socioemotional development in middle childhood and autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

diagnosing autism

• 1 / 3 of parents with ASD noticed differences before the child’s first birthday, 80% saw differences before 24mo

• diagnosis at age 2 can be reliable and stable at age 9

• many kids receive a diagnosis between the ages of 4-6

clinical diagnosis for ASD

waitlist can take 2-3yrs, important for pediatricians to check if the child is reaching their milestones, and getting screened between 18-24mo, and they then get sent to a specialist 

ASD assessment tools

CARS-2: clinician observes and the rates the child

ADI-R: interview style between mom, dad, teacher, child, want to see common ground

ADOS: more observation based and for children between 4-5

early symptoms of ASD

lack of eye contact 

lack of joint attention lack of reciprocal conversation 

atypical sensory (aversion to things) / motor processing

socioemotional development

how children become who they are, how they sustain relationships, how they express emotions

psychosocial development 

moral development 

peer relationships 

families 

risk and resilience 

psychosocial development 

-self-concept (starts to shift from physical description— brown hair, blue eyes— to things that are more subjective— smart, popular, good looking)

-self-esteem (how we view ourselves and how others view us)

-body image (can range from positive to negative)

-achievement motivation (intrinsic)

self-concept 

-children recognizes social aspects of the self 

-compare themself to others 

-perspective taking: ability to assume other people’s perspectives and understand their thoughts and feelings 

-more skeptical

self-esteem 

-positive parent-child interactions and a secure attachment to parents predict a positive sense of self-esteem throughout childhood 

-cultural and contextual differences in self-esteem 

body image

-approx. half of 8-10yr old children report dissatisfaction with at least one part of their body / /reporting dieting at least some of the time 

-45% have body image issues 

-correlated to poor self esteem, depression, unhealthy eating and exercise, and inadequate weight gain

achievement motivation 

-willingness too persist at challenging tasks and meet high standards of accomplishments 

-can be particularly difficult for all children, but especially those with disabilities 

-internal attributes

-external attributes 

-fixed v growth mindset

internal attributes 

emphasizing own role in outcome (ie. ability or study techniques)

external attributions 

emphasizing causes that cannot be controlled such as luck to explain performance

moral development 

development that involves thoughts feelings and behaviors regarding rules and conventions about what people should do with their interactions with other people 

-moral feelings 

-moral reasoning 

-moral behavior

piagets theory

-children entering 2nd stage of piagets scheme called autonomous morality 

-rules are products of group agreement and tools 

-children view a need for shared agreement on rules and consequences 

kolhberg’s theory of moral development 

-preconventional 

-conventional 

-postconventional

-experiences with dealing with moral questions / conflicts 

-peer interaction and perspective taking are crucial 

difference between Piaget and Kohlberg

Piaget focuses on cognitive development and understanding of rules and moral development closely tied to cognitive development

while Kohlberg focused on the reasoning behind moral choices; moral development is influenced by social factors

peer relationships 

-friendship (companionship, stimulation, and affection); a sign of positive self development, pro-social behaviors, less peer victimization, higher self esteem / self-worth, etc.

-peers; reciprocity becomes important in peer interchanges, size of peer group increases, per interaction is less closely supervised by adults, children’s preference for same-sex peer groups 

-peer acceptance; degree to which a child is viewed as a worthy social partner by his or her peers, viewed as exceptionally well-liked or exceptionally disliked 

-peer rejection; those who experience it tend to be disliked and shunned by their peers, those at risk are those with poor communication, emotional control, and social information processing skills

bullying; verbal and physical intended to disturb someone less powerful, males and younger middle school students are most likely to be affected, 70-80% of victims and bullies are in the same classroom; outcomes: depression, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide

families

parent child relationships 

siblings 

only children 

all types of families 

parent child relationships 

-parents spend less time with children during middle and late childhood 

-parents support and stimulate children’s academic achievement 

-parents use less physical forms of punishment as children age 

-parents as managers: they manage children’s behavior

siblings

-by middle childhood, children spend more time with siblings than with parents 

-provide social support and help each other manage academic, family and peer challenges and the anxiety and depressive symptoms

-only children; positive adjustment and high self-esteem, receive greater attention from parents and develop closer relationships than children with siblings who must share their parents’ attention. more likely than their peers to show poor interpersonal skills and difficulty with self-control and similar numbers of high-quality friendships and generally show similar rates of adjustment as their peers with siblings 

cohabitating families 

families not formed by marriage 

divorced and divorcing families 

divorce triggers a reconfiguration of family roles, and parenting ressponsibilties shift disproportionately  onto the resident parent

blended families

risk and resilinence

-parental incarceration

-exposure to community violence

parental incarceration 

-can result in more psychological or behavioral problems in children, such as anxiety, health vulnerabilities, antisocial behavior, and delinquency 

-children of color and low-income children are disproportionately likely to experience parental incarceration  and their adjustment to parent incarceration is associated with the contextual factors that are intertwined with race and SES

exposure to community violence 

-children exposed may show anxiety and symptoms of PTSD, fear of being alone, safety concerns, issues with eating, sleeping, academics, and behaviors 

-tend to be socially aware, skilled and display more aggressive and disruptive behaviors 

-role of parents / guardians processing trauma

child maltreatment

-physical abuse

-child neglect 

-sexual abuse (more common in homes with poverty, food, and housing insecurity, marital instability, and substance use and between ages 4-12. ¼ to 1/3 of US children under 17 have experienced it)

-risk factors: parental characteristics, home context, community and societal factors, mandated reporters

-developmental consequences: immediate and lifelong

resilience 

-determined by individual competencies, family competencies and outside resources- social and community