Middle childhood

Question 1

gross motor development

Answer 1

Gross motor development improves a lot
Balance improves, become stronger, coordination advances, greater agility, reaction time faster
Increasing myelination of corpus callosum accelerates reaction time in middle childhood for both gross motor and fine motor taels
Team sports most popular at this age
But because of TV and computer games, obesity may happen

Question 2

fine motor development

Answer 2

In developing countries, children become valuable factory workers in middle childhood because their fine motor development increases
Most evident in drawing and writing
Learn to indicated 3D by overlapping objects or making near objects smaller
Learn to draw in greater detail and adjust size relative to others
By age 6 can write letters of the alphabet, name, and numbers 1-10
By 8 or 9 can write in cursive

Question 3

difference between fine and gross motor development

Answer 3

By end of middle childhood, fine motor abilities have nearly reached adult maturity whereas gross motor development will continue to advance for many years to come

Question 4

malnutrition

Answer 4

Usually large enough that malnutrition at this age has less severe impacts if for a limited time
Early malnutrition can continue to accumulate though
High nutrition children more likely to explore new environments and persist in frustrating situations
Also more energetic, less anxious and positive

Question 5

obesity

Answer 5

Rates of overweight and obesity highest in the most affluent regions and lowest in poorest regions
Rates across US are highest and especially high in least affluent minority groups such as African Americans and latino s
Rates of obesity rising in developing countries as diets become more like those in developed countries
More time spent watching tv
Genetics provide only a risk for overweight and obesity, not a definite destiny
Increases social exclusion likelihood
Risk factor for emotional and behavioural problems
diabetes, blindness, kidney failure and stroke are risks
About 80% obese children remain overweight in adulthood
First step to combatting is recognising the problem

Question 6

illness and injuries

Answer 6

Death rates lowest during middle childhood
Most chidden vaccinated
Rates of asthma highest, risk factors being low birth weight, smoking parents, poverty and obesity, and mainly genetics
In developed countries, asthma rates increasing because of households (carpet, pets, etc.)
hygiene hypothesis
Poorer air quality
Injury rates lower as more agile and kept closer to home compared to older children
Most common is automobile accidencts, then bicycle accidents

Question 7

hygiene hypothesis

Answer 7

high standards of cleanliness and sanitation expose children to fewer viruses and bacteria, and make them less susceptible to asthma

Question 8

piaget’s stage

Answer 8

concrete operations
Children develop better grasp of what physical world is really like and what is and is not possible
Age 7-11
Capable of using mental operations which allow them to organise and manipulate information mentally instead of relying on physical and sensory associations
Conservation and classification achieved
Seriation achieved: ability to arrange things in a logical order e.g. shortest to longest
But children found to be capable of some tasks even earlier
For piaget, all tasks needed to be completed to move onto this stage
Said these things cannot be taught, but actually they can

Question 9

information processing

Answer 9

Selective attention: children become more capable of focusing their attention on relevant information and disregarding what is irrelevant
ADHD: problems of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness, boys are twice as likely to have it
In middle childhood, capacity of WM enlarges
Period when children first learn mnemonics (memory strategies) such as rehearsal, organisation and elaboration
rehearsal: repeating information
Organisation: placing things into meaningful categories
Each category serves as a retrieval cue for the times within the category, so if the category can be remembered, all items within it also remembered
Elaboration: transforming information in a way that connects them and makes them easier to remember
Childs knowledge also expands
Advances also happen in understanding how memory works (metamemory)

Question 10

WISC-IV

Answer 10

WISC-IV for 6-16 YO and WAIS-IV for 16+
Consists of 11 subtests, of which 6 are verbal subtests and 5 are performance subtests
Results provide an IQ score that is calculated relative to performance of others in same age group, with 100 as median score
Good predictor of school performance
Critics say IQ yeses assess only a narrow range of abilities and miss aspects like creativity
Culturally biased

Question 11

WISC-IV verbal subtests

Answer 11

information 
vocabulary 
similarities 
arithmetic 
comprehension 
digit span

Question 12

WISC-IV performance subtests

Answer 12

picture arrangement 
picture completion 
matrix reasoning 
block design 
digit symbol

Question 13

IQ scores

Answer 13

IQ scores form a normal distribution
IQ below 70 is intellectual disability
IQ above 130 is gifted

