CHAPTER 11
Middle Childhood:
Physical Development
Learning Outcomes
LO1 Describe growth patterns in middle
childhood.
LO2 Discuss nutrition and overweight in
childhood, focusing on incidence, origins,
and treatment of the problem.
LO3 Describe motor development in middle
childhood, focusing on sex differences,
exercise, and fitness.
LO4 Discuss the symptoms, possible origins,
and treatment of attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
LO5 Discuss the various kinds of learning
disorders and their possible origins.
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TRUTH OR FICTION?
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T-F Children outgrow “baby fat.”
T-F The typical American child is exposed to about
10,000 food commercials each year.
T-F Most American children are physically fit.
T-F Hyperactivity is caused by chemical food
additives.
T-F Stimulants are often used to treat children who
are already hyperactive.
T-F Some children who are intelligent and provided
with enriched home environments cannot learn how
to read or do simple math problems.
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LO1 Growth Patterns
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Growth Patterns
• The Middle Childhood years: age 7-12
• Both boys and girls average about 2 inches in height
per year until the adolescent growth spurt.
• Both boys and girls average about 5-7 lbs of weight
gain in middle childhood years.
• In middle childhood, the average child’s body weight
doubles.
• Overall children become less stocky and grow more
slender.
Figure 11.1 – Growth Curves for
Height and Weight
Growth Patterns
• Nutrition and Growth
– Children in these middle years spend a great deal of
energy in physical activity and play.
– School children burn more calories than preschoolers.
• 4-6 year olds: 1,400 - 1,800 calories per day
• 7-10 year olds: 2,000 calories per day
– Nutrition is more than calories.
• Healthy: fruit, veggies, fish, poultry (no skin), whole grains
• Not healthy: fats, sugars, starches
– Most school cafeterias: fast food restaurants have food
high in sugar, animal fats, and salt
– Portion sizes have also become much larger over the
past few decades.
Growth Patterns
• Similarities and Difference in Physical Growth
– Both boys and girls at this age experience steady gains
in height and weight and see an increase in muscle
strength.
• Boys:
– Are slightly heavier and taller than girls from 9-10 yrs
– Around age 11 yrs, boys will develop more muscle.
• Girls:
– At 9-10 will begin their rapid adolescent growth and
surpass boys in height and weight until about 13-14
yrs.
– Around age 11, girls will develop more fat.
LO2 Overweight in Childhood
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Overweight in Children
• Between 16-25% of children and teens in U.S. are
overweight.
• Parents often assume heavy children will outgrown
the “baby fat” but most overweight children become
overweight adults.
• Overweight children are often ridiculed and rejected
by peers.
• They are less athletic and considered less attractive
in adolescent years.
• They also are at greater risk for health problems
throughout life.
Figure 11.2 – Overweight Children in America
Overweight in Children
• Causes of Overweight
– Heredity factors:
• Some people inherit a tendency to burn extra calories.
• Other inherit a tendency to turn extra calories into fat.
– Environmental factors:
• Family: overweight parents serve
as role models and may encourage
overeating and unhealthy choices
• Children who watch TV burn fewer
calories.
• American children are exposed to
thousands of food commercials per
year, most for unhealthy foods.
© Rubberball/Jupiterimages
Overweight in Children
• Childhood is the optimal time to prevent or reverse
obesity and promote a lifetime pattern of healthy
habits.
• Cognitive methods help by:
– Improving nutritional knowledge; reducing calories;
introducing exercise; modifying behavior
• Behavioral methods involve:
– Tracking calories and weight; keeping child from
temptations; setting good examples; using reinforcers
• The most successful weight loss programs for
children combine:
– Exercise; decreased caloric intake; behavior
modifications; emotional support from parents
Figure 11.3 – The Traffic Light Diet
LO3 Motor Development
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Motor Development
• Gross Motor Skills
– Throughout middle childhood, muscles grow
stronger and neural pathways connecting the
cerebellum to the cortex become more myelinated.
– Experience refines sensorimotor abilities but there
are also individual inborn differences.
Motor Development
• Gross Motor Skills
– By age 6 yrs, children are hopping, jumping,
climbing.
– By age 7 yrs, they are
capable of riding a bike.
– By age 8-10 yrs, they can
participate in sports.
• Reaction time: (time it takes
to respond to a stimulus)
improves
© Terry Poche/Shutterstock
Motor Development
• Fine Motor Skills
– By age 6-7, children can perform many fine motor skills
(tying shoelaces, holding pencils like adults)
• Sex Differences
– Boys show more forearm strength.
– Girls show more coordination and flexibility.
– Exercise reduces risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes,
and some types of cancer.
– Cardiac and muscular fitness is
developed by aerobic exercise,
however schools and parents tend
to focus more on competitive sports
such as baseball and football.
© Benjamin Goode/iStockphoto.com
• Exercise & Fitness
LO4 Attention-Deficit/
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHA)
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Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
• Definition-Statistics
– ADHD is characterized by excessive inattention,
impulsiveness, and hyperactivity.
– Not to be confused with normal active behaviors
– Typically occurs around age 7 yrs
– 1-5% of school age children are diagnosed; more commonly
in boys, sometimes “over-diagnosed” to encourage more
acceptable behavior
• Causes
– Genetic component: brain chemical dopamine
– Lack of executive control of the brain over motor and more
primitive functions
– Not caused by artificial food additives
• Treatment & Outcomes
– Stimulants such as Ritalin are most used treatment
– They promote activity of dopamine and noradrenaline in the
brain that stimulate the “executive center.”
– Some children “outgrow” ADHD; others persist with problems
into adolescence or adult years.
Table 11.1 – Types of Disorders
© Image Source
LO5 Learning Disorders
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Learning Disabilities
• Learning Disabilities: disorders characterized
by inadequate development of specific
academic, language, and speech skills
• Learning disabled children may show problems
in some of the following areas:
– Math, writing, or reading
– Speaking or understanding spoken
language
– Motor coordination
Learning Disabilities
• Performing below the expected level for their
age and level of intelligence with no evidence
of other handicaps (vision-hearing-retardationetc) usually leads to a diagnosis of Learning
Disability.
• Disability may persist through entire life but
early remediation can help many to
compensate.
Table 11.2 – Symptoms of AttentionDeficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Source: Adapted from American Psychiatric Association (2000).
Learning Disabilities, cont.
• Origins of Dyslexia
– Genetic Factors
• 25-65% of dyslexic children have one dyslexic parent.
• 40% of siblings of children with dyslexia are dyslexic.
• Left brain hemisphere circulation problems causing oxygen
deficiency.
• Problems in the angular gyrus of the brain may cause
difficulty for readers to associate letters with sounds.
• Some research points to similarities in brain abnormalities
between schizophrenia and dyslexia.
– Phonological Processing
• Dyslexic children may not discriminate sounds as
accurately as others, creating confusion and impairing
reading ability.
© Will and Deni McIntyre/Science Source/Photo Researchers
Figure 11.4 – Writing Sample of Dyslexic Child
Learning Disabilities, cont.
• Educating Children with Disabilities
– Special Education:
• Programs created to meet the needs of schoolchildren with
mild to moderate disabilities including:
– Emotional disturbance, mild mental retardation,
physical disabilities (i.e., blindness, deafness,
paralysis)
• Evidence is mixed on whether placing disabled children in
separate classes can stigmatize and further segregate
them from other children
– Mainstreaming:
• Placement of disabled children in regular classrooms
adapted to meet their needs
Learning Disabilities, cont.
• Dyslexia
– A reading disorder characterized by letter reversals,
mirror reading, slow reading, and reduced
comprehension.