CHAPTER 4: MIDDLE CHILDHOOD.

Middle childhood is the period that goes from 7 to 12 years. In this stage, according
with Piaget, children are in the formal-operational stage inside of cognitive
development. It is characterized by concrete operations, children become less
egocentric, rarely confuse appearances with reality, and are able to reverse their
thinking. Now, they solve perspective-taking and conservation problems correctly.
Thinking at this stage is limited to the concrete and the real.

Children use different strategies to improve learning and remembering. They use them
to transfer information from working memory, a temporary store of information, to
long-term memory, a permanent store of knowledge. Children begin to rehearse at about
age 7 or 8 and take up other strategies as they grow older. The effective use of strategies
for learning and remembering begins with an analysis of the goals of a learning task and
monitoring one’s performance to determine whether the strategy is working.

There are different approaches of the nature of intelligence. Traditional include theories
that describe intelligence as a general factor as well as theories that include specific
factors. For example, Hierarchical theories include both general intelligence and
various specific skills, such as verbal and spatial ability. Another one is Gardner’s
theory of multiple intelligences which proposes nine distinct intelligences. These
intelligences are: linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial intelligence, musical,
bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential intelligence.
According to Robert Sternberg, intelligence is defined as using abilities to achieve
short- and long-term goals and depends on three abilities: analytic ability to analyse a
problem and generate a solution, creative ability to deal adaptively with novel
situations, and practical ability to know what solutions will work.

To measure the intelligence, Binet created the first intelligence test to identify students
who would have difficulty in school. Using this work, Terman created the Stanford-
Binet in 1916; it remains an important intelligence test. The Stanford-Binet introduced
the concept of the intelligence quotient: (IQ): MA/CA × 100. These Intelligence tests
are reasonably valid measures of achievement in school and they also predict people’s
performance in the workplace and their longevity. It has been proven how the
environment and genetics influence intelligence.

Traditionally, gifted children have high scores on IQ tests. However defined, giftedness
must be nurtured by parents and teachers alike. Contrary to folklore, gifted children
usually are socially mature and emotionally stable. Nevertheless, individuals with
intellectual disability have IQ scores of 70 or lower and deficits in adaptive behavior.
Biomedical, social, behavioral, and educational factors place children at risk for
intellectual disability. Children with learning disability have normal intelligence but
have difficulty mastering specific academic subjects. Furthermore, some children have
ATDH and they are distinguished by being hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive.

According reading, the word recognition is the process of identifying a word. Beginning
readers more often accomplish this by sounding out words; advanced readers more often
retrieve a word from long-term memory. Comprehension improves with age as a result
of vocabulary and working memory improvement.

About writing, it improves as children develop because they know more about the world
and so have more to say. Moreover, they use more effective ways of organizing their
writing, they master the mechanics of and they become more skilled at revising their
writing.

It is clear that schools influences in students’ achievement in many ways. Students are
most likely to achieve when their school emphasizes academic excellence, has a safe
and nurturing environment, monitors pupils’ and teachers’ progress, and encourages
parents to be involved.

According to the physical development, in the elementary school children grow at a

steady pace, but more so in their legs than in the trunk. Boys and girls tend to be about
the same size for most of these years. At this age, motor skills improve substantially,
reflecting children’s greater size and strength. Girls tend to excel in fine motor skills
that emphasize dexterity as well as in gross motor skills that require flexibility and
balance; boys tend to excel in gross motor skills that emphasize strength.

The family environment is very important. One key factor in parent–child relationships
is the degree of warmth that parents express: Children clearly benefit from warm, caring
parents. A second factor is control, which is complicated because neither too much nor
too little control is desirable. Effective parental control involves setting appropriate
standards, enforcing them, and trying to anticipate conflicts. Taking into account both
warmth and control, four prototypic parental styles emerge: Authoritarian parents are
controlling but uninvolved; authoritative parents are fairly controlling but are also
responsive to their children; permissive parents are loving but exert little control; and
uninvolved parents are neither warm nor controlling. Authoritative parenting seems best
for children in terms of both cognitive and social development, but important exceptions
are associated with culture and socioeconomic status. Parents influence development by
direct instruction and coaching. In addition, parents serve as models for their children,
who sometimes imitate parents’ behavior directly. Parenting is influenced by
characteristics of children themselves. A child’s age and temperament will influence
how a parent tries to exert control over the child. The birth of a sibling can be stressful
for children, particularly when they are still young and parents ignore their needs.
Siblings get along better when they are of the same sex, believe that parents treat them
similarly, enter adolescence, and have parents who get along well.

Friendships among preschoolers are based on common interests and their ability to get
along well. As children grow, loyalty, trust, and intimacy become more important
features in their friendships. Friends are usually similar in age, sex, race, and attitudes.
Children with friends are more skilled socially and are better adjusted.

When they are older (adolescents) often form cliques—small groups of like-minded
individuals—that become part of a crowd. Some crowds have higher status than others,
and members of higher-status crowds often have higher selfesteem than members of
lower-status crowds. Common to most groups is a dominance hierarchy, a welldefined
structure with a leader at the top. Physical power often determines the dominance
hierarchy, particularly among boys. However, with older children and adolescents,
dominance hierarchies are more often based on skills that are important to the group.

Other important point is the electronic media impact. TV programs can cause children
to become more aggressive, to adopt gender stereotypes, and to act prosocially.
However, programs designed to foster children’s cognitive skills are very effective. At
home, children and adolescents use computers a lot of time to watch videos, to play
video games (and are influenced by the content of the games they play) and to
communicate with friends via social media sites.

Children’s descriptions of others change in much the same way children’s descriptions
of themselves change. During the early elementary school years, descriptions emphasize
concrete characteristics. In the late elementary school years, they emphasize personality
traits. In adolescence, they emphasize providing an integrated picture of others.

Understanding of others’ thinking change as children develop. According to Selman’s

theory, children’s understanding of how others think progresses through five stages. In
the first (undifferentiated) stage, children often confuse their own and another person’s
view. In the last (societal) stage, adolescents can take a third-person perspective and
know that this perspective is influenced by context.

Finally, Prejudice, which emerges in the preschool years and becomes stronger in the
elementary-school years, is a common by product of children’s efforts to categorize
social groups. Ways to reduce prejudice include exposure to individuals from other
social groups and by educating children about the ills of prejudice.

In my opinion, this stage has a great relevance and importance for the child because
there are numerous processes at the cognitive level, specific operations, and
socialization that will be decisive for the complete development of the child. Some
children who fail to meet these elementary needs (affective, nutritional, health and other
deficiencies) will have problems leading to an adequate adult life.