Question 14

IQ influenced by

Answer 14

When parents provide both the genetics and environment, as they do in most families, it is very difficult to judge the relative contribution of each
The more two people in a family are alike genetically, the higher the correlation in their IQs
If live together, always higher
IQ correlation lower for adopted siblings, who have grown up in the same family and neighbourhood and attended the same school, than it is for MZ twins who have been raised separately and have never known each other
Both genetics and environment contribute to development of intelligence
Every child has a genetically based reaction range for intelligence- range of possible developmental paths
Kids with relatively low intellectual abilities are unlikely to develop superior intelligence even with a optimal environment
Influence of environment on IQ is stronger for poor children than wealthy children

Question 15

Flynn effect

Answer 15

median IQ scores in Western countries rose dramatically by 20 points in the 20th century (better prenatal care, smaller families, preschool, TV, decline in infectious disease)

Question 16

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences

Answer 16

only two of eight types of intelligence (Linguistic and logical-mathematical) are evaluated by intelligence tests
All these cognitive skills can be destroyed by damage to a particular part of the brain and that each appears in extremes in geniuses as well as in idiots savant (low in intelligence but extremely high in one particular area)
Says we should give more attention to development of all kinds of intelligence with specially tailored programs
But still hasn’t found a reliable and valid way to analyse these forms of intelligence
Critical of emotional intelligence, thinks instead it is emotional sensitivity

Question 17

Gardner’s types of intelligence

Answer 17

linguistic 
musical 
logical/mathematical 
spatial 
bodily-kinesthetic 
interpersonal 
intrapersonal 
naturalist

Question 18

Stenberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence

Answer 18

includes three distinct but related forms of intelligence
analytical, creative, practical
Each person has a different profile on the three intelligences that can be assessed
Proposes that the three components are universal and contribute to intelligent performance in all cultures
Tested little outside US
Both above theories take longer to administer and score than standard IQ tests

Question 19

analytical intelligence

Answer 19

kind of intelligence that IQ tests measure; acquiring, storing, analysing and retrieving information

Question 20

creative intelligence

Answer 20

ability to combine information in original ways to produce new insights, ideas and problem solving strategies

Question 21

practical intelligence

Answer 21

ability to apply information to the kinds of problems faced in everyday life, including the capacity to evaluate social situations

Question 22

vocabulary, grammar and pragmatics

Answer 22

Expands as they enter formal school between 5-7
Growing ability to understand the different forms words can take
In middle childhood, more likely use conditional sentences “if you let me play with you, ill share my lunch with you”
Improves in pragmatics: social context and conventions of language
Learn humour and jokes
To know the pragmatics of a language, you have to know well the culture of the people using the language

Question 23

bilingualism

Answer 23

Increased migration and school second language programs increase rates of bilingualism
Becoming bilingual is favourable to language development, and usually become adept at both
Does not interfere with mastering the primary language
Tendency to intermix the two syntaxes
By middle childhood, children can easily keep their two languages separate
When children learn their second language after already becoming fluent in a first language, it takes longer to master the second language (3-5 years)
Still much easier than later ages
Beyond age of 12, difficult to learn new language without noticeable accent
Bilingual children have better metalinguistic skills, greater awareness of the underlying structure of language
Better at detecting mistakes in grammar and meaning
Also higher general cognitive ability
Some, like in india, are multilingual

Question 24

emotional self regulation

Answer 24

frequency of negative emotions declines
Emotional self regulation improves as environment such as school require it
Expressions of emotional extremes are disruptive to the functioning of the group and are discouraged
Children better able to understand own and other’s motions
Aware they can experience contradictory emotions at once- ambivalence
Learn how to intentionally conceal emotions
In asian cultures, learn ‘face’- showing to others the appropriate and expected emotion regardless of how you actually feel

Question 25

ESM

Answer 25

ecord their feelings each time watch beeps, found middle childhood is time of contentment and emotional stability

Question 26

self understanding

Answer 26

Add more internal psychological personality related traits to their self descriptions rather than just physical
Towards the end of middle childhood, descriptions become more complex as they recognise they may be different on different occasions (mostly I’m __, but sometimes I __)
Engage in more accurate social comparisons
Reflect advantages in the cognitive ability of seriation (rank themselves in ability relative to other kids)
In a multicultural society, views of the majority culture can influence how children in minority cultures think about themselves (black children choose white dolls)

