Middle Childhood: physical changes

• Body growth:

  • slower growth rate

    • 2-3 inches, 5-8 lbs/year

  • rapid growth for girls starts around age 9.

    • 10 lbs/ year

  • influence of genes and nutrition

    • stunted growth

Middle Childhood: Hormonal Changes

• Shifts occur between ages 6-8 years

• ADRENARCHE: activation of adrenal glands

  • As adrenal glands activate they begin to secrete androgens (sex hormones) 

  • Adrenal hormones influence the metabolism > increases in fat > prepares the body for the onset of puberty in adolescence

  • Hormone shifts also promote growth in the prefrontal cortex

Adrenarche

activation of adrenal glands

Androgens

sex hormones

Middle Childhood: adrenal hormones

• influence the metabolism > increases in fat > prepares the body for the onset of puberty in adolescence

• also promote growth in the prefrontal cortex

Adrenarche Changes

• Brain converts adrenal androgens into estrogen and testosterone

   

• First people have their first memorable "crush" between ages 9-10  years

Estrogene and Testosterone

• Feminizing and masculinizing hormones 

• May influence the timing of sexual attraction

   

Middle Childhood: Brain Development

• By age 6, brain reaches 95% of its adult size

   

• Brain volume continues to increase into adolescence, especially in the prefrontal cortex 

   

• Development in the hippocampus (important for memory)

Prefrontal Cortex

• Responsible for higher order thinking and executive functions

   

• Synaptogenesis and synaptic pruning continues

Hippocampus

Important for memory

Middle Childhood: Gross Motor Skills

• Gross Motor Skills

  • Refine and grow in complexity 

  • Increases in body size and strength are associated with increased flexibility, balance, and agility

Middle Childhood: Fine Motor Skills

• Advancements in this area can lead to new interests

  • Most children have better penmanship and can write in cursive by third grade

Middle Childhood: Influences on Motor Development

• Growth of the cerebellum 

  • Important for balance and coordination

  • Environment: Nutrition, opportunities to practice motor skills (e.g., through play, other kinds of physical activity), SES, health

Middle Childhood: Individual/ environmental factors

• Unintentional injuries are the largest cause of death for this age range (e.g., falls; being struck with object/person)

• Factors associated with injuries and childhood mortality:

  • Personal characteristics (e.g., impulsivity, overactivity, difficult temperament)

  • Contextual influences (parental/adult supervision, SES background/context)

Possible Essay Question: Most Prevalent Developmental Disabilities

• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) 

• Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) 

• Intellectual Developmental Disorder (ID/IDD)

   

Possible Essay Question: ADHD Key Features (Developmental Disabilities)

• Most prevalent developmental disability

• Difficulty with attention and distractibility 

• Includes both predominantly inattentive and predominantly hyperactive presentations (or both!)

• 80% heritable

Possible Essay Question: ASD Key Features (Developmental Disabilities)

• Difficulties in social communication + restricted/repetitive behaviors

  • Can include sensory processing differences, difficulties adapting to changes in routine, and circumscribed interests

• Males more likely to be diagnosed than females, but this gap is closing

Possible Essay Question: IDD Key Features (Developmental Disabilities)

• Intellectual Developmental Disorder (ID/IDD)

• Significantly below-average intelligence plus deficits in adaptive skills (communication, self-care, social skills)

• I.Q. score typically below 70 

Piaget's Concrete Operational Stage

• At 6 or 7, children become able to use logic to solve problems but are still unable to apply logic to abstract and hypothetical situations

• Includes seriation, class inclusion, transitive inference.

Seriation (Piaget's Concrete Operational Stage:Forms of Classification)

Ability to arrange objects in order based on a specific characteristic (e.g. size, weight, or length)

Class Inclusion (Piaget's Concrete Operational Stage: Forms of Classification)

Understanding that a category (whole) can contain multiple subcategories (parts) at the same time (e.g., recognizing that roes are both flowers and a type of plant).

