MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Cil FloresGeneva GaldoRegina Munoz

Physical DevelopmentAspects of Physical Development

What gains in growth and motor development occur during middle childhood, and what nutritional hazards do children face?

• Growth slows in middle childhood, and wide differences in height and weight.

• Children with retarded growth due to growth hormone deficiency may be given synthetic growth hormone.

• Proper nutrition is essential for normal growth and health.

• Malnutrition can affect all aspects of development.• Obesity entails health risks. It is influenced by

genetic and environmental factors and can be treated.

• Concern with body image, especially among girls, may lead to eating disorders.– Body image Descriptive and evaluative beliefs about one’s

appearance.

• Because of improved motor development, boys and girls in this stage can engage in a wide range of motor activities.

• About 10% of schoolchildren’s play, especially boys, is rough-and-tumble play.– Rough-and-tumble play Vigorous play involving wrestling,

hitting, and chasing, often accompanied by laughing and screaming.

• Many children, mostly boys, go into organized, competitive sports. A sound physical education program should aim at skill development and fitness for all children.

• Many children, especially girls do not meet fitness standards.

Health and SafetyWhat are the principal health and safety

concerns about school-aged children?• Middle childhood is a relatively healthy

period; most children are immunized against major illnesses, and the death rate is the lowest in the life span.

• Respiratory infections and other acute medical conditions are common. – Acute medical conditions illnesses that last a

short time.

Chronic conditions such as Asthma are most prevalent among poor and minority children.

– Chronic medical conditions illnesses or impairments that persist for at least three months.

– Asthma a chronic respiratory disease characterized by sudden attacks of coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing.

• Children’s understanding of health and illness is related to their cognitive level.

• Vision becomes keener during middle childhood, but some children have defective vision or hearing.

• Most children who are HIV-positive function normally in school and should not be excluded from any activities of which they are capable.

• Accidents are the leading cause of death in middle childhood. Use of helmets and other protective devices and avoidance of trampolines, snowmobiling and other dangerous sports can greatly reduce injuries.

Cognitive Development

Piagetian Approach: The Concrete Operational ChildHow do school-aged children’s thinking and moral reasoning differ from those of younger children?

• A child at about age 7 enters the stage of concrete operations. Children are less egocentric than before and are more proficient at tasks requiring logical reasoning, such as spatial thinking, understanding of causality, categorization, inductive and deductive reasoning, and conservation. However, their reasoning is largely limited to the here and now.

– Concrete operations third stage of Piagetian cognitive development( approximately from ages 7 to 12), during which children develop logical but not abstract thinking.

Cognitive Advances• Space and Causality– They have clearer idea of how far it is from one

place to another and how long it will take to get there, and they can more easily remember the route and the landmarks along the way.

• Categorization– Seration-Ability to order items along a dimension.– Transitive inference-Understanding of the

relationship between two objects by knowing the relationship of each to a third object.

– Class Inclusion-Understanding of the relationship between a whole and its parts.

• Inductive reasoning– Type of reasoning that moves from a particular

observations about members of a class to a general conclusion about the class.

“my dog barks. So does terry’s dog and melissa’s dog. So it look as if all dogs bark.”

• Deductive Reasoning– Type of logical reasoning that moves from a

general premise about a particular class to a conclusion about a particular member or members of the class.

Conservation– Children can work out answers in

their heads; they do not have to measure or weigh the objects.

Principle of identityknowing that both are of the same amount of water.

Principle of reversibilityDecenterHorizontal decalage

oPiaget’s term for inability to transfer learning about one type of conservation to other types, which causes a child to master different types of conservation tasks @ different ages.

• Cultural experience, as well as neurological development, seems to contribute to the rate of development of conservation and other Piagetian skills.

• According to Piaget, moral development is linked with cognitive maturation and occurs in three stages, as children move from rigid to more flexible thinking.

• First stage ( approximately ages 2-7, corresponding preoperational stage)– Based on obedience to authority. Believes that rules

comes from adult authorities and cannot be bent or changed, that behavior is either right or wrong, and that any offense deserves punishment regardless of intent.

