Middle Childhood
Cognitive and Physical Development
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Physical Development
Growth is now slower and steadier.
They grow 2 to 3 inches a year.
9 – 10-year-olds: beginning of growth spurt for girls
11-year-olds: beginning of growth spurt for boys
Girls are slightly shorter and lighter until 9.
11-year-olds: girls are generally taller and heavier
Growth is influenced by activity level, exercise,
nutrition, gender, and genetic factors
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Motor Development
• Gross Motor Skills
Around age 5, locomotive skills such as
running , jumping, and hopping are well in
place.
They develop interest in sports
• Fine Motor Skills
Develop rapidly during preschool years and
continue to improve
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Nutrition
• Children in North America receive good
nutrition so most height and weight
differences among children are due to
genetically determined factors.
• Children in poorer areas of cities in
Calcuta, Hong Kong, and Rio de Janeiro
are smaller than their counter parts in
affluent areas of the same cities
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Proper Nutrition
Positive Personality Trait
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More positive emotion
Less anxiety
More moderate activity level
More eager to explore new environment
Showing more persistence in frustrating
situations
• Being more alert
• More energy levels
• Higher levels of self-confidence.
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Obesity
Is defined as body weight that is more than
20% above the average for a person of a
given height and weight.
10% of children are obese.
70% of children who are obese at ages 10 to
13 will continue to be seriously overweight
as adults.
Obesity can lead to high blood pressure,
diabetes, and other medical problems
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Causes for Obesity
Genetic Factors: a child with one obese parent
has a 40% chance of becoming obese, and the
proportion leaps to 80% if both parents are
obese.
Environmental Factors:
The proportion of obesity has risen 54% since the
1960.
Television viewing
Lack of exercise
Parental encouragement
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Cognitive Development
Piaget and Education
• Children are active learners who construct
their own theories about how the world
operates.
• Children learn by doing.
• Teaching should be through showing
rather than telling.
• Piaget encourages the use of concrete
objects for teaching (blocks, rods, seeds)
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Preoperational
(2 to 5-7 years)
Rigid and static
Irreversible
Focused on the here &
now
One dimension
Egocentric
Focused on perceptual
evidence
Intuitive
Concrete
(5-7 to 12 years)
Flexible
Reversible
Not limited to the here
and now
Multidimensional
Less egocentric
The use of logical
inferences
Cause and effect
relationships
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Information Processing
Memory
• Encoding
Recorded in memory
(Keyboard)
• Storage
Saved in memory
(on hard drive)
• Retrieved
Brought into awareness
(on screen)
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Information Processing
Memory
During middle childhood, short-term memory
capacity improves significantly
Meta-Memory
An understanding about the processes that
underlie memory emerge and improve during
middle childhood
Elementary schoolchildren learn control
processes – strategies and techniques that
enhance memory.
Children develop Metacognition –the process of
monitoring your own thinking and memory
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Information Processing
Control Processes
1- Rehearsal
2- Organization
3- Semantic Elaboration
4- Mental Imagery
5- Retrieval
6- Scripts
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Information-Processing
Automatization
1- Knowledge acquisition is automatic when
processes require little attention
Children are automatically aware of how often they
have encountered people.
Automatically, children develop an understanding
of concepts, categorizations of objects, events,
or people.
2- Knowledge is deliberate and controlled when
processes require large amounts of attention.
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Information Processing
Approaches
Cognitive Architecture
Determines the specific steps through
which material is processed as it travels
through the human mind.
Assume that the basic architecture of
information-processing systems is
constant over the course of development,
although the speed and capacity of the
system are thought to grow.
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Vygotsky
• Classrooms are seen as places where
children should have the opportunity to try
new activities.
• Children should focus on activities that
involve interaction with others.
– Cooperative learning – children benefit from
the insight of others
– Reciprocal teaching – students are taught to
skim a passage, raise questions, summarize
it, and predict what will happen next
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Definitions of Intelligence
1-Psychometric Approach
IQ tests – focuses on how people perform
on standardized tests which are designed
to measure skills and knowledge you have
already learned.
2-Cognitive Approach
Intelligence comes in different ways and one
test can’t measure it all.
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Psychometric Approach
IQ Score
• IQ score =
Mental Age
(MA)
divided by
Chronological
Age (CA)
multiplied by 100
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Variations of IQ Scores
Range of Scores % of Population Description
130 +
2%
Very superior
120 - 129
7%
Superior
110 -119
16%
High average
90 - 109
50%
Average
80 - 89
16%
Low average
70 - 79
7%
Borderline
70 & below
2%
Deficient
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IQ Tests
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
(WISC-III)
A test for children that provides separate measures
of verbal and performance (nonverbal) skills as
well as a total score.
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised
(WAIS-III)
A test for adults that provides separate measures
of verbal and performance skills as well as a
total score.
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The Cognitive Approach
Robert Sternberg
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The Theory of Multiple
Intelligences
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Language
Logical-mathematical
Spatial relations
Bodily-kinesthetic
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
7 intelligences
+2
Naturalistic
Existential
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Emotional Intelligence
• 1-Interpersonal Intelligence
• 2-Intrapersonal Intelligence
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Emotional Intelligence
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• Fluid Intelligence
The ability to deal with new problems and
situations
Examples: categorizing items,
remembering a set of numbers
• Crystallized Intelligence
The store of information, skills, and
strategies that people have acquired
through education and prior experience,
and through their previous use of fluid
intelligence.
