1. Principles of Education and Training
Chapter 4: Middle Childhood: Growth and Development

2. Middle Childhood: Growth and Development
Objectives:
Explain the importance of readiness for learning for children entering kindergarten.
Trace the growth pattern of children during middle adulthood.
Analyze the physical and cognitive skills required to master a task.
Link children’s thinking skills at various ages to Piaget’s stages of development.
Develop a list of the social skills children must learn.
Explain how the development of self-concept during this period is related to Erikson’s psychosocial theory.
Identify the change in moral development that occurs about the end of
this period.

3. Ch. 3 Quick Review Teachers set the tone in their classroom.
It is important to understand how children develop physically, cognitively, and social-emotionally.
Each child’s development actually unfolds in an individual way. However, significant deviation in any developmental area needs to be evaluated.

4. For Example:
Some children show a developmental delay: a noticeable lag in a particular aspect of development.
It is important to identify and treat developmental delays as early as possible before the gap widens.
Children that fall behind can catch up quickly, but it also depends on the severity of the issue and if their problems are addressed.

5. Beginning School
Most children start their formal schooling at age five as kindergarteners.
State sets requirements, identifying a date by which a child must turn five in order to enroll in kindergarten.
Children in a single grade, may be up to 12 months apart.
Teachers may notice great differences between some of the youngest and oldest students in their classrooms.

6. Beginning School
About half of a child’s critical brain development takes place before a child enters kindergarten.
Importance of early years of life on influencing a child’s intellectual ability is clear. Therefore efforts have been made to educate:
Parents
Children’s first teachers
Ways to stimulate brain development from birth
High-quality programs that foster learning

7. Kindergarten Readiness Skills
Gross-Motor Skills
Throws a ball overhand
Jumps forward
Skips
Walks on tiptoe
Rides a tricycle
Fine-Motor Skills
Holds a crayon or marker correctly
Cuts with scissors
Copies a square and triangle
Completes a puzzle with pieces

8. Kindergarten Readiness Skills
Self-Help Skills
Dresses self without help
Eats independently
Uses the bathroom w/o help
Cognitive Skills
Knows own full name
Speaks in complete sentences of five to six words
Counts to 10
Knows most colors and some letters
Understands basic concepts such as in/out, front/back, on/off
Can tell a simple story
Sorts items by size, shape, and color
Engages in make-believe play

9. Kindergarten Readiness Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
Plays with a small group of children
Expresses feelings
Developing self-control
Understands right and wrong
Follows directions and rules
Can work independently for a short time
Adapts to changes

10. Children Ages 5-7 Every student has a distinct personality
However, most are:
Talkative
Imaginative
Explorative
Height and weight slows at this age compared from birth to age four
Physical Growth and Development

11. Children Ages 5-7 Physical Growth and Development--Continued
Gross-Motor Skills
At this age, they are active and full of energy.
Unfortunately, children at this age lack the judgment that comes with maturity and experience, and also tend to be more fearless, which increase potential for accidents.
Visual-Motor Coordination: involves matching body movements to coordinate with what is seen and improves at this age.

12. Children Ages 5-7 Physical Growth and Development--Continued
Fine-Motor Skills
Hand-eye coordination: consists of the ability to move the hands precisely in response to what the eyes see. It is a specific type of visual-motor coordination.
Dexterity: skillful use of the hands and fingers. This use is beneficial for writing and become more proficient in tasks like: cutting, coloring, building, electronic games, dressing independently, and eating.
Similar letters like b and d can be confused

13. Children Ages 5-7 Cognitive Development
Limited attention spans, yet they are curious and have a desire for independence. They learn best through experience, rather than listening to explanations.
Example: numbers are more real for kindergarteners when they count actual objects or pictures of them.
Thinking Skills
At this age, children become more logical thinkers. This paves way for improvements in problem solving, planning, and decision making.

