Chapter 9 - Summary A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development PDF

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CHAPTER 9 – MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD 1 Physical changes and health

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LO 9.1 Describe physical changes and health in middle and late childhood.

Body growth and change

The period of middle and late childhood involves slow, consistent growth. During this period, children grow an average of about 6 centimetres a year. Muscle mass and strength gradually increase. Among the most pronounced changes in body growth and proportion are decreases in head circumference and waist circumference in relation to body height.

The brain

Changes in the brain in middle and late childhood included advances in functioning in the prefrontal cortex, which are reflected in improved attention, reasoning and cognitive control. During middle and late childhood, less diffusion and more focal activation occurs in the prefrontal cortex, a change that is associated with an increase in cognitive control.

Motor development

During the middle and late childhood years, motor development becomes much smoother and more coordinated. Children gain greater control over their bodies and can sit and attend for longer periods of time. However, their lives should be activityoriented and very active. Increased myelination of the central nervous system is reflected in improved motor skills. Improved fine motor skills appear in the form of handwriting development. Boys are usually better at gross motor skills, girls at fine motor skills.

Exercise

Most children do not get nearly enough exercise. Parents play an especially important role in guiding children to increase their exercise. Heavy television and computer use are linked to lower activity levels in children.

Health, illness For the most part, middle and late childhood is a time of excellent health. The most and disease common cause of severe injury and death in childhood is motor vehicle accidents. Being overweight is an increasing child health problem, raising the risk for many medical and psychological problems. Obesity in children poses serious health risks. Cardiovascular disease is uncommon in children but the precursors to adult cardiovascular disease are often already apparent in children. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children (after accidents). Leukaemia is the most common childhood cancer. Children grow more slowly in early childhood than in infancy, but they still grow an average of about 6 centimetres and 2 to 3 kilograms a year, the average child is around 50 centimetres tall In particular, the brain pathways and circuitry involving the prefrontal cortex, the highest level in the brain, continue to increase in middle and late childhood. These advances in the prefrontal cortex are linked to children’s improved attention, reasoning and cognitive control. Changes also occur in the thickness of the cerebral cortex (cortical thickness) in middle and late childhood. Cortical thickening across a two-year time period was observed in the temporal and frontal lobe areas that function in language, which may reflect improvements in language abilities such as reading. Brain development. Synaptic pruning is an important aspect of the brain’s development and the pruning varies by brain region across children’s development. Increased myelination of the central nervous system is reflected in the improvement of fine motor

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skills during middle and late childhood. Children can more adroitly use their hands as tools. Girls usually outperform boys in their use of fine motor skills. Primary school children are far from physical maturity, so they need to be active. They become more fatigued by long periods of sitting than by running, jumping or bicycling. Physical action, such as batting a ball, skipping rope or balancing on a beam, is essential for these children to refine their developing skills. It is becoming increasingly clear that exercise plays an important role in children’s growth and development Here are some ways to get children to exercise more: • • • •

Offer more physical activity programs run by volunteers at school facilities. Improve physical fitness activities in schools. Have children plan community and school activities that really interest them. Encourage families to focus more on physical activity and encourage parents to exercise more.

Injuries are the leading cause of death during middle and late childhood and the most common cause of severe injury and death in this period is motor vehicle accidents, either as a pedestrian or as a passenger. In 2007 the proportions of Australian children identified as obese or overweight were estimated to be 17.5 to 6.5 per cent respectively. The increase in overweight children in recent decades is cause for great concern because being overweight raises the risk for many medical and psychological problems. Overweight children are at risk for developing pulmonary problems, such as sleep apnoea (which involves upper-airway obstruction) and hip problems. Diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure) and elevated blood cholesterol levels also are common in children who are overweight. A recent research review concluded that obesity was linked with low self-esteem in children There is evidence that suggests many primary school aged children already possess one or more of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as hypertension and obesity. Further, a recent study revealed that high blood pressure goes undiagnosed in 75 per cent of children with the disease. Another recent study also found that children with a high body mass index and waist circumference are at risk for metabolic syndrome—a constellation of factors, including obesity, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes—placing individuals at risk for developing cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Cancer is a leading cause of death in children. In Australia and New Zealand, cancer is the second highest cause of death behind traffic accidents. Child cancers mainly attack the white blood cells (leukaemia), brain, bone, lymph system, muscles, kidneys and nervous system. All are characterised by an uncontrolled proliferation of abnormal cells. In the 1960s less than 5 per cent of children with an acute form of leukaemia survived for more than five years; today, approximately 25 per cent of these children survive for five years or more.

2 Children with disabilities

LO 9.2 Identify children with different types of disabilities and issues in educating them.

