Chapter 4: Middle Childhood
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Transcript of Chapter 4: Middle Childhood
Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Chapter 4: Middle Childhood
Module 4.1 Physical Development in
Middle Childhood
Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
See How We Grow!
Slow but steady…• Height changes• Weight changes• Only time in lifespan when on average girls
taller than boys• Variation in heights up to 6 inches not unusual
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Cultural Patterns of Growth
• Sufficient or insufficient nutrition• Disease• Genetic inheritance• Familial stress
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Should hormones be used to make short children grow?
Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
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Benefits of Adequate Nutrition
Relationship to social and emotional functioning
• More peer involvement• More positive emotions• Less anxiety• More eagerness to explore new environments• More persistent in frustrating situations• Generally higher energy levels
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What would Ugly Betty’s life be like in a real elementary school?
Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Obesity • Most common causes:
– Genetic factors– Lack of physical activity– Unhealthy eating patterns– Combination of these factors
• Only in rare cases is being overweight caused by a medical condition such as a hormonal problem
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Costs of Childhood Obesity
Obese children• More likely to be
overweight as adults• Greater risk of heart
disease, diabetes, and other diseases
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The other side of “fat”
• Even very young children are aware of society's fixation on thinness
• Lowered self-esteem has been associated with being overweight in girls as young as 5
• Attitude was closely correlated with parents' perceptions
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Review and ApplyREVIEW• In middle childhood, height and weight increase
gradually.
• Differences in height and weight are influenced by both genetic and social factors.
• Adequate nutrition promotes physical, and cognitive development, while overnutrition and a sedentary lifestyle may lead to obesity.
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Review and Apply
APPLY• What are some aspects of U.S. culture
that may contribute to obesity among school-age children?
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MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
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Gross Motor Development
• Improved muscle coordination
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Do boys and girls differ in motor skills?
• Gender differences in gross motor skills became increasingly pronounced during middle childhood, – Boys outperform girls– Little or no difference when equal participation
in exercise/activities – Influenced by societal expectations
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Fine Motor Development
• Necessary for wide range of school-related tasks
• Influenced by increase in amount of myelin speeds up electrical impulses between neurons
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Health and School-agers
• Middle childhood is period of robust health• Routine immunizations have produced
considerably lower incidence of life-threatening illnesses
• More than 90 percent of children in middle childhood have at least one serious medical condition but most are short term illnesses
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Other Health Risks
• Accidents– Motor vehicles– Bikes– Fires and burns– Drowning– Gun-related deaths
• Reduced by use of seatbelts and helmets
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Safety in Cyberspace
• Newest threat to the safety of school-age children comes from Internet and the World Wide Web
• Parent and Caregiver Resources:– The Serious Risks of Cyberspace– Child Safety on the Information Highway
Risks Online– Safety Net for the Internet: A Parent's Guide
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PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
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Identifying the Problem
• Psychological disorders in children overlooked for years– Incidence– Symptoms inconsistent from those of adults– Antidepressant drugs used for treatment have
never been approved by governmental regulators for use with children
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Drugs As Treatment
FOR• Depression and other
psychological disorders treated successfully using drug
• More traditional nondrug therapies that largely employ verbal methods simply are ineffective
AGAINST• Long-term effectiveness
of antidepressants with children not known
• Use of antidepressants on developing brains and long-term consequences more generally not known
• Correct dosages for children of given ages or sizes no known
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Depression
• Key defining features of major depressive disorder in children and adolescents are same as they are for adults
• Way symptoms are expressed varies with developmental stage of child
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Review and ApplyREVIEW• Gross motor skills continue to improve during
the school years.
• Muscular coordination and manipulative skills advance to near-adult levels.
• Threats to safety include accidents, a result of increased independence and mobility, and unsupervised access to cyberspace.
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Review and Apply
APPLY• How would you design an experiment to
examine the roots of gender differences in gross motor skills? What impediments would you encounter in doing so?
