1. Middle Childhood: Physical and Cognitive Development
CHAPTER 9
Middle Childhood: Physical and Cognitive Development

2. Growth Patterns

3. Middle childhood growth
Growth Patterns
Middle childhood growth
Defined from ages 6 to 12
Child’s body weight doubles
Middle childhood nutrition
4- to 6-year-olds need 1,400 to 1,800 calories per day
Healthful to eat fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, and whole grains
Limit intake of fats, sugar, and starches

4. Figure 9.1: Growth Curves for Height and Weight.
Gains in height and weight are fairly steady during middle childhood.
Fig. 9-1, p. 178

5. Gender Similarities and Differences in Physical Growth
Boys
Slightly heavier and taller than girls through the age of 9 or 10
Develop more muscle
Spurt and grow taller and heavier than girls after about 13 or 14
Girls
Have adolescent growth spurt and surpass boys in height and weight until about 13 or 14
Develop more fat

6. Overweight in Children
Between 16% and 25% of children and adolescents in the United States are overweight or obese.
Most overweight children become overweight adults.
Overweight children rejected by peers, poor at sports, and less likely to be seen as attractive in adolescence
At greater risk of health problems throughout life

7. Figure 9.2: Overweight Children in America.
Percent of children (ages 6–11) and adolescents (ages 12–19) who are overweight, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
Fig. 9-2, p. 179

8. Causes of Being Overweight
Heredity contributes to being overweight.
Overweight parents may have poor exercise habits, encourage overeating, and keep unhealthful food in the home.
Children who watch TV extensively burn fewer calories and are more likely to be overweight adolescents.

9. Motor Development

10. Gross Motor Skills Age 6 or 7, children Age 8 to 10, children
hop, jump, climb, pedal, and balance bicycle
Age 8 to 10, children
develop balance, coordination, and strength, which allows them to engage in gymnastics and team sports
Myelination
Neural pathways that connect the cerebellum to the cortex are more myelinated
Reaction time
Improves (decreases) from early childhood to about age 18, but there are individual differences

11. Fine Motor Skills
At 6 to 7 years, children can tie shoelaces and hold pencils like adults do.
At 6 to 7 years, children can fasten buttons, zip zippers, brush teeth, wash themselves, coordinate a knife and fork, and use chopsticks.
Fine motor skills improve throughout childhood.

12. Between middle childhood and adolescence
Gender Differences
Boys
More forearm strength, which is good for swinging a bat or throwing a ball
At puberty, sex differences favoring boys increases
Girls
Greater limb coordination and overall flexibility aiding them in dancing, gymnastics, and balancing
Between middle childhood and adolescence
Physical activities become increasingly stereotyped by children as being masculine or feminine

13. Exercise and Fitness
Physically active adolescents have better self-image and coping skills than those who are inactive.
Cardiac and muscular fitness is developed by participating in running, walking quickly, swimming laps, bicycling, or jumping rope for several minutes at a time.
Schools and parents tend to focus on sports such as baseball and football, which are less apt to promote fitness.

14. Children with Disabilities

15. Children with Disabilities
Children with disabilities identified during middle childhood years when child enters school
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Child shows excessive inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity
The degree of hyperactivity is crucial
Typically occurs by age 7
Impairs ability to function at school
Sometimes overdiagnosed to encourage better behavior at school

16. Causes of ADHD
Genetic component to ADHD involving the brain chemical dopamine
Brain imaging has shown differences in the brain chemistry of children with ADHD.
ADHD may be due to lack of executive control of the brain over motor and more primitive functions.
Stimulants are effective with ADHD because they promote the activity of the brain chemicals dopamine and noradrenaline, stimulating the “executive center” of the brain to control more primitive areas of the brain.

17. Learning Disabilities
Some children who are intelligent and provided with enriched home environments cannot learn how to read (dyslexia) or do simple math problems.
Children are diagnosed with a learning disability when performing below the level expected for their age and intelligence, and when there is no evidence of other handicaps such as vision or hearing problems, retardation, or socioeconomic disadvantage.
The younger the child when remediation occurs, the better the chances of compensating for the disability.

