Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Chapter 12 Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood Child Development, 3/e by Robert Feldman Created by Barbara H. Bratsch

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall In what ways do children develop cognitively during the years of middle childhood? How does language develop during the middle childhood period, and what special circumstances pertain to children for whom English is not the first language? What trends are affecting schooling worldwide and in the United States? What kinds of subjective factors contribute to academic outcomes? How can intelligence be measured, what are some issues in intelligence testing, and how are children who fall outside the normal range of intelligence educated?

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Intellectual and Language Development Piaget’s concrete operational thought – occurs between 7 and 12 years of age and is characterized by the active and appropriate use of logic Decentering – the ability to take multiple aspects of a situation into account

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Rural Australian Aborigine children trail their urban counterparts in the development of their understanding of conservation.

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Information Processing in Middle Childhood Memory is the process by which information is recorded, stored, and retrieved Metamemory is an understanding about the processes that underlie memory that emerges and improves during middle childhood Memory can be improved by using a keyword strategy, rehearsal, repetition, organization, and cognitive elaboration

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Language Development The average 6 year old has a vocabulary of 8,000-14,000 words and increases another 5,000 words by age 11 Metalinguistic awareness is an understanding of one’s own use of language Bilingualism – the ability to speak two languages

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall The Top 10 Languages in the United States

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Development of Reading Skills Stage 0 – birth to first grade – identification of letters Stage 1 – first and second grade – starts reading Stage 2 – second and third grade – reads aloud fluently Stage 3 – fourth to eighth grade – uses reading as a means for learning Stage 4 – eight grade and beyond – understands reading in terms of multiple points of view

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Illiteracy Rates for Women and Men

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Educational Trends Home schooling – students are taught by their parents at home Teacher expectancy effect – an educator’s expectations for a given child actually bring about the expected behavior Multicultural Education – a form of education in which the goal is to help minority students develop competence in the culture of the majority group while maintaining positive group identities that build on their original cultures Cultural assimilation – assimilate individual cultural identities into a unique, unified American culture Pluralistic society – American society is made up of divers, coequal cultural groups that should preserve their individual cultural features Bicultural identity – children should be supported in maintaining their original cultural identities while they integrate themselves into the dominant culture

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Emotional Intelligence – the set of skills that underlie the accurate assessment, evaluation, expression, and regulation of emotions The goal is to produce people who are not only cognitively sophisticated but also able to manage their emotions effectively

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Intelligence The capacity to understand the world, think rationally, and use resources effectively when faced with challenges

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Alfred Binet originated the intelligence test at the turn of the 20 th century Mental age – the typical intelligence level found for people of a given chronological age Chronological age – a person’s age according to the calendar Intelligence quotient (IQ) – a score that expresses the ratio between a person’s mental and chronological ages MA IQ = CA X 100

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall IQ Scores

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale – a test that consists of a series of items that vary according to the age of the person being tested Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised (WISC-IV) – a test for children that provides separate measures of verbal and performance (nonverbal) skills, as well as a total score Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Revised (WAIS – III) – a test for adults that provides separate measures of verbal and performance (nonverbal) skills, as well as a total score Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) – a children’s intelligence test permitting unusual flexibility in its administration

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Fluid intelligence – the ability to deal with new problems and situations Crystallized intelligence – the store of information, skills, and strategies that people have acquired through education and prior experiences and through their previous use of fluid intelligence

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Triarchic Theory of Intelligence – the belief that intelligence consists of three aspects of information processing: the componential element, the experiential element, and the contextual element –Componential aspect of intelligence reflects how efficiently people can process and analyze information –Experiential element is the insightful component of intelligence –Contextual element concerns practical intelligence

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Falling Below and Above Intelligence Norms Mental retardation – a significantly sub-average level of intellectual functioning that occurs with related limitations in two or more skill areas Mild retardation – retardation with IQ scores in the range of 50 or 55 to 70 Moderate retardation – retardation with IQ scores around 35 or 40 to 50 or 55 Severe retardation - retardation with IQ scores around 20 or 25 to 35 or 40 Profound retardation – retardation with IQ scores below 20 or 25

Feldman Child Development, 3/e ©2004 Prentice Hall Gifted and Talented – showing evidence of high performance capability in intellectual, creative, or artistic areas, in leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields Acceleration – the provision of special programs that allow gifted students to move ahead at their own pace, even if this means skipping to higher grade levels Enrichment – an approach whereby gifted students are kept at grade level but are enrolled in special programs and given individual activities to allow greater depth of study