1. CHAPTER NINE PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

2. I. PHYSICAL CHANGES Although they are more difficult to observe directly, the physical changes of middle childhood are just as impressive as those of early childhood

3. A. Growth and Motor Development Growth patterns—5 cm to 8 cm in height and about 2.75 kg are added each year Large muscle coordination continues to improve, children show increases in strength and speed, and hand-eye coordination also gets better Increasingly good fine motor coordination makes writing possible, as well as the playing of most musical instruments, drawing, cutting, and many other skills Girls in this age range are ahead of boys in their overall rate of growth Girls have slightly more body fat and slightly less muscle tissue than boys Sex differences in skeletal and muscular maturation cause girls to be better coordinated but slower and somewhat weaker than boys

4. B. The Brain and Nervous System Steady increase in the myelinization of neural axons across the cerebral cortex – Sensory and motor areas are affected first – May be linked to the striking improvement in fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination Further myelinization – Frontal lobes (logic and planning) – Reticular formation (controls attention) Selective attention becomes possible – Association areas Increases information processing speed (continued)

5. The Brain and Nervous System (continued) Right hemisphere lateralization contributes to increased spatial perception – Relative right-left orientation improves – Visual experience is important for this development – Spatial cognition improves Boys score better than girls on spatial orientation tests Boys’ early play preferences may enhance this ability

6. C. Health Promotion and Wellness Sleep disturbance gains importance – By grade 9, 1/3 are tired in the morning Immunization is still an important factor in health – Hepatitis B vaccination needed if missed in infancy Unintentional injury-related deaths are the most common cause of death in Canadian children – The injury-related mortality rate increases with age and is higher for males than for females – More than half of the fatal injuries are due to motor vehicle crashes with drowning being next most common – The majority of nonfatal unintentional injuries are caused by falls (continued)

7. Health Promotion and Wellness (continued) Healthy Bodies and Weights – Body Mass Index (BMI) measures the proportion of body fat to lean body mass – Underweight: BMI < 5 th percentile for sex and age – Overweight: BMI > 85 th percentile for sex and age – Obese: BMI > 95 th percentile for sex and age – ½ of overweight children become overweight adults – Overweight and obese children are predisposed to developing Type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease later in life (continued)

8. Health Promotion and Wellness (continued) Obesity results from many factors: – Genetic predisposition – Epigenetic modifications set early in life – Environment that promotes overeating and/or low activity level – Lower socioeconomic status is higher risk – Lower socioeconomic status may result in lower participation in organized sports Weight loss diets can be risky in this age group – Require special diets developed by nutritional experts and increased exercise (continued)

9. Health Promotion and Wellness (continued) Daily PA recommendation is 30 minutes compulsory physical activity – Even 18 min. / day has a lasting effect on activity level in later life Actual PA in schools - average 60 minutes / week Lack of exercise contributes to – Delayed vocabulary, lower levels of prosocial behaviour, lower self-esteem Canadian children are now fatter and weaker today than in 1981 Parents need to recognize if their child has a weight problem which many cannot

10. Portrait of Typical 12-year-old Boy and Girl, 1981 and 2007-2009

11. II. COGNITIVE CHANGES Along with impressive gains in physical development, children acquire some of the important hallmarks of mature thinking between ages 6 and 12

12. A. Language By age 5 or 6, children master the basic grammar and pronunciation of their native language During middle childhood, children learn to maintain the topic of conversation, create unambiguous sentences, and to speak politely or persuasively Children continue to add new vocabulary at the rate of 5,000 to 10,000 words per year By age 8 or 9, the child shifts to a new level of understanding of the structure of language, figuring out relationships between whole categories of words, such as between adjectives and adverbs or between adjectives and nouns

13. Anglin’s Vocabulary Estimates

14. B. Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage In this stage children use schemes that enable them to think logically about objects and events in the real world Decentration: thinking that takes multiple variables into account Reversibility: the understanding that both physical actions and mental operations can be reversed. Understanding hierarchies depends on this Increased skill in Inductive logic allows the child to go from a specific experience to a general principle Deductive logic is still not strong

