Physical and Cognitive
Development in Middle
Childhood
Body Growth
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2 to 3 inches in height
5 pounds in weight each year
girls are slightly shorter than boys from 6 to 8 then
trend reverses
girls have slightly more body fat;
lowest portion of body growing the fastest during
this time frame
between 6 and 12 years, all 20 primary teeth are
replaced with permanent teeth
Health Problems
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common vision problem-myopia-nearsightedness
nearly 25% children affected
Myopia is affected by heredity ad experience
less ear infections-Eustachian tube becomes
longer and narrower
malnutrition-prolonged affects can cause physical
growth problems, low test scores, poor motor
coordination, inattention and distractibility
Obesity
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About 25% of American children
greater than 20% over average body weight based
on age, sex and physical build of child
Causes
 genetics
 low-cost, high fat foods, and family stress
 food as a reward system
 lack of physical activity
Obesity
children that are obese have lower selfesteem, report feeling more depressed and
display more behavioral problems than their
peers
 There is an increase in type II diabetes in
children in recent years
 Treatment for obesity should be a family
program and focus on changing behaviors
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Bedwetting
Nocturnal enuresis -bedwetting that occurs
during the night
 most cases cause is failure of muscular
responses that inhibit urination or hormonal
imbalance that permits too much urine to
accumulate during the night
 treatment-urine alarm; special pants
(underwear)
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Illnesses
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higher range of illnesses during the first 2 years of
elementary school; exposure to more sick children
and immune system is still developing
Asthma-most frequent cause of school absence
 boys, African American children and children
that were LBW, smoking parents, parents that
have had asthma and children that live in
poverty have the greatest risk
Injuries
Common in middle childhood
 auto and bicycle accidents very common
 school-based safety programs a must at this
age
 be careful of toy related injuries
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Motor Development and Play
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running, jumping, hopping, and ball skills more
refined
fine motor skills improve-writing (starts off larger
ad gradually decreases in size)
drawings show gains in organization, detail ad
representation of depth
games with rules are more common-children have
a better concept of fairness, and justice
PE classes very important-builds self esteem, and
physical activity
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
 7 to 11 years
 thought process is more logical, flexible and
organized that in early childhood
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Conservation
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children can conserve at this stage-one of the most
important developments
clear evidence of operations-mental actions that
obey logical rules
Decentration-focus on several aspects of problem
at once and relate to them
Reversibility-the ability to mentally go through the
series of steps in a problem and then reverse the
direction returning to the starting point
Hierarchical Classification
now can group objects into hierarchies of
classes and subclasses
 collections are common in middle
childhood
 Seriation-order items in length and weight
and height
 Transitive inference-ability to perform
seriation mentally
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Spatial Reasoning
7 to 8 years-mental rotations-align self’s
frame to match that of a person in a
different orientation; identity left and right
for positions that they do not occupy
 8 to 10 years-can give clear, well-organized
directions for how to get from one place to
another using “mental walk” strategies.
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Limitations of Concrete
Operational Thought
Children still need concrete information for
the most part
 abstract concepts are still difficult
 Horizontal decalage-conservation problems
in certain order;number first than length
than mass than liquid
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