Chapter 9:
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Source: Papalia & Martorell (15th ed.), Santrock (17th ed.), Boyd & Bee (7th ed.)
Aspects of Physical Development
• Height and Weight
o Children grow about 2 to 3 inches each year between
ages 6 and 11 and approximately double their weight
during that period.
o Girls retain somewhat more fatty tissue than boys.
• Dental Health
o Globally, about 560 million children have untreated
tooth decay in their permanent teeth.
o Untreated dental caries can result in pain, difficulties
chewing food, missed school, problems with
concentration, and discomfort with appearance.
• Nutrition
o The recommended calories per day for schoolchildren
9 to 13 years of age range from 1,400 to 2,600,
depending on gender and activity level.
• Sleep
o Sleep needs decline from 10 to 13 hours a day for 3-
to 5-year-olds to 9 to 11 hours a day for ages 6 to 13.
o Failure to get adequate sleep is also associated with
a variety of adjustment problems.
o Sleep quality, sleep duration, and daytime sleepiness
have all been found to affect academic performance
and seem to affect younger children, particularly boys,
to a greater degree.
o Short sleep duration in children is associated with
later risk of obesity.
• Brain Development
o The overall volume of gray matter (neurons without
myelin sheath) increases rapidly after birth, peaking
in childhood. Then, in late childhood, it begins to
decline and stabilizes at some point in the third
decade.
o Losses in gray matter density reflect maturation of
various regions of the cortex, permitting more efficient
functioning.
o The loss in density of gray matter with age is balanced
by another change: a steady increase in white matter.
o Changes in the density of the white matter in the
corpus callosum may also underlie the advances
seen in fine motor control in late childhood.
• Motor Development and Physical Activity
o The decreases in physical activity are likely to result
in weight gain and declines in health, and are likely to
more severely impact urban children without access
to safe outdoor spaces.
o Children with access to outdoor spaces such as a
yard were more likely to engage in physical activity
and less likely to show signs of depression or anxiety
or fight with their family members.
Physical Health
• Overweight and Obesity
o Children are more likely to be overweight if they have
overweight parents or other relatives, or are inactive.
o Obese and overweight children commonly have
medical problems, including high blood pressure, high
cholesterol, and high insulin levels, or they may
develop such diseases at a younger age.
• Chronic Medical Conditions
o Asthma
▪ A chronic respiratory disease characterized
by sudden attacks of coughing, wheezing,
and difficulty in breathing.
o Diabetes
▪ Characterized by high levels of glucose in
the blood as a result of defective insulin
production, ineffective insulin action, or
both.
▪ Disease in which the body does not
produce or properly use insulin.
o Childhood Hypertension
▪ Chronically high blood pressure.
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Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood
▪ Risk factors include obesity or overweight,
salt intake, sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep
quality, and race.
Cognitive Development
Piagetian Approach: Concrete Operations (~7 – 12 years old)
• Children develop logical but not abstract thinking.
• Spatial Relationships
o Children are more easily able to navigate a physical
environment with which they have experience, and
training can help improve spatial skills as well.
• Causality
o Children are better at causal reasoning when they
have the opportunity to explain and collaborate with
others.
• Categorization
o Seriation
▪ Arranging objects in a series according to
one or more dimensions (time, length, or
color).
o Transitive Inferences
▪ Understanding the relationship between
two objects by knowing the relationship of
each to a third object.
▪ If a < b and b < c, then a < c.
o Class Inclusion
▪ Ability to see the relationship between a
whole and its parts, and to understand the
categories within a whole.
• Inductive Reasoning
o Type of logical reasoning that moves from particular
or specific observations about members of a class to
a general conclusion about that class.
• Deductive Reasoning
o Type of logical reasoning that moves from a general
premise about a class to a conclusion about a
particular or specific member or members of the
class.
• Conservation
o Children are focused on appearances and have
difficulty with abstract concepts.
o Horizontal Decalage
▪ Inability to transfer learning about one type
of problem to other types of problems
sharing the same conceptual
underpinnings.
• Number and Mathematics
o By age 6 or 7, many children can count in their heads.
o By age 9, most children can count up and down.
o The ability to estimate progresses with age.