• Second stage ( ages 7-11, corresponding with the stage of concrete operations)– Increasing flexibility and some degree of autonomy

based on mutual respect and cooperation.• Third stage (ages 11-12)– Moral development. “equality” takes on a different

meaning for the child.

Information Processing and IntelligenceWhat are the advances in memory and other

information-processing skills occur during middle childhood?

• Although sensory memory shows little change with age, the capacity of working memory increases greatly during middle childhood.

• The central executive, which controls the flow of information to and from long-term memory, seems to mature between ages 8 and 10.

• Metamemory, selective attention, and use of mnemonic strategies improve during these years. Gains in information-processing abilities may help the advances Piaget described.

• Metamemory– Understanding of processes of memory.– Kindergartners and first-graders know that people

remember better if they study longer, that people forget in time, and that its better to relearn something than learn it for the first time.

• Mnemonic strategies– Techniques to aid memory

• External memory aids– Prompting by something outside the person– Dana makes a list of the things she has to do today

• Rehearsals– Conscious repetition– Tim says the letters in his spelling words over and over

until he knows them• Organization– Grouping by categories– Luis recalls the animals he saw in the zoo by thinking first

of the mammals, then reptiles, and so on.• Elaboration– Associating items to be remembered with something else.

How accurately can school children’s intelligence be measured?

• The intelligence of school-aged children is assessed by group or individual tests.

• IQ test are fairly good predictors of school success but maybe unfair to some children.

• Differences in IQ among ethnic groups appear to result to a considerable degree from socioeconomic and other environmental differences.

• Schooling seems to increase measured intelligence.

• Attempts to devise culture-free or culture-fair tests have been unsuccessful.

• IQ tests tap only three of the “intelligences” in Howard Gardner’s Theory of multiple intelligences.

• According to Robert Sternberg’s triarchic theory, IQ tests measure mainly the componential element of intelligence, not the experiential and contextual elements.

• New directions in intelligence testing include the Sternberg triarchic abilities tests (STAT), Kaufman Assessment Battery for children (KABC), and tests based on Vygotsky’s concept of Dynamic testing.

Language and LiteracyHow do communicative abilities and literacy expand

during middle childhood?• Use of vocabulary, grammar, syntax become

increasingly sophisticated, but the major area of linguistic growth is in pragmatics. – Pragmatics- set of linguistic rules that govern the use of

language for communication.

• Despite the popularity of whole-language programs, early phonics training is a key to reading proficiency.

• Metacognition contributes to reading comprehension.

• Acquisition of writing skills accompanies development of reading.

The Child in School

What influences school achievement?• Because schooling is cumulative, the

foundation laid in first grade is very important.

• Parents influence children’s learning by becoming involved in their schooling, motivating them to achieve, and transmitting attitudes about learning. Socioeconomic status can influence parental beliefs and practices that, in turn, influence achievement.

• Although the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy may not be as great as was once thought, teacher’s perceptions and expectations can have a strong influence.

• Historical philosophical shifts affect such issues as amount of homework assigned, social promotion, and computer literacy.

• The superior achievement of children of East Asian extraction seems to stem from cultural factors.

How do schools meet the needs of non-English-speaking children and those with learning problems?

• Methods of second-language education are controversial. Issues include speed and facility with English, long-term achievement in academic subjects, and pride in cultural identity.

• Three frequent sources of learning problems are mental retardation, learning disabilities (LDs), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dyslexia is the most common learning disability.

• In the United States, all children with disabilities are entitled to a free, appropriate education. Children must be educated in the least restrictive environment possible, often in the regular classroom.

How is giftedness assessed and nurtured?• An IQ of 130 higher is a common standard

for identifying gifted children. Broader definition include creativity, artistic talent, and other attributes and rely in multiple criteria for identification.

• In Terman’s classic longitudinal study of gifted children, most turned out to be well adjusted and successful, but not outstandingly so.

• Creativity and IQ are not closely linked. Test of creativity seek to measure divergent thinking, but their validity has been questioned.

• Special educational programs for gifted children stress enrichment or acceleration.

Thank you!