18. Origins of Dyslexia Dyslexic individuals Dyslexic statistics
Sensory and neurological problems may contribute to reading problems.
Genetic factors may give rise to neurological problems or circulation problems in the left hemisphere of the brain.
Problems in the angular gyrus may give rise to reading problems.
Dyslexic statistics
25% to 65% of children who have one dyslexic parent are dyslexic themselves.
About 40% of the siblings of children with dyslexia are dyslexic.

19. Figure 9.3: Writing Sample of a Dyslexic Child.
Dyslexic children may perceive letters as upside down (confusing w with m) or reversed (confusing b with d), leading to rotations or reversals in writing, as shown here.
Fig. 9-3, p. 167

20. Educating Children with Disabilities
Treatment for dyslexia focuses on remediation.
Given highly structured exercises to help them become aware of how to blend sounds to form words
Evidence is mixed on whether placing disabled children in separate classes can also stigmatize them and segregate them from other children.
Mainstreaming: disabled children are placed in regular classrooms that have been adapted to their needs

21. Cognitive Development

22. Cognitive Development
Children make enormous strides in their cognitive development during middle childhood as their thought processes and language become more logical and complex.

23. Piaget: The Concrete-Operational Stage
Child enters concrete-operational stage around age 7
Concrete-operational thought is reversible and flexible
Children can reverse mathematical operations (e.g., = 5 can be reversed to 5 – 3 = 2)
Children less egocentric and are able to engage in decentration (focus on multiple parts of a problem at once)
At age 7, children understand law of conservation

24. Piaget: The Concrete-Operational Stage (cont’d)
Transitivity
If A exceeds B in some property and B exceeds C, then A must also exceed C
Seriation
Ability to place objects in a series by age, height, weight
Children can seriate two dimensions at once

25. Figure 9.4: A Grid for Demonstrating the Development of Seriation.
To classify these leaves, children must focus on two dimensions at once: size and lightness. They must also understand the principle of transitivity—that if A > B and B > C, then A > C.
Fig. 9-4, p. 185

26. Piaget: The Concrete-Operational Stage (cont’d)
Class inclusion
Focusing on two subclasses and larger subclass at the same time
Concrete-operational children understand class inclusion.
Piaget’s theory applied to education
Learning involves active discovery.
Instruction should be geared to the child’s level of development.
Learning to take into account the perspectives of others to develop cognition and morality

27. Moral Development: The Child as Judge

28. Moral Development: The Child as a Judge
On a cognitive level, moral development concerns the basis on which children make judgments that an act is right or wrong.
May be influenced by the values of the cultural settings in which they are reared, but also reflect the orderly unfolding of cognitive processes
Moral reasoning is related to the child’s overall cognitive development.

29. Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
Piaget believed children’s moral judgments develop in two overlapping stages: moral realism and autonomous morality.
Moral realism
Behavior is considered to be correct when it conforms to authority or to the rules of the game
Immanent justice or automatic retribution
Thinking that negative experiences are punishment for prior misdeeds, even when realistic causal links are absent
Ages 9 to 11, children show autonomous morality
Moral judgments become self-governed

30. Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Preconventional level
Children base moral judgments on the consequences of their behavior
Stage 1: toward being obedient and punishment
Stage 2: good behavior allows people to satisfy their own needs and the needs of others
Conventional level
Right and wrong are judged by conformity to conventional standards of right and wrong
Stage 3 focuses on being a good boy or girl in order to meet the needs and expectations of others
Stage 4 focuses on moral judgments met to keep social order
Stages 3 and 4 emerge during middle childhood

31. Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development (cont’d)
Postconventional level
Moral reasoning is based on person’s own moral standards
Adolescents and adults participate in moral reasoning at this level

32. Information Processing: Learning, Remembering, Problem Solving

33. Information Processing: Learning, Remembering, Problem Solving
Development of selective attention
Development of the capacity of memory and of children’s understanding of the processes of memory
Development of the ability to solve problems as, for example, by finding the correct formula and applying it

