Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Middle Childhood Physical and...

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Middle ChildhoodPhysical and Cognitive Development

Chapter 8

Middle ChildhoodPhysical and Cognitive Development

• Physical and Motor Development

• Cognitive Development

• Learning and Thinking in School

• Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Physical and Motor Development

• Development in Middle Childhood

– Development is continuous

– Physical, cognitive, and psychosocial factors interact

– Development occurs in a broad social context

– Physical growth is gradual until children experience the adolescent growth spurt

– Age 9 for girls

– Age 11 for boys

• Brain changes

– Brain development continues, neural plasticity remains high

– Between ages 6 and 8, forebrain undergoes growth spurt

– By age 6, brain is about 95% of its maximum size

– Lateralization of brain becomes more pronounced

– Brain development is clearly tied to rapidly developing cognitive functions

• Skeletal Maturation– Skeleton matures, producing actual growing pains

sometimes

– Children’s permanent teeth begin to come in

• Motor Skills Development– Gross motor skills are expanded and children grow

stronger

– Fine motor skills are rapidly developing

– Control of their bodies enhances sense of competence and self-esteem

– Poorly coordinated children may be unpopular and feel rejected

Physical Development in Middle Childhood

Health, Fitness, and Accidents

• Problems that emerge include asthma (increasingly widespread) and visual problems

• Physical activity and exercise have been declining

• Obesity is increasing: over 17% of U.S. grade-school-age children are obese

• The leading cause of death is accidents, especially involving motor vehicles

Video Clip

Describes New Jersey’s initiative to combat childhood obesity using health report cardshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXvDI3Lh9xQ

Video Clip

Tyra Banks meets with young girls who already have a fear of becoming fat:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F734qbEXm1s

Video Clip

Video produced by the Dove Corporation to highlight body image and self-esteem issues among girls in middle childhood:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWzbIVwGd1E

Major Causes of Deaths for U.S. Children, Ages 5-14, 2005

SOURCE: From America’s children: Key national indicators of well being, 2004, by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 2008. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Psychological Disorders

• About 20% children age 9-17 have mental disorders with at least mild functional impairment

• Some disorders, such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, are most commonly diagnosed in childhood

• Under-recognition of mental illness as a major problem of childhood is a concern

• Treatment decisions can be difficult

Cognitive Development

• Piaget and Concrete Operational Thinking

– Children move from preoperational to concrete operational thought during the years from ages 5 to 7

– Thought becomes less intuitive and egocentric and more logical

– Thinking becomes more reversible, flexible, and complex

– Cause-effect evaluations are possible

Preoperational Versus Concrete Operational Thought

Piaget’s Matchstick Problem

• Children become more skilled in using words to help them understand, structure, and solve problems

• Concrete operational children can theorize about the world around them

• Acquisition of concrete operational thought is gradual and occurs without formal education or prompting

• Piaget and Education

– Piaget believed children are better off when they learn at their own pace and that learning is best when it is intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically rewarded

– Use of concrete objects can enhance learning and cognitive development

– Use of concrete learning aides promotes active learning and constructivist knowledge

Concrete Objects to Aid in Learning – Cubes and Spatial Arrays

• Memory and metacognition– Children’s memory strategies and techniques

—control processes—improve with age

– Children are better able to monitor their own thinking, memory, knowledge, goals, and actions—metacognition

– Metacognition begins at about age 6 and emerges more fully between the ages of 7 and 10

Control Processes Used by Children in Middle Childhood

Language and Literacy Development

• Language learning expands, as vocabulary increases and complex grammar is mastered

• Reading and writing skills—literacy—are natural growths of language development

• Development of reading and writing skills during middle childhood is complex & multidimensional

• Teachers and peers aid in enhancing literacy skills

Conditions That Promote Literacy

Conditions That Promote Literacy (continued)

Individual Differences in Intelligence

• Intelligence test scores are used in educational, career, and public policy decisions

• 2 commonly used assessments of intelligence:

– Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

– Wechsler (versions for varying ages: WPPSI, WISC, WAIS)

• IQ scores today assessed by comparing individual’s score with scores of other people in same age range—deviation IQ.

– Scores are distributed in bell-shaped curve.

– An IQ score of 100 is average.

– About two thirds of the population scores between 85 and 115; 96% score between 70 and 130.