Information-Processing Approach: Planning, Attention, and Memory
• Executive Function
o Conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions
to accomplish goals or solve problems.
o The prefrontal cortex, the region that enables
planning, judgment, and decision making, shows
significant development during this period.
 o Involves the development of self-regulatory capacity, autism, hearing impairments, and language
including the ability to regulate attention, inhibit disorders) and from varying cultural and
responses, and monitor errors. linguistic backgrounds.
• Selective Attention o Dynamic Tests
o It is the ability to deliberately direct one’s attention and ▪ Tests based on Vygotsky’s theory that
shut out distractions. emphasize potential rather than past
o School-age children can concentrate longer than learning.
younger children and can focus on the information • Influences on Intelligence
they need and want while screening out irrelevant o Brain Development
information. ▪ Intelligence is highly heritable.
o The increasing capacity for selective attention is ▪ Intelligence is highest in those children
believed to be due to neurological maturation and is whose cortex thins most quickly or whose
one of the reasons memory improves during middle white matter develops most rapidly.
childhood. ▪ The efficiency and integration of brain
• Working Memory processes, both at the global and specific
o Involves the short-term storage of information that is level, are associated with intellectual
being actively processed, like a mental workspace. functioning.
o Between the ages of 6 and 10, there are o Influences of Schooling on IQ
improvements in processing speed and storage ▪ IQ scores drop during summer vacation
capacity. and rise again during the academic year.
• Mnemonics ▪ Scores attained on various educational
o External Memory Aids assessment tests are strongly correlated
▪ Mnemonic strategies using something with IQ.
outside the person. • More Than One Intelligence
Example: o Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
▪ Writing down a telephone number ▪ Each person has several distinct forms of
▪ Making a list intelligence.
▪ Setting a timer ▪ High intelligence in one area does not
o Rehearsal necessarily accompany high intelligence in
▪ Mnemonic strategy to keep an item in any of the others.
working memory through conscious
repetition.
Example:
▪ Saying a telephone number over and
over after looking it up
o Organization
▪ Mentally placing information into categories
to make it easier to recall.
o Elaboration
▪ Mnemonic strategy of making mental
associations involving items to be
remembered.
• Metamemory
o Understanding of processes of memory.
o Children’s metamemory abilities continue to progress
through adolescence and quite possibly longer. o Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
▪ Componential Element
Psychometric Approach: Intelligence • Analytic aspect.
• Measuring Intelligence • Determines s how efficiently
o Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) people process information.
▪ Most widely used individual test. • Helps people solve problems,
▪ For ages 6 – 16. monitor solutions, and evaluate
▪ Measures verbal and performance abilities, the results.
yielding separate scores for each as well as ▪ Experiential Element
a total score. • Insightful or creative.
o Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale • Determines how people approach
▪ Measures both verbal and nonverbal novel or familiar tasks.
abilities. • Enables people to compare new
▪ Consists of five subtests: fluid reasoning, information with what they
knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual- already know and to think
spatial processing, and working memory. originally.
o Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT8) ▪ Contextual Element
▪ Has levels for kindergarten through 12th • Practical
grade. • Helps people deal with their
▪ Group test environment.
▪ Children are asked to classify items, show • Ability to size up a situation and
an understanding of verbal and numerical decide what to do.
concepts, display general information, and ▪ Tacit Knowledge
follow directions. • Information that is not formally
▪ Separate scores for verbal comprehension, taught but is necessary to get
verbal reasoning, pictorial reasoning, ahead.
figural reasoning, and quantitative
reasoning can identify specific strengths Language and Literacy
and weaknesses.
• Vocabulary, Grammar, and Syntax
o Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC-II)
o As vocabulary grows during the school years, children
▪ Individual test
use increasingly precise verbs.
▪ For ages 3 – 18.
o Simile and metaphor, figures of speech in which a
▪ Designed to evaluate cognitive abilities in
word or phrase that usually designates one thing is
children with diverse needs (such as

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 compared or applied to another, become increasingly
common.
o Children’s understanding of rules of syntax becomes
more sophisticated with age.