Examples: solving a puzzle, solution for
mystery
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Learning and Thinking at School
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Teaching facts or concepts
Giving directions for a particular lesson
Stating general rules of behavior
Correcting, disciplining, and praising
children
• Miscellaneous activities
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Results
• Children learn more in classes in which
time on task is maximized, in which the
teacher spends at least half the time on
actual teaching and less on such concerns
as maintaining order.
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What Should Do to Be Critical Thinkers
The 6 Rs
1- Remembering
2- Repeating
3- Reasoning
4- Reorganizing
5- Relating
6- Reflecting
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The Main Emphasis in Teaching
Now, the emphasis is on
– Teaching learning and thinking skills
– Tailoring instruction to the child’s individual
learning style and developmental level
– Fostering independent, self-regulated, selfpaced learning
Learning in small groups
Cooperative rather than competitive learning
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Learning Styles
Cynthia Ulrich Tobias
The way in which we
view the world is
called our …
We perceive in 2 ways
Concrete
Abstract
Perception
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Learning Styles
The way we use the
information we use
is called …
We order in 2 ways
Sequential
Random
Ordering
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Four Combinations
Concrete Sequential
Abstract Sequential
hardworking, stable,
analytic, knowledgeable,
conventional, accurate,
objective, structured,
dependable, factual,
thorough, systematic,
organized, consistent
logical, deliberate
Abstract Random
sensitive, perceptive,
flexible, compassionate,
imaginative, idealistic,
sentimental,
spontanious
Concrete Random
Quick, adventurous,
intuitive, instinctive,
realistic, creative,
innovative, curious
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Success in School
• Culture: achievement motivation is an acquired
culturally based drive (McClelland)
• Gender: accounts for some differences, but this
is often due to environmental factors rather than
brain physiology
• Parents: parents of successful children:
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Have realistic beliefs about their children
Have high expectations
Are authoritative parents
Talk to, listen to, and read to their children
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Developmental Disorders
1- Mental Retardation
2- Depression
3- Attention Deficit Disorder
4- Learning Disabilities
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1- Mental Retardation
(Causes)
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Genetic anomalies
Prenatal exposure to diseases and drugs
Anoxia at birth
Extreme malnutrition during birth or during
infancy
• Family can have a debilitating or a
facilitating effect on the child’s intellectual
development
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The Diagnostic and Statistical
Manuel (DSM-IV)
• Criteria that a child should meet to be
diagnosed as mentally retarded:
1- Significantly subaverage functioning
based on IQ test scores
2- Significantly impaired adaptive behaviors
in areas such as self-care, self-direction,
and general functioning
3- Onset before age 18
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Four Levels of Mental
Retardation
1- Mild Retardation (IQ of 55 to 70)
Can reach 3rd and 6th grade
Can hold jobs and function independently
Psychological retardation
2- Moderate (IQ of 40 to 55)
Slow to develop language and motor skills
Generally cannot progress beyond 2nd grade
Capable of training in social skills but need
supervision
Psychological Retardation
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Four Levels of Mental
Retardation
3- Severe (IQ of 25 to 40)
Generally don’t profit from training
Are unlikely to support themselves
Need 24-hour care
4- Profound (IQ below 25)
Are not vegetative
Usually suffer from neurological and
physiological disabilities (biological retardation)
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2- Depression
Childhood Depression
exaggerated fear, clinginess, avoidance of
everyday activities
Depression in Older Children
Sulking, school problems, acts of
delinquency
Adult Depression
Profound sadness and hopelessness,
negative outlook on life, suicidal thoughts
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Depression
Prozac
• Prescribing Prozac for children has
become very popular.
• No antidepressant has been approved by
governmental regulators for use with
children.
• Because it is approved for adults, it is
perfectly legal for physicians to write
prescriptions for children.
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What’s Wrong with
Antidepressants for Children?
• There is little evidence that antidepressant
drugs have long term effectiveness.
• We don’t know the consequences of the
use of antidepressants on the developing
brains of children.
• The drugs in orange or mint-flavored
syrups might lead to overdoses or perhaps
encourage the use of illegal drugs.
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3- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder
• Patients with ADD/ADHD suffer from an
underactivation of the brain.
• Their IQ is usually above average.
• A gap between potential and performance
occurs.
• They often show an excess of Theta
brainwaves (focused behavior) or
insufficient Beta brainwaves (unfocused
behavior)
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ADD/ADHD
Medication
• ADD/ADHD is the result of low levels of
dopamine
• Ritalin is a stimulant that increases dopamine
levels. Sensing that the levels of dopamine are
abnormally high, the brain may reduce its own
production of dopamine. Thus, when Ritalin is
discontinued, the ADD?ADHD patient may be
more ADD/ADHD than before taking the drug.
• The brain compensating mechanism would
kick in to get rid of the extra dopamine.
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Diagnostic Criteria for AttentionDeficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Symptoms must persist for at least six
months
• Symptoms must have begun before age
seven
• Symptoms present in at least two
situations
• Disorder impairs functioning
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Diagnostic Criteria for AttentionDeficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Symptoms not explained by another
disorder such as:
• Anxiety
• Schizophrenia
• Mania
• Dissociative Disorder
• Personality Disorder
• Developmental Disorder
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4- Learning Disabilities
• 1- Reading Disorder (Dyslexia)
• 2- Disorder of Written Expression
(Dysgraphia)
• 3- Mathematics Disorder (Dyscalculia)
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