Development
Through the Lifespan
Chapter 9
Physical and Cognitive
Development in
Middle Childhood
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Body Growth
in Middle Childhood
 Slow, regular pattern
 Girls shorter and lighter until
about age 9
 Lower portion of body growing
fastest
 Bones lengthen
 Muscles very flexible
 All permanent teeth arrive
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Common Health Problems
in Middle Childhood
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Vision - Myopia
Hearing - Otitis media (middle ear infection)
Malnutrition
Obesity
Illnesses
Injuries
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Health Risks for Obese Children
 More likely to be overweight adults
 Lifelong Health risks
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High blood pressure, cholesterol
Respiratory problems
Diabetes
Liver, gall bladder disease
Sleep, digestive disorders
Cancer
Early death
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Causes of Obesity
in Middle Childhood
 Overweight parents
 Low SES
 Parents’ feeding practices
 Bad eating habits
 Low physical activity
 Television
 Cultural food
environment
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TV Viewing and Body Fat Gains
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Psychological and Social
Consequences of Obesity
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Feeling unattractive
Stereotyping
Teasing, social isolation
Depression, emotional problems
School problems
Problem behaviors
Reduced life chances
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Illness in Middle Childhood
 High rates first two years
of school
 Chronic conditions
 Asthma
 Severe chronic illnesses
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Asthma
 Bronchial tubes very sensitive to
stimuli
 Cold, infection, pollution, stress
 Wheezing, coughing, breathing
problems
 Increasingly common
 Heredity, environment increase risk
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Fatal Injuries in Middle
Childhood and Adolescence
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Motor Development
in Early Childhood
 Gross Motor Skills Improvements
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Flexibility
Balance
Agility
Force
 Fine Motor Skills Gains
 Writing
 Drawing
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Sex Differences in
Motor Development
 Girls better at fine motor skills
 Boys better at gross motor skills, sports
 Social environment
 Parental expectations
 Self-perceptions
 Coaching,
media messages
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Physical Play Development
in Middle Childhood
 Games with rules
 Sports
 Invented games
 Rough-and-tumble play
 Video games
 Adult-organized sports
 Physical education
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Piaget’s Theory: Achievements of
the Concrete Operational Stage
 Conservation
 Decentration, Reversibility
 Classification
 Seriation
 Transitive inference
 Spatial Reasoning
 Directions
 Maps
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Piagetian
Class Inclusion Problem
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Development of Mapping Skills
Preschool,
early school age
Landmarks
Ages 8 - 10
Landmarks along
organized route of
travel
End of middle
childhood
Overall view of
large-scale space
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Limitations of
Concrete Operational Thought
 Operations work best with concrete
information
 Problems with
abstract ideas
 Continuum of acquisition
 Master concrete
operational tasks
gradually, step by step
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Follow-up Research on
Concrete Operational Thought
 Culture and schooling affect
performance on tasks
 Going to school gives
experience on Piagetian
tasks
 Relevant non-school
experiences of some
cultures can help too
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Information-Processing View of
Concrete Operational Thought
 Neo-Piagetians: Gains in
information processing speed,
rather than shift to a new stage
 Automatic schemas free
working memory
 Central conceptual structures
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Key Information Processing
Improvements
 Increase in informationprocessing speed and
capacity
 Gains in inhibition
Both may be related to
brain development
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Attention in Middle Childhood
Attention becomes more:
 Selective
 Adaptable
 Planful
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Attention-Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder
 Inattention
 Impulsivity
 Excessive motor activity
Results in
 Social problems
 Academic problems
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Development of
Memory Strategies
 Rehearsal (early grade school)
 Repeating information to oneself
 Organization (early grade school)
 Grouping related items together
 Elaboration (end of middle childhood)
 Creating a relationship between pieces of
information not in same category
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Culture, Schooling
and Memory Strategies
 Memory strategies useful for
remembering isolated bits of information
 Western schooling gives
little practice in using
everyday cues:
 Spatial location
 Arrangements of objects
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Second-Order False-Belief Task
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Promoting
Cognitive Self-Regulation
Point out important features of tasks
Stress importance of planful learning
