Chapter 9: Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood Flashcards
Prefrontal cortex
Executive functioning and thinking, regulates thoughts, emotions, and behavior
Gray matter
Unmyelinated neurons
White matter
Myelinated brain tissue (myelination speeds up transmission)
Hippocampus
Increased neural connections to prefrontal and parietal, increased ability to experience and remember things, episodic memory (specific details)
Adrenarche
“Pre-puberty”, trigger adrenal glands to increase amount of fat before puberty begins. Body hair and odor, first molars.
Brain development
Growth of cerebellum and connections to parietal lobe. Balance, coordination, speed. Complex movements and fine motor skills.
Physical activity
60+ min a day recommended for children. Lowers anxiety and improves mental health, associated with cognitive and physical health.
____ socioeconomic homes have higher rates of injury
low
BMI
body mass index, calculated based on height and weight. Obesity is being above the 95th percentile for age and height.
Obesity can lead to….
Depression, low self-esteem, orthopedic problems
Developmental disabilities
ADHD, autism, specific learning disorders (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia)
ADHD
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: persistent attention difficulties and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity. Structural abnormalities in the brain. Interferes with daily functioning. More common in boys, 80% heritable.
ADHD treatment
Medication, symptoms decline with age, behavioral strategies
ADHD patterns
- Inattentive - difficulty with attention, careless mistakes, not listening well or following directions, trouble organizing. More difficult to diagnose, “head in the clouds”
- Hyper-active impulsive - fidgeting, trouble sitting still in class. Easier to diagnose.
- Combined presentation
Autism spectrum disorder
Family of neurodevelopmental disorders, difficulty in social engagement behavior, repetitive disorders, effect on intellectual functioning, difficulty with working memory. More common in males and epigenetic.
Autism spectrum disorder strategies
Use of a first/then chart to provide structure and additional time to process information, use of visual tools
Three specific learning disorders
Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia
Specific learning disorders
Children who demonstrate a difference between aptitude (intelligence, genetics) and achievement. Can be affected by race and socioeconomic status for diagnosis and treatment.
Developmental dyslexia
Reading difficulty, trouble distinguishing sounds and how they come together. It doesn’t affect memory if the individual can comprehend the passage, but would struggle to read it alone.
Development dyscalculia
Math difficulty, poor executive function and working memory, concept of “taking away” is hard to grasp.
Developmental dysgraphia
Difficulty with written language, not necessarily penmanship but with spelling or conveying thoughts onto paper. May struggle with grammar, spacing, labeling a drawing, poor posture, poor pencil grip, poor motivation, and feeling of incompetency.
Classification
Part of Piaget’s concrete operational reasoning. Ability to consider relations to categories, organize objects by physical dimension.
Transitive inference
Part of Piaget’s classification. Inferring the relationship between two objects by understanding their relationships with a third
A —-
B ———-
C ———————-
A is shorter than B
B is longer than A
B is shorter than C
C is longer than B
A is shorter than C
C is longer than A
Seriation
Part of Piaget’s classification. Order objects according to a dimension
Class inclusion
Part of Piaget’s classification. Understanding hierarchical relationships among items.
Conservation
Part of Piaget’s concrete operational reasoning. Characteristics of an object do not change despite a change in appearance. Includes reversibility, where a child recognizes objects can be returned to their original state.
Information processing
Working memory and executive function, metacognition, metamemory, memory strategies
Working memory and executive function
Storing memory, completing complex tasks, focused attention, where all thinking takes place. Executive functioning is how kids think about, initiate, and complete tasks.
Metacognition
Awareness of one’s thoughts, becoming better at planning
Metamemory
Understanding of one’s memory and the ability to enhance it, evaluate and adjust actions. Use of proper writing/language rules.
Memory stratgies
Rehearsal (repetition), organization (categorizing/chunking), elaboration (imaginary story to relate to material)
Intelligence
The ability to adapt to the world in which we live
Wechsler intelligence scale
Measures intellectual aptitude/capacity to learn through 10 subtests and five indexes that test processing speed, working memory, verbal, and nonverbal abilities.
Flynn effect
Intelligence is increasing 9 IQ points for every generation
History of IQ
Poor origin, used to prove group “superiority”. Improper ability to measure different contexts. Wasn’t designed for all groups to be successful.
Stereotype threat (IQ)
Black children may perform poorer if told the examination is a test rather than if they weren’t told
Gardner’s multiple intelligences
Intelligence is more broad. It is the ability to solve problems or create culturally-valuable products.
Gardener’s 8 types of intelligence
- Naturalist - understanding livings things and reading nature
- Spatial - visualizing the world in 3D
- Linguistic - finding the right words to express what you mean
- Intra-personal - understanding yourself, what you feel, and what you want
- Interpersonal - sensing people’s feelings and motives
- Logical-mathematical - quantifying things, making hypotheses and proving them
- Musical - discerning sounds, their pitch, tone, rhythm, and timbre
- Bodily-kinesthetic - coordinating your mind with your body
Stenberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence
Three categories of intelligence
- Analytical: information processing, acquiring knowledge, problem-solving
- Creative: insight, pair new info to what’s known already, high learning capacity
- Practical: modify info to your needs, how well you evaluate your environment
Children expand their vocabulary ___x in elementary school
4
Grammar development in middle childhood
Hear yourself speaking and self correct, metalinguistic awareness
Pragmatics
Changing speech to match the listener and situation, social situation
Bilingual language learning forms
- ESL through English immersion - place foreign-speaking children in English-speaking classes
- Bilingual learning - learn native language, then English
- Dual-language learning - equal importance on each language
Two approaches to teaching
- Teacher-centered: the instructor is the holder of knowledge, traditional lecture, drills, quizzes, memorization
- Student-centered: instructor encourages children in problem-solving, children structure their own learning
Phonics instruction
The teaching of sounds and how they come together rather than single word instruction. Generally more effective.