• Pragmatics
o Social context of language.
o Children who have a larger vocabulary and produce
more sophisticated grammar are more likely to be
better at pragmatics.
• Literacy
o Decoding
▪ Process of phonetic analysis by which a
printed word is converted to spoken form
before retrieval from long-term memory.
o Phonetic (Code-Emphasis) Approach
▪ Child sounds out the word, translating it
from print to speech before retrieving it from
long-term memory.
o Whole-Language Approach
▪ Emphasizes visual retrieval and the use of
contextual cues.
▪ Visually Based Retrieval
• Process of retrieving the sound of
a printed word when seeing the
word as a whole.
The Child in School
Influences on School Achievement
• Self-Efficacy Beliefs
o Students high in self-efficacy believe they can master
schoolwork and regulate their own learning.
• Gender
o Girls tend to do better in school than boys.
• Peer Acceptance
o Children who are disliked by their peers tend to do
poorly in school, a finding that exists for both boys and
girls.
• Parenting Practices
o Parental involvement has a positive effect on
academic achievement.
• Socioeconomic Status
o Achievement gaps between advantaged and
disadvantaged students widen from kindergarten to
third grade.
Educating Children with Special Needs
• Children with Learning Problems
o Intellectual/Cognitive Disability
▪ Significantly subnormal cognitive
functioning.
▪ Indicated by an IQ of about 70 or less,
coupled with a deficiency in age-
appropriate adaptive behavior, appearing
before age 18.
▪ Intervention programs have helped many of
those mildly or moderately disabled.
▪ Those considered borderline (with IQs
ranging from 70 up to about 85) to hold
jobs, live in the community, and function in
society.
o Learning Disabilities (LDs)
▪ Disorders that interfere with specific
aspects of learning and school
achievement.
▪ Children with LDs often have near-average
to higher-than-average intelligence and
normal vision and hearing, but they have
trouble processing sensory information
Dyslexia
- Individuals who have a severe impairment in their ability to
read and spell.
Dysgraphia
- Involves difficulty in handwriting.
Dyscalculia (developmental arithmetic disorder)
- Involves difficulty in math computation.
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o Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
▪ Syndrome characterized by persistent
inattention and distractibility, impulsivity,
low tolerance for frustration, and
inappropriate overactivity.
▪ Interventions with children with ADHD are
most useful if they include behavioral
interventions, modification of teaching
instructions and student tasks, good
communication with parents, and
collaboration among school professionals
such as teachers and psychologists.
o Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
▪ Characterized by problems in social
interaction, verbal and nonverbal
communication, and repetitive behaviors.
▪ Children with these disorders may also
show atypical responses to sensory
experiences.
▪ Intellectual disability is present in some
children with autism; others show average
or above-average intelligence.
▪ Children with autism benefit from a well-
structured classroom, individualized
teaching, and small-group instruction.
Autistic Disorder
- A severe autism spectrum disorder.
- Has its onset in the first three years of life.
- Includes deficiencies in social relationships, abnormalities in
communication, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped
patterns of behavior.
Asperger Syndrome
- A relatively mild autism spectrum disorder.
- Child has relatively good verbal language skills, milder
nonverbal language problems, and a restricted range of
interests and relationships.
• Gifted Children
o Traditional criterion of giftedness is high general
intelligence as shown by an IQ score of 130 or higher.
o Enrichment Programs
▪ Programs for educating the gifted that
broaden and deepen knowledge and skills
through extra activities, projects, field trips,
or mentoring.
o Acceleration Programs
▪ Programs for educating the gifted that
move them through the curriculum at an
unusually rapid pace.
o Creativity
▪ Ability to see situations in a new way, to
produce innovations, or to discern
previously unidentified problems and find
novel solutions.
o Convergent Thinking
▪ Thinking aimed at finding the one right
answer to a problem.
▪ Kind of IQ tests that seeks a single answer.
o Divergent Thinking
▪ Thinking that produces a variety of fresh,
diverse possibilities.
▪ Appropriate for tests of creativity.
o Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)
▪ One of the most widely known tests of
creativity.
▪ Scores were related to personal
achievement.
▪ When IQ was taken into account, scores
were related to public achievement as well.