Middle Childhood

• Middle childhood


  Begins when children enter school and lasts until adolescence
• Children in middle childhood


  • Increasingly influenced by their time in school and with friends
• It is crucial to give full attention to middle childhood to stay in touch with the varied influences on their lives
• Weight gain during middle childhood

  • About 5-7 pounds per year
• Height growth during middle childhood

  • About 2 inches per year
• Brain size


  • Reaches adult size at about age 7
• Motor skill improvements


  • Improvements in fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination
• Tooth loss and permanent teeth

  • First tooth lost around age 6, all permanent teeth by age 12
• Body Mass Index (BMI)


  Used to determine excess weight in children
• Causes of overweight and obesity in Filipino children: poor diets, failing food systems, and lack of physical activity
• Awareness of social rules


  • Increases, leading children to become more modest and want more privacy
• Typical childhood sexual play and exploration


  Occurs between children who play together regularly, is spontaneous and unplanned, infrequent, voluntary, and easily diverted by parental guidance
• Basic information about sexuality to share with middle age children

  • Puberty changes, reproduction, pregnancy, childbirth, risks of sexual activity, contraception, masturbation, and sexual abuse
• Concrete Operational Stage (Piaget)


  Stage from ages 7 to 11 where children master the use of logic in concrete ways
• Abilities in Concrete Operational Stage

  • Understanding principles of cause and effect, size, and distance
• Kohlberg's stages of moral development

  • Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional Morality
• Stage 1 of Preconventional Morality


  Focus on self-interest and avoiding punishment
• Stage 2 of Preconventional Morality


  Seeking rewards
• Stage 3 of Conventional Morality


  Focus on how situational outcomes impact others and wanting to please and be accepted
• Stage 4 of Conventional Morality


  Making decisions based on laws or formalized rules
• Stage 5 of Postconventional Morality


  Employing abstract reasoning to justify behaviors
• Stage 6 of Postconventional Morality


  Making decisions based on self-chosen ethical principles
• Cognitive advantages of bilingual students

  • Can express concepts or ideas in more than one way and are aware of doing so
• Dual-language development


  Occurs if exposure begins before age 5, across a range of contexts, and is consistent
• Brain usage for learning two languages before age 5


  • Uses mostly the left hemisphere of the brain for both languages
• Learning a second language later in life


  • Requires more parts of the brain and greater cognitive effort, changing the brain's neural organization for language processing
• Erikson's Psychosocial Stage for school-age children

  Industry vs. Inferiority
• Industry


  Willingness to remain busy with something and to finish a job
• Inferiority


  Feelings of inadequacy when work is insufficient to accomplish goals
• Basic strength developed during Erikson's stage

  • Competence – confidence to use one's abilities to solve problems
• Core pathology of Erikson's stage

  Inertia – children give up and regress
• Significant relationships during Erikson's stage

  • Neighborhood and school
• Self-esteem


  Influenced by internalizing others' appraisals and social comparison
• Self-efficacy


  A belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish tasks
• Emotion regulation advancement in middle childhood


  • Through selecting different coping strategies and understanding multiple emotions
• Perspective taking abilities and empathy skills


  • Increase with better understanding of complex emotional displays
• Voluntary coping efforts


  Efforts intended to regulate one's response to stress within conscious awareness
• Engagement coping strategies


  Directly addressing the stressor or adapting to stressful conditions
• Disengagement coping strategies


  Avoiding the stressor or one's emotions, including avoidance and denial
• Popular-prosocial children


  • They tend to do well in school and are cooperative and friendly