Human Growth and
Development: Chapter 9
Physical and Cognitive Development in
Middle Childhood
Physical Development
• In contrast to the rapid increase in height
and weight during the first years of life
physical development proceeds at a
slowed pace during middle childhood.
Nutrition
• Less food is needed during middle childhood
because of the slower growth rate. (high quality
over high quantity)
• Avoid junk food, excessive sugars and fats.
• Vegetarian diets are acceptable if iron and zinc
supplements are obtained.
• At least 20% fat content is needed to keep
growth rate going.
• Excessive fat, however, can lead to obesity.
Obesity
• Some children accumulate empty calories
from high-sugar and high-fat foods.
• Children who are overweight between the
ages of 10 and 17 years will probably have
a lifetime problem.
• Those who are overweight in their pre-
teen and teen years have a 64% chance
of becoming obese adults.
Obesity
• Parents should…
– Monitor children’s time spent watching
television.
– Encourage physical activity all year round.
– Serve plenty of fruits and vegetables.
– Monitor fat intake.
– Make children aware of what they’re eating.
– Don’t become obsessed with your child’s
obesity (it could be genetic)
Obesity Continued…
• Physical growth is relatively slow until the
period when girls’ development may spurt.
• American girl are reaching puberty faster
than recently thought.
• ½ of African-American girls and 15% of
White girls begin to develop sexually by 8
years of age.
More On Obesity
• Variables that cause fluctuations in the
growth of these children…
– Genetic influence
– Health
– Nutrition
• Development may well differ among
cultures, subcultures, and ethnic groups
Physical Changes in Middle
Childhood
• Kurt Fischer believes that he has found
evidence of at least 12 brain growth
spurts. Two of which occur during middle
childhood.
• Adults who are around children during this
times should provide appropriate
stimulation that will make them want to
participate in the world to add new
connections and strengthen existing ones.
Physical Changes in Middle
Childhood
Nature manufactured billions of brain cells
more than will be needed to ensure that
the brain will be ready to from enough
connections for all the needed abilities
and skills.
The neurons that don’t make the
connections simply die
The fittest of the neurons survive, so…
Keep busy, seek challenges, and stay alert!!
Physical Changes in Middle
Childhood
• Body proportion changes in middle childhood also
– Head size comes more in line with body
– Loss of the baby teeth and the emergence of permanent
teeth change the shape of the lower jaw
– Trunk become thinner and longer
– Chest becomes broader and flatter
– Arms and legs begin to stretch, but show little muscle
development
• Some children are tremendously active physically
and gradually display a steady improvement in
motor coordination.
Children Who Are Exceptional
• The notion of exceptionality has changed
dramatically in recent years.
– They used to be refused admission to public
schools
– Today federal law mandates that children with
special needs should be educated in the least-
restrictive environment as possible to achieve
success.
– Inclusion or Mainstreaming is the procedure of
taking a special needs student out of the regular
classroom, home, and family as infrequently as
possible.
Children Who Are
Exceptional
• Children who are exceptional received
powerful support from federal legislation
with the passage of the Education for All
Handicapped Children in 1975, and is now
known as the “Individuals with Disabilities
Act”.
Cognitive
Development
Piaget and Concrete Operations
• Children in Piaget’s concrete operational
period operate mentally on their
environment.
– They employ logical thought processes
through concrete materials
– They also concentrate on more than one
aspect of a situation which is decentering.
Accomplishments of the concrete
Operational Period
• Conservation appears: children can conserve
the main idea
• Seriation: children can arrange objects by
increasing or decreasing size
• Classification: enables children to group objects
with some similarities within a larger category
• Reversibility: enables children to retrace their
thoughts
• Numeration: children understand the concept of
numbers
New Ways of Looking at Intelligence
Gardner and Multiple Intelligence
• Howard Gardner forged a link between
thinking and intelligence with his theory of
multiple intelligence.
• Gardner defines intelligence as the ability
to solve problems or fashion products that
are of consequence in a particular culture
setting or community
Gardner’s Eight Equal Intelligences
• 1. Linguistic Intelligence: language is a preeminent example of
human intelligence
– Children change their use of language to a more flexible, figurative form.
• 2. Musical Intelligence: the early appearance of musical ability
suggests some kind of biological preparedness
– Most children cease musical development after school begins. Around
nine years of age serious skill building commences
• [Link]-mathematical Intelligence: evolves from our contact with
the world of objects
– Children begin to think abstractly instead of concretely
• 4. Spatial Intelligence: important changes in children’s thinking
occurs during these years, especially with the appearance of
conservation and reversibility
– Middle childhood youngsters can now visualize how objects seem to
someone else and can manipulate objects using their spatial intelligence
Gardner’s Eight Equal
Intelligences
• [Link]-kinesthetic Intelligence: our control of
bodily motions and the ability to handle objects
skillfully are defining features of an “intelligence”
• 6 & 7. Interpersonal and Intrapersonal
Intelligences: Interpersonal intelligence builds on
an ability to recognize what is distinctive in
others, while intrapersonal intelligence enables
us to understand our own feelings
– Autism is a deficit in this intelligence
• [Link] Intelligence: the human ability to
discriminate among living things as well as a
sensitivity to our natural world.