34. Development of Selective Attention
Ability to focus one’s attention and screen out distractions advances steadily
Preoperational children
Engaged in problem solving
Tend to focus their attention on one element of the problem at a time
Major reason they lack conservation
Concrete-operational children
Attend to multiple aspects of the problem at once
Permits them to conserve number and volume

35. Developments in The Storage and Retrieval of Information
Sensory memory
Visual impression of an object lasting for a fraction of a second

36. Working Memory (Short-Term Memory)
Focus on a stimulus in the sensory register
Tends to be retained in working memory for up to 30 seconds after the trace of the stimulus decays
Memory function in middle childhood
Similar to adult-like organization and strategies
Quantitative improvement through adolescence
Auditory stimuli can be maintained longer in short-term memory than can visual stimuli
Promoting memory
Encode visual stimuli as sounds
Rehearsing sounds that can be repeated out loud or mentally

37. Figure 9.6: The Structure of Memory.
Many psychologists divide memory into three processes or “structures.” Sensory information enters sensory memory, where memory traces are held briefly before decaying. If we attend to the information, much of it is transferred to working memory (also called short-term memory), where it may decay or be displaced if it is not transferred to long-term memory. We may use rehearsal (repetition) or elaborative strategies to transfer memories to long-term memory, from which memories can be retrieved with the proper cues.
Fig. 9-6, p. 190

38. Vast storehouse of information containing names, dates, places
Long-Term Memory
Vast storehouse of information containing names, dates, places
May last days, years, or a lifetime
No known limit to the amount of information that can be stored in long-term memory
Older children more likely than younger children to use rote rehearsal, or repetition, to remember
Elaborative strategy
Relating new material to known material
English teachers
Use an elaborative strategy when they have children use new words in sentences to help remember them

39. Organization in Long-Term Memory
Knowledge of concepts advances
Storehouse of long-term memory becomes organized according to categories
Preschoolers tend to organize their memories by grouping objects that share the same function.
Children are more likely to recall accurate information.
Knowledge in a particular area increases the capacity to store and retrieve related information.

40. Development of Recall Memory
Memory ability good indicator of child’s cognitive ability
4th graders more likely to categorize and recall pictures than 2nd graders

41. Development of Metacognition and Metamemory
Children’s knowledge and control of their cognitive abilities
Shown by ability to formulate problems, awareness of the processes required to solve a problem, activation of cognitive strategies, maintaining focus on the problem, and checking answers
Metamemory
Aspect of metacognition that refers to children’s awareness of the functioning of their memory
Store and retrieve information more effectively
Show more knowledge of strategies that can be used to facilitate memory

42. Intellectual Development, Creativity, and Achievement

43. Intellectual Development, Creativity, and Achievement
Intelligence
Child’s underlying competence or learning ability
Achievement
Child’s acquired competencies or performance
Competencies underlying intelligence manifest themselves during middle childhood when children are exposed to formal schooling.

44. Theories of Intelligence
Spearman
Intelligence has a common underlying factor, “g” (general intelligence), which represents broad reasoning and problem-solving abilities.
Thurstone
Intelligence consists of several specific factors or primary mental abilities, such as the ability to learn the meaning of words and visual-spatial abilities.

45. Theories of Intelligence (cont’d)
Sternberg
Constructed a three-part, or “triarchic,” theory of intelligence
Part 1: analytical intelligence
Academic ability
Part 2: creative intelligence
Ability to cope with novel situations and to profit from experience
Part 3: practical intelligence
Adapt to the demands of their environment, including the social environment

46. Figure 9.8: Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence.
Robert Sternberg views intelligence as three-pronged: as having analytical, creative, and practical aspects.
Fig. 9-8, p. 193

47. Theories of Intelligence (cont’d)
Gardner
Believed intelligence reflects more than academic ability
Theory based on multiple intelligences
Multiple intelligences can include verbal ability, logical-mathematical reasoning, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and personal knowledge.