Distribution of IQ in the General Population

The Nature of Intelligence

• Intelligence is a composite of abilities, not a single attribute

• Howard Gardner promotes a broad-based model of intellectual abilities consisting of eight “types” of intelligence

• Robert Sternberg developed a broad triarchic theory of intelligence– Contextual intelligence: adaptation to environment,

common sense

– Experiential intelligence: ability to cope with new situations

– Componential intelligence: measured by IQ tests

Gardner’s Eight Types of Intelligence

Race and Intelligence

• Some U.S. minority groups typically score lower on average on tests when compared to Whites

• Some disparity may be due to cultural bias in tests.

• Research suggests that race is not a factor in determining intelligence, although culture probably is

• When social and economic circumstances are considered, group difference in intelligence all but disappear

• An IQ is a dynamic interaction of genetics and environment

Learning and Thinking in School

• World customs differ as to when children enter school and how long they remain

• Children face a variety of new expectations and adjustments when they enter school

• Students must meet behavioral expectations when in school, and teachers spend a good amount of time enforcing rules, disciplining and praising, in addition to performing their teaching duties

Youth Literacy Rates Around the World, 2000-2006

Developing Competent Learners and Critical Thinkers

• U.S. schools are placing greater emphasis on teaching learning and thinking schools

• Teachers try to develop different teaching strategies to teach different skills and to meet the individual needs and learning styles of students

• Group projects seem to aid in critical thinking. They also foster cooperative, rather than competitive, learning

Success in School

• School success influenced by many factors

– Achievement motivation: the internalized need to persist toward success

– Gender differences

• Girls outperform boys in verbal skills

• Boys outperform girls in quantitative and spatial tasks

Success in School

• Motivation for learning is influenced by the ways that teachers and parents encourage children

– Girls tend to adopt a “performance” focus while boys adopt a “learning” focus

– A critical goal is to encourage children to develop a “learning” orientation

– Praise is critical for children to develop a positive academic self-concept

Evaluating Gender Bias in the Classroom: Questions for Parents

Developmental Disorders

• Federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates the right of all children to a free and appropriate education

• Key provisions– Inclusion with “regular” students, rather than “special”

classes

– Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

– Education in least restrictive environment

– Diagnosis of special needs is more targeted today, due to need for individualized assistance in the mainstream setting

Intellectual Disability

• Condition characterized by– significantly subaverage intellectual functioning and

self-help skills

– may be genetic or caused by birth or early childhood trauma

– may result from social deprivation

– cause may not always by known

• Characterized by severity and extensiveness of impairment

• Only diagnosed when child can be tested, usually school age

Diagnosis of Intellectual Disability

Levels of Mental Retardation

Learning Disorders

• Learning disorders involve difficulty in acquiring some specific academic skills but not others

– reading disorder: i.e., dyslexia

– disorder of written expression

– mathematics disorder

• Children with learning disorders often have social issues as well

• Treatment for LDs is more effective when begun early in life

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not a learning disorder, but a behavioral disorder

• Characterized by:– extreme inattentiveness

– problems with impulse control

– high levels of activity

• In absence of hyperactivity, the diagnosis should be ADD (attention deficit disorder)

Video Clip

A woman describes the process of her son being diagnosed with ADHD, then being diagnosed with ADD herself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTnVYGWWiWU

• Causes

– Irregularities in the way dopamine operates

– Brains of children with ADHD have structural differences

– Irregularities may be caused by genetic or environmental factors

• Treatment

– stimulant drugs, like Ritalin

– educational and behavioral management

Characteristics of ADHD

Summary

• Three themes run throughout development in middle childhood– Development is continuous

– Physical, cognitive, and social factors interact for each child

– Development occurs in a broad social context

• Physical growth is gradual until children experience a growth spurt—about age 9 for girls and age 11 for boys

Summary

• Gross and fine motor skills continue to development

• Asthma and obesity are becoming major health problems for children in the United States

• The leading cause of death at this age is accidents, especially involving motor vehicles

• Piaget referred to cognitive development at this stage as the age of concrete operations. Their thinking is getting more logical, but they are still bound to concrete examples

Summary

• Children face many challenges when they enter school, including achievement and behaving appropriately

• Children with development disabilities and special needs have rights under federal law

• Mental retardation, learning disorders and ADHD are some of the disorders and challenges that are faced during this stage of childhood

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Middle Childhood Physical and...

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