15. C. Direct Tests of Piaget’s View It takes children years to apply their new cognitive skills to all kinds of problems: This skill is called Horizontal Decalage (meaning ‘a shift’) Piaget’s general principles are usually valid Siegler suggests there are no stages, only sequences – Problem solving rules emerge from experience and trial and error rather than being specifically linked to age

16. Siegler’s Balance Scale Experiments

17. D. Advances in Information- Processing Skills Memory function continues to improve Processing efficiency – the ability to make efficient use of short-term memory capacity increases steadily with age Automaticity – the ability to recall information from long-term memory without using short-term memory capacity, is achieved through practice (continued)

18. Advances in Information-Processing Skills (continued) Executive processes – information-processing skills that involve devising and carrying out strategies for remembering and solving problems are based on knowing how the mind works Expertise – The more knowledge a person has about a topic, the more efficiently their information-processing system work will work, despite age – Advanced skill in one area does not improve general levels of memory or reasoning

19. III.SCHOOLING Children all over the world begin school at age 6 or 7 An examination of the influence of this near-universal experience is important to understanding middle childhood

20. A. Literacy Literacy, the ability to read and write, is the focus of education in the 6- to 12-year-old period Phonological awareness is an important skill Automaticity with respect to identifying sound-symbol connections—need plenty of opportunities to practice translating written language into spoken words Balanced approach involves reading instruction that combines explicit phonics instruction with other strategies for helping children acquire literacy (continued)

21. Literacy (continued) Learning about meaningful word parts helps children to better understand what they read Comprehension strategies are needed – Sound-symbol connection assists writing and spelling – Grammar and writing techniques must be taught Poor readers may need specific help with sound-letter combinations (phonics) Early elementary school years are the best time to identify and help poor readers

22. B. Schooling and Cognitive Development Children who do not attend school proceed through Piaget’s concrete operational stage at a much slower rate The rate of progression through concrete operations predicts how well children will reason in adolescence and adulthood Attending school helps children learn to think

23. C. Measuring and Predicting Achievement Achievement test: a test designed to assess specific information learned in school Assessment: formal and informal methods of gathering information that can be used for programming to improve student learning (there are no grades or marks associated with assessment) Evaluation: the process of assigning a grade or mark to a student’s performance, representing the student’s highest, most consistent level of achievement over time (continued)

24. Measuring and Predicting Achievement (continued) Achievement test vs. student assessment Achievement tests may not measure what a child learns in school – Child may have learned the skill at home – Primarily used to decide ‘pass or fail’ – No longer commonly used in Canada Student assessment uses a variety of formal and informal tools – Information can be used to improve student learning at a developmentally appropriate level

25. Measuring and Predicting Achievement (continued) Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences describes 8 types of intelligence: 1.Linguistic: the ability to use language effectively 2.Logical/mathematical: a facility with numbers and logical problem-solving 3.Musical: the ability to appreciate and produce music 4.Spatial: the ability to appreciate spatial relationships (continued)

26. Measuring and Predicting Achievement (continued) Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (continued): 5.Bodily/kinesthetic: the ability to move in a coordinated way combined with a sense of one’s body in space 6.Naturalist: the ability to make fine discriminations among flora and fauna of the natural world or patterns and designs of human artifacts 7.Interpersonal: sensitivity to the behaviour, moods, and needs of others 8.Intrapersonal: the ability to understand oneself (continued)

27. Measuring and Predicting Achievement (continued) Robert Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence proposes 3 components of intelligence: 1.Contextual intelligence: has to do with knowing the right behaviour for a specific situation 2.Experiential intelligence: involves learning to give specific responses without thinking about them 3.Componential intelligence: is a person’s ability to come up with effective strategies Sternberg argues that IQ tests measure how familiar a child is with ‘school’ culture (continued)

