Chapter 9 - 10

• Outline


  • Physical Development
  • Cognitive Development
  • Psychosocial Development
• Physical Development


  • Height and Weight
  • Nutrition and Sleep
  • Brain Development
  • Motor Development and Physical Play
• Height and Weight


  • Children grow about 2 to 3 inches each year between ages 6 and 11 and approximately double their weight during that period
  • Girls retain somewhat more fatty tissue than boys
• Nutrition


  School children need on average 2,400 calories every day to support their steady growth and constant exertion
• Sleep


  • Sleep needs decline from about 11 hours a day at age 5 to a little more than 10 hours at age 9 and about 9 hours at age 13
  • Sleep problems, like resistance in going to bed, insomnia, and daytime sleepiness are common as children have their own bedtime
• Brain Development


  • Maturation and learning depend on fine-tuning of the brain's connections and efficient selection of the regions of the brain appropriate for tasks
  • Brain development are product of the interaction between genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors
• Motor Development and Physical Play

  • Motor skills continue to improve in middle childhood
  • Recess-time activities promote growth in agility and social competence and foster adjustment to school
  • Boys play more physically active games, whereas girls favor games that include verbal expression or counting aloud
• Piagetian Approach: The Concrete Operational Child


  Third stage of Piagetian Cognitive Development (approximately ages 7 to 12), during which children develop logical but not abstract thinking
• Spatial Relationships and Causality

  Children already have a clearer idea of how far it is from one place to another and how long it will take to get there
• Categorization


  • The ability to categorize helps children think logically
  • Includes sophisticated abilities as seriation, transitive inference, and class inclusion
• Seriation


  Ability to arrange objects in a series according to one or more dimensions (weight, color)
• Transitive Inference


  The ability to infer a relationship between two objects from the relationship between each of them and a third object
• Class Inclusion


  The ability to see the relationship between a whole and its parts
• Inductive Reasoning


  • Type of logical reasoning that moves from observations about members of a class to a general conclusion about that class
  • Children in the concrete operations use this reasoning
• Deductive Reasoning


  Type of logical reasoning that moves from a general premise about a class to a conclusion about a particular member or members of the class
• Rigid Obedience to Authority


  Children believe that rules cannot be bent or changed and that any offense deserves punishment, regardless of intent
• Increasing Flexibility


  As children interact with a wider range of viewpoints, they begin to discard the idea that there is a single, standard of right and wrong
• Equity


  The belief that everyone should be treated alike by taking specific circumstances into account
• Executive Function


  • The conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or solve problems
  • As their knowledge expands, children become more aware of what kinds of information are important to pay attention to and remember
• Selective Attention


  • The ability to deliberately direct one's attention and shut out distractions
  • School-age children can concentrate longer than younger children and can focus on the information they need and want while screening out irrelevant information
• Mnemonic Strategies


  • External Memory Aids
  • Rehearsal
  • Organization
  • Elaboration
• External Memory Aids


  Using something outside the person (ex. number, making a list, setting a timer)
• Rehearsal


  Remember item through conscious repetition
• Organization


  Categorizing material to be remembered
• Elaboration


  Making mental associations involving items to be remembered
• Psychometric Approach: Assessment of Intelligence

  • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III)
  • Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT8)
  • Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT)
  • Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC-II)
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III)

  Individual intelligence test for school-age children, which yields verbal and performance scores as well as a combined score
• Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT8)


  Group intelligence test for kindergarten through twelfth grade
• Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT)

  Test that seeks to measure componential, experiential, and contextual intelligence
• Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC-II)


  Nontraditional individual intelligence test designed to provide fair assessments of minority children and children with disabilities
• Eight Intelligences (Howard Gardner)

  • Linguistic
  • Logical-Mathematical
  • Spatial
  • Musical
  • Bodily-Kinesthetic
  • Interpersonal
  • Intrapersonal
  • Naturalist
• Linguistic


  • Ability to use and understand words and nuances of meaning
  • Writing, editing, translating
• Logical-Mathematical


  • Ability to manipulate numbers and solve logical problems
  • Science, business, medicine
• Spatial


  • Judge relationships between objects in space
  • Architecture, carpentry, city planning
• Musical


  • Ability to perceive and create patterns of pitch and rhythm
  • Musical composition, conducting
• Bodily-Kinesthetic


  • Ability to move with precision
  • Dancing, athletics, surgery
• Interpersonal


  • Ability to understand and communicate with others
  • Teaching, acting, politics
• Intrapersonal


  • Ability to understand the self
  • Counseling, psychiatry, spiritual leadership
• Naturalist


  • Ability to distinguish species and their characteristics
  • Hunting, fishing, farming, gardening, cooking
• Vocabulary, Grammar, and Syntax

  • Children use increasingly precise verbs
  • They can tell from the context which meaning is intended
  • Use of figure of speech