Week 6 - Middle childhood (6 > 9 years)

Question 1

describe the physical and health changes in middle childhood

Answer 1

Brain -
Increase of neural pathways in prefrontal cortex and thickness of cerebral cortex
Synaptic pruning

Gross motor skills, fine motor skills and cognitive control all increases.

Development linked to activity and exercise a child does daily.

Myopia - unable to see distant objects clearly (near-sightedness). Incidence rises in middle childhood.

Weight -
Overweight: BMI +18
Obese: BMI + 21
Obesity on exponential rise, screens contribute.

Asthma

Middle childhood is the safest and healthiest time of life.

Question 2

identify children with different types of disabilities and issues in educating them

Answer 2

ADHD - Attentional Deficit Hypractivity Disorder: problems with attention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.
Causes: genetics, prenatal environment and brain differences.
Treatment: medication and behavioural training together.

Dyslexia - learning disability that includes difficulty sounding out letters, learning to spell and a tendency to misperceive the order of letters and words.

Learning disability - cognitive disorder that impedes the development of learning a specific skill such as reading or maths. IQ below 70 for diagnoses.

Question 3

explain cognitive changes in middle childhood

Answer 3

Executive function -
the ability to solve cognitive problems without becoming distracted and to adjust one’s strategy as the nature of a problem changes.

Piaget - Concrete operations stage
Overcome limitations of preoperational stage.
Piaget underestimated ages and focused on mastering instead of basic ability.

Selective attention increases.
Memory, metamemory, executive function and intelligence increase.

Gardner - Theory of multiple intelligences
Linguistic, musical, logical (maths), spatial, body kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist.

Sternberg - Triarchic theory on intelligence
3 distinct but related forms of intelligence: Analytical, creative and Practical.

Erikson - Life span theory
Industry vs inferiority stage
Capable of useful work as well as self directed projects.

Question 4

discuss language development in middle childhood

Answer 4

AT 6yo = 10,000 words, 10-11yo = 40,000 words.
Conditional language develops “if you let me play I’ll give you this”

Pragmatics improves

Learning another language alongside primary language is fine, but learning a second language after primary acquisition of dominant language takes longer.

Question 5

discuss emotional and personality development in middle childhood.

Answer 5

There is a naïve happiness to middle childhood, this declines and emotional lows increase in adolescence.
Emotional regulation improves as their environment demands it.
Self understanding -
7-8 describe themselves externally/physically
8+ use more internal/personality descriptions.

Social comparison begins
Self esteem highly dictated by culture.
Play dictated by gender roles (in developed countries)

Family -
Broad rules in place but children now capable of more independence.
Modern family structure and remarriage

Friendships - 
Children choose to be around 'like' individuals
Trust now more important
More selective of friend title
Bullying becoming more evident