Growth & Development of School age child (6 – 12 years old)

Physical
Weight
 Gains 2 – 3 kg (4.4 – 6.6 lbs) per year which almost doubles weight
 Average 6-year old is 21 kg (46.3 lbs)
 Average 12-year-old is 40 kg (88.2 lbs)
Height
 Gains 5 cm (2 inches) per year
 Average 6-year-old is 116 cm (46 inches)
 Average 12-year-old is 150 cm (59 inches)
* There is no difference in size during this period, BUT boys may be slightly taller
and heavier*
 Toward of school-age period both sexes begin to increase in size BUT most
girls begin to surpass boys in both height & weight
Indicators of maturity in school-age
 Decreased head circumference in relation to standing height
 Decreased waist circumference in relation to height
 Increased leg length related to height
Maturation of systems
Nutrition
 Calorie requirements continue to decrease lower than in pre-schooler
 Reduces need to be fed regularly
Urinary system
 Bladder capacity is normally greater in girls than boys
Cardiovascular system
 Heart grows more slower and is smaller in relation to the body than at any other
period of life
 Heart rate & respiratory rate continues to decrease, and blood pressure increases
between 6 – 12 years old
Immune system
 Better able to localize infections and produce antibody – antigen response
 Tend to get frequent infections during 1st – 2nd year of school while immunity
develops
 Bones resist pressure and muscles pull less than mature bones
 As a result of incomplete mineralization
Prepubescence
 Is the 2-year period between the end of school age – 13 years old that occurs
during preadolescence
 First physiologic signs appear at 9-years-old (mostly girls) and are most evident
between 11 – 12 years old
 Puberty generally begins no earlier than 10-years-old in girls and 12-years-old
in boys BUT onset after 8-years-old is normal
 Average age of puberty is 12-years-old in girls and 14-years-old in boys
Psychosocial Development – Industry vs Inferiority
 Industry is a sense of accomplishment in technologic and social skills
(cooperate and compete with others and ability to cope with others)

 marks a child’s entrance into

society
 and an opportunity for them to
find a satisfying
 and meaningful role in the world.
If successful,
 they will develop a sense of
industry and become
 successful producers of what is
valued by the
 wider society. If they fail to
develop industry,
 however, they will instead fall
into a sense of
 inferiority and have doubts about
their value to
 society and experience
impediments to viewing
 themselves as contributing
meaningfully
 marks a child’s entrance into
society
 and an opportunity for them to
find a satisfying
 and meaningful role in the world.
If successful,
 they will develop a sense of
industry and become
 successful producers of what is
valued by the
 wider society. If they fail to
develop industry,
 however, they will instead fall
into a sense of
 inferiority and have doubts about
their value to
 society and experience
impediments to viewing
 themselves as contributing
meaningfully
 is the stage in which chil-
 dren enter into the greater society
beyond the
 family for the first time. If they
succeed in navi-
 gating this stage, then they are
able to develop a
 meaningful social role to give
back to society.
 They will become industrious,
namely, productive
  and contributing members to
society as a whole. If
 they do not succeed at this stage,
they may
 develop low self-esteem,
culminating in a sense
 of inferiority, namely, viewing
themselves as
 unproductive and possibly not
fully useful mem-
 bers of society
 Stage in which children enter the greater society beyond family for the first time.
If they succeed in this stage, they are able to develop a meaningful social role to
give back to society
 They become productive and contributing members to society.
 If they do not succeed and cannot develop the specific skill they feel society is
demanding (e.g., being athletic) then they may develop low self-esteem
leading to a sense of inferiority seeing themselves as unproductive and not
fully useful members of society
Cognitive Development (Concrete operational stage) - 7-11 years old
 Logical thinking begins BUT can only apply logic to physical objects
 Can perform mental & physical operations
 Egocentricity declines and child becomes aware of other persons perspectives
 Begins to make decisions based on what they reason (conceptual thinking)
rather than on what they see (perceptual thinking)
Conception of conservation begins to develop, where the child gains ability to
understand that redistributing material does not affect its mass, number, volume OR
length.
 Use 3 concepts to explain observations in conservation:
1.Identity: Nothing has been added, taken away even though shape had changed
so it is still the same
2.Reversibility: the logical principle that something that has been changed can be
returned to its original state by reversing the process of change (counting
backward then forwards)
3.Reciprocity: the logical principle that occurs when two things change in
opposite ways in order to balance each other out (a ball of call can may be
thick but flatten out may be thin but is the same amount OR 7 remains 7
even if it is written as 3+4, 5+2, seven buttons)
 Recognize that logical operations can move in two directions (addition &
subtraction, division & multiplication)
 Conservation of Numbers occurs at 5 – 6 years old
 Conservation of Liquids, Mass and Length at approx. 6 -7 years old
 CoSnservation of Weight at 9 – 10 years old
 Conservation of Volume or Displacement at 9 – 12 years old
 Do not have to experience an action before they can anticipate the results
Classification skills
 Can group objects according to the attributes that they have in common
 School-aged children enjoy classifying by making collections of different objects
(dolls, cars) and ordering by ordering friends and family (first best friend,
second best friend)
 As the child gets older the become more precise in what they collect and
they do not just collect for the sake of collecting
Seriation
 Can arrange objects according to some ordinal scale such as size, weight OR
colour
 Can understand relational terms and concepts such as bigger & smaller, heavier
& lighter
 Can see family relationships in terms of reciprocal roles (to be a mother you
have to have a child)
*Can read*

