Middle Childhood

(PRIMARY SCHOOLERS)
Report of: Roejhen Netz Balmaceda and Flordeliza Mamangun

This the stage when children undergo so many different changes physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively. This is the stage between 6 to 12 yrs. old. Children in this stage receive less attention. The support of the family and friends of the child is very important during this phase of development.

Physical development
Physical growth is slow but steady HEIGHT AND WEIGHT Two inches a year in both boys and girls will introduce them to many different activities that they can now do with greater accuracy. WEIGHT gain averages 6.5 pounds a year. They have slimmer appearance because of the shifts in accumulation and location of their body fats. A childs legs are longer and more proportioned to the body than they were before. BONES AND MUSCLE Childhood years are the peak bone-producing years and this is the best time to teach children of good dietary and exercise habits to help them have strong healthy bones throughout lives. Childrens bones have proportionately more water and protein- like materials and fewer minerals than adults. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT Children have good sense of balance. They like testing their muscle strength and skills. They enjoy doing real life tasks and activities. Children in this stage love to move a lot because their gross motor skills are already developed, they can now perform activities. Performing unimanual (require the use one hand|) and bi-manual(require the use of two hands) activities becomes easier. Childrens graphic activities, such as writing and drawing, are now more controlled but are still developing. They can print their names and copy simple designs, letters and shapes. They hold pencils, crayons utensils correctly with supervision. Motor development skills include coordination, balance, speed, agility and power. Coordination is a series of movements organized and timed to occur in a particular way to bring about a particular result. Balance is the childs ability to maintain the equilibrium or stability of his/her body in different positions. Static balance is the ability to maintain equilibrium in fixed positions, liked balancing on one foot. Dynamic balance is the ability to maintain equilibrium while moving. Speed is the ability to cover a great distance in the shortest possible time while agility is ones ability to quickly change or shift the direction of the body. Power is the ability to perform a maximum effort in the shortest possible period.

Cognitive development
Intelligence is the basic mechanism of ensuring balance in the relations between the person and the environment. Everything that a person experiences is a continuous process of assimilations and accomodations jean piaget. Jean Piagets Concrete Operational Stage The third stage of piagets theory of cognitive development.It spans from ages 7 to approximately 11 years. In this development stage, children have better understanding of their thinking skills. They begin to think logically about concrete events, particularly their own experiences, but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts, thus most of them still have a hard time at problem solving. LOGICConcrete operational thinkers can already make use of inductive logic.Inductive logic involves thinking from a specific experience to a general principle. But at this stage, children have great difficulty in using deductive logic or using general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event