9: Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood

body growth and change

slow, consistent growth is seen in middle and late childhood

• growth averages 2-3 inches per year

• weight gain averages 5-7 pounds per year

Head circumference and waist circumference decrease in relation to body height. Bones continue to ossify during middle and late childhood but yield to pressure and pull more than mature bones

the brain

• total brain volume stabilizes

• significant changes in structures and regions occur, especially in the prefrontal cortex

• cortical thickness increases

• activation of some brain areas increase, while in others it decreases

  • brain pathways and circuitry involving the prefrontal cortex, the highest level in the brain, continue to increase

motor development

• Motor skills become smoother and more coordinated in middle and late childhood

• Girls outperform boys in their use of fine motor skills

• Improvement of fine motor skills during middle and late childhood results from increased myelination of the central nervous system.

exercise

• A higher level of physical activity is linked to a lower level of metabolic disease risk, based on measures of cholesterol, waist circumference, and insulin levels.

• Regular physical activity combined with a high level of calcium intake increases bone health

Aerobic exercise benefits include:

• lower incidence of obesity

• improved attention and memory, and cognitive inhibitory control

• effortful and goal-directed thinking and behavior

• creativity

ways to get children to exercise

• offer physical activity programs at school facilities

• improve physical fitness activities in schools

• have children plan community and school activities

• encourage families to focus more on physical activity

health, illness, and disease

middle and late childhood is a time of excellent health

accident and injuries are the leading of death in this period

• motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of sever injury, as passenger or pedestrian

• safety belt restraints and child booster seats are highly recommended

overweight children

the percentage of US children at risk has increased dramatically

both heredity and environmental contexts are related

• environmental factors include declining physical activity, eating habits and contexts, and heavy screen time

potential consequences for overweight children

• diabetes, hypertension, elevated blood cholesterol, and low self-esteem

• intervention programs encourage:

  • parents to engage in healthier lifestyles themselves

  • healthier food and more exercise

Cardiovascular disease is uncommon in children, but environmental experiences and behavior can sow the seeds

Many elementary-school-aged children already have one or more of the risk factors

• hypertension

• obesity

• higher body mass index

Adult coronary disease is linked to childhood elevated blood pressure and high body fat levels

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children who are 5 to 14 years old.

• the most common child cancer is leukemia

• Today, children with cancer are surviving longer because of advancements in cancer treatment.

scope of diabilities

• in the US, 14% of 3-21y/o received special education or related services in 2019 to 2020, an increase o 4% since 1980 to 1981

• note the US department of education includes both students with a learning disability and students w/ ADHD in the category of “learning disability”

Learning disabilities:

difficulty in learning involving understanding or using spoken or written language

• can appear in listening, thinking, reading, writing, or spelling

• dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia

dyslexia

a sever impairment in the ability to read and spell

dysgraphia

difficulty in handwriting

dyscalculia

a developmental arithmetic disorders

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

a disability characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity

• boys are twice as likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis

Possible causes of ADHD

• genetics

• brain damage during prenatal or postnatal development

• cigarette and alcohol exposure during prenatal development

• high maternal stress during prenatal development

• low birth weight

Children diagnosed with ADHD have an increased risk for

• Lower academic achievement

• Problematic peer relations

• School dropout

• Disordered eating

• Adolescent parenthood

• Substance use problems

• Antisocial behavior

• Criminal activity

• Unemployment

Emotional and behavioral disorders consist of serious, persistent problems that involve

• Relationships, aggression, depression, and fears associated with personal or school matters

• Inappropriate socioemotional characteristics

boys are three ties as likely as girls to have these disorders

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

range from autistic disorder to Asperger syndrome and may have a genetic basis

Autistic disorder is a severe developmental ASD.

• Has its onset in the first three years of life

• Deficiencies in social relationships, abnormalities in communication, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior

• Deficits in cognitive processing of information

• Identified five times more often in boys than girls

Asperger syndrome is relatively mild.

• Relatively good verbal language skills and milder nonverbal language problems

• Restricted range of interests and relationships; with obsessive, repetitive routines and preoccupations with a particular subject.

The current consensus is that autism is a brain dysfunction involving abnormalities in brain structure and neurotransmitters.

• The children have deficits in cognitive processing but benefit from a well-structured classroom, individualized teaching, and small-group instruction

• Behavior modification techniques are sometimes effective

Individualized education plan (IEP)

a written statement specifically tailored for the disabled student

Least restrictive environment (LRE)

a setting as similar as possible to the one in which nondisabled children are educated

Inclusion

educating a child with special education needs fulltime in the regular classroom.

Piaget’s concerete operational stage

• ages 7-11

• children can perform concrete operations and reason logically, and are able to classifiy things into different sets

• seriation: the concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension (ex. length)

• transitivity: the ability to logically combine relations to understand cetain conclusions

Evaluating Piaget’s concrete operational stage:

• Concrete operational abilities do not appear in synchrony

• Education and culture exert strong influences on children’s development.

