Middle Childhood Flashcards
What is growth like in middle childhood?
It is the calm before the storm (before puberty)
slower, more consistent growth
Learning disabilities are characterized by inadequate development of
- Specific academic skills
- Language skills
- Speech skills
They still perform well on IQ tests, but under performing in terms of learning
Two factors important in order to learn how to compensate for a learning disability
1) early recognition- earlier on in life brain is more malleable
2) remediation- using strengths to move them up in terms of abilities
Amount of children with learning disabilities
1/10
ADHD
children consistently display one of the following over a period of time:
- inattention
- hyperactivity
- impulsivity
ADHD can be diagnosed in three different categories
1) ADHD with inattention
2) ADHD with hyperactivity
3) ADHD with both inattention and hyperactivity and impulsivity
Rates of ADHD
3-7% of children under 18
more often in males, has increased in last 10 years
Cause of ADHD
No cause has been found.
Contributing factors:
-smoking or alcohol during prenatal period
-higher level maternal stress during pregnancy
-low birthweight
What is the significance of cortical thickness in ADHD?
Peak cortical thickness occurs three years later in kids with ADHD
-this delay is especially pronounced in prefrontal cortex
What do children with ADHD have an increased risk for?
- school dropout
- adolescent pregnancy
- substance use problems
- antisocial behaviour
Medications for ADHD
Ritalin and Adderall- improve attention
But side effects, so recommend extended release form of medication
Autism Spectrum Disorders are characterized by
- problems in social interaction
- problems in verbal and nonverbal communication
- repetitive behaviours
- sometimes atypical responses to sensory experiences
- can be detected in children as young as 1-3 years
What is Autistic Disorder?
severe developmental autism spectrum disorder
-onset in first 3 years of life
What is Asperger syndrome?
mild developmental autism spectrum disorder
-good verbal language skills, restricted range of interests, repetitive and obsessive routines
Causes of Autism spectrum disorders?
No consensus
- may be abnormalities in brain structure (cerebellum) and neurotransmitters (GABA)
- genetic factors
What does Dr. Baron-Cohen argue about autism?
That is reflects an extreme male brain (language is less of a priority)
Dr. Grandin
- Has autism
- at age 4 she was still non-verbal
- rather than relying on verbal representations, she relies on images
- could visualize what cows would go through – revolutionized slaughter houses
- USE the kids fixation to motivate them, take advantage of it
- educate people about the boundaries of social interaction
Concrete operational stage
Think logically about objects and events in the real world
- no longer able to only focus on one task at a time
- can now take multiple factors into account at one time to solve a problem
Decentration
Thinking that takes more than one variable into account
Reversibility
Having the understanding that physical actions and mental operations can be reversed
Inductive logic
Type of reasoning in which general principles are inferred from specific experiences (ex. Anne lives in a mansion, so Anne must be rich)
Deductive logic
Type of reasoning, based on hypothetical premises, that requires predicting a specific outcome from a general principle (ex. all dolphins are mammals, all mammals have kidneys, all dolphins must have kidneys)
Memory in middle childhood
Short term and working memory improve
Metamemory- thinking about own memory
Strategies used in memory
Dual-coding can be useful. If show them set of lines: Stage 1: no strategy Stage 2: visual strategy Stage 3: verbal and visual Stage 4: heavy reliance on verbal encoding
Ventral and Dorsal Streams
Ventral- important for maintaining static representations. Occipital to temporal
Dorsal- dynamic visual spatial representations. Occipital to parietal
Vygotsky
strong emphasis on child-adult and child-child interactions in order to promote cognitive growth
-cooperative learning and reciprocal teaching
Reciprocal Teaching
technique for reading comprehension
- students learn to skim content, ask questions, summarize and predict
- students can take role of student and teacher
Language development in middle childhood
- Children organize mental vocab, categorize words by parts of speech
- vocabulary increase
- metalinguistic awareness
- advances in syntax and pragmatics
What happens when you ask children to tell you first word that pops into their head when you say another word…
Under 7 year olds deliver a word that naturally flows in the sentence (ex. dog, bark)
Over 7 use categories (ex. dog, cat)
What 3 processes do children go through when they learn to read?
1) indexing- take each word and map it to a referent (ex. timmy = boy, sat = verb, chair = noun)
2) Derivation of accordances- determine what can be done with those components
3) Meshing- meshing components into a simulation
Bilingualism
15% of Canadian households speak more than one language in the home
Associated with cognitive advances:
-cognitive flexibilty- inhibitory control so you access the relevant language in conversation
-greater metalinguistic awareness- have to understand 2 different systems of organizing words
How many people in the world are illiterate?
1 billion
2/3 of which are female
Constructivist Approach to teaching
- Learner Centered
- Students actively constructing knowledge, actively engaging in tasks
- Importance of understanding using the guidance of teachers
Direct Instruction approach to teaching
- Teacher centered
- Emphasizes structure in which teacher has both direction and control
- Goal: to maximize student learning time
- most systems in western society today
Accountability advantages
- improved confidence in schools if test scores rise
- identification of poorly performing schools, teachers, and administration
Accountability Disadvantages
- narrow assessment of student skills
- too much time “teaching to the test”
- overlooks needs of gifted
Reading Stages
Stage 0: birth to grade 1: prereqs for reading are learnt
Stage 1: grades 1-2: children sound out words, put strings of phonemes together in meaningful way
Stage 2: grades 2-3: learn to read out loud and fluently
Stage 3: grades 4-8: comprehension is strong when represented from single perspective
Stage 4: grades 9+: comprehension of multiple perspective is better
From grade 3 to 5 reading is…
transition from learning to read, to reading to learn
Whole language approach to language development
- taught to recognize whole words or sentences and to use context of what they are reading to guess meanings of words
- reading often integrated with other subjects and real world materials
Code-based approach to language development
- teaches basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds
- it is a requisite for whole language
What is intelligence?
