CHAPTER 7: MIDDLE CHILDHOOD BODY AND MIND

Middle childhood

-Period between ages 6 to 11
– Average child gains about 2 inches and 5 pounds per year.
– Health related to adult instruction and regular medical care.

Benefits of physical activity

• Contribute to physical, emotional, and mental health
• Cooperation, self-control, emotional regulation from team sport participation

Body and mind

– Physical activity cut in some schools; might cause less learning.
– Brains benefit from exercise.

Fine motor skill development

• Continue to mature
  – Aid in school achievement
  – Promote executive functioning
  • Selective attention
  • Participation in music, art, and drama

Health problems: Childhood obesity

In 2016, 18% of
U.S. 6- to 11- year-olds were obese.
– Psychological and social poor outcomes
– Long-term effects: underlying cause of most serious adult diseases

What affects children’s weight?

– Internal: Genes; microbiome
– External: Social context; cultural patterns
– Child pester power

Prevention; dynamic-systems approach

Individual differences, parenting practices, school lunches, fast-food restaurants, advertising, community norms

Concrete operational thought

Piaget's term for the ability to reason logically about direct experiences and perceptions

Classification

Logical principle that things can be organized into groups (or categories or classes) according to some characteristic they have in common

Seriation

Things can be arranged in a series. Seriation is crucial for understanding the number sequence and logical series

Vygotsky and mentors

Middle childhood time for much learning

Role of instruction

Teachers and other mentors work in the
zone of proximal development.
– Culture affects how
children learn.

Memory

– Memory process, from input to storage to retrieval, is affected by both maturation (Piaget) and experience (Vygotsky).
– Working memory
– Retrieval

Language

– Every aspect of language advances each year from age 6 to 11.

Vocabulary

• By age 6, every part of speech is used
– Metaphors, jokes, and puns are comprehended.
– Pragmatics mastery allows children to change style of
speech (linguistic codes), depending on audience.

Speaking two languages

– 1 in 4 US school children has a home language that is not English.
– Neurological changes

Socioeconomic status (SES)

Language may be crucial factor between academic
achievement and SES

Children from low-SES families

smaller vocabulary, simpler grammar, shorter sentences
• Language heard early on enhances child language
development.
– Educational level of parents
– Family routine and stability

The curriculum

92 percent of the 6- to -11-year-olds are in school
– Variation abound in the United States, not only from state to state but also from school district to school district, and school to school.
• U.S. primary education is controlled and funded by each state or district.

Hidden curriculum

– Unofficial, unstated, or implicit patterns within a school that influence what children learn; not formally prescribed, but instructive to children.
– Relevance of education
– School climate

Children requiring particular educational strategies

– Obvious physical disabilities: 1 percent
– Neurologically atypical: 10 to 20 percent
– Comorbidity

Four general principles

– Abnormality is normal.
– Disability changes year by year.
– Plasticity and compensation are part of human nature.
– Diagnosis and treatment reflect the social context

Multiple intelligences: Gardner

– Seven intelligences: linguistic, logical mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential
– Eighth (naturalistic) and ninth (spiritual/existential) added later
– Each associated with a region of the brain

On education: Gardner

– Schools often are too narrow, teaching only some aspects of intelligence and thus stunting children’s learning.
– Schools, cultures, and families dampen or expand particular intelligences.

linguistic

The ability to use language to understand and express complex ideas 

Logical-mathematical

The ability to think analytically, solve problems, and understand abstract concepts 

musical

Often singing or drumming to themselves. Usually quite aware of sounds others may miss. Often discriminating listeners.

Spatial

Think in images and pictures. May be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing, building things or daydreaming.

Bodily-kinesthetic

Process knowledge through bodily sensations. Often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking

Interpersonal

Leaders among their peers, who are good at communicating and who seem to understand others' feelings and motives.

Intrapersonal

May be shy, but are very aware of their own feelings and are self motivated.

naturalistic

the ability to differentiate between living things and other natural features 

existential

The ability to ask philosophical questions about the meaning of life 

Three disorders that affect learning

– Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
– Specific learning disorder
– Autism spectrum disorder (ASD

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD)

• Inattention, impulsive, and active
• Symptoms start before age 12
• 8% of 4- to 11-year-olds, and 14% of 12- to 17-year-olds
• May be overuse of medication
• Often gender differences in main symptoms
– Boys: hyperactivity (ADHD)
– Girls: inattentiveness (ADD)

Specific learning disorder

– Marked deficit in a particular area of learning that is not caused by an apparent physical disability or by an unusually stressful home environment
– Often comorbid with other
disorder/s
– Multisensory approach
needed
• Dyslexia
• Dyscalculia
• Dysgraphia

Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)

– Developmental disorder marked by difficulty with social communication and interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities
• Impaired social interaction
• Cause and treatment disputed
• Not caused by “refrigerator mothers” or vaccinations

Hypotheses about increases of autism

• Environment
• Prenatal influences
• Diagnosis increased, not ASD
• Expanded DSM-5 categories

1975 Education of All Handicapped Children Act

– Inclusion class; general classroom (least restrictive environment—LRE)
– Appropriate aids and services

Special Education Other Strategies

– Response to intervention (RTI)
– Individual education plans (IEP)

Gifted and talented

High-IQ, unusually talented, and unusually creative
children may require special education.
• Needs of unusually gifted children not covered by U.S. federal laws.
• Each state selects and implements own system.
• Controversy about which system to use