14. Children Ages 5-7 Thinking Skills
According to Piaget, five-year-olds are unable to solve logic problems involving conservation.
Conservation: refers to the fact that something can remain the same (its properties are conserved), even if it appears different. Children at this stage are only able to focus on how things appear.
Example: a five-year-old believes that a tall, narrow bottle of water contains more water than a short, wide bottle, even when shown that the same amount of water is poured into each.

15. Children Ages 5-7 Thinking Skills
The ability to plan is based on understanding a sequence of steps. At the beginning of this stage, most children can follow simple two-step directions. This builds to the understanding of multistep directions by the end of second grade.
They begin to mix words and logic, like telling jokes.
Sometimes children use humor as a coping mechanism, especially when they are uncomfortable.
Example: when a classmate is reprimanded, the child’s classmates may laugh as a way of distancing themselves from the situation.

16. Children Ages 5-7 Thinking Skills
Although logical thinking improves during this stage, imagination is still vivid.
Children use their creativity and imagination in their drawings and the stories they create.
Sometimes they confuse fantasy and reality.
It allows them to express their anxieties and conflicts.
Example: acting out roles using action figures or dolls can help a child dramatize situations that are causing feelings, such as fear, sadness , or jealousy.
Also, they may believe that objects, such as a stuffed animals, have feelings.

17. Children Ages 5-7 Language and Reading
Language is composed of symbols that communicate meaning.
Although reading should begin with being read to before starting school, formal reading instruction begins with the identification of alphabet letters, followed by the recognition of the sounds they make.
Most children begin the process during kindergarten and first grade.
1st and 2nd graders typically make great strides in their reading ability.
By the time they reach the end of 2nd grade, many children are competent readers enjoying books with chapters.

18. Children Ages 5-7 Language and Reading
Important: Children who have difficulty reading at
this stage need to receive extra help.
Sometimes, additional one-on-one instruction by the classroom teacher or a reading specialist is enough to help the child catch up with the class.
Sometimes testing is needed to determine the specific cause of the problem and identify appropriate intervention strategies.
Reading skills are central to future school success so problems cannot be ignored.

19. Children Ages 5-7 Social-Emotional Development
Erik Erikson described the task at this stage as Industry vs. Inferiority.
As they can do more for themselves, children’s self-confidence grows.
However, if often compared negatively to other children, their feelings of inferiority can surface.
Peers play more important role in their lives.
New social skills enable them to form closer one-on-one and group relationships.
Although boys and girls comfortable play together in preschool, girls usually play with girls and boys usually play with boys in early elementary schools.
Peer Relationships

20. Children Ages 5-7 Social-Emotional Development
Family Relationships
At this stage, children want to please others, especially their parents and other adults.
They respond well to established expectations and family rules.
Tattling on others is a common way to attract adult attention.
Given clear instructions, they are also very capable of completing simple household tasks.

21. Children Ages 5-7 Social-Emotional Development
Self-Concept
Self Concept: is a person’s own assessment of himself or herself. It is based on an evaluation of personal abilities, successes, failures, and comments from other people.
Erikson’s description of the conflict at the stage of industry vs. inferiority is linked to self-concept.
Those who see themselves in a positive way, see themselves as capable, worthwhile people and are likely to act in ways that enhance their abilities. Those who develop a negative self-concept often adopt self-defeating behaviors.

22. Children Ages 5-7 Moral Development
This focuses on decisions about right and wrong as well as how society expects people to interact.
Five- to seven-year-olds can tell the difference between right and wrong.
Although their judgments are often based on potential rewards and punishments rather than on universal moral truths or family values, they start to care more about doing the “right” thing.
Example: six-year-olds may decide not to steal candy from a store because of fear of being caught. Because of their increased cognitive skills, they are also capable of making up stories to avoid punishment.
Also children are capable of waiting their turn when collaborating. They know how to share. They do best when activities are based on cooperation, rather than competition
When competition is fierce, they may express anger and jealousy in physical ways. This is a sign that they are not emotionally ready to compete.

