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9Prenatal Development And

Birth

Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle

Childhood

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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

• Growth and Motor Development Between 6 and 12• Grow 2 – 3 inches and add 6 pounds a year

• Increased large-muscle coordination

• Better hand-eye coordination

• Significant gains in fine motor control

• Girls – 94% of adult height attained

• Boys –84% of adult height attained

• More muscle mass in boys

• More body fat in girls

Physical Changes


• Two major growth spurts

– From 6 to 8 years • Increases in the sensory and motor cortex• Linked to improvements in hand-eye coordination

– From 10 to 12 years• Frontal lobes and cerebral cortex add synapses• Associated with gains in logic and planning

The Brain and Nervous System


• Myelinization continues

– Frontal lobes and reticular formation links improve.• 12 year olds develop selective attention.

– Associational area neurons• Sensory, motor, and intellectual functions are linked.

• Contributes to increases in information-processing speed



• Spatial perception lateralization – Helps with skills such as map reading

– Improves learning math concepts and problem-solving

• Spatial cognition– Ability to infer rules from and make predictions about

the movements of objects in space



• Head Injuries– Motor vehicles and bicycles

– Majority of children recover fully

• Asthma– Most frequent cause of school absence

Health and Wellness


• Obesity – Between 11% and 25% of children are obese.

• Body weight that is 20% or more above the normal weight

• Associated with adult obesity

• Require special diets for children to lose weight

• Fear of developing unattractive body becomes a problem

Health and Wellness


• Language

– Become skilled at managing the finer points of grammar

– Increase in vocabulary, especially derived words

Cognitive Changes


Anglin’s Estimates of Vocabulary Size

Figure 9.1


• Can solve conservation tasks easily

• Construction of schemes that enable children to think logically– Decentration

– Reversibility

• Inductive logic– Moving from personal experience to a general principle

• Good at manipulating things that can be seen and touched

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage


• Horizontal Decalage

– Applying new thinking to all kinds of problems

– Age 7 – 8 • Children understand class inclusion – the

understanding that subordinate classes are included in larger, superordinate classes.

Direct Tests of Piaget’s View

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006Figure 9.2


• Concrete Operations as Rules for Problem Solving

– Siegler• Cognitive development consists of acquiring a set

of basic rules that are then applied to broader ranges of problems.

• Moving from one rule to the next requires experience.

Direct Tests of Piaget’s View



Siegler Experiments

Figure 9.4


• Processing efficiency– The ability to make efficient use of short-term

memory capacity

• Major component of cognitive growth

• Increases the speed of cognitive processing

• Cross-cultural research validates change

Advances in Information Processing Skills



• Automaticity

– The ability to recall information from long term memory without using short term memory capacity

– Frees up short-term memory space for more complex processing



• Executive and Strategic Processes– Information processing skills that allow a

person to devise and carry out alternative strategies for remembering and solving a problem

• Metacognition

• Memory strategies



• Expertise

– The amount of information possessed improves information processing

– Michelene Chi – expert chess players



• Literacy– The ability to read and write

• Phonological awareness increases

• Readers benefit from specific instruction

• Automaticity of identifying sound–symbol combinations helps

• Poor readers• Have problems with sound-letter combinations

• Benefit from highly specific phonics approaches

• May need multiple teaching approaches to help catch up

Schooling


• Standardized tests– Achievement tests

• Designed to assess specific information learned in school

• Critics suggest portfolios of children’s school work is a better indicator of actual school learning.

– Intelligence tests• Required by most U.S. school districts

• Often result in misclassification of minority students

• Strongly correlated with achievement test scores

Achievement and Intelligence Tests


• Multiple Intelligences – Howard Gardner– Little empirical support

• Triarchic Theory – Robert Sternberg– Contextual intelligence– Experiential intelligence– Componential intelligence

• Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman– Children’s control over emotions in early childhood is

strongly related to academic achievement.

Achievement and Intelligence Tests


• Which theory describes intelligence better – multiple intelligences or the triarchic theory? Why?

• Obesity is becoming a major problem in the U.S. What can a parent do to help an obese child or to help a child avoid becoming obese?

Questions to Ponder


• Similar to Authoritative parenting styles– Clear goals and rules– Good control– Good communication– High nurturance– Authoritative teachers who have high expectations

• Overall climate or ethos of success– Clear and strong leadership from principal– Positive parental involvement

Effective Schools


• Second-Language Learners– Limited English Proficient (LEP)

• Non-English-speaking children

• Participate in bilingual education – Instruction given in two languages

• English-as-a-second-language programs (ESL)– Children spend part of the day in classes to learn English.

– No particular program works best• Using a home-component helps

– Helps to support children’s home language and culture

• Providing a transition to English-only classrooms helps LEP students.

Group Differences in Achievement


• No consistent differences between boys and girls on total scores– Girls do slightly better on verbal tasks.

– Boys do slightly better on numerical reasoning.

• Differences shaped by environmental factors– Parent and teacher assumptions about skills

– Children internalize beliefs of others.

– By high school, differences in standardized math tests are apparent.

Sex Differences in Achievement


• Problems associated with economic status; access to prenatal care; family stability

• Style differences– Analytic style

• Define learning goals and follow orderly steps to reach them

– Relational style• Focus attention on the “big picture” instead of individual bits of information

– Higher percentage of Asian American and European American children are analytic

– African American, Hispanic, and Native American are relational

• Lack of a good cultural fit may cause school problems.

• Feelings of hopelessness lead to school failure.

Racial Influences on Achievement


• U.S. children significantly behind their peers in industrialized nations in math and science.

– Underlying cognitive processes are similar.

• North American parents emphasize innate ability; Asians emphasize hard work.

• Teaching methods vary.

– Asians emphasize “master lessons” around a single theme.

– Asians spend more time in direct instruction.

– Asians emphasize computational fluency.

– Americans may undermine intrinsic motivation by overusing reward systems.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Achievement


• Learning Disabilities– Dyslexia

• Usually specific to reading

– LD children rarely show brain damage

– May have trouble understanding the sound and structure of language

– May have a genetic basis

– Assigned to special classes• Reciprocal teaching – working in pairs or groups

– Improving motivation is essential

Children with Special Needs


• Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder– More physically active and less attentive leading to

academic and behavioral problems

• Causes– Neurological differences

– Cultural factors

– Complex interaction between temperament, parenting style, peer relations and school

Children with Special Needs


• Treatments– Parents lose confidence in their abilities

• Become permissive or overly threatening– May be helped by parental training programs.

» Helps regain a sense of control» Reinforce specific rules

– Stimulant medications• Ritalin• Use may have a self-fulfilling prophesy effect• May not improve grades

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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