48. Figure 9.9: Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
Gardner argues that there are many intelligences, and that each has its neurological bases in its own parts of the brain.
Fig. 9-9, p. 194

49. Measurement of Intellectual Development
Binet-Simon scale
Yields a score called a mental age (MA)
MA shows the intellectual level at which a child is functioning
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
Yields an intelligence quotient, or IQ
IQ states the relationship between a child’s mental age and his/her actual or chronological age (CA)
IQ equals MA divided by CA times 100
IQ today is compared to those performances of other people of the same age

50. Table 9-2, p. 195

51. Measurement of Intellectual Development (cont’d)
Wechsler scales
Developed for use with school-aged children (WISC), younger children (WPPSI), and adults (WAIS)
Groups test questions in subtests that measure different intellectual tasks
Suggests children’s strengths and weakness as well as provide overall measures of intellectual functioning

52. The Testing Controversy
Cultural bias
Scoring well on intelligence test requires a certain type of cultural experience
Culture-free
Evaluates reasoning ability through the child’s comprehension of the rules that govern a progression of geometric designs
Middle-class children still outperform lower-class children
Tests do not predict academic success as well as other tests

53. Figure 9.12: Sample Items from Cattell’s Culture-Fair Intelligence Test.
Culture-fair tests attempt to exclude items that discriminate on the basis of cultural background rather than intelligence.
Fig. 9-12, p. 198

54. Patterns of Intellectual Development
School may help crystallize intellectual functioning around age 6.
Middle childhood
Undergo more stable patterns of gains in intellectual functioning
Intelligence tests gain greater predictive power
Individual differences still exist
Changes in the home, socioeconomic circumstances, and education influence changes in IQ scores.

55. Intellectual Disability
Mental retardation (MR)
Disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills
Involves IQ score of no more than 70 to 75
Down syndrome children
More likely to be moderately retarded
Can learn to speak, dress, feed, clean themselves, and eventually engage in useful work
Cultural-familial retardation
Biologically normal children that do not develop normally due to impoverished home environment

56. Educators’ criteria for intelligence
Giftedness
Involves more than excellence on the tasks provided by standard intelligence tests
Educators’ criteria for intelligence
Outstanding abilities
Capable of high performance in a specific academic area, such as language or mathematics
Show creativity, leadership, distinction in the visual or performing arts, or bodily talents, as in gymnastics and dancing

57. Socioeconomic and Ethnic Differences in IQ
Lower-class African-American children obtain IQ scores between 10 and 15 points lower than those obtained by middle- and upper-class children.
African-American, Latino- and Latina-American, and Native-American children all tend to score below the norms for European Americans.
Youths of Asian descent frequently outscore youths of European backgrounds on achievement tests in math and science, including the math portion of the SAT.

58. Creativity and Intellectual Development
Ability to do things that are novel and useful
Creative children and adults solve problems where there is no tried and true solution.
Take chances and appreciate art and music
Challenge social norms
Moderate relationship between IQ score and creativity
Convergent thinking
Process children use to answer questions on an IQ test
Divergent thinking
Child associates freely to the elements of the problem; more creative

59. Determinants of Intellectual Development
MZ twins have a high concordance rate on IQ scores (+0.85)
MZ twins reared apart still show correlation
Correlation between children and natural parents vary from about to +0.59
Heritability between 40% and 60%
Stronger correlation of adoptive parents and adopted children when IQ of adoptive parents was similar to IQ of natural parents
Environmental stimulation increases IQ whether child is adopted, biological, or low SES.

60. Language Development and Literacy

61. Vocabulary and Grammar
By age 6, vocabulary at 10,000 words
Semantic sophistication by 7 to 9 years old
Subtle advances made in articulation during middle childhood
Children use connectives (conjunctions) and can form indirect object-direct object constructions

62. Methods of Teaching Reading
Word-recognition method
Associates visual stimuli with the sound combinations that produce spoken words
Phonetic method
Children first learn to associate written letters and letter combinations with the sounds they indicate
Helps with decoding
Sight vocabulary
Recognizing useful words such as one’s name, and such signs as danger, stop, and poison

63. Bilingualism: Linguistic Perspectives on the World
Approximately 50 million of Americans speak a different language than English at home.
Bilingual children not cognitively delayed
Half of Spanish-speaking children at home are proficient in both languages
Bilingualism contributes to the complexity of the child’s cognitive processes.
Bilingual children understand symbols used in language are arbitrary