23. Children Ages 8-9
Children ages 8 and 9 are usually in 2nd through 4th grades.
Physical growth among 8 and 9 year olds shows more individual variation than at younger ages.
Some children begin to experience puberty while others may not show signs until teen years.
Girls tend to develop slightly more than boys at this age.
Physical Growth and Development

24. Children Ages 8-9 Physical Growth and Development--Continued
Motor Skills
Good age for physical activities
Hand-eye coordination continues to improve.
Examples: shooting basketballs, learning to play musical instruments, and electronic games, quicker reflexes

25. Children Ages 8-9 Cognitive Development
Thinking Skills
Able to focus their attention for longer periods of time
Memory improves
Includes: remembering math facts, doing well on spelling tests, and retaining content from one lesson to the next.

26. Children Ages 8-9 They are in Piaget’s concrete operational stage.
Thinking Skills
They are in Piaget’s concrete operational stage.
They continue to learn best through experience with actual objects.
Piaget’s experiments showed that children between the ages of 7 and 11 are learning to think in more complex ways.
Seriation—the ability to place objects in order by a characteristic, such as smallest to largest.
Classification—the ability to sort items by one or more characteristics they have in common. Children at this stage are able to identify objects with two or more characteristics, such as separating out all of the small green balls from a group of balls mixed colors and sizes.

27. Children Ages 8-9 Piaget’s concrete operational stage Thinking Skills
Conservation—the ability to understand that a simple change in the shape of an object does not change its amount.
Transitivity—the ability to understand that relationships between two objects can extend to a third object.
Example: If Ashley is taller than Justin, and Justin is taller than Thomas, then Ashley is taller than Thomas.

28. Children Ages 8-9 Language and Reading
For 3rd and 4th graders, mastery of basic reading skills allows them to focus on understanding and thinking about what they read.
Children should be able to recognize most words by sight.
This allows them to concentrate on meaning.
Ability to identify main points, summarize, and make predictions continues to improve.
Learn ways to figure out unfamiliar words by using context clues and meanings of prefixes and suffixes.

29. Children Ages 8-9 Social-Emotional Development Peer Relationships
It is at this time in their development that children belong to several groups, such as scouts or a sports team.
Experiences such as these offer children opportunities to develop social skills.
Important for children at this age, to see viewpoints from other perspectives.
Praise and encouragement continue to be important, yet they begin to be sensitive.

30. Children Ages 8-9 Social-Emotional Development
Family Relationships
Children begin to focus outside their families for ideas and activities.
They still look up to their parents or guardians, but they are more likely to ignore what they are told or to argue.
Children at this stage are in need of consistent rules and limits.

31. Children Ages 8-9 Social-Emotional Development
Self-Concept
They desperately want to feel a sense of belonging and competence.
This primarily depends on gaining skills, esp. at school, and on acceptance by others.
They are full of doubts; not trying may be a way to cope with fear of failure.
Dressing like everyone else = attempt to ensure acceptance.
Criticizing others = a way to look better in comparison.
Competition is exciting, but brings with it the possibility of not measuring up.

32. Children Ages 8-9 Moral Development
Follow rules selectively, depending on whether they see a benefit in doing so.
They sometimes like to make deals, essentially saying, “I will behave if you give me something in return.”
They do not yet see rules as changeable, but they may not always follow them.
Children this age are concerned about fairness.
They complain about rules that seem unfair to themselves or others.

33. Children Ages 10-12
Children in this age group are in 5th, 6th, and 7th grade.
Often tagged as preadolescents or preteens.
Individual variation in size and maturity becomes apparent at this stage (grades 4-8).
Growth can be uneven.
Girls tend to develop ahead of boys, and some tower over most of their male classmates.
Physical Growth and Development
Depending on how physical changes are timed, this can be a time of uncertainty or a time of growing self-confidence.

34. Children Ages 10-12 Physical Growth and Development--Continued
Motor Skills
Muscle strength and reaction time continue to improve.
It can take time after a growth spurt to regain coordination.
Children write and draw with more skill.
Able to complete complicated projects, such as designing a clay relief map, paper collage, or clay sculpture.