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Children with Special Needs
• Visual impairments• Auditory impairments• Speech impairments• Learning disabilities
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Do you see what I see?
• Difficulties in seeing – Blindness (20/200 after correction)– Partial sightedness (20/70 after correction)
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Say what?
• Loss of hearing or some aspect of hearing
• Affects 2 percent of school-age children
• Varies across number of dimensions
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Children who do not hear• Children with speech-language impairment have an
impairment of their speech and/or language structures and functions
• Parts of the body used in speaking and understanding - the brain, nerves, mouth and throat - may be damaged or not developing or working properly
• Level of speech-language impairment can range from mild to severe
• Impairment may be obvious before school or not show itself until the child has difficulty learning at school
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I am talking to YOU!
Definition• Impairment of speech articulation, voice,
fluency, or the impairment or deviant development of language comprehension and/or expression
• Impairment of use of spoken or other symbol system that adversely affects educational performance
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Stuttering• Substantial disruption in rhythm and
fluency of speech
• Most common speech impairment; 20 percent of all children go through stage
• No clear-cut answers to the causes of stuttering
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Learning Disabilities Discrepancies Between Achievement
and Capacity to Learn
• Difficulties in acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities– 2.8 million children in US– Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia– ADD/ADHD
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The Basic Definition in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
• “Learning disability” = umbrella term
• IN GENERAL: – disorder is found in one or more of basic
psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written
– disorder may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations
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Developmental Reading Disability
• Dyslexia affects 2 to 8 percent of elementary school children
• Reading difficulties• Inability to separate sounds in words• Problems sounding out words
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Developmental Writing Disabilities
• Writing involves several brain areas and functions (dysgraphia)
• Brain networks for vocabulary, grammar, hand movement, and memory must all be in good working order
• Developmental writing disorder may result from problems in any of these areas
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Developmental Arithmetic Disability
• Arithmetic involves recognizing numbers and symbols, memorizing facts, aligning numbers, and understanding abstract concepts like place value and fractions
• Any of these may be difficult for children with developmental arithmetic disorders, also called dyscalculia
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Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
What are the most common signs of ADHD?
• Persistent difficulty in finishing tasks, following instructions, and organizing work
• Inability to watch an entire television program• Frequent interruption of others or excessive
talking• Tendency to jump into a task before hearing all
the instructions. • Difficulty in waiting or remaining seated• Fidgeting, squirming
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Diagnostic Criteria
Behaviors must: • Be excessive, long-term, and pervasive• Appear before age 7, and continue for at least 6
months• Create a real handicap in at least two areas of a
person's life, such as school, home, work, or social settings
• Different than "normal" distractibility or overstressed lifestyle prevalent in our society
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Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
ADHD Treatment Controversy
• Ritalin or Dexadrine reduce activity levels in hyperactive children and are routinely prescribe– Effective in increasing attention span and
compliance BUT side effects considerable and long-term health consequences unclear
– Help scholastic performance in short run BUT long-term evidence for continuing improvement is mixed
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Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Are there other treatments for ADD/ADHD?
• Behavioral therapy• Diet
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Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Informed Consumer of Development
Keeping Children Fit• Make exercise fun. Gear activities to the child’s physical
level and motor skills. • Be an exercise role model.• Encourage the child to find a partner. Start slowly.• Urge participation in organized sports activities, but do
not push too hard. • Don’t make physical activity, such as jumping jacks or
push-ups, a punishment for unwanted behavior. • Provide a healthy diet.
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Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Review and ApplyREVIEW• Many school-age children have special needs, relating to
vision, hearing, and speech that can impact their social relationships and school performance.
• Learning disabilities include difficulties in acquiring and using language, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities.
• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder poses attention, organization, and activity problems for 3% to 5% of school-age children.
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Discovering the Lifespan - Robert S. Feldman
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Review and Apply
APPLY• If hearing is associated with abstract
thinking, how do people who were born deaf think?
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