Middle and Late Childhood- Physical and Cognitive Development

Middle to late childhood growth

Slow, consistent growth. Averages 2 to 3 inches per year. Weight gain averages 5 to 7 pounds per year

Body change

-Head circumference and waist circumference decrease in relation to body height.

-Bones continue to solidify during middle and late childhood

-Muscle mass and strength gradually decrease as "baby fat" decreases

11-12 girls vs boys

About 1/2 inches taller than the average boy because they start puberty toward the end of elementary school

Motor skills

become smoother and more coordinated.

What causes improvement of fine motor skills?

Increased myelination of the central nervous system

Girl fine motor skills and gross motor skills

Handwriting, flexibility, balance. Girls may spend less time on sports and fitness-related activites

Boys gross motor skills

Typically have more strength due to less fat and more muscle. Better at throwing, catching, jumping, and running.

What helps increase bone health?

Regular exercise and a high level of calcium intake

Benefits of exercise

-Lower chance of obesity

-Improvements to attention, memory, and effortful/goal-directed thinking & behavior

-Creativity

-Academic success

-Improved executive function- in particular, inhibitory control

Environmental factors related to children becoming overweight

-Accessible foods high in fat

-Declining physical activity

-Parent's eating habits and monitoring the child

-The context in which a child eats

-Heavy screen time

Potential consequences of being overweight

Diabetes, hypertension, high blood cholesterol levels, sleep problems, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem

Obesity intervention programs encourage...

Parents to engage in healthier lifestyles themselves and healthier food + exercise for the child

The U.S department of education includes ADHD in the category of...

A learning disability

Learning disabilities

A child that has difficulty in learning involving understanding or using spoken or written language

Dyslexia

severe impairment in the ability to read and spell

Dysgraphia

difficulty in handwriting

Dyscalculia

difficulty with math

ADHD

a disability characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity

Possible causes of adhd

genetics, prenatal/postnatal brain damage, nicotine/alcohol exposure during prenatal development, high maternal stress during prenatal development, low birth weight, preterm birth, low socioeconomic status

Concrete Operational Stage

-Piaget proposed that this stage occurs during the ages 7 to 11

-Children can perform concrete operations and reason logically

-Can classify things into different sets

-Cannot deal effectively with abstract or hypothetical problems

Thinking

involves manipulating and transforming information in memory

Critical thinking

Involves thinking reflectively and productively and evaluating. Includes mindfulness, being alert, mentally present, and cognitively flexible.

Mindfulness training

Has been found to improve children's attention self-regulation

Creative Thinking

the ability to think in novel and unusual ways. Can help children come up with unique solutions to problems

Convergent thinking

Produces one correct answer and is characteristic of the kind of thinking tested by standardized intelligence tests

Divergent thinking

Produces many answers to the same question and is a characteristic of creativity

Metacognition

cognition about cognition, or knowing about knowing. Planning and self-regulation. Can help people perform cognitive tasks more effectively

Metamemory

knowledge about memory

Executive Function

-Working memory, critical thinking, creative thinking, and metacognition can all be considered under the umbrella of executive function

Important Executive Function dimensions for 4 to 11 year old children's cognitive development and school success

Self control/inhibition, working memory, flexibility

Binet tests

Alfred Binet was initially asked to develop an intelligence test to identify students who did not benefit from the regular classroom

Mental age

Binet developed this concept. The individual's level of mental development relative to others

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Developed by William Stern. A person's mental age is divided by chronological age, then multiplied by 100.

IQ= MA/CA x100

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Proposed by Robert Sternberg and Howard Gardner. Stated that intelligence comes in three forms

Analytical Intelligence

The ability to evaluate, compare, and contrast

Creative Intelligence

the ability to invent, originate, and imagine

Practical intelligence

The ability to implement and put ideas into practice

Gifted people

Have an above average intelligence and/or superior talent for something

Criteria for gifted children

Intelligence, learning in a qualitatively different way and needing minimal help, a passion to master, information-processing skills

Giftedness is likely a product of both _____ and _____

heredity and environment

Bilingualism

the ability to speak two languages. Has a positive effect on children's language cognitive development.

English language learners have been taught in one of two ways

Instruction in english only, a dual-language approach

In support of the dual language approach

children have difficulty learning a subject when it is taught in a language they do not understand. When both languages are integrated, children learn the second language more readily and participate more actively