exam 2- middle childhood

Physical development in middle childhood

children gain about 2-3 inches in height + 5-7 pounds in weight each year

Average height by age of 11

about 4’9” or 4’10”

Growing pains

Pains that children can experience because their bodies are lengthening and broadening

Gross motor development

children gain strength, flexibility, + balance

• run faster, kick higher, cartwheels

Gross motor: Agility + Coordination

dance, jump rope, skateboard, roller skate

Fine motor skills in middle childhood

children increasingly execute small actions with high proficiency

• wide range: buttoning a coat, putting a straw in a juice pouch

exercise recommendations for families

• make exercise fun

• be a role model

• find partners

• start slowly

How often should children exercise with their families a week?

30-35 minutes, 3-5 days a week

How many children in the US actually engage in the recommended amount of daily exercise?

1/3 of children

As children get older, do activity levels increase or decrease?

Decrease

Chilren are more likely to get sufficient exercise in what kinds of countries and why?

Poor countries with less infrastructure; they have less features of modern life that forces them to get more exercise

Nutrition Recommendations

children still need a varied diet and support for healthy food choices

Sleep for Middle Childhood

children need 9-11 hours of quality sleep each day

Individual Differences between children

many between-person differences in the ways that brains + bodies work become more evident in middle childhood

3 common models for conceptualizing disability…

Moral Model

children with disabilities are a blessing or a curse

Medical Model

children with disabilities need to be changed or cured to improve their lives

Social Model

children with disabilities deserve a society that can change to support their lives

Piaget’s cognitive development theory

• concrete operational (7-11 years)

• children understand the world using logical reasoning

Children have mastered conversation

• are able to decenter

• can focus on multiple parts of the problem

Children can classify + reclassify things

• children can categorize things into smaller + smaller categories

• ability to reclassify along multiple criteria

• children sometimes start collections of things that interest them

Seriation

systematically ordering items specific along dimensions

Children can order things using seriation

by 6-8 years, children can put things in order correctly because they can now think logically

Inductive Reasoning

drawing on facts to generate broader conclusions

• children in this stage are able to use inductive reasoning to come to conclusions

Information processing and memory

• as children’s memory increases and their mental processes become more complex, they are able to process more data