Phys and Cog Development Middle Childhood Questions

What is the general pace of physical growth during middle childhood?

Physical growth continues at a slow, regular pace.

How do girls' height and weight typically compare to boys' until about age 9?

Girls are slightly shorter and lighter than boys until about age 9, when this trend reverses.

Which part of the body grows fastest during middle childhood?

The lower portion of the body grows the fastest.

What change occurs in girls' body composition after age 8?

After age 8, girls begin to accumulate fat at a faster rate than boys.

What is the term for the systematic change in body size and growth milestones from one generation to the next?

Secular trend in physical growth.

What has happened to secular trends in height and weight over the past 150 years in industrialized nations?

Height gains have stabilized, but weight gains continue.

Why are children in middle childhood described as having unusual flexibility?

Their ligaments are not yet firmly attached to their lengthening and broadening bones.

What common dental problem occurs in one-third of school-age children?

Malocclusion, a condition in which the upper and lower teeth do not meet properly.

By what percentage does the weight of the brain increase during middle childhood?

The weight of the brain increases by 10%.

What happens to white and gray matter in brain development during middle childhood?

White matter rises steadily, especially in the prefrontal cortex, while gray matter peaks and then declines.

What is the process that leads to a decline in gray matter and results in more effective information processing in middle childhood?

Synaptic pruning.

What are the four basic gross-motor capacities that show significant gains during middle childhood?

Flexibility, balance, agility, and force.

What are the two major areas of advancement in fine-motor skills during middle childhood?

Writing and drawing.

What stage occurs from ages 7 to 11 and is characterized by more logical, flexible, and organized thinking according to Piaget?

Concrete operational stage.

What is decentration in Piaget's theory?

The ability to focus on several aspects of a problem at once, rather than centering on just one.

What is reversibility in the context of Piaget's concrete operational stage?

The capacity to think through a series of steps and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point.

What cognitive ability allows children to pass Piaget's class inclusion problem between ages 7 and 10?

Classification.

What is seriation?

The ability to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length or weight.

What is the ability to seriate mentally known as?

Transitive inference.

What is the main limitation of concrete operational thought?

Children's mental operations work poorly with abstract ideas and are most effective with concrete information.

What is the gradual mastery of Piagetian tasks step-by-step referred to as?

Continuum of acquisition.

Around what age does a child's IQ score become more stable and predictive of school performance?

Around age 6.

What is the name of the statistical procedure used to identify the specific mental abilities measured by intelligence tests?

Factor analysis.

Which type of IQ test requires more training to give well and is often used to identify gifted children or those with learning problems?

Individually-administered tests.

What five intellectual factors do the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales measure?

General knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory, and basic information processing.

What age range is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-V (WISC-V) designed for?

Ages 6 to 16.

What are the four broad intellectual factors measured by the WISC-V?

Verbal reasoning, perceptual (or visual-spatial) reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.

Who developed the triarchic theory of successful intelligence?

Robert Sternberg.

What are the three interrelated intelligences according to Sternberg's theory?

Analytical, creative, and practical intelligence.

What type of intelligence involves information processing, applying strategies, and self-regulation in Sternberg's theory?

Analytical intelligence.

Which of Sternberg's intelligences involves generating useful solutions to new problems?

Creative intelligence.

What does practical intelligence reflect in Sternberg's theory?

Adapting to, shaping, or selecting environments to meet personal goals.

Who proposed the theory of multiple intelligences?

Howard Gardner.

List four of Gardner's eight multiple intelligences.

Linguistic, logico-mathematical, musical, spatial.

What percentage of the differences in IQ among children can be traced to their genetic makeup according to studies of twins?

About half (50%).

What is stereotype threat?

The fear of being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype, which can trigger anxiety that interferes with performance.

What is the Flynn effect?

The phenomenon describing how IQ scores have increased steadily from one generation to the next.

What is dynamic assessment?

A form of testing where an adult introduces purposeful teaching into the testing situation to see what a child can attain with social support.

Dynamic assessment is consistent with which of Vygotsky's concepts?

The zone of proximal development.

What kind of intervention was shown to lessen the impact of stereotype threat and improve grades for African-American students?

A self-affirmation intervention.

What is metalinguistic awareness?

The ability to think about language as a system.

By how much does a school-age child's vocabulary increase during middle childhood?

Fourfold.

What activity contributes enormously to the increase in vocabulary during middle childhood?

Reading.

When bilingual children alternate between two languages within the same conversation, what are they engaging in?

Code switching.

What is the relationship between the degree of bilingualism and cognitive gains?

The higher the degree of bilingualism, the greater the cognitive gains.

What type of classroom has the teacher as the sole authority for knowledge, rules, and decision making?

Traditional classroom.

In what type of classroom are children considered active agents who reflect on and coordinate their own thoughts?

A constructivist classroom.

What is a social-constructivist classroom?

A classroom where children jointly construct understandings with teachers and peers.

What is reciprocal teaching?

A teaching method where a group of students and a teacher take turns leading dialogues on a text.

What are educational self-fulfilling prophecies?

When children adopt teachers' positive or negative views of them and start to live up to those expectations.

Which group of students are more impacted by teacher expectations?

Low-achieving students.

What is homogeneous grouping?

Grouping students of similar ability levels into the same class or group.

What is a potential negative effect of homogeneous grouping practices?

They can be a potent source of self-fulfilling prophecies.

What are inclusive classrooms?

Classrooms that place children with learning disabilities alongside typical students.

What does the term 'gifted' refer to?

Displaying exceptional intellectual strengths.

What is the definition of creativity in an academic context?

The ability to produce work that is original yet appropriate.

What is divergent thinking?

The generation of multiple and unusual possibilities when faced with a task or problem.

What is convergent thinking?

The type of thinking emphasized on intelligence tests, which involves arriving at a single correct answer.

What is talent?

Outstanding performance in a specific field.

Between what ages does the ability to grasp scale on maps typically improve?

Ten to 12 years old.

Where are the shortest children generally found worldwide?

South America, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and parts of Africa.

What two primary factors account for worldwide variations in physical size?

Heredity (evolutionary adaptations) and environment (nutrition, disease control).

What cognitive gains are associated with interactive screen media use?

Academic progress.

What is the digital divide?

The gap in access to technology between different socioeconomic status groups.