Mid Late Childhood

MIDDLE AND LATE
CHILDHOOD

Body growth and proportion
• The period of middle and late childhood involves slow, consistent growth. During this period, children grow an average of 2 to 3 inches a year.
• Muscle mass and strength gradually increase.
• Among the most pronounced changes are decreases in head circumference, and leg length in relation to body height.

Motor development
• Motor dev becomes much smoother and more coordinated.
• Children gain greater control over their bodies and can sit and attend for longer periods of time. • Their lives should be activity-oriented and very active. • Increased myelination of the CNS is reflected in improved motor skills.
• Improved fine motor skills appear in the form of handwriting development.
• Boys are usually better at gross motor skills, girls at fine motor skills.

Children with disabilities
Learning disabilities
• A disability that involves
– having normal intelligence or above
– having difficulties in at least one academic area and usually several
– having no other problem or disorder, such as mental retardation, that can be determined as causing the difficulty.

• The most common learning disability in children involves reading.
• Dyslexia is a severe impairment in the ability to read and spell.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• A disability in which children consistently show problems in one or more of these areas:
– Inattention
– Hyperactivity
– Impulsivity

• Many experts recommend a combination of academic, behavioral and medical interventions to help students with ADHD learn and adapt more effectively Cognitive
Development

Piaget’s Theory
• Concrete operational thought involves operations, conservation and classification
• Classification is the ability to divide and classify things into different sets or subsets and to consider their interrelationships.

Information Processing
• Long-term memory increases
• Control processes, also called strategies, can be used by children to improve their memory.

Extremes of Intelligence
Mental retardation
Involves low IQ and problems in adapting to everyday life
Giftedness
Having above average intelligence and/or superior talent for something

Language
Development

Vocabulary and grammar
• Children become more analytical and logical in their approach to words and grammar
Bilingualism
• Bilingual education aims to teach academic subjects to children in one language, while gradually adding instructions in another language.
• It does not interfere with performance in either language
• It has a positive effect on children’s cognitive development.
• Success in learning a second language is greater in childhood than in adolescence.

The Self and
Emotional Development

The Self
• The internal self, the social self and the socially comparative self become more prominent in middle and late childhood
• Self esteem becomes important
• Four ways to increase children’s self esteem:
– Identification of the causes of low self esteem
– Emotional support and social approval
– Achievement
– Coping

• Industry vs. inferiority
Erikson’s fourth stage ……..

Emotional Development
• Increased understanding of such complex emotions as pride and shame
• Understanding that more than one emotion can be experienced in a particular situation
• Taking into account the causes of emotional reactions • Improved ability to suppress and conceal emotions Moral Development
• Kohlberg developed a theory of moral reasoning with 3 levels. Movement towards next stage is possible because of increased internalization. • Internalization is the developmental change from behavior that is externally controlled to behavior that is controlled by internal standards and principles.

• Level 1-Preconventional reasoning: the individual shows no internalization of moral values; moral reasoning is controlled by external rewards and punishments.
• Level 2-Conventional Reasoning: individuals abide by certain standards (internal), but they are the standards of others (external), such as parents or the laws of society. • Level 3-Postconventional reasoning: highest level in which morality is completely internalized.
• There are many criticisms on his theory.

Families
• Parents spend less time with children during middle and late childhood, including less time in caregiving, instruction, reading, talking and playing. • Parents are still powerful and important socializing agents.
• New parent-child issues emerge, and discipline changes.

• Children in divorced and stepfamilies have comparatively more adjustment problems.

Peers
Peer statuses
• Popular children - frequently nominated as a best friend
- rarely disliked by their peers.
• Neglected children - infrequently nominated as a best friend - not disliked by their peers.
• Rejected children – infrequently nominated as a best friend – actively disliked by peers.
• Controversial children – frequently nominated both as someone’s best friend and as being disliked.
Rejected children are at risk for a number of problems.

Friendships
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Children’s friendships serve six functions:
Companionship
Stimulation
Physical support
Ego support
Social comparison
Intimacy/affection

Bullying
• Significant numbers of children are bullied.
• This can result in short-term and long-term negative effects for the victim.

Schools
• Serves as a small society in which there are tasks to be accomplished, people to be socialized and socialized by, and rules that define and limit behavior. • Children in poverty face barriers to their learning.
• Schools in low-income neighborhoods have fewer resources • Ethnicity issues prevail for which teachers should encourage inter-ethnic contacts and interactions.