Transitive Inference (Piaget's Concrete Operational Stage: Forms of Classification)

Ability to understand the relationship between two objects by knowing the relationship of each to a third object (e.g., If A is taller than B, and B is taller than C, then A is taller than C)

Information Processing Advancements (Theory)

• Most cognitive development that occurs is due to improvement in working memory and executive function:

  • Switching between tasks 

  • Coordinating performance on two separate tasks or operations

  • Selective attention

     

• Good quality interactions with teachers = better performance in working memory

Metamemory Strategies

• Metamemory: an understanding of your own memory and strategies to enhance them 

  Memory strategies
• Rehearsal: repeating information until you know it well
• Organization: chunking/grouping items based on themes
• Elaboration: creating a story about the material
• Strategies for cognitive tasks vary with culture

• Increase in and metalinguistic awareness and use of complex grammatical structures
• metalinguistic awareness: knowledge about the nature and qualities of language
• Pragmatics: practical application of language 
• e.g.,  audience design, irony 

• Industry vs. Inferiority
• Children attempt new skills and develop a sense of competence
• Self-Concept
• Social comparison becomes more prevalent
• Varies by context
• Is a large component in the development self-esteem issues

Fixed vs. growth mindset (definitions of each, key differences, which is better and why)

• Growth mindset: Skills and characteristics are malleable 
• Strong mastery orientation: believing that success is in your control
• Fixed mindset: Characteristics are enduring/unchangeable
• Learned helplessness orientation: believing that failure is caused by internal, unfixable characteristics

• Aggressive-rejected children: confrontational and hostile toward other children; may be impulsive or hyperactive
• Withdrawn-rejected children: tend to isolate themselves from peers

• Affects roughly 25–33% of U.S. children
• Risk factors
• Poverty
• Food and housing insecurity
• Marital instability
• Drug and alcohol abuse

• Common perpetrators
• Men that children see often 
• Most abuse occurs in the child's home

• Protective factors also play a role 
• Children have different levels of resilience
• Resilient individuals can often demonstrate strong self-control and empathy
• Orchids vs. dandelions 

• Starts 2 yrs earlier in girls 
• first sign is grown spurt ~age 10
• leads to changes in testosterone and estrogen

Primary sex characteristics: physical features directly involved in reproduction which emerge/ develop during puberty

Secondary Sex Characteristics: physical traits which emerge during puberty which emerge during puberty but are not directly involved in reproduction

Menarche: girls' first menstruation (~12.25 yrs)

Spermarche: males' first ejaculation (~13.5 yrs)

• model of the brain consisting of two systems- one emotional and one rational, that develop on different time frames 

• set of subcortical structures responsible for emotion
• Includes the amygdala and hippocampus

• associated with rational thought

• Around 9-10 yrs, dopamine and serotonin levels increase in the prefrontal cortex and limbic system 
• Neurotransmitters associated with impulsivity and reward-seeking

• Adolescents have increased sensitivity to rewards and difficulty controlling impulses 
• Results in bias toward immediate goals over long-term consequences

•  shift in sleep patterns and preferred sleep schedules

• final stage of Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory 
• Reasoning about ideas rather than things
• Marked by the ability to think abstractly 

• Imaginary audience: self-consciousness, feeling like all eyes are on you

• Personal fable: belief that you are special, unique, and invulnerable

• Shifting contexts 
• Stage-environment fit: match between the characteristics and supports of the school environment and the student's needs and capacities
• Classroom experience 
• Teacher attitudes
• School diversity can impact student adjustment

• Approx. 6% of students drop out of high school each year
• Substance use, behavior problems, disruptive life circumstances can lead to drop out
• Importance of connection 

• Adolescents describe themselves with more abstract and complex descriptors; may begin to use qualifiers (e.g., "I'm sort of shy")
• Adolescents begin to identify as an ideal self (i.e., who they aspire to be)
• Those who perceive a mismatch between their ideal and actual self may often experience symptoms of depression

• Self-esteem generally dips at 11, is lowest at 12 and 13
• Relates to multiple life transitions (e.g., body changes, social comparison, school changes)

• Recovers and stabilizes later in adolescence
• Contingencies of self-worth
• When one's perceived strengths align with their values -> higher self-esteem
• Peer and parent relationships as protective factors

least mature stage; haven't yet explored or committed to a sense of self

prematurely chooses an identity without having explored 

successful resolution of the identity development process after exploration

• social pressure young adults receive to conform to gender-stereotyped norms

• Peaks at 14, declines through 18 and after 
• Greatest for day-to-day activities (e.g., what to wear to school)
• More risk-taking in peers’ presence
• Peer pressure not always negative