Sternberg’s Triarchic Model of
Intelligence
• [Link] of Intelligence:
– Metacomponents-help us to plan, monitor, and evaluate our
problem solving strategies
– Performance components -help us to execute the instructions
of the metacomponents
– Knowledge-acquisition components -help us to learn how to
solve problems
• [Link] and Intelligence: experience improves our
ability to deal with novel tasks and to use pertinent
information to solve problems
• [Link] Context of Intelligence: we learn how to do those
practical things that help us to survive in our society.
Skills are not acedemic
Thinking and Problems Solving
Children and Thinking Skills
• Children shouldn’t just obtain knowledge but…
– Apply what they have learned
– Integrate it with other facts
– Ask themselves if they could have done it any better
• Parents should…
– Not focus merely on facts, but should stretch child’s
thinking by asking questions that require application,
analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
A Thinking Skills Taxonomy
The main purpose of the taxonomy is to
provide a classification of the goals of our
educational system
It consists of three major sections: cognitive,
affective, and psychomotor domains
Cognitive is divided into 6 major classes
Cognitive Taxonomy
• 1.00 Knowledge– recall of specific facts
• 2.00 Comprehension– understanding what is
communicated
• 3.00 Application– generalization and use of abstract info
in concrete situations
• 4.00 Analysis– breakdown of a problem into subparts
and detection of relationships among the parts
• 5.00 Synthesis– putting together parts to form a whole
• 6.00 Evaluation– using criteria to make judgments
Using Questions to Improve Thinking
Skills
• Good questions cause children to pay
attention, process information, organize
their ideas, and compose an answer
– Questions should be clearly and concisely
phrased
– Give children enough time to answer
– When children respond parents should clarify,
expand, and synthesize, and never let an
incorrect answer stand
Problem Solving Strategies
Characteristics of a Good
Problem-Solver
• Four components needed for problem-solving:
goals, obstacles, strategies for overcoming
obstacles, and evaluation of results
• Children (7-12 years) show marked
improvement in memory
• They become more capable of transferring ever-
increasing amounts of info to long-term memory
by strengthening synaptic connections
• Children’s speed in processing info increases as
cognitive skills grow
Improving Children’s Problem-
Solving Strategies
• The adaptive strategy choice model of
Robert Seigler says that most children
devise a wide variety of strategies to solve
their problems, and depending on the
nature of the problem they’ll select what
they think is the most appropriate strategy
What Kind of Mistakes do Children
Make?
• Failure to observe and use all the relevant
facts of a problem
• Failure to adopt systematic, step-by-step
procedures
• Failure to perceive vital relationships in the
problem
• Frequent use of sloppy techniques in
acquiring and applying vital information
The DUPE Model
Don’t Let Yourself be Deceived
• D- determine what the nature of the
problem is
• U- understand the nature of the problem
• P- plan your solution
• E- evaluate your plan
Moral Development
The Path of Moral Development
• 2-3 years: begin to learn about right and wrong
from their parents; enormously impressed by
what their parents do
• 2-6 years: developing ability to decide what’s
right and wrong; telling the truth remains a tough
task
• 7-11 years: learn about making and following
regulations as well as deriving insights into those
children who break the rules
Parents and Moral Development
• Children whose mothers treated them
reasonably, but firmly, after transgressions
seemed more sensitive to matters of right
and wrong.
• Children with older siblings who were
friendly and supportive seemed more
morally mature.
Piaget’s Explanation
• Up to 4 years children aren’t concerned with
morality; rules are meaningless
• At 4 years begin to believe rules are fixed and
unchangeable, they come from authority and are
to be obeyed without question-heteronomous
morality; believe in immanent justice: anyone
who breaks a rule will be punished immediately
• From 7-11 years- realize that individuals
formulate social rules, which can be changed-
autonomous morality; think that punishment
should be linked to intent
Kohlberg’s Theory
• Kohlberg employed a modified clinical technique
called the moral dilemma in which a conflict leads
subjects to justify the morality of their choices
• Middle childhood youngsters are typically at
Kohlberg’s Preconventional level of morality
• As they approach 10 and 12 they begin to edge into
the conventional level of morality; where acts are
right because that’s the way it’s supposed to be
• 13 and over are the postconventional level of
maturity and only a small level of adults reach this
level
Gilligan’s View on Women’s
Morality
• Initially, any moral decisions a girl has to make
center on the self
• Gradually, a sense of responsibility for others
appears and goodness is equated with self-
sacrifice and concern for others
• Finally, women resolve the conflict between
concern for self and concern for others; have a
guiding principle of non-violence
• Must women exclude themselves and be
thought of as a “good women” or exclude others
and be thought of as selfish
Language Development
Changes in Usage
• An increase in pragmatic sophistication
interaction between language and
socialization; devising new ways to use
these words
Issue of Literacy
• 1. Basic Literacy: reading, writing, listening, and
speaking
• 2. Scientific Literacy: knowledge of science, scientific
thinking, math
• 3. Visual Literacy: ability to decipher, interpret,
express ideas using images, charts, graphs, and
video
• 4. Information Literacy: ability to find, evaluate, and
use info effectively
• [Link] Literacy: knowledge and appreciation of
the diversity of peoples and cultures
• 7. Global awareness: understanding and recognition
of the interrelations of nations, corporations, and
politics around the world
END OF SLIDE SHOW
• Editing was done by:
»Katie Jo Robinson
»Mrs. Mary Lu Andreu