Physical Development in Middle Childhood

Middle school is a crucial period for:
- Fostering healthy lifestyles and choices.
- Growing independence in children.
- Increasing cognitive abilities.
- Rapid development of self-concept, including physical well-being. (p.418)

Increase health-related knowledge and encourage healthy behaviors.
Involve parents in supporting health education.
Provide healthy environments in schools.
Make voluntary screening for risk factors available as part of health education.
Promote pleasurable physical activities.
Teach children to be critical consumers of media and online advertising.
Work for safer, healthier community environments for children and families.

Play Characteristics:
- Apparently purposeless (done for its own sake).
- Voluntary.
- Inherent attraction.
- Freedom from time (no limits).
- Diminished consciousness of self (less self-aware).
- Improvisational potential (spontaneous).
- Continuation desire (can’t wait to play again).
Reference: Brown, S. (2010). Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul. Avery. p. 229. 978-1-58333-378-5.

Play promotes refinement of physical skills, including:
- Flexibility.
- Balance.
- Agility.
- Force (strength).
- Cardio-vascular capacity.
Benefits include cognitive development; executive function, memory, academic achievement, and efficient neural pathways.

Fine motor skills develop during middle childhood.
Games, art projects, and crafts become important opportunities for self-expression.
Drawing and writing become more complex, detailed, and refined.
As of 2021, 21 states mandate cursive writing instruction in schools:
- Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Remarkable individual differences exist among middle school children.
Parental encouragement and modeling significantly influence motor skills (social environment and reinforcement).
Family income correlates to motor skills in middle childhood (health care, nutrition, access to play).
Observable motor skill differences associated with gender occur as early as preschool.
- Females: handwriting, drawing, balance, agility.
- Males: most gross motor movements, force, strength (muscle mass).

Worldwide, children play conventional games, as well as spontaneous, made-up games.
Gains in perspective-taking - understanding the roles of different players in games.
Children learn about the need for rules.
Today, children have lower participation rates in informal play activities than prior generations.
Increase in adult-organized youth sports.

Participation rates between ages 6 to 12 years: 62% males, 52% females.
Children in low SES communities are underserved.
Team sports promote athletic social skills (communication, following rules, good civic behavior, fair play).
Positive parenting, well-trained coaches, and emphasis on skill development are key factors.
Concerns surround American football, artificial turf, and year-round, single-sport competition (travel teams).

The quality of play experiences for children with special needs are often lacking.
Access: Do we provide or support equitable access to play environments and materials?
Activity: Are children afforded opportunities to decide what their play activities will be?
Variability: Do we accept their choices as valid play experiences and the outcomes as positive and beneficial?

Comprehensive physical education programs are associated with academic achievement at all education levels.
Sports training is not considered progressive physical education that promotes life-long individual well-being.
Positive outcomes for progressive physical education include:
- Greater physical strength.
- Resistance to many illnesses.
- Enhanced psychological well-being.
- Life-long fitness.

Every student in primary (generally grades K-3), intermediate (generally 4-6), middle school (generally grades 7-9) and senior high (generally 10-12) programs must be provided with planned instruction that is aligned with academic standards in health and physical education.
Schools provide sufficient time and planned instruction for students to achieve proficient levels on the Pennsylvania Academic Standards in health, safety and physical education.
Since health and physical education are not assessed via a statewide assessment, school districts must have a local assessment system in place and determine the proficient levels on those assessments.
Neither the Pennsylvania Department of Education nor the State Board of Education mandates a specific number of minutes or times per week that health and physical education is provided.
Each school district has the authority to make the decision as to the most appropriate manner to schedule classes as long as it is within the boundaries of the Pennsylvania School Code.