Interactive Anticipatory Guidance Provider Guide
13-Year Checkup
- Family Well-Being
- Discuss with teacher any need for additional help if there are school concerns or bullying
- Keeping Adolescent Safe
- Promote use of lap and shoulder safety belts and buckle up as example
- 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
- Choose safe, quality and appropriate after-school care
- Lock up guns and enroll in gun safety classes if interested
- Ensure home is safe from fire and carbon monoxide poisoning hazards
- 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 youth 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
- 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
- Discuss family expectations about dating, sexual contact, abstinence, substance use and peer pressure
- 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