Question 27

i self

Answer 27

how we believe others view us

Question 28

me self

Answer 28

how we view ourselves

Question 29

self concept

Answer 29

how we view and evaluate ourselves

Question 30

self esteem

Answer 30

person’s overall sense of worth and wellbeing
Self esteem declines slightly in middle childhood as social comparisons are made in school environment
Decline is mild, and shows more a realistic appraisal of their ability when compared
Self esteem becomes more differentiated into their different abilities, like school work, sports etc.
Children combine their different areas of self concept into an overall level of self esteem

Question 31

coregulation

Answer 31

coregulation: parents provide broad guideline for behaviour but children are capable of a substantial amount of independent, self directed behaviour

Question 32

family relations with parents

Answer 32

Children respond more to parents rules because of advances in cognitive development and self regulation, and parents use more explanation and less physical punishment
Boys have more freedom than girls

Question 33

siblings

Answer 33

Children with an older sibling often benefit from their help and mutual companionship
Sibling rivalry and jealousy continue, conflicts peak

Question 34

divorce

Answer 34

Single motherhood increased: children contribute more to chores, increased poverty, behaviour problems and low school achievement
Rates of divorce risen in Western countries, but rare in southern europe and non western countries
Children respond negatively especially in first two years
If divorce is during early childhood then kids blame themselves but less egocentric and more capable of understanding parents decision in middle childhood
Family process: quality of the relationships between family members before, during and after the divorce
When parents divorce with minimal conflict, kids show less problems
If divorce results in transition from high conflict to low conflict house, kids show improvement
Mother’s parenting may worsen
Mothers and boys sometimes experience coercive cycle: boys’ less compliant behaviour evokes harsh response, making boys even more resistant
Divorce mediation: professional mediator meets with divorcing parents to help them negotiate an agreement that both will find acceptable, improved relationships between kids and parents

Question 35

stepfamilies

Answer 35

Entrance of stepfather usually higher risk of lower academic achievement, self esteem and more behavioural problems in kids
Girls respond more negatively than boys to remarriage
Blended stepfamily (step siblings) means even worse outcomes
Remarriage represents another disruption that requires adjustment, usually at a point when the family had begun to stabilise
Stepfathers may be perceived by children as coming between them and their mothers, especially for girls
Kids may resent stepfathers’ attempts to exercise authority and discipline
Younger the children are, more open they tend to be in accepting stepfather

Question 36

selective association

Answer 36

Selective association: people tend to prefer being around others who are like themselves
Selective association in middle childhood based on gender, sociability, aggression and academic orientation

Question 37

friendship

Answer 37

Friendships last longer
Friends become whom you can rely on to be nice to you all the time and whom you can trust with information you would not reveal to just anyone
Girls prize trust in middle childhood friendships more than boys
Breaches of trust are main reason for ending friendships

Question 38

popularity

Answer 38

When children are in a social environment with children of different ages, age is a key determinant of social status
Strongest influence on popularity is social skills- better at understanding and responding to other children’s needs and interests
Others are appearance, intelligence and athletic ability

Question 39

4 categories of social status when age is sam

Answer 39

Popular children are the ones who are most often rated as ‘liked’ and rarely ‘disliked’
Rejected children are most often disliked and rarely liked, mainly for being over aggressive, or shy and withdrawn; boys more likely
Neglected children are rarely mentioned as either liked or disliked; others have trouble remembering who they are; more often girls
Controversial children: liked by some and disliked by others; aggressive at times but friendly at other times

Question 40

popularity- rejected children

Answer 40

Rejected children often fail in their social information processing (SIP)- tend to interpret their peer’s behaviour as hostile even when it is not, and tend to blame others when there is conflict

Question 41

popularity-neglected children

Answer 41

Neglected children are usually well adjusted compared to rejected-withdrawn children
Interventions include training rejected children’s social skills, SIP, hypothetical dituations etc.

Question 42

Erikson’s stage

Answer 42

industry vs inferiority: children become capable of doing useful work as well as their own self directed projects, unless adults are too critical, leading them to develop a sense of inferiority instead

Question 43

work

Answer 43

In developing countries, contribute to family
By age 6 or 7, kids have the motor skilld, cognitive skills and emotional and behavioural self regulation to be excellent workers at many jobs, so usually child labour occurs in developing countries
Governments in some developing countries do not enforce child labour laws because of bribed from the companies or because fear backlash from parents who need child’s input
Number of child labourers aged 5-11 rapidly declining as issue had received attention from media and doable organisations
Mandatory number of kids’ years in school is also rising