35. Children Ages 10-12 Cognitive Development
10-to 12-year-olds face new challenges.
Move to middle school means adapting to multiple teachers, more independent learning, and additional homework.
Teaching also relies more heavily on verbal explanation.
That increases the importance of listening skills and note taking.
At this age, students like to discuss topics..
They are better able to work in groups.

36. Children Ages 10-12 Cognitive Development
Children want to feel a sense of belonging and that they are more competent.
This depends on gaining skills, especially at school, and on acceptance by others.
Competition is exciting, but it brings with it the possibility of not measuring up.
Master sequencing, ordering, which are skills needed for math.
Thinking Skills
Move past simple memorization to more complex memorization such as memorization of state capitols.

37. Children Ages 10-12
Thinking Skills
Their short-term memory grows, and experiences make longer lasting impressions.
Executive Strategies—skills used to solve problems.
Example: assessing problems, setting goals, developing plans to meet goals, and implementing and evaluating solutions.
The ability to use executive strategies opens up a world of possibilities for classroom learning projects.
Without guidance and encouragement, some older children struggle with the completion of projects.
Example: homework may be finished, but is never turned in.

38. Children Ages 10-12 Language and Reading
When children begin school, they know over 2,000 words.
For the next couple years, they will learn about 1,000 new words per year.
By 5th or 6th grade, they are learning about 20 words a day and will know about 40,000 words.
Preteens use more complex sentences in speech and writing.
They can understand grammar and the rules of writing.

39. Children Ages 10-12 Language and Reading
Students are more proficient readers.
Books of fantasy and adventure are popular.
Some older children may continue to struggle with reading.
However, with assistance, older children who are even now experiencing delays can still become proficient readers.

40. Children Ages 10-12 Social-Emotional Development
The ages of can be a period of calm or a stormy one, especially considering their background and where they come from.
Most older children move back and forth as they struggle to deal with new feelings, problems, and expectations.
They can be eager to please or have a bad attitude, both in the same day.
Peer Relationships
Children at this stage need to feel accepted by others, as friends and as part of groups.
Most 10-year-olds do not interact much with the opposite gender, but by the time of age 12, that may change.

41. Children Ages 10-12 Social-Emotional Development Peer Relationships
Classroom romances and crushes become more common.
Fitting in becomes important, and life is difficult for some who do not.
Preteens may be vulnerable to peer pressure, and peers can be very critical of others.
Children are more able to understand the positions or opinions of others.
They can be caring, empathetic, and nurturing.

42. Children Ages 10-12 Social-Emotional Development
Family Relationships
Parent-child relationships start to change.
They can begin to shift back and forth between cooperation and difficult behavior.
Important to keep strong lines of communication open as children move toward adolescence.
Moodiness can increase, and sibling relationships can become more strained.

43. Children Ages 10-12 Social-Emotional Development
Self-Concept
Often define themselves by appearance, material possessions, and involvement in activities.
Deal with many worries like school failures, family problems, and possibly loss of loved ones.
Fear may be demonstrated in argumentative, aggressive, or apprehensive behaviors.
Preteens often confide in friends, rather than parents.
The terror of rejection is strong.
Often become self-conscious.
Example: Riding in family’s older car, a new haircut, wearing less than the latest fad, or an overly enthusiastic greeting from a parent can all cause embarrassment.

44. Children Ages 10-12 Moral Development
Questions about right and wrong become more of an issue at this stage.
Some children are still in Kohlberg’s preconventional stage of morality.
Still base decisions on the possibility of reward or punishment.
Others have moved to Kohberg’s conventional stage of morality.
They tend to make moral decisions based o the desire to be perceived as “good” or bad.”

45. Children Ages 10-12 Moral Development
Some decisions are based on rules or laws.
Some preadolescents often begin to question some of their parents’ values.
This, if combined, with negative peer pressure, can lead to experimentation with alcohol, drugs, smoking, or sexual behavior.
Preadolescents want and need guidance, but they do not always accept it.
The emphasis needs to be on helping children choose good friends, adopt strong values, and develop the
social skills to withstand negative peer pressure.

46. End of Chapter Four Review Date: _____________
TEST Date: ______________