🌱 Health Promotion · Lesson 2 of 6 · 5 min
Erikson in One Hallway Walk
🚪 Walk down a pediatric hallway: the infant learning the world is safe, the toddler screaming 'me do it', the school-ager who needs to finish the puzzle. Erikson named each door. The exam asks you to read the sign.
💡 Key idea
Trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, identity, intimacy, generativity, integrity. Nursing care at each stage supports the task: choices for toddlers, peers for teens, reminiscence for elders.
🧠 Why it matters
INFANCY: trust versus mistrust; consistent, prompt care builds trust. TODDLER (1 to 3): autonomy versus shame and doubt; offer simple choices and let them do things themselves. PRESCHOOL (3 to 6): initiative versus guilt; encourage imaginative play and avoid making them feel bad for curiosity; they fear bodily harm, so explain procedures with dolls and bandages. SCHOOL AGE (6 to 12): industry versus inferiority; praise effort and finished tasks, keep them in school routines when hospitalized. ADOLESCENCE (12 to 18): identity versus role confusion; privacy, peers and body image matter most. YOUNG ADULT: intimacy versus isolation. MIDDLE ADULT: generativity versus stagnation, giving back through work and family. OLDER ADULT: integrity versus despair; life review and reminiscence help. Toddlers engage in PARALLEL play, preschoolers in ASSOCIATIVE and cooperative play, and school-age children in team play with rules.
🏥 In the real world
🧒 A hospitalized 2-year-old refuses medication. The nurse offers a choice: 'Do you want the medicine in the red cup or the blue cup?' Taking the medicine is not negotiable; the cup is. The toddler picks blue, feels in control, and swallows. That is autonomy applied, and it is the exam's favorite toddler answer.
📌 Takeaways
- Toddlers need choices; preschoolers need play and reassurance about their bodies
- Adolescents need privacy and peers
- Older adults benefit from life review
✅ Test yourself
Which intervention best supports the developmental task of a hospitalized 4-year-old?
- Discussing the child's future career goals
- Letting the child 'give a shot' to a doll
- Offering detailed anatomical explanations of surgery
- Requiring the child to stay in bed quietly
Answer: B · Letting the child 'give a shot' to a doll
Preschoolers work on initiative and fear bodily harm; therapeutic play, such as giving a doll a 'shot' before an injection, lets them master the experience.
A 15-year-old with a new ostomy refuses to see friends. Which developmental concern is most relevant?
- Generativity versus stagnation
- Trust versus mistrust
- Industry versus inferiority over schoolwork
- Identity versus role confusion
Answer: D · Identity versus role confusion
Adolescents are building identity, and body image and peer relationships drive their reactions to illness.
Which type of play is typical for a 2-year-old?
- Solitary play only
- Cooperative play with rules
- Parallel play alongside other children
- Competitive team sports
Answer: C · Parallel play alongside other children
Toddlers play beside other children rather than with them. Associative and cooperative play come in the preschool years.
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