Moral Development (Preconventional reasoning) – 5 years old

 Perceives an action is one based on the opinions of others and based on the
reward OR punishment an action produces
Language Development
 Can give directives correctly that others understand without visual data (giving
directions over the phone)
 Should be able to use factitive words (know, think, believe), complex
pronouns (whom, which, who, that) and conjunctions (and, if, but) by 10 – 12
years old
 7-year-olds can tell the time in hours, but they may have trouble with concepts
such as “half past” and “quarter to’’
 They know the months of the year and can name the months in which holidays
fall.
 They can add and subtract and make simple change (if they have had
experience)
 Sense of humor is evident by 12 – years – old

Socialization
 Begin to have less emotions
 Secure in their dependency on their parents and family
 Identifying with their peers strongly influences children in gaining independence
from parents

Social relationships and Cooperation

 Daily relationships with children of same age provides social interactions
 Valuable lessons are learnt
 They are now able to join in group activities with unrestrained enthusiasm and steady
participation
 First, children learn to appreciate the numerous and varies points of view that are represented
in the peer group]
 Learn to argue, persuade, bargain, cooperate and compromise to maintain friendship
 Second, they become more sensitive to the social norms and pressure of the peer group
 Peer group establishes standards for acceptance and rejection, children may be willing to
modify their behaviour in order to be accepted by the group
 May be based on the skills they possess, physical impression they convey among other things
 Child conforms to the norms of the group inorder to be accepted
 Third, interaction among peers leads to the formation of intimate friendships between same-
sex peers
 The child may have a ‘bestfriend’ whom they share secrets, private jokes and adventures and
come to each other’s assistance when in trouble
 They may fight, threaten, break up and then reunite

Clubs & Peer Groups

 The child in early school-age first hangs around group watching, learning, practicing skills
and participating in group activities then in late school-age they become full-time members
  Conforming to group rules gives the child security and relieves them of the responsibility
of making decisions
 Membership gives child a comfortable place in society
 Become self-conscious when they can’t dress like other children, do not have spending
money OR if they appear different
 Poor relationships with peers and lack of group identification can contribute to bullying
 Bullying leads to defiant, antisocial, impulsive behaviour, with the child usually breaking
school rules and being easily frustrated

Relationships with families

 Parents are the primary influence in shaping children’s personalities, setting standards for
behaviour and establishing value systems
 When there is a conflict between peer value systems and family value systems, family values
usually are dominant
 Child may want to spend more time with peers than family
 Begin to discover that parents can be wrong and begin to question the knowledge and
authority of their parents
 Child feels safe knowing someone is superior to them to implement control and restrictions
Play
 Conformity & rituals characterize school-age play
 Play now has set rules that have to be followed
 They have a lot of chants such as ‘eeny, meeny,miney mo’ and taunts such as ‘last one is a
rotten egg’
 Team play develops from peer interaction and helps learn child about the nature of competition
as well as social, intellectual and skill growth
 Enjoy learning new skills

Fears
 School-age children less fearful of body safety BUT still fear being hurt, kidnapped, OR
going surgery
 Fear death and are fascinated by all aspects of death and dying
 Less fearful of noises, darkness, storms and dogs
 Most fears in school-age are related to school & family such as fear of failing, teachers and
bullies OR something bad happening to parent
 The child should be encouraged to verbalize fears to prevent the development of displaced
fears OR phobias later in life
Nutrition
 School based interventions:
o Have young children collect pictures of healthy foods and make a poster for display
o Make healthy foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat snacks) available in
school vending machines and at school events
o Avoid use of food as a reward behaviour
Sleep & Rest
 May sleep walk OR talk
o
Dental
 First permanent tooth erupts by 6-years-old with molar