Middle Childhood

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Middle Childhood
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Middle Childhood

• Often referred to as school-age years.
• Become more self-sufficient and independent.
• Peers and teachers are more important in their
  lives.
• Learning to adopt new social rules and
  expectations.
• Develop higher level thinking skills.
• Growing in self-knowledge and understanding.

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Middle Childhood

• Physical
• Easily influenced by how people see them
  physically
• Body size, shape and physical abilities can
  influence self-esteem and self-image.
• 6-7 year olds have better control over their
  large muscles than small muscles.
• Between 6-9 years old, boys are taller than
  girls.
• 10-12 years old, girls taller than boys.
• Girls have reached 90 of their total height.
• Boys have reached 80 of their total height.
• Body isnt as top heavy as when they were
  younger.
• Arms and legs grow more quickly at this age.

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Middle Childhood

• Weight
• Weight may double from age 6 to 12.
• Children gain 5-7 pounds per year at this age.
• By age 12, girls weigh on average 3 lbs. more
  than boys.

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Middle Childhood

• Large Motor Skills
• Motor skills are improving greatly.
• Balance is improving.
• Younger school-age children practice throwing,
  catching and kicking.
• Boys surpass girls in physical strength.
• Boys have more muscle mass.
• boys outperform girls in jumping, catching,
  throwing, batting, and running speed and
  distance.
• Girls outperform boys activities that require
  balance, coordination, flexibility or rhythmic
  movements.

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Middle Childhood

• Fine Motor Skills
• Better control of the small muscles in their
  fingers and hands.
• Writing and art work becomes better because of
  improved wrist movement.
• Children begin to play musical instruments.
• Eye-hand coordination becomes more refined.
• They may begin to use tools with greater control.

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Middle Childhood

• Health Concerns
• Hearing
• less ear infections.
• Eyes
• farsightedness - need glasses for close up work.
• nearsightedness - need glasses for distance.
• Teeth
• by age 12, all 20 primary teeth will be replaced
  by permanent teeth.

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Middle Childhood

• Asthma
• a respiratory disorder that causes labored
  breathing, gasping, coughing, and wheezing.
• Emotional stress, physical exercise, or fatigue
  may trigger an asthma attack.
• Obesity
• characterized by excessive body fat.
• effects about 25 of school-age children.
• effects self-esteem and self-image.

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Middle Childhood

• Cognitive Development
• Begin to think mentally using logic and symbols.
• Memory improves and attention span is longer.
• Reading, writing, science, and math skills
  improve throughout this time.
• Have an internal desire to work hard and achieve.
• Motivated by the prospect of rewards or
  recognition.

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Middle Childhood

• Attention and memory
• The childs age, motivation, health and attitude
  determine effectiveness of memory.
• Have ability to ignore unnecessary information.
• Thinking skills become more refined.
• Better at processing information, therefore,
  better problem solvers.
• Rehearsal - the repetition of information after
  it is used- is used to remember information.

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Middle Childhood

• Mental Operations
• School-age children change the way they process
  information.
• Their perceptions are more accurate because of
  their logical thinking skills are developing.
• An operation is defined as the manipulation of
  ideas based on logic rather than perception.
• concrete operations use of logic based on what
  has been experienced or seen.
• Children at this age begin using concepts like
• conservation - a change in position or shape does
  not change quality.
• seriation - ability to arrange items in
  increasing or decreasing order based on weight,
  volume or size.
• classification - ability to group objects by
  common attributes such as size, pattern, or
  function.

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Middle Childhood

• Language
• a childs vocabulary doubles between the ages of
  6 and 12 years.
• Grammar improves.
• sentence structure improves
• pronouns, plurals, and proper tense usage
  improves.
• Children tell more jokes and riddles.
• cognitive development is linked to humor.

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Middle Childhood

• Social-emotional development
• Self-concept - the view a person has of him or
  herself - is forming.
• Children are becoming aware of others feelings.
• At this stage, children are choosing to spend
  more time with peers and less time with parents.
• Family is still very important.
• Begin to make social comparisons - a process
  where people define themselves in terms of the
  qualities, skills, and attributes they see in
  others.
• Children describe themselves in simple ways like,
  I have brown hair and green eyes. I live in
  Chelmsford, MA. I like to ride my bike like my
  friend. I am tall.

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Middle Childhood

• Self-esteem - the belief that you are worthwhile
  as a person.
• Children base their self-worth on the following
• academic competence
• athletic competence
• physical appearance
• behavior
• social acceptance

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Middle Childhood

• Understanding Others - school-age children begin
  to understand others by developing
• Empathy - the ability to understand the feelings
  of others.
• Compassion - the ability to be aware of others
  distress and wanting to help them.
• Friendships
• Most school-age children choose friends from the
  same gender.
• A friend offers companionship and emotional
  support.
• Peer acceptance can be influenced by appearance
  and social behavior.
• Children who lack self-control or act
  aggressively are usually rejected by their peers.
  These children need help to recognize and
  overcome their behavior problems.

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Middle Childhood

• Peer group activities
• 4-H, church groups, girl scouts, boy scouts.
• Gender differences
• In most cases, girls play with girls and boys
  play with boys.
• In the classroom, mixed gender groups form to get
  projects completed or to talk.
• Boys love to interrupt girls play girls then
  chase the boys around the playground or tattle.
• Boys tend to control large fixed areas used for
  team sports.
• Girls usually control the spaces nearer to the
  school building.
• Girls enjoy jumping rope, playing hopscotch, and
  playing on the jungle gym.
• Boys prefer competitive sports.
• Girls arent as open as boys - they share more
  secrets than boys.

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Middle Childhood

• Games with rules -
• favorites games are - hide-and-seek, red rover,
  blind mans bluff, tag, jump rope, hopscotch,
  basketball, soccer, baseball or softball.
• These games help children develop physically and
  socially.
• They also encourage children to take another
  persons perspective - as a result, they
  understand why rules are important.
• Team Sports
• Children benefit in many ways from team sports
• Learn teamwork skills
• Learn to get along with peers.
• Benefit from the exercise.
• Activities bring enjoyment.
• A pattern for a healthy lifestyle begins to form.

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Middle Childhood

• Team Sports
• Drawbacks to participating in team sports
• Injury - (there is no safe sport must take
  precautions to not get hurt while playing)
• Adults (coaches) take over the whole experience
• Sport can feel more like work than play
• Focus can be on winning instead of having fun
• Children dont develop decision-making and
  leadership skills

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Middle Childhood

• Moral Development - the process of acquiring the
  standards of behavior considered acceptable by a
  society - begins to develop during this age.
• Morality - involves understanding and using
  accepted rules of conduct when interacting with
  others.
• Children at this age begin to internalize rules
  of conduct.