P 123

MASTERY IN THEORIES OF PERSONALITY/DEVELOPMENTAL

PSYCHOLOGY MODULE 06: Part 1
Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

 Identify the physical changes in middle childhood

 Discuss the changes in cognitive development in middle childhood

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT ASPECTS

 Physical development is less rapid in middle childhood
 They add up to a startling difference between 6-year-olds, who are still small children, and
11-year-olds than in earlier years.
HEIGHT AND WEIGHT
 Children grow about 2 to 3 inches each year between ages 6 and 11 and approximately
double their weight during that period.
NUTRITION AND SLEEP
 Proper nutrition and sleep are essential for normal growth and health.
 Sleep needs decline from 12.5 hours a day for 3-to 5-year-olds to 10 hours a day for ages 6 to
13.
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
 Changes in brain structure and functioning support cognitive advances.
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AND PHYSICAL PLAY
 Because of improved motor development, boys and girls in middle childhood can engage in a
wide of motor activities.
 Recess – the games children play at recess tend to be informal. Most of recess activity
involves socializing with peers.
 Boys’ games rend to be more physical and girls’ games more verbal.
 Many children, mostly boys, engage in organized, competitive sports.
 A sound physical education program should aim at skill development and fitness for all children.
 Rough-and-tumble play
o Vigorous play involving wrestling, hitting, and chasing, often
accompanied by laughing and screaming
HEALTH, FITNESS, AND SAFETY
 Middle childhood is a relatively healthy period, most children are immunized against major
illnesses, and the death rate is the lowest in the life span.
OBESITY AND BODY IMAGE
 Body image
o Descriptive and evaluative beliefs about one’s appearance.
 It is influenced by genetic and environmental factors and is more easily prevented
than treated.
 Many children do not get enough physical activity.
 Hypertension is becoming more common along with the rise in overweight.
OTHER MEDICAL CONDITIONS
 Acute medical conditions - Illnesses that last a short time.
 Chronic medical conditions - Illnesses or impairments that persist for at least 3 months.
 Asthma - A chronic respiratory disease characterized by sudden attacks of coughing,
wheezing, and difficulty in breathing.
 Respiratory infections and other acute medical conditions are common at this age.
 Chronic conditions such as asthma are most prevalent among poor and minority children.
 Diabetes is one of the most common childhood chronic conditions.
ACCIDENTAL INJURIES
 Accidents are the leading cause of death in middle childhood.
 Use of helmets and other protective devices and avoidance of trampolines, snowmobiling,
and other dangerous sports can greatly reduce injuries.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piagetian Approach: The Concrete Operational Child
 Concrete operations - Third stage of Piagetian cognitive development (approximately ages
7 to 12), during which children develop logical but not abstracting thinking.
COGNITIVE ADVANCES
 A child from about age 7 to age 12 is in the stage of concrete operations.
 Children are less egocentric than before and are more proficient at tasks requiring logical
reasoning, such as spatial thinking, understanding of causality, categorization, inductive and
deductive reasoning, and conservation.
 Spatial Relationships: Children are more easily to navigate a physical environment with which
they have experience, and training help them improve
spatial skills as well.
 Ex: Hilda can use a map to help her find the way to school.
 Causality: Another key development during middle adulthood involves the ability to
make judgments about cause and effect.
Ex: When 5- to 12-year-old children are asked to predict how balance scales work, older
children give more correct answers.
 Categorization:
Seriation
o Ability to order items along dimension, such as time (earliest to latest), length
(shortest to latest), or color (lightest to darkest)
Transitive inferences
o Understanding the relationship between two objects by knowing the relationship of
each to a third object.
Ex: Mateo is shown three sticks. He is shown that the yellow stick is shorter than the
green stick and is then shown that the green stick is shorter than the blue stick. Mateo
being able to understand that the yellow stick is shorter than the blue stick without
physically comparing them.

 Class inclusion
o Understanding of the relationship between a whole and its parts.
o Children at this age, are able to understand that roses are a subcategory of the flowers,
and that there are therefore more flowers than there are roses.

 Inductive reasoning
o Type of logical reasoning that moves from particular observations about members of a
class to a general conclusion about that class.
Examples:
One neighbor’s dog bark, and another neighbor’s dog barks, then conclusion
might be that all dogs bark
 Another example of inductive logic would be noticing that every time you are around a
cat, you have itchy eyes, a runny nose, and a swollen
throat. You might then reason from that experience that you are allergic to cats.

 Conservation
o Piaget’s term for awareness that two objects that are equal according to certain measure
remain equal in the face of perceptual alteration so long as nothing has been added to or
taken away from either object.
o Michael, for example, will say that the ball and the snake still contain the same amount
of clay (two identical clay balls is rolled into a long thin snake). However, their
reasoning is largely limited to the here and now.
INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH: PLANNING, ATTENTION, AND
MEMORY
 Executive skills, reaction time, processing speed, selective attention, metamemory, and use of
mnemonic devices improve during the school years.
 Executive Function:
o Conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or solve
problems.
o Enables school-age children to plan and use strategies, or deliberate techniques, to
help them remember.
 Selective Attention:
o School-age children can concentrate longer than younger children and can focus on the
information they need and want while screening out irrelevant information.
 Development of Memory Strategies
o Mnemonic device: a strategy to aid memory.
Ex: Writing down a telephone number is an example
o Rehearsal: Mnemonic strategy to keep an item in working memory through
conscious repetition.
Ex: Saying a telephone number over and over after looking it up, so as not to forget it
before dialing.
o Organization: Mnemonic strategy of categorizing material to be
remembered.
Ex: Animals, furniture, vehicles and clothing to make it easier to recall.
PSYCHOMETRIC APPROACH: ASSESSMENT OF INTELLIGENCE
 IQ tests are fairly good predictors of school success but may be unfair to some children.
 Two most commonly used:
 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV)
o The most widely used individual test.
o Individual intelligence test for school-age children, which yields verbal and
performance scores as well as a combined score.
 Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT8)
o Group intelligence test for kindergarten through 12th grade

Influences on Intelligence
 Brain Development: Intelligence is highly heritable, and one mechanism of genetic
action may be via brain development and structure.
 Influence of Schooling on IQ: Schooling increases tested intelligence
 Influences of Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status on IQ:
 Differences in IQ among ethnic groups appear to result to a considerable degree from
socioeconomic and other environmental differences.
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence:
 IQ tests tap only three of the intelligences in Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.
 Gardner identified eight independent kinds of intelligence
o Linguistic: ability to use or understand words
o Logical-mathematical: ability to manipulate numbers and solve logical problems
o Spatial: ability to one’s way around in an environment and judge relationships
between objects in space
o Musical: ability to perceive and create patterns of pitch and rhythm
o Bodily-kinesthetic: ability to move with precision
o Interpersonal: ability to understand and communicate with others
o Intrapersonal: ability to understand the self
o Naturalist: ability to distinguish species and their characteristics
 Robert J. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Sternberg focuses on the processes
involved in intelligent behavior. In this approach, intelligence consists
of three elements: componential, experiential, and contextual intelligence.
o Componential Element: the analytic aspect of intelligence. It helps people solve
problems, monitor solutions, and evaluate the results.
o Experiential Element: is insightful or creative; it determines how people approach
novel or familiar tasks.
o Contextual Element: is practical; it helps people deal with their
environment
  The Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT) – seeks to measure each of the three aspects
of intelligence.
Other Directions in Intelligence Testing:
 Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC-II)
o Nontraditional individual intelligence test designed to provide fair assessments
of minority children and children with disabilities.
 Dynamic tests
o Tests based on Vygotsky’s theory that emphasize potential rather than past learning.

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

 Use of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax become increasingly sophisticated, but the major area of
linguistic growth is in pragmatics.
 Methods of second-language education are controversial.
 Issues include speed and facility with English, long-term achievement in academic
subjects, and pride in cultural identity.
 Despite the popularity of whole-language program, early phonetics training is a key to reading
proficiency Pragmatics
 The social context of language.
 It includes both conversational and narrative skills.
English-immersion approach
 Approach to teaching English as a second language in which instruction is presented only
in English. Bilingual education
 System of teaching non-English speaking children in their native language while they learn
English, and later switching to all-English instruction.
Bilingual
 Fluent in two languages.
Two-way (dual-language) learning
 Approach to second-language education in which English speakers and non- English-speakers
learn together in their own and each other’s languages.
THE CHILD IN SCHOOL
 Because schooling is cumulative, the foundation laid in first grade is very important.
 Children’s self-efficacy beliefs affect school achievement.
 Girls tend to do better in school than boys.
 Parents influence children’s learning by becoming involved in their schooling, motivating
them to achieve, and transmitting attitudes about learning.
 Socioeconomic status can influence parental beliefs and practices that, in turn, influence
achievement.
  Peer acceptance and class size affect learning. Current educational issues and innovations
include social promotion, charter schools homeschooling, and computer literacy
o Social capital
Family and community resources on which a person can draw.
EDUCATING CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
 Three frequent sources of learning problems are intellectual disability, learning disabilities
(LDs), and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Intellectual disability
 Significantly subnormal cognitive functioning.
 Also referred as cognitive disability or mental retardation.
Dyslexia
 Developmental disorder in which reading achievement is substantially lower than predicted
by IQ or age. Learning disabilities (LDs)
 Disorders that interfere with specific aspects of learning and school achievement.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
 Syndrome characterized by persistent inattention and distractibility, impulsivity, low tolerance
for frustration, and inappropriate overactivity.
GIFTED CHILDREN: The traditional criterion of gifted children is high general intelligence as
shown by an IQ score of 130 or higher.
Enrichment programs
 Programs for educating the gifted that broaden and deepen knowledge and skills through extra
activities, projects, field trips, or mentoring.
Acceleration programs
 Programs for educating the gifted that move them through the curriculum at an unusually rapid
pace.
References:
Papalia, D., & Matorell, G. (2021) Experience human development. USA: McGraw-Hill