Physical And Cognitive Develoment In Middle Childhood Flashcards
When is middle childhood
1st grade to about 6th grade or before puberty
Body size and development
◦ Growth patterns
‣ averages
• Height: 2-3 inches per year
• Weight: 5 pounds per year
◦ Gender differences
‣ Girls develop faster by about age 9
Precocious puberty
• Precocious puberty -> primarily in girls, there has be an increase in the number of girls having their period by the age of 9. The rates of this have increased so much that people are working faster and harder to figure out why. (Hormones in food on farms), looking at microplastics causing this (we know they break down in the pseudoephedrine), looking at chemicals as well, maybe even a combination of genes and things in the environment
Common health problems - myopia
◦ Myopia (nearsightedness)
‣ 25% of school children
Common health problems - nocturnal enuresis
◦ Nocturnal enuresis (wetting the bed)
‣ Genetic basis
• Could be based on genes and your parents tendencies at a young age
‣ Behavioral treatment
• Can do a little bit of fluid retaining close to bed time, or controlling the timing of when things are done. May need a type of therapy to teach with this.
◦ Bed wetting alarm, when any sense of precipitation happens the alarm may go off.
Asthma and injuries
◦ Asthma - most common chronic illness
‣ Worry about kids in low income environments because things that are not just environmental can effect their asthma more.
◦ Injuries
Positive benefits of organized sports
◦ Possible benefits
‣ Learn competition
‣ Scheduled exercise
• Gives a specific time for people to exercise. Generically in the U.S. we do not get enough exercise.
‣ Learn skills
• Able to not only learn more about sports but also about ourselves and grow in ourselves
‣ Shared activity with adults
• Able to interact with parents and do things with them.
Organized sports - possible risks
◦ Possible risks
‣ Pressure
• The pressure of doing a sport from a parent may be too much
‣ May impair moral development
• Being in sports every day that is structured as opposed to being able to freely play with other children, it can lead to them struggling to make moral and ethical decisions.
‣ May inhibit leadership skills
• Often the team captain may have an increase in leadership skills, but the others may feel that they just need to follow.
‣ Less unstructured play
• Sometimes we need to be given time to go make mistakes, go be dumb, and go do things that we need to learn from
‣ Injuries
• The earlier these occur the more likely they will be chronic later on in life
Schools and the self-fulfilling prophecy -defined
‣ Told the teachers that randomly assigned based on their test scores the children will bloom at some point during this year. Then he told them that the others are just average.
• This works for some students but not all.
Teacher effects of the schools and the self-fulfilling prophecy
‣ Tend to give more attention to the people that they think are likely to bloom and prosper sooner.
• The teacher forms expectations about the students, then the teacher changes behavior toward the student, then the student changes their behavior in response to the teacher, then the student’s new behavior confirms and strengthens the teacher’ expectations.
Student effects of the schools and the self-fulfilling prophecy
‣ To self
• To themselves will say that they hate things, and don’t want to be there. If they have already been told a professor is bad they will assume this, and already expect the worse.
• May think that people hate them, then go in already hating it. Or think they are popular and know they will have a good time, then will actually go on to have a good time.
‣ To others
• May call the teacher names, and then not want to be in class.
The stereotype threat -definition
◦ The fear of being judges on the basis of a negative stereotype that can trigger anxiety the interferes with performance.
The stereotype threat explained
‣ Stereotype threat cues
• Factors highlighting the incongruity between “women” and “leadership”
◦ Cue activation; numerical minority, media, masculine environment, cultural cue
‣ Moderates of threat appraisals/reactions
• Factors that help women overcome potential threats (buffering reactions, reducing potential)
‣ Consequences of stereotype threat
• Responses range from deleterious to more positive effects (vulnerability, reactance)
Examples of the stereotype threat in this day
“Women will be smarter and do better in school than men”
“When women show big emotions they are penalized by it, but it is not ok for the boys”
guys being told “toughen up, you are not a girl”
Common biases in schools
◦ Common biases
• Preschool teachers tend to more closely observe blacks than whites, especially black boys, when challenging behaviors are expected. More for black, but also for minority children
‣ Gender
‣ Race and ethnicity
‣ Family reputation
‣ Attractiveness of the child
‣ Economics