Suggest effective learning strategies
• Provide for evaluation of effectiveness
Emphasize monitoring of progress
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Information Processing
and Academic Learning
 Reading
 Phonological awareness, info-processing
speed, practice contribute to reading skills
 Mix whole-language & phonics
 Mathematics
 Learn facts & skills through
practice, reasoning, strategies
 Blend drill and “number
sense” approaches
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Intelligence Tests
Group Tests
Individual Tests
 Allow testing of large
 Examiners need training
groups
& experience
 Provide insights about
 Require little training to
accuracy of score
administer
 Useful for instructional  Identify highly
planning
intelligent children and
children with learning
 Identify students who
problems
need individual testing
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Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of
Successful Intelligence
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Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
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Linguistic
Logico-mathematical
Musical
Spatial
Bodily-kinesthetic
Naturalist
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
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Social and Emotional Intelligence
 Perceiving
 Understanding
 Regulating
Emotions
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Genetics and IQ
 May account for about half of differences
 Disagreement about interaction with
environment
 Adoption studies show
influence of both
 Ethnic differences may be
more cultural than genetic
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Cultural Bias in Testing
Two views:
1. Tests not biased; represent success in the
common culture
2. Cultural factors can hurt
test performance
• Communication styles
• Test content
• Stereotypes
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Communication Styles
Higher SES,
whites
 Knowledge-training
questions
 Hierarchical task
style
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Lower SES,
minorities
 Real questions
 No right answer
 Develop complex verbal
skills
 Collaborative task style
Effects of
Stereotype Threat on Performance
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Reducing
Cultural Bias in Testing
 Combine tests with assessment of
adaptive behavior
 Dynamic Assessment
 Reduce high-stakes
testing
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Language Development in
Middle Childhood
 Increases fourfold during school years
Vocabulary
 20 new words a day
Grammar
 Mastery of complex constructions
 Advanced understanding of infinitive
phrases
 Adjust to people and situations
Pragmatics
 Phrase requests to get what they want
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Learning Two Languages
 Bilingual Development
 Learn both languages at the same time OR learn
first language, then second
 Sensitive period - childhood
 Bilingual Education
 Language immersion
 English-only programs
 Risk of semilingualism
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Characteristics of High-Quality
Elementary Education
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Class size
Physical setting
Curriculum
Daily activities
Teacher-student interactions
Evaluation of progress
Relationships with families
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Academic Achievement
and Class Size
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Educational Philosophies
 Traditional v. Constructivist
 New Philosophical Directions
 Social-constructivist
 Teachers and children as partners
 Many types of symbolic communication
 Meaningful activities
 Zone of proximal development
 Reciprocal teaching
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Teacher-Student Interaction
 Good teachers: caring, helpful, stimulating
 Too many use repetitive drill
 Better achievement in stimulating classrooms
 Individual differences
 Well-behaved, high achievers
get more attention
 More impact of attention
on low SES
 Self-fulfilling prophecy
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Grouping Practices in
Elementary Schools
 Homogeneous ability groups
 Multigrade classrooms
 Cooperative learning
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Children with
Learning Difficulties
 Difficulties include:
 Mild mental retardation
 Learning disabilities
 5–10% of children
 Law requires “least restrictive”
environment
 Mainstreaming
 Full inclusion
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Creativity
The ability to
produce
original,
appropriate
work
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Convergent and Divergent
Thinking
Convergent
Divergent
 Single correct
answer
 Emphasized on
intelligence tests
 Generating
multiple, unusual
possibilities
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Educating
Gifted and Talented Children
 Gifted - high IQ
 Talented - outstanding in a specific field
 Several education methods:
 Enrichment in regular
classroom
 Pull out for special
instruction
 Move to higher grade
 Multiple intelligences models
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Academic Achievement
Around the World
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Asian Schools versus
North American Schools
Asian schools show more:
 Cultural valuing of academic achievement
 Emphasis on effort
 High-quality education
for all
 Time devoted
to instruction
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