PLAGIARISM FREE "A" WORK HUMAN DEVELOPMENT CHAPTERS

Chapter 9: Middle Childhood: Physical and Cognitive Development

Summary Children begin middle childhood with many of the characteristics of younger children. Their body proportions and motor skills resemble those of younger children, and their thinking is preoperational and often magical. As children mature through middle childhood, they become more adult-like. Their body proportions are more similar to adults, as is their use of language. They are able to carry out complex mental activities, to think about themselves and others, and to participate in a wide range of socially interactive activities.

Children grow steadily during middle childhood. As they mature from early childhood to adolescence, their weight doubles, their body proportions change, and their baby teeth are replaced by permanent dentition. Much brain development occurs in the cortex, and neural pathways are created and strengthened that allow for increased executive functioning. Neural pathways strengthened through myelination and automatization also allow children more control of their bodies and motor behaviors. Physical development is supported by play as well as good nutrition.

Physical and brain changes that occur during middle childhood support a tremendous amount of cognitive growth. Conversely, the repetition of newly acquired cognitive skills strengthens neural connections. Cognitively, children during middle childhood develop competencies and strategies that allow them to reason and use logic. They learn to read, write, and do basic arithmetic through their use of concrete operations. Among the cognitive functions that Piaget described as concrete operations are reversibility, grouping, seriation, and conservation. Together, these emerging abilities allow children to better appreciate cause-and-effect relationships and to interact with their environments with more intention.

Another way to conceptualize children’s cognitive development is to consider it in terms of the way information is processed. During middle childhood, children develop structures that allow

them to attend to new information and store it for later retrieval. New information is acquired through sensory memory, processed through short-term memory, and stored in long-term memory. Improved information processing allows children to selectively attend, and to improve the efficiency with which they gain new knowledge and skills. In addition, they gain the ability to think about the way they think, a phenomenon known as metacognition.

Children begin elementary school with language skills that are similar to those of adults. They know grammar and syntax and use complex sentences. As they mature, their vocabularies expand and they begin to comprehend words that have abstract meanings. With abstract reasoning comes the ability to see other perspectives and to develop socially and emotionally.