Psychology 2021 - Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood

Chapter 11 and 12

Physical growth in middle childhood

• lower portion of body grows the fastest

• boys are taller and heavier than girls until age 9 where it reverses

• after age 8 girls accumulate fat at a faster rate

Worldwide variations in body size

• shortest kids found in south american, asia, and parts of africa

• tallest kids found in australia, europe, north american, parts of africa

• depends on :

  • hereditary

  • environmental

Hereditary and its impact on physical growth in middle childhood

evolutionary adaptations to particular climates

• hot vs. cold climates

Environment and its impact on physical growth in middle childhood

• less sickness

• more access to food

  • leads to taller kids

Secular trends in physical growth

• how kids today are taller and heavier than their family members were at their age

  • due to better medicine and nutrition

Secular gains in height and weight

• appears in the first 2 years

• expands during childhood

• declines as body reaches full mature size

Skeletal growth in middle childhood

• bones lengthen and broaden

• ligaments are not firmly attached to bones

  • unusual flexibility

• growing pains are common

• between ages 6-12 primary teeth get replaced by permanent teeth

• malocclusion happens in 1/3 of school-age kids

Malocclusion

upper and lower teeth are not aligned

• normally fixes itself once the jaw bone extends to fit all the teeth

Brain development in middle childhood

• weight of brain increases by 10%

  • white matter rises

  • gray matter peaks and then declines due to synaptic pruning

White matter in brain

• deep, inner part of the brain

• connects different regions to send signals

• covered in a fatty white coating called myelin, which speed up messaging.

Gray matter in brain

• brain's processing center

• composed of nerve cell bodies and branching dendrites that analyze information

• acts like a computer processor to control thinking, memory, emotions, speech, and movement

Health issues in middle childhood

• nutrition

• overweight and obesity

• vision and hearing

• bedwetting

• illnesses

• unintentional injuries

Causes for poor nutrition in middle childhood

• more focus on friends and activities, less on eating

• busy so not eating meals with family

• lots of fast food and soft drinks

• poverty

Gains in basic gross-motor capacities in middle childhood

• flexibility

• balance

  • help with sports

• agility

  • change direction quicker

• force

  • throw harder, jump higher

Specific gross motor skills that develop in middle childhood

• vertical and broad jump distances goes up a lot

• throwing, catching, and kicking become more accurate

• dribbling with their fingers, not whole hand

Gains in fine-motor development in middle childhood

• writing

• drawing

Writing improving in middle childhood

• master uppercase letters

• move to lowercase

• increased legibility

Drawing improving in middle childhood

• organization, detail, and depth improve

• ability to copy 2-dimensional shapes

• draw many objects together to create a whole scene

Individual differences in motor skills

• heredity and environment

• body build

  • taller, more muscular kids excel at more task

• family income

  • having n=money to register for sports

• parental encouragement

Concrete operational stage

• 7-11 years old

• thinking is more logical, flexible, and organized

• conservation improves

  • can focus on multiple parts of s problem at once

• reversibility improves

  • can mentally reverse actions to get back to the starting point

• classification improves

  • pass the inclusion problem (flower test thing)

• seriation

• spatial reasoning

Seriation in middle childhood

ability to order items based on dimensions such as length or weight

Transitive inference

ability to seriate mentally

• organize things from longest to shortest in your head

Spatial reasoning in middle childhood

• cognitive maps

• 10-12 year olds

• ability to locate landmarks on maps improves

• cultural contexts influence individual differences

Cognitive maps

mental representation of spaces

Cultural contexts and their influence on spatial reasoning

• kids in places who walk everywhere have a more detailed mental map

• kids in places who drive everywhere is less detailed and accurate since they spend more time in cars and using GPS

Limitations of concrete operational thought

• children’s mental operations

  • most effective when dealing with concrete information

  • work poorly with abstract ideas

• continuum of acquisition

  • gradual mastery, kids master concrete operational tasks step by step

Evaluation of concrete operational stage

• correct that kids become more rational and organized as the get to school aged

• some domains develop as a sudden jump, some are more continuous

IQ in middle childhood

• age 6 - IQ becomes more stable and predicts school performance and educational attainment

• current IQ test provide an overall score representing general intelligence and separate scores measure specific mental abilities

• factor analysis is used to identify abilities measured by intelligence test

Group-administered tests

• allow testing of large groups

• require little training to administer

  • scripted instructions

• are useful for instructional planning

• identify students who need further evaluation

Individually-administered tests

• must be given by a trained psychologist

• provide insight into whether a test score accurately reflects a child’s abilities

• used to identify highly intelligent kids and those with learning problems

Standford-binet intelligence scales

• ages 2 to adulthood

• measures 5 intellectual factors

  • general knowledge

  • quantitative reasoning

  • visual-spatial processing

  • working memory

  • basic information processing

Wechsler intelligence scale for children-v (WISC-V)

• ages 6-16

• measures 4 broad intellectual factors

  • verbal reasoning

  • perceptual reasoning (visual-spatial)

  • working memory

  • processing speed

Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence-revised

intelligence test used for younger kids

Sternberg’s triarchic theory of successful intelligence

• analytic intelligence

• creative intelligence

• practical intelligence

Analytical intelligence

• information processing

  • applying strategies and acquiring task-relevant knowledge

Creative intelligence

• generating new/useful solutions to new problems

Practical intelligence

ability to adapt to the real world

• adapt

  • changing yourself to fit environment

• shape

  • changing environment to fit your needs

• select

  • knowing when to leave a bad situation and find a better one