28. Measuring and Predicting Achievement (continued) Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence has 3 components: 1.Awareness of our own emotions 2.The ability to express our emotions appropriately 3.The capacity to channel our emotions into the pursuit of worthwhile goals Children’s ability to exercise control over their emotions in early childhood is strongly related to measures of academic achievement in high school

29. IV. INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP DIFFERENCES Various disabilities and attention problems are correlated with achievement in some way, as are language proficiency, gender, and culture Canadian educators are now moving away from the use of labels for learning problems and instead place emphasis on a child’s academic strengths and style of processing information in order to increase the likelihood of school success

30. A. Learning Disabilities 10 to 15% of the Canadian population may experience learning problems that are a continuation of learning disabilities from early childhood Learning disability: a disorder in which a child has difficulty in attaining a specific academic skill, despite possessing average to above- average intelligence and is not primarily due to physical or sensory handicaps (see Canadian Definition: Figure 9.6) Some neuropsychologists (Fiedorowicz et al) are investigating a neurological basis for learning disabilities

31. Development in the Real World: Canadian Special Education Practices Exceptional child: a child who has special learning needs; the term refers to students with disabilities as well as gifted students Program accommodations: the adjustment of teaching methods in order to help the child who has special needs achieve the outcomes of the standard curriculum (continued)

32. Development in the Real World: Canadian Special Education Practices Modified program: changes in the curriculum so that the modified outcomes differ from those of the standard curriculum Individual Education Plan (IEP): a written document containing learning and behavioural objectives and evaluations for the exceptional student (continued)

33. B. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Causes: – Root cause is unknown – Right hemisphere of brain may be different in those with ADHD – Infants born early are at higher risk – ADHD children may require more sensory stimulation, which their extra movement supplies – Unlikely to be caused by diet, environmental toxins or brain damage (continued)

34. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (continued) Each individual case of ADHD is likely related to a complex interaction of factors: genetics, temperament, parenting styles, peer relations, the type and quality of school a child attends, stressors in the child’s life such as poverty, family instability, and parental mental illness Sleep disorders, found in those with ADHD, are also linked with several other disorders including anxiety and depression Sleep disturbances may be responsible for behaviours that may be mistaken for ADHD (continued)

35. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (continued) Characteristics of ADHD – Compared to their peers, children with ADHD exhibit Higher activity level Lower ability to sustain attention Lower ability to control impulse – Hyperactive/impulsive type: a high activity level is the main problem – Inattentive type: sustained attention is the major difficulty (continued)

36. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (continued) Treating and Managing ADHD – Parents may lose confidence in their abilities, becoming permissive or overly threatening May be helped by parental training programs to regain a sense of control – Stimulant medications, like methylphenidate (Ritalin) may reduce children’s activity levels, control impulses and improve social behaviour Apparent response may actually be due to changes in expectations of parents and teachers No evidence for benefit beyond 4 weeks – ADHD can improve with training

37. C. Second-Language Learners No approach to second-language learning has proven more successful than others, although submersion seems less effective than a structured program of language instruction Schools must provide some transition to English-only instruction for Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. If they do, these students do not have any increased risk of failure

38. D. Bilingual Education Children enrolled in early French Immersion programs are taught exclusively in French from kindergarten through Grade 2 within the classroom In Grade 3, subjects taught in English are incrementally introduced every year until they receive instruction in both languages, approximately equally, in the senior grades By age 15 French immersion students have higher reading achievement than their non- immersion peers (continued)

39. Bilingual Education (continued) Learning to read, write, and speak a second language: – Instils an appreciation for another culture – Provides an alternative way to think about and value the world – Encourages children to become more objective and open-minded Preservation of heritage languages (such as Aboriginal languages) is fundamental to the preservation of the multicultural nature of Canada

40. E. Sex Differences in Achievement Comparisons of total IQ test scores for boys and girls do not reveal consistent differences Canadian studies show that on standardized tests, girls do slightly better than boys on verbal tasks and at math Environmental explanations have proven to be more useful than biological theories in discussions of the sex differences, especially in relation to language skills