Middle Childhood

Vocabulary flashcards for reviewing middle childhood development.

Myopia

Nearsightedness; the most common vision problem in middle childhood.

Sleep-Disordered Breathing (SDB)

Persistent snoring three times a week; associated with behavioral and learning difficulties.

Gray Matter

Closely packed neurons in the cerebral cortex; involved in information processing.

White Matter

Glial cells that steadily increase; act as channels of communication in the brain.

Rough-and-Tumble Play

Vigorous play involving wrestling, hitting, and chasing, often accompanied by laughing and screaming.

Concrete Operational Stage

The third stage of Piaget’s cognitive development stages. More logical, flexible, and organized thinking than in early childhood, but not with abstract thought.

Seriation

The ability to order items along a dimension, like earliest to latest, shortest to longest, and lightest to darkest.

Transitive Inferences

Understanding the relationship between two objects by knowing each object's relationship to a third object.

Inductive Reasoning

Moves from specific observations about members of a class to a general conclusion about that class.

Deductive Reasoning

Moves from a general premise about a class to a conclusion about a specific member or members of a class.

Executive Function

Conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or solve problems.

Inhibitory Control

An executive skill that lets individuals ignore rules that are not momentarily relevant.

Flexible Shifting

The frequent switching of rules when attending different tasks simultaneously.

Working Memory

Necessary in storing information while other material is being mentally manipulated.

Mnemonic Device

A strategy to aid memory.

Metamemory

Knowledge and reflection about memory processes.

Organization (as a memory strategy)

Categorizing material to be remembered (e.g., theorist, concepts, approach, domain).

Elaboration (as a memory strategy)

Making mental associations involving items to be remembered, such as creating stories in the mind with what needs to be remembered.

Emergent Literacy

Preschoolers’ development of skills, knowledge, and attitudes that underlie reading and writing.

Phonological Awareness

The ability to reflect on and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language, including sensitivity to changes in sounds within words, rhyming, and incorrect pronunciation.

Whole-Language Approach (to reading)

Exposure to text in its complete form – stories.

Phonics Approach (to reading)

Basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds

Culture-Free Tests

Intelligence tests that, if they were possible to design, would have no culturally linked content.

Culture-Fair Tests

Intelligence tests that deal with experiences common to various cultures, in an attempt to avoid culture bias.

Static Tests

Measurement of a child’s current abilities.

Dynamic Tests

Measure learning processes directly rather than through the products of past learning – the test itself is a learning situation.

Bilingual

Fluent in two languages.

Two-Way Learning

Children who speak different languages learn from each other.

Phonetic (code-emphasis) approach

Approach to teaching reading that emphasizes decoding of unfamiliar words.

Constructivist Classroom

Encourages students to construct their own knowledge; students are evaluated by considering their progress in relation to their prior development.

Social-Constructivist Classroom

Children jointly construct understandings through challenging activities with teachers and peers.

Intellectual Disability

Significantly subnormal cognitive functioning (cognitive disability or mental retardation).

Learning Disabilities

Disorders that interfere with specific aspects of learning and school achievement (e.g., dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia).

ADHD

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Gifted Children

Displaying exceptional intellectual strengths (high IQ: 130 or higher).

Convergent Thinking

Thinking aimed at finding one right answer to a problem.

Divergent Thinking

Thinking that produces a variety of fresh, diverse possibilities.

Industry vs. Inferiority

Fourth stage of the psychosocial stages. Determines self-esteem. Children's view of their capacity for productive work.

Representational Systems

Broad, inclusive self-concepts that integrate various aspects of the self.

Coregulation

Parent and child share power; parents rely less on direct intervention and discuss problems with the child more.

Externalizing Behaviors

Anger turned outward: fighting, disobedience, hostility.

Internalizing Behaviors

Anger turned inward: anxiety, depression, fearfulness.

Family Therapy

Psychological treatment in which a therapist sees the whole family together to analyze patterns of family functioning.

Peer Acceptance

The extent to which a child is liked by their peers.

Perceived Popularity

Children's judgments of whom of their classmates admire.

Proactive Aggression

Aggressors view force as a means to get what they want.

Reactive Aggression

More common; involves a hostile attribution bias.

Hostile Attribution Bias

The tendency to perceive others as trying to hurt one and to strike out in retaliation or self-defense.

Bullying

Aggression deliberately and persistently directed against a particular target, or victim, typically one who is weak, vulnerable, and defenseless.

Cyberbullying

Posting negative comments or derogatory photos of a victim online.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

A pattern of behavior, persisting into middle childhood, marked by negativity, hostility, and defiance against adult authority figures.

Conduct Disorder (CD)

A repetitive, persistent pattern of aggressive, antisocial behavior violating societal norms or the rights of others.

School Phobia

Unrealistic fear of going to school, which may stem from separation anxiety disorder or social phobia.

Separation Anxiety Disorder

A condition involving excessive, prolonged anxiety concerning separation from home, or from people to whom a person is attached.

Social Phobia

Extreme fear or avoidance, or both, of social situations.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Anxiety not focused on any single target.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Anxiety aroused by repetitive, intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses, often leading to compulsive ritual behaviors.

Resilience

Children who weather adverse circumstances, function well despite challenges or threats, or bounce back from traumatic events.