Middle childhood Flashcards
gross motor development
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
fine motor development
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
difference between fine and gross motor development
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
malnutrition
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
obesity
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
illness and injuries
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
hygiene hypothesis
high standards of cleanliness and sanitation expose children to fewer viruses and bacteria, and make them less susceptible to asthma
piaget’s stage
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
information processing
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)
WISC-IV
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
WISC-IV verbal subtests
information vocabulary similarities arithmetic comprehension digit span
WISC-IV performance subtests
picture arrangement picture completion matrix reasoning block design digit symbol
IQ scores
IQ scores form a normal distribution
IQ below 70 is intellectual disability
IQ above 130 is gifted
IQ influenced by
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
Flynn effect
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)
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences
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
Gardner’s types of intelligence
linguistic musical logical/mathematical spatial bodily-kinesthetic interpersonal intrapersonal naturalist
Stenberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence
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
analytical intelligence
kind of intelligence that IQ tests measure; acquiring, storing, analysing and retrieving information
creative intelligence
ability to combine information in original ways to produce new insights, ideas and problem solving strategies
practical intelligence
ability to apply information to the kinds of problems faced in everyday life, including the capacity to evaluate social situations
vocabulary, grammar and pragmatics
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
bilingualism
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
emotional self regulation
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
ESM
ecord their feelings each time watch beeps, found middle childhood is time of contentment and emotional stability
self understanding
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)
i self
how we believe others view us
me self
how we view ourselves
self concept
how we view and evaluate ourselves
self esteem
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
coregulation
coregulation: parents provide broad guideline for behaviour but children are capable of a substantial amount of independent, self directed behaviour
family relations with parents
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
siblings
Children with an older sibling often benefit from their help and mutual companionship
Sibling rivalry and jealousy continue, conflicts peak
divorce
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
stepfamilies
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
selective association
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
friendship
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
popularity
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
4 categories of social status when age is sam
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
popularity- rejected children
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
popularity-neglected children
Neglected children are usually well adjusted compared to rejected-withdrawn children
Interventions include training rejected children’s social skills, SIP, hypothetical dituations etc.
Erikson’s stage
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
work
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