Neo-Piagetians

developmentalists who argue Piaget was partially correct, but his theory needs considerable revision

• Elaborated on Piaget’s theory, increasing the emphasis on information processing, strategies, and precise cognitive steps.

During middle and late childhood, most children dramatically improve their ability to sustain and control attention

They pay more attention to task-relevant stimuli than to salient stimuli

long-term memory

a relatively permanent type of memory that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time

• increases w/ age during middle and late childhood

Working memory

a mental “workbench” where individuals manipulate and assemble information when making decisions, solving problems, and comprehending language

• uses information from long-term memory in its work, and transmits information to long-term memory for longer storage

Autobiographical memory

As children age, their autobiographical narratives become more complete.

• Mothers reminiscing with children in elaborative and evaluative ways appear to contribute

• influenced by culture

Strategies

deliberate mental activities that improve the processing of information

Elaboration

engaging in more extensive processing of information

Thinking

Many of the cognitive topics just discussed can be considered part of executive function

Certain dimensions of executive function are most important for children’s cognitive development and school success:

• Self-control/inhibition

• Working memory

• Flexibility

• Executive function is a better predictor of school readiness than general IQ.

Critical thinking

involves thinking reflectively and productively, and evaluating evidence

• One important aspect of critical thinking is 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

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 characteristic of creativity

Brainstorming

a process in which individuals come up with creative ideas in a group and play off each other’s ideas

Metacognition

cognition about cognition, or knowing about knowing

• Consists of several dimensions of executive function, such as planning and self-regulation

• Helps people perform cognitive tasks more effectively

• Metamemory is knowledge about memory.

Intelligence

ability to solve problems and to adapt and learn from experiences

Individual differences

the stable, consistent ways in which people differ from each other

The Binet tests

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

Binet developed the concept of mental age (MA): the individual’s level of mental development relative to others

William Stern developed the intelligence quotient (IQ): a person’s mental age divided by chronological age (CA), multiplied by 100

That is, IQ = MA/CA x 100

• If mental age is the same as chronological age, the person’s IQ is 100.

The Wechsler scales

David Wechsler developed the Wechsler scales

• Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence—Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) for ages 2.5 to 7.25.

• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fifth Edition (WISC-5) for ages 6 to 16.

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV)

the WISC-5 provides an overall IQ score and also five composite scores, determining areas of strength or weakness

Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, Processing Speed, Fluid Reasoning, and Visual Spatial

Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence states 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 ability to implement and put ideas into practice.

Gardner’s eight frames of mind

• verbal

• mathematical

• spatial

• bodily-kinesthetic

• musical

• interpersonal

• intrapersonal

• naturalist

the flynn effect

refers to a rapid increase in IQ scores worldwide, likely due to increasing levels of education, and factors such as the explosion of information to which people are now exposed.

Culture-fair tests

intended to be free of cultural bias and are difficult to create.

• The first type includes items familiar to children from all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds

• The second type has no verbal questions.

Tests reflect what the dominant culture values.

• there are no culture-fair tests, only culture-reduced tests

Ethnic variations:

On standardized intelligence tests in the United States, African American and Latino children score lower than non–Latino White children, but the gap is narrowing

• The gap especially narrows in college

• A recent study using the Stanford-Binet found no differences in overall intellectual ability between non–Latino White and African American preschool children.

stereotype threat

the anxiety that one’s behavior might confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group

Using intelligence tests

• Avoid stereotyping and expectations

• Know that IQ is not the sole indicator of competence

• Use caution when interpreting an overall IQ score.

the most distinctive feature of intellectual disabiliity

inadequate intellectual functioning

• defined as a condition of limited mental ability in which the individual has a low IQ, difficulty adapting to everyday life, and first exhibits these characteristics by age 18

Organic intellectual disability

caused by a genetic disorder or brain damage

cultural-familial intellectual disability

there is no evidence of organic brain damage, but IQ is generally between 50 and 70

giftedness

People who are gifted have above-average intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent for something

winner described three criteria for gifted children

• precocity

• marching to their own drummer

• a passion to master

likely a product of both heredity and environment

Alphabetic principle

the letters of the alphabet represent sounds of the language

metalinguistic awareness

knowledge about language

Whole-language approach

stresses that reading instruction should parallel children’s natural language learning

Phonics approach

reading instruction should teach the basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds

Second-language learning

Bilingualism has a positive effect on children’s language cognitive development

• some aspects of learning a second language also transfer to success in other areas

English language learners have been taught in one of two ways

• instruction in English only or

• a dual-language (or bilingual) 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 in the classroom, children learn the second language more readily and participate more actively