Interactive Anticipatory Guidance Provider Guide
12-Year Checkup
- Family Well-Being
- Discuss with teacher any need for additional help if there are school concerns or bullying.
- Keeping Adolescent Safe
- Choose safe, quality and appropriate after-school care
- Promote riding in the back seat until 12 or 13 years old and always using a seat belt
- Supervise when adolescent is in or near water, even if he or she knows how to swim
- Get to know adolescent’s friends and their families
- Develop family plan for exiting house in a fire and establish meeting place after exit
- Discuss drug, tobacco and alcohol use and peer pressure
- Ensure home is safe from fire and carbon monoxide poisoning hazards
- Lock up guns and enroll in gun safety classes if interested
- Teach personal body privacy
- Teach self-safety if adolescent feels unsafe at friend’s home or car or answers the door or telephone when adult is not home
- Do not allow riding in a car with anyone who uses alcohol or drugs
- Require always wearing protective gear during sports
- Require wearing a helmet when adolescent uses bicycle, skates or other mobility equipment
- Healthy Eating
- Provide nutritious meals and snacks each day
- Help adolescent maintain healthy weight
- Limit sweets, sodas and high-fat foods
- Emphasize the importance of breakfast
- Encourage healthy eating behaviors
- Ensure adequate calcium and vitamin D
- Regular Care and Routines
- Reinforce two times a day teeth-brushing routine plus daily flossing
- Establish ongoing care with dental provider
- Encourage personal hygiene routine
- Encourage physical activity for one hour a day
- Healthy Development
- Discuss puberty, physical changes and sexuality
- Observe for signs of depression, anxiety or other behavioral health issues
- Increase difficulty of daily chores to develop sense of family responsibility and self-accomplishment
- Establish consistent limits, rules and consequences
- Limit TV and screen time to two hours a day
- Encourage constructive conflict resolution and demonstrate anger management at home
- Discuss school activities and schoolwork
- Provide space and time for homework and personal time