged in activities to take the time to use the toilet. Some kids get constipated due to stool
holding (voluntary refusal to have bowel movements)
- Night terrors vs Nightmares - ANS ✔✔- Night terrors: normally around age 6; lasts about 10 to 30
minutes; includes kicking, screaming, sleep walking; kids do not remember it in the morning
- Nightmare: scary dreams that wake kids up from sleeping, happen during the end of REM, and kids are
afraid to fall back asleep
, • Myelination of neurons - ANS ✔✔: is part of maturation of the brain. It is the foundation of sheathing
cells that insulate neurons and make the transmission of neural impulses more efficient.
Recall - ANS ✔✔• Recall: ability to retrieve information that is stored in long term memory
Recognition - ANS ✔✔• Recognition: ability to correctly identify information and situations that were
previously experienced
• Motivation: - ANS ✔✔Extrinsic (ex. Money) or intrinsic (ex. Rewards from task or activity itself, such as
the satisfaction from completing a whole puzzle)
Learning - ANS ✔✔Integration of sensory, cognitive, motor skills to acquire new knowledge and skill
Practice and Proficiency- repeating the skills to master.
Attention-maintaining focus
Motivation
Extrinsic
intrinsic
Feedback
Language Development - ANS ✔✔Fully conversational
Uses pronouns
Knows gender
express words, concepts
Some articulation errors remain
Some children are temporarily dysfluent.(stuttering)
animation - ANS ✔✔-all things that move are alive and have human characteristics.
• Private talk: - ANS ✔✔talking out loud to yourself or an inanimate object, is very beneficial to a young
child for improving social skills and becoming more creative.
• Pragmatics: - ANS ✔✔: social and cultural aspects of language use
• Dysfluent: - ANS ✔✔stuttering (brain processes before mouth can form words). Should not persist for
more than 1 to 2 months.
- Freud: - ANS ✔✔phallic stage (kids pleasure focus is on genitals)
- Erikson: - ANS ✔✔initiative vs. guilt (Child explores the world outside of him/herself and figures out
how the world works and how they affect it. This process helps them deal with people and events. This
reward is initiative. Failure to achieve results in guilt )
- Vygotsky - ANS ✔✔Zone of Proximity Development: Children's cognitive growth develops through
participation in activities slightly beyond their competence with the help of adults or older children.
scaffolding: adult provides guidance for child to help them learn.
- Paiget: - ANS ✔✔~ Preconceptual vs. intuitive: kids are in preoperational stage
PEDIATRIC NURSING STUDY GUIDE, PRACTICE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
2026/2027
From Toddlerhood to Preschooler - ANS ✔✔Gross motor
Less clumsy, better balance
Run with legs close together, rhythm
Better strength and endurance
Starting to skip, balance on one leg
Preschooler - ANS ✔✔slow and steady growth(body elongates)
Motor skills refined
automaticity
20 teeth
toilet trained
nightmares and night terrors
The brain and cognitive - ANS ✔✔first neural pruning, rapid neuron development/synapses
organized thoughts, 90% right handed. recognition and recall, magical thinking animism, reification
• Lateralization of the brain: - ANS ✔✔Left: verbal tasks, controls the right side of body
Right: visual recognition, non-verbal imagery, controls the left
Physical Growth - ANS ✔✔• Ossification- when the cartilage is replaced by hard deposits of calcium
phosphate and stretchy collagen, which are the main two components of bone.
• Deciduous teeth- baby teeth
• High center of gravity- affects balance changes as the child ages and develops. They tip forward when
they make quick stops and tip backwards when catching a ball.
Motor Skills - ANS ✔✔• Gross: Less clumsy, better strength and endurance
• Fine: able to draw, color, hold a pencil
• Automaticity- the ability to perform motor activities without consciously thinking about them. They
gain thin skill in preschool and gradually loose it with age.
Habitual Response - ANS ✔✔• Eating: have a full diet, learn to eat what is offered to them, and stop
eating when they are full
• Sleep: about 12-14 hours a day including naps
• Elimination: usually day trained, nighttime and daytime accidents are normal around age 6. Often kids
are too engaged in activities to take the time to use the toilet. Some kids get constipated due to stool
holding (voluntary refusal to have bowel movements)
- Night terrors vs Nightmares - ANS ✔✔- Night terrors: normally around age 6; lasts about 10 to 30
minutes; includes kicking, screaming, sleep walking; kids do not remember it in the morning
- Nightmare: scary dreams that wake kids up from sleeping, happen during the end of REM, and kids are
afraid to fall back asleep
, • Myelination of neurons - ANS ✔✔: is part of maturation of the brain. It is the foundation of sheathing
cells that insulate neurons and make the transmission of neural impulses more efficient.
Recall - ANS ✔✔• Recall: ability to retrieve information that is stored in long term memory
Recognition - ANS ✔✔• Recognition: ability to correctly identify information and situations that were
previously experienced
• Motivation: - ANS ✔✔Extrinsic (ex. Money) or intrinsic (ex. Rewards from task or activity itself, such as
the satisfaction from completing a whole puzzle)
Learning - ANS ✔✔Integration of sensory, cognitive, motor skills to acquire new knowledge and skill
Practice and Proficiency- repeating the skills to master.
Attention-maintaining focus
Motivation
Extrinsic
intrinsic
Feedback
Language Development - ANS ✔✔Fully conversational
Uses pronouns
Knows gender
express words, concepts
Some articulation errors remain
Some children are temporarily dysfluent.(stuttering)
animation - ANS ✔✔-all things that move are alive and have human characteristics.
• Private talk: - ANS ✔✔talking out loud to yourself or an inanimate object, is very beneficial to a young
child for improving social skills and becoming more creative.
• Pragmatics: - ANS ✔✔: social and cultural aspects of language use
• Dysfluent: - ANS ✔✔stuttering (brain processes before mouth can form words). Should not persist for
more than 1 to 2 months.
- Freud: - ANS ✔✔phallic stage (kids pleasure focus is on genitals)
- Erikson: - ANS ✔✔initiative vs. guilt (Child explores the world outside of him/herself and figures out
how the world works and how they affect it. This process helps them deal with people and events. This
reward is initiative. Failure to achieve results in guilt )
- Vygotsky - ANS ✔✔Zone of Proximity Development: Children's cognitive growth develops through
participation in activities slightly beyond their competence with the help of adults or older children.
scaffolding: adult provides guidance for child to help them learn.
- Paiget: - ANS ✔✔~ Preconceptual vs. intuitive: kids are in preoperational stage