The scope of A child with a learning disability has difficulty in learning that involves understanding disabilities or using spoken or written language and the difficulty can appear in listening,

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thinking, reading, writing and spelling. A learning disability also may involve difficulty in doing mathematics. To be classified as a learning disability, the learning problem is not primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor disabilities; intellectual disabilities; emotional disorders; or due to environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage. Dyslexia is a category of learning disabilities that involves a severe impairment in the ability to read and spell. Dysgraphia is a learning disability that involves having difficulty in handwriting. Dyscalculia is a learning disability that involves difficulties in mathematical computation. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a disability in which individuals consistently show problems in one or more of these areas: (1) inattention, (2) hyperactivity and (3) impulsivity. ADHD has been increasingly diagnosed. Emotional and behavioural disorders consist of serious, persistent problems that involve relationships, aggression, depression, fears associated with personal or school matters, as well as other inappropriate socioemotional characteristics. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), also called pervasive developmental disorders, range from autistic disorder, a severe developmental disorder, to Asperger’s syndrome, a relatively mild autism spectrum disorder. The current consensus is that autism is a brain dysfunction with abnormalities in brain structure and neurotransmitters. Children with autism spectrum disorders are characterised by problems in social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and by repetitive behaviours. Educational issues

In the United States the 1975, Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, required that all children with disabilities be given a free, appropriate public education. This law was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990 and updated in 2004. IDEA includes requirements that children with disabilities receive an individualised education plan (IEP), which is a written plan that spells out a program tailored to the child, and that they be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE), which is a setting that is as similar as possible to the one in which children without disabilities are educated. The term inclusion means educating children with disabilities full time in the regular classroom.

learning disability Describes a child who has difficulty in learning that involves understanding or using spoken or written language and the difficulty can appear in listening, thinking, reading, writing and spelling. A learning disability also may involve difficulty in doing mathematics. To be classified as a learning disability, the learning problem is not primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor disabilities; intellectual disabilities; emotional disorders; or due to environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage. About three times as many boys as girls are classified as having a learning disability. Among the explanations for this gender difference are a greater biological vulnerability among boys and referral bias. That is, boys are more likely to be referred by teachers for treatment because of troublesome behaviour. Approximately 80 per cent of children with a learning disability have a reading problem. Three types of learning disabilities are dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia: dyslexia A category of learning disabilities involving a severe impairment in the ability to read and spell. dysgraphia A learning disability that involves difficulty in handwriting.

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dyscalculia Also known as developmental arithmetic disorder; a learning disability that involves difficulty in mathematical computation. Depending on the characteristics that children with ADHD display, they can be diagnosed as (1) ADHD with predominantly inattention, (2) ADHD with predominantly hyperactivity/impulsivity, or (3) ADHD with both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) A disability in which children consistently show one or more of the following characteristics: (1) inattention, (2) hyperactivity and (3) impulsivity. The disorder occurs as much as four to nine times more in boys than in girls. A recent study revealed that peak thickness of the cerebral cortex occurred three years later (10.5 years) in children with ADHD than in children without ADHD (peak at 7.5 years). The delay was more prominent in the prefrontal regions of the brain that especially are important in attention and planning. Researchers have often found that a combination of medication (such as Ritalin) and behaviour management improves the behaviour of children with ADHD better than medication alone or behaviour management alone, although not in all cases. Autism spectrum disorders can often be detected in children as early as 1 to 3 years of age. emotional and behavioural disorders Serious, persistent problems that involve relationships, aggression, depression, fears associated with personal or school matters, as well as other inappropriate socioemotional characteristics. Boys are three times as likely as girls to have these disorders. Recent estimates of autism spectrum disorders indicate that they are increasing in occurrence or are increasingly being detected and labelled. Once thought to affect only 1 in 2500 individuals, today’s estimates suggest that they occur in about 1 in 150 individuals Boys are four times as likely to have autism spectrum disorders as girls are. individualised education plan (IEP) A written statement that spells out a program specifically tailored to a child with a disability. least restrictive environment (LRE) A setting that is as similar as possible to the one in which children who do not have a disability are educated. inclusion Educating a child with special education needs full-time in the regular classroom. 3 Cognitive changes

LO 9.3 Explain cognitive changes in middle and late childhood.