- ability to solve problems
- capacity to adapt and learn from experience
- can only be evaluated indirectly
Individual measures of intelligence are measured by
Intelligence tests
- tell whether a person can reason better than others
- how people adapt is a better sign of intelligence than IQ scores
Binet Tests of Intelligence
- core of intelligence consists of complex cognitive processes
- mental age: level of mental development relative to others
Intelligence Quotient
mental age divided by chronological age x 100
IQ scores approximate a ____ distribution
normal.
-bell shaped curve with majority of cases falling in the middle range
Different tests used for intelligence
1) Stanford-Binet
- age appropriate items
- test becomes progressively difficult
2) Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
- designed for children and adolescents between 6-16
3) Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children
- tests use of simultaneous and sequential processing
Is there a correlation between brain size and intelligence?
Moderate
- distributed neural network involving frontal and parietal lobes is related to higher intelligence
- neurological speed may also play a role
What did Charles Spearman think about intelligence?
Intelligence is very broad and general
What did Thurstone and Thurstone think about intelligence?
Intelligence consists of distinct abilities
Conflicting theories
have led many psychometric theorists to propose hierarchical theories that incorporate both general and specific elements
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
1) Componential/Analytical intelligence
- ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare
2) Experiential/Creative intelligence
- ability to create, design, invent
3) Contextual/Practical intelligence
- ability to use, apply, implement
Children with high _____ ability tend to be favored in schooling
analytic
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences
Instead of relying on test scores, he made use of:
- research
- studies of brain damage
- studies of individuals with great talents
Gardner’s 9 types of intelligence
- Linguistic
- Logical-mathematical
- Spatial
- Musical
- Bodily-kinesthetic
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Naturalistic
- Existential
Gardner argued that:
- schools should foster all intelligences
- teachers should capitalize on intelligences of each child
- should engage as many intelligences as possible
Is intelligence stable?
-scores fluctuate dramatically across childhood years
Intellectual Disability
- limited mental ability
- low IQ, usually below 70
- difficulty adapting to demands of everyday life
How schools handle intellectual disability?
Inclusive education is favoured over mainstreaming
Levels of intellectual disability
Mild- IQ 55-70
Moderate- IQ 40 to 54
Severe- IQ 25-39
Profound- IQ below 25
What is an organic intellectual disability?
Genetic disorder or due to brain damage
- down syndrome
- fetal alcohol syndrome
What is cultural-familial intellectual disability?
Results from growing up in a below average intellectual environment
Who is considered gifted?
IQ of 130 or higher
- 5% of children
- gifted programs select those with academic aptitude, tend to overlook those talented in art or athletics
Characteristics of gifted children
- Precocity
- March to their own drum
- Passion to master
2 approaches to educating gifted
1) acceleration
2) enrichment
Industry vs. inferiority
Erikson argued that from 6-12, children focus on meeting challenged that are presented to them by parents, peers, school and other factors
Self-Esteem
emotionally salient global evaluations of self
- middle childhood- start comparing themselves with others
- self esteem generally high in middle childhood, starts declining at age 12
Piaget- 2 stages of moral thought
Heteronomous morality
Autonomous morality
Heteronomous Morality
4-7 years
Children view justice and rules as unchangeable elements of the world
Autonomous Morality
(10+ years)
children gain an understanding that rules and laws are created by people. when judging actions they now consider actor’s intentions and consequences
How do children transition from the heternomous stage to the autonomous stage?
Mutual give and take of peer relations
Piaget stressed that parent-child relationships are less likely to have a strong influence on moral reasoning
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development (3 stages)
Level 1: Preconventional
Level 2: Conventional
Level 3: Postconventional
Preconventional stage
Level 1: Preconventional
- Stage 1: heteronomous morality
- Stage 2: Individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange
Conventional stage
Level 2: Conventional
- Stage 3: mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships
- Stage 4: social systems morality
Postconventional stage
Level 3: Postconventional
- Stage 5: social contract or utility and individual rights
- Stage 6: universal ethical principles
Kohlberg- progression through levels and stages indicates that….
- morality is becoming internalized
- multiple perspectives can be coordinated
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory
- Too much emphasis on moral thought not enough on behaviour
- underestimating role of parents in moral development
- gender bias
- generalizability
5 peer statuses
- Popular
- Average
- Neglected
- Rejected
- Controversial
Popular children
have many social skills that contribute to their popularity
Neglected children
engage in low rates of interaction with peers
Rejected children
often have more severe adjustment problems in comparison to children who are neglected
Bullying
1/3 of children report having been bullied or bullying
Boys more likely to be bullies
Children who are bullies are more likely to engage in criminal activity later
Children who are bullied more likely to experience depression
Cyber bullying
Being a victim of cyber bullying was related to
- loneliness
- lower self esteem
- lower peer popularity
