MIDDLE CHILDHOOD: Physical and cognitive development

Physical Development

Growth and Body Changes

Motor Development  More Skill in controlling Body  Physical Growth Slows Temporarily

Brain Development  Dyslexia: Disorder in which an otherwise normally intelligent, healthy child or adult has extreme difficulty learning to read  Genius and Giftedness:  Pull-out programs, in-class enrichment, advancing a grade

Health and Fitness Issues  Obesity: BMI greater than the 85th percentile for age and gender  Eating Disorders  Role of Play and Exercise

Cognitive Development

Cognitive Sophistication  Piaget’s Period of Concrete Operations  Integration of the powerful, abstract, internal schemas such as identity, reversibility, classification and serial ordering  Conservation Tasks  Require recognition that the quantity of something stays the same despite changes in appearance

Horizontal Decalage  Sequential development, with each skill dependent on the acquisition of earlier skills  Post-Piagetian Criticism  Cross-Cultural Evidence:  Cultural and social factors play a role in children’s cognitive development

Information Processing  Individual Differences  Children’s Perceptions of Others  Under 8: Children describe people in terms of external attributes; global descriptive terms.  Over 8: More specific, precise. Inner qualities are noticed.

Language Development  Vocabulary  Syntax and Pragmatics: Grammar and sentence structure  Bilingual Education in the United States  Educating Children Whose Reading and Speaking Skills Are Below Standard

Limited English Proficiency  Students whose native language is not English and who cannot participate effectively in the regular school curriculum because of difficulty speaking, understanding, reading and writing English.  3.2 million LEP students nationwide.

Education  Reading and speaking skills are below standard  English as a Second Language (ESL)  Teaching English as Foreign Language

Bilingual Education Bilingual Education  Bilingualism: Provides instruction in both languages by teachers proficient in both.  Total Immersion  Children placed in regular classrooms and English is used for all instruction

Assessment of Intelligence  Intelligence: Ability of individuals to understand and express complex ideas, adapt effectively to their environment, learn from experience, and solve problems.

Types of Intelligence Tests  Verbal intelligence, inductive reasoning, spatial ability  The EQ Factor: Emotional Intelligence  Limitations of IQ Tests  Some abilities cannot be measured.  Individual Cognitive Styles:  Differences in how individuals organize and process information.

The EQ Factor  Emotional Intelligence  Mind-Blindness  Temporary Insanity  Self-Regulatory Behaviors

Learning Disabilities (LDs)  Umbrella concept to refer to children, adolescents, and college students who encounter difficulty with school-related material despite the fact they appear to have normal intelligence and lack demonstrable physical, emotional, or social impairment.

ADHD  Collection of vague and global symptoms.  Causes are unknown

Individual Education Plans (IEPs):  Legal document that ensures that the child with special learning needs will receive the needed educational support services in the least restrictive environment.

Inclusion  The integration of students with special needs within the regular classroom programs of the school, in some cases with an additional aide in the classroom

What Do We Know About Effective Schools  Teachers care about lesson plans  High achievement is expected  High proportion of time spent on instruction and learning

Effective Schools  Homework is important  Students encouraged to use library  Schools foster respect for students and high expectations for behavior

Moral Development  The process by which children adopt principles that lead them to evaluate given behaviors as right and others as wrong and to govern their own actions in terms of these principles.

Cognitive Learning Theory  Bandura et.al.  Moral development is a cumulative process that builds on itself gradually and continuously, without any abrupt changes.

Cognitive Developmental Theory  Piaget, Kohlberg  Moral development takes place in stages, with clear-cut changes between them.  Piaget: two-stage theory of moral development  Heteronomous morality  Autonomous morality

Lawrence Kohlberg  Heinz’s ethical dilemma: 3 levels of development 1. Preconventional 2. Conventional 3. Postconventional

Carol Gilligan  Men and women have different conceptions of morality  Men: justice  Women: care

Correlates of Moral Conduct  Intelligence (-)  Age (-)  Sex (-)  Group Norms (+)  Motivational Factors (-)

Prosocial Behaviors  Ways of responding to other people through sympathetic, cooperative, helpful, rescuing, comforting and giving acts.  Empathy: Feelings of emotional arousal that lead an individual to take another perspective and to experience an event as the other person experiences it.