Piaget’s cognitive Piaget said that the stage of concrete operational thought characterises children development from about 7 to 11 years of age. During this stage, children are capable of concrete operations, conservation, classification, seriation and transitivity. Critics theory argue that some abilities emerge earlier than Piaget thought, that elements of a stage do not appear at the same time and that education and culture have more influence on development than Piaget predicted. Neo-Piagetians place more emphasis on how children process information, strategies, speed of information processing and the division of cognitive problems into more precise steps. Information

Long-term memory increases in middle and late childhood. Knowledge and

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processing

expertise influence memory. Strategies can be used by children to improve their memory and it is important for adults who instruct children to encourage children’s strategy use. Fuzzy trace theory has been proposed to explain developmental changes in memory. Critical thinking involves thinking reflectively and productively, as well as evaluating the evidence. Mindfulness is an important aspect of critical thinking. A special concern is the lack of emphasis on critical thinking in many schools. Creative thinking is the ability to think in novel and unusual ways and to come up with unique solutions to problems. Guilford distinguished between convergent and divergent thinking. A number of strategies can be used to encourage children’s creative thinking, including brainstorming. Children think like scientists in some ways, but in other ways they don’t. Metacognition is knowing about knowing. Many metacognitive studies have focused on metamemory. Pressley views the key to education as helping students learn a rich repertoire of strategies.

Intelligence

Intelligence consists of problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt to and learn from life’s everyday experiences. Interest in intelligence often focuses on individual differences and assessment. Widely used intelligence tests today include the Stanford–Binet tests and Wechsler scales. Results on these tests may be reported in terms of an overall IQ or in terms of performance on specific areas of the tests. Sternberg proposed that intelligence comes in three main forms: analytical, creative and practical. Gardner proposes that there are eight types of intelligence: verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily–kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical and naturalist. The multiple-intelligences approaches have expanded our conception of intelligence, but critics argue that the research base for these approaches is not well established. IQ scores are influenced by both genetics and characteristics of the environment. Parents, home environments, schools and intervention programs can influence these scores. Intelligence test scores have risen considerably around the world in recent decades—called the Flynn effect—and this supports the role of environment in intelligence. Group differences in IQ scores may reflect many influences, including cultural bias. Tests may be biased against certain groups because they are not familiar with a standard form of English, with the content tested or with the testing situation. Tests are likely to reflect the values and experience of the dominant culture.

Extremes of intelligence

Intellectual disability involves low IQ and problems in adapting to everyday life. One classification distinguishes organic and cultural-familial intellectual disability. Individuals who are gifted have above-average intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent for something. Three characteristics of gifted children are precocity, marching to their own drummer and a passion to master their domain. Giftedness is likely a consequence of both heredity and environment. Developmental changes characterise giftedness and increasingly the domain-specific aspect of giftedness is emphasised. Concerns exist about the education of children who are gifted.

Piaget proposed that the concrete operational stage lasts from approximately 7 to 11 years of age. In this stage, children can perform concrete operations and they can reason logically as long as reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples. Remember that operations are mental actions that are reversible and concrete operations are operations that are applied to real, concrete

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objects. In the clay example, the preoperational child is likely to focus on height or width. The concrete operational child coordinates information about both dimensions, therefore are likely to say the clay amount is the same. Centration, a centring of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others, is present in young children’s lack of conservation seriation The concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension (such as length). (The concrete operational thinker simultaneously understands that each stick must be longer than the one that precedes it and shorter than the one that follows it.) transitivity The ability to logically combine relations to understand certain conclusions. (A is the longest, B is intermediate in length and C is the shortest. Does the child understand that if A is longer than B and B is longer than C, then A is longer than C? In Piaget’s theory, concrete operational thinkers do; preoperational thinkers do not.) neo-Piagetians Developmentalists who argue that Piaget got some things right but that his theory needs considerable revision. They have elaborated on Piaget’s theory, giving more emphasis to information processing, strategies and precise cognitive steps. Other changes in information processing during middle and late childhood involve memory, thinking and metacognition, improve their ability to sustain and control attention, pay more attention to taskrelevant stimuli than to salient stimuli. long-term memory A relatively permanent type of memory that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time. Following are some effective strategies for adults to use when attempting to improve children’s memory skills:    

Encourage children to engage in mental imagery. Motivate children to remember material by understanding it rather than by memorising it. Repeat with variation on the instructional information and link early and often. Embed memory-relevant language when instructing children.

fuzzy trace theory States that memory is best understood by considering two types of memory representations: (1) verbatim memory trace and (2) gist. In this theory, older children’s better memory is attributed to the fuzzy traces created by extracting the gist of information. critical thinking Thinking reflectively and productively, as well as evaluating the evidence. mindfulness Being alert, mentally present and cognitively flexible while going through life’s everyday activities and tasks. Jacqueline and Martin Brooks (2001) lament that few schools really teach students to think critically and develop a deep understanding of concepts. They observe that too often teacher...