DEVELOPMENT IN

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
Presented by: Arielle Kate Estabillo
Overview
• Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood
• Physical Development in Middle Childhood
• Socioemotional Development in Middle Childhood
 Cognitive
Development
Piaget's view

The Concrete-Operational Period (7 to 11 years)

• Children in this stage are no longer egocentric.
• The understanding that events can be interpreted in different ways leads to the realization that
appearances can be deceiving.
• Also, thought can be reversed because school-age children have acquired mental operations
• Thinking abstractly and hypothetically is beyond the ability of concrete-operational children
Piaget's view

The Formal-Operational Period (age 11 into adulthood)

• Children and adolescents are able to think hypothetically and reason abstractly
• Adolescents’ more sophisticated thinking is also shown in their ability to make appropriate
conclusions from facts, which is known as deductive reasoning.

Comments on Piaget’s View

• it overestimates cognitive competence in adolescents
• is vague concerning processes of change
• does not account for variability in children’s performance
• undervalues the influence of the sociocultural environment
Information-Processing Strategies for Learning and Remembering

• One of the key issues in this approach concerns the means by which children store information in
permanent memory and retrieve it when needed later.
• Most human thought takes place in working memory, where a relatively small number of
thoughts and ideas can be stored briefly.
• To learn new information, it must be transferred to long-term memory, a permanent storehouse of
knowledge that has unlimited capacity.
Information-Processing Strategies for Learning and Remembering

Memory Strategies
• rehearsal — repetitively naming information that is to be remembered
• organization—structuring information to be remembered so that related information is placed together.
• elaboration—embellishing information to be remembered to make it more memorable.
Information-Processing Strategies for Learning and Remembering

Metacognition
• metamemory- intuitive understanding of memory.
• metacognitive knowledge —knowing about perception,
attention, intentions, knowledge, and thinking
• cognitive self-regulation —skill at identifying goals,
selecting effective strategies, and monitoring accurately
Theories of Intelligence
Carroll's Hierarchical View of Intelligence
Theories of Intelligence
Theories of Intelligence
Sternberg’s Theory of Successful Intelligence
Binet and the Development of Intelligence Testing

Binet and Simon identified problems that typical 3-year-olds could solve, that typical 4-year-olds could solve,
and so on. They used mental age to distinguish “bright” from “dull” children.

The Stanford-Binet
• Lewis Terman, of Stanford University, revised Binet and Simon’s test substantially and published a
version known as the Stanford-Binet in 1916.
• IQ scores are no longer computed as the ratio of MA to CA.
• The Stanford-Binet remains a popular test; the latest version was revised in 2003. Like the earlier
versions, the modern Stanford-Binet consists of various cognitive and motor tasks ranging from the
extremely easy to the extremely difficult
 Intelligence scores predict success in

Do Tests Work?
school.

Intelligence scores predict occupational

If tests work, they should predict important success.
outcomes in children’s lives. In general, tests
do a reasonable job in doing so.

Intelligence scores predict longevity.

Hereditary and Environmental Factors
Hereditary and Environmental Factors

Siblings’ IQ scores become more similar as the siblings become

more similar genetically, which is evidence for a hereditary basis
for intelligence.

Evidence for the influence of the environment comes from the

impact on IQ scores of home environments, historical change, and
intervention programs.
 Special Children, Special Needs

What are the characteristics of gifted children?

• Traditionally, gifted children have high scores on IQ tests.

• Modern definitions of giftedness have been broadened to include exceptional talent in the arts.
• However defined, giftedness must be nurtured by parents and teachers alike.
• Contrary to folklore, gifted children usually are socially mature and emotionally stable.
 Special Children, Special Needs

What are the different forms of disability?

• Individuals with intellectual disability have IQ scores of 70 or lower and deficits in adaptive behavior.
• Children with learning disability have normal intelligence but have difficulty mastering specific
academic subjects. The three common learning disabilities are developmental dyslexia, impaired
reading comprehension, and developmental dyscalculia.
 Special Children, Special Needs

What are the distinguishing features of ADHD?

• Children with ADHD are distinguished by being

hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive.
• Treating ADHD with medication and psychosocial
treatment is effective in the short run but does not
“cure” children of the disorder.
 physical
Development
Growth
• Physical growth during the elementary
school years continues at the steady
pace established during the preschool
years.
• Boys and girls are about the same size
for most of these years, but girls are
more likely than boys to enter puberty
toward the end of the elementary
school years.
Development of Motor Skills
Gender Differences in Motor Skills
• Girls tend to excel in fine motor skills; their handwriting tends to be better than that of boys, for
example. Girls also excel in gross motor skills that require flexibility and balance, such as
tumbling.
• On gross motor skills that emphasize strength, boys usually have the advantage. Some of the
gender differences in gross motor skills that require strength reflect the fact that as children
approach and enter puberty, girls’ bodies have proportionately more fat and less muscle than do
boys’ bodies.
• However, for other gross motor skills such as running, throwing, and catching, body
composition is less important. In these cases, children’s experience is crucial
Physical Fitness
• Being active physically has many benefits for children: It promotes growth of muscles and bone,
promotes cardiovascular health, and can help to establish a lifelong pattern of exercise.

Participating in Sports
• Sports can enhance participants’ self-esteem and can help them to learn initiative .
• Sports can provide children with a chance to learn important social skills, such as how to work
effectively (often in complementary roles) as part of a group.
• Playing sports allows children to use their emerging cognitive skills as they devise new playing
strategies or modify the rules of a game.
Results from the Philippines' 2022 report card on physical activity for children and adolescents

• Overall PA: F
• Organized Sport and PA: INC
• Active Play: INC
• Active Transportation: D
• Sedentary Behaviors: B
• Physical Fitness: INC
• School: C-
• Family and Peers: INC
• Community and Environment: INC
• Government: B
Socioemotional
Development
 Family Relationships
The Family as a System
• According to the systems approach, the
family consists of interacting elements; that
is, parents and children influence each
other.
• The family itself is influenced by other
social systems, such as neighborhoods and
religious organizations.
 Family Relationships

Dimensions and Styles of Parenting

• 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.
 Family Relationships
Dimensions and Styles of Parenting
• 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
• Uninvolved parents are neither warm nor
controlling.
• In this review, researchers found that the
authoritative parenting style to be the most
commonly practiced among Filipino families.
• They also found corporal punishment is still
common and deemed moderately normative
among Filipinos.
 Family Relationships
Siblings
• 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.
 Family Relationships
Siblings
• Parents have higher expectations for first-born children, which explains why such children
are more intelligent and more likely to go to college.
• Later-born children are more popular and more innovative.
• Contradicting the folklore, only children are rarely worse off than children with siblings; in
some respects (such as intelligence, achievement, and autonomy), they are often better off.
 Family Relationships
Parent–Child Relationships Gone Awry: Child Maltreatment
• Cultures condoning physical punishment opens the door for child maltreatment.
• Parents who were abused as a child, ineffective parenting techniques, and marital discord
also increase the likelihood of child maltreatment.
• Children may inadvertently contribute to their own abuse due to their aversive behaviors.
• Overall, 80 percent experienced any one form of violence in the home, school, workplace,
and community.
• More than 3 in five suffered from physical, psychological, and peer violence, while 22.4
percent were victims of sexual abuse.
• Ten percent were physically neglected, while a fourth felt psychologically neglected by their
caregivers.
• More boys claimed to have been sexually abused and physically neglected, while more girls
were bullied and witnessed psychological violence in the home. VAC prevalence was,
however, found to be highest among LGBTQ+s compared to heterosexual males and females
 Peers
Friendships
• 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, and attitudes.
• Children with friends are more skilled socially and are better adjusted.
 Peers
Aggressive Children and Their Victims
• By the time toddlers are old enough to play with one another, they show aggression.
• Many highly aggressive children end up being violent and poorly adjusted as adults.
• Some victims are aggressive themselves; others tend to be withdrawn and submissive.
• Any feature that makes children different from their peers puts them in the sights of
bullies
 Electronic Media
Television
• TV programs can cause children to become more aggressive, to adopt gender stereotypes,
and to act prosocially.
• Many criticisms about TV as a medium (e.g., it shortens children’s attention span) are not
supported by research
 Electronic Media
Computers
• At home, children and adolescents use computers to watch videos, to play video games
and to communicate with friends via social media sites.
 Understanding Others
• 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 Others
 Understanding Others
Prejudice
• Prejudice, which emerges in the preschool years and becomes stronger in the elementary-
school years, is a common byproduct 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.
DOES ANYONE
HAVE any
QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU