The Curriculum
Twelve domains — the full map of what a competent parent of an adolescent should know about physical health, each tied to named fact sheets.
Fact sheets named below can be found by title in the RCH Kids Health Info library, with Raising Children, Healthdirect, SCHN and HealthyChildren as parallel sources. The first four domains are the priority for a teenager; the rest complete the picture.
1 · Recognising the Sick Child and Emergencies
The foundational skill: telling ordinary illness from illness that needs escalation. Core sheets: Fever in children · Febrile seizures · Dehydration · Sepsis · Meningococcal infection · Allergic and anaphylactic reactions · First aid for babies, children and teens · Head injury, general advice · Burns and scalds, prevention and first aid · Seizures, safety issues and how to help. Competence means knowing the red flags cold, holding a current CPR and first aid certificate, and knowing the escalation ladder from watchful waiting to GP to nurse line to emergency.
2 · Mind Body and Stress Related Symptoms
The evidence is clear that stress related nausea, stomach pain and headaches are real physical symptoms, produced by the interaction of stress physiology and the body — not imagined ones. Core sheets: Somatic symptom and related disorders (SSRDs) · Somatising and medically unexplained symptoms · Abdominal pain · Headaches · Migraine · Chronic Fatigue Syndrome · Mental health, adolescents · Education support for students with health conditions. Competence means understanding how distress produces genuine symptoms and how to respond without either dismissing or catastrophising.
3 · Adolescent Health and Development
Core sheets: Nutrition, teens and young people · Exercise and activity · Sleep problems, children and teens · Screen time and social media · Acne and teen skin health · Taking risks · Alcohol and drug use in teens · Vaping and e cigarettes · Nicotine · Health care privacy, teens and young people. The last one matters more than it looks: adolescents have graduated rights to confidential healthcare, and a competent parent knows where those boundaries sit and respects them — because that is what keeps a teenager willing to seek help.
4 · Sleep
The single biggest physical health lever for an adolescent's mood, immunity, learning and somatic symptoms. Core sheets: Sleep problems, children and teens · Obstructive sleep apnoea · Night terrors · Sleepwalking. The practical core: consistent wake time, morning light, screens out of the bedroom, caffeine cutoffs, and the biological reality that the teenage circadian rhythm shifts later.
5 · Nutrition, Growth and Eating
Core sheets: Nutrition, teens and young people · Nutrition concerns, school age children · Eating disorders (awareness level: warning signs and early action) · Vitamin D · Lactose intolerance · Food allergies. Competence means knowing roughly what an adolescent needs through growth spurts — energy, protein, calcium, iron — what normal fluctuating appetite looks like, and the warning signs that are not normal.
6 · Common Infections and Everyday Illness
The bread and butter domain. Core sheets: Viral illnesses · Flu · COVID-19 · RSV · Tonsillitis · Middle ear infection · Conjunctivitis · Cough · Pneumonia · Hand, foot and mouth · Impetigo · Whooping cough · Stopping the spread of germs. Competence means knowing typical course and duration, when antibiotics do and do not help, care at home, and school exclusion conventions.
7 · Gastrointestinal Health
Core sheets: Gastroenteritis · Abdominal pain · Appendicitis · Constipation · Reflux. Competence means home management of gastro — small frequent fluids, oral rehydration, what not to give — recognising dehydration, and knowing the abdominal pain features that point to appendicitis rather than a functional or stress related cause.
8 · Respiratory, Allergy and Skin
Core sheets: Asthma and spacers · Thunderstorm asthma · Hay fever · Eczema · Hives · Rashes · Insect bites and stings · Sun safety · Warts · Ringworm · Head lice. Competence means recognising respiratory distress, understanding reliever versus preventer logic, basic skin care, and the non blanching rash glass test (which lives in domain one's red flags).
9 · Medication Safety
Core sheets: Pain relief medicine for children, paracetamol and ibuprofen · How to give your child medicine · Medicines for children and medicine reactions · Corticosteroid medicine. Competence means weight based dosing, intervals and daily maximums, never doubling up on combination products, safe storage, and checking interactions when anything new is prescribed.
10 · Injuries, Fractures and Activity
Core sheets: Fractures and the fracture care series · Ankle sprains · Cuts, grazes and lacerations · Mouth injuries and dislodged teeth · Head injury, return to school and sport · Tetanus prone wounds. Competence means soft tissue injury care, wound cleaning and closure decisions, concussion recognition with graded return to activity, and when an X ray is warranted.
11 · Immunisation and Preventive Care
The National Immunisation Program adolescent schedule — HPV and dTpa in early secondary school, meningococcal ACWY around year 10 — plus annual flu vaccination, twice yearly dental care, vision and hearing awareness, and sun protection. Competence means knowing the schedule and keeping the record current on the Australian Immunisation Register via Medicare.
12 · Navigating the Health System
Core sheets: GPs, choosing and visiting a family doctor · Navigating the Australian health system · How to find health information you can trust · Telehealth video consultation. Competence means running a regular GP relationship with a written question list, knowing what Medicare covers, using telehealth well, knowing the nurse line, and keeping a personal health record: medications, allergies, immunisations, and a symptom diary when anything is being watched.