MIDDLE CHILDHOOD (7-11 YEARS)
THE SCHOOL YEARS
PHYSICAL DVLPT AND HEALTH
Growth
growth begins to slow down
--will gain about
--by 6, avg. North American child
--by 10, avg. is
-- b/t 6 and 8, girls are slightly shorter and lighter than boys, but this
ends by age 9 so girls begin to catch up (girls still have more fat and boys
have more muscle)
Obesity
overweight: being 20% above ideal weight for age and height
obesity: 30% or more above ideal weight for age and height
--approx.
of American children are
Factors of obesity:
1) heredity: if overweight/obese parents, more likely to be
overweight or obese;
2) environmental factors: including eating habits, parents aren’t
correctly regulating how much the child eats (either watching too closely for
fear of weight gain or indulging as rewards), food can become a comfort at
an early age; type of food: more processed food and not fresh; even
socioeconomic status (SES) is an environmental factor in that lower SES is
equated with less healthy food preparation (high fat, low cost food)
3) lack of physical activity: more TV watching; one study showed that
children who watched 3 hrs./day gained
more fat than those who
watched 1 ¾ hrs/day
80% of overweight/obese children grow up to be overweight/obese adults
Brain Dvlpt
brain reaches adult size by 7
selective attention: can focus on something special while still paying
attention to other things around them
helps them to not be as distracted and to have longer periods where they
are actually learning in school
Motor Skills:
--Gross: increase in flexibility (more pliable and elastic), balance,
agility (quicker and more accurate movements for things like dance,
cheerleading, tag, soccer), and force (when running, kicking, etc.)
--Fine: writing skills improve; building smaller objects like model
airplanes
Children with Special Needs
children with special needs: need more help to learn
--many reasons why they would fall into this category, including
autism: inability to relate to people in an ordinary way; unable to learn
normal speech
--affects 1:2000 children
attention-deficit disorder (ADD): where the child has great difficulty
concentrating for more than a few moments at a time, but is not impulsive or
overactive
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): child has great
difficulty concentrating for more than a few minutes at a time but is also
inattentive, impulsive, and overactive
--origin may be neurological b/c parts of the brain that regulate
attention
--causes:
--boys are diagnosed
times more often than girls
--treatment: given stimulant medication to increase activity in frontal
lobe, which helps regulate attention (70% see a reduction in symptoms)
most effective is
that
teaches the child what is appropriate and inappropriate, also parenting
classes
learning-disabled: have a tremendous delay in learning in a particular area
not caused by a physical handicap, mental retardation, or stressful home
environment
most common learning disability is dyslexia: unusual difficulty in
reading; words and letters are jumbled up; sometimes read right to left
instead of left to right
COGNITIVE DVLPT
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Thought
--concrete operational thought: begin to think in a more logical manner,
but limited to things that can be seen or proven easily
--identity: something remains the same even if some characteristics
are changed; opposite of conservation
--reversibility: mentally reverse operations
--reciprocity: two things can change in opposite ways to balance out
each other (mathematically, two operations can equal the same)
Kohlberg’s Moral Reasoning
--looks at how people reason to see where their moral development is
--1) preconventional moral reasoning: emphasis is on getting rewards
and avoiding punishments; most children under the age of 8
--2) conventional moral reasoning: emphasis on social rules and norms
--3) postconventional moral reasoning: emphasis on moral principles
Teaching and Learning
Reading:
--two methods: phonics and whole language
--phonics approach: teaching letter sounds first
--whole-language approach: learning all language skills together
(talking, listening, reading and writing); goal is to communicate
SES and Vocabulary and Reading:
--correlation b/t
,
showing that those children had less developed vocabularies and grammar
than children in higher SES
--what type of language are they exposed to at home, school, and
neighborhood?
Math and Sciences:
--American children lag behind in math compared to most East Asian
countries
--American children tend to learn less math as they progress in school;
use more computers, calculators to solve problems and this may be the cause
of their lagging behind
--Is this being lazy?
Bilingual Education:
--in America, those who don’t speak English are expected to learn
English, but those who speak only English are not expected to learn another
language
--middle childhood is the best time to be taught another language
--total immersion: teaching entirely in the second language without
using the native language
PSYCHOSOCIAL DVLPT
Peer Relations
--peer groups: indvdls who are of the same age and social status who
work, play, and learn together
--peers become very important; are needed for social growth and
school adjustment; also learn things from peers that they wouldn’t learn
from adults
Friendships:
--develop more
when build one-on-one
friendships, so friendships tend to take on qualities that look for as adult
--look for friends similar to themselves (same age, sex, race, ethnicity,
and SES) and in personality, academic achievement, and prosocial behavior
--as they get older in this stage, look for friendships that will last
longer and offer more closeness, esp. with girls
-can also play a role in friendships
--Unpopular children: 1) neglected: not picked as friends, but not
avoided either; usually shy but still well-adjusted and can break away from
usual pattern of playing by themselves
2) aggressive-rejected: actively rejected b/c of their
aggressive, confrontational behavior
3) withdrawn-rejected: actively rejected b/c of their
withdrawn, anxious behavior
Bullies:
--bullying can be in the form of physical attacks (hitting, punching,
kicking, pinching), verbal attacks (teasing, name-calling), or social attacks
(public shunning or mocking)
--approx.
of children are bullies and
are
bullied
--most bullies are boys and boys bully boys, girls bully girls
Families:
--families are important; those that don’t have families are more likely
to become
--children view parents as being important and family is important
--family function and structure are considered
--family function: how a family works to meet the needs of its
members
functions include:
1) provide food, clothing, shelter
2) encourage them to learn
3) develop their self-esteem (think about initiative vs.
inferiority)
4) nurture their friendships with friends (opportunity,
social skills, time, etc.)
5) provide harmony and stability (feel safe and secure)
--family structure: how a family is legally constructed and how its
members are genetically connected
1) nuclear family: father, mother, and their biological children;
most common type
2) stepparent family: biological parent and children, with spouse
3) blended family: two adults, biological children of one or both
adults, and any children the adults have together biologically
4) adoptive family: one or more nonbiological children and
voluntarily, legally, and permanently raising the child/children
5) one-parent family: one parent with biological children
6) grandparents alone: grandparents with biological
grandchildren
7) extended family: three or more biological generations
8) homosexual family: same-sex parents and biological or
adopted children
9) foster family: one or two parents temporarily caring for a
nonbiological child
--function seems to be more important than structure and is enhanced
by adequate family income
Coping and Stress
--one stressor in addition to others can be harmful, even if it’s minor
--having a daily routine reduces stress; certain amount of
predictability for the child
--child’s perspective of stressful events can increase or decrease
stress and cope less effectively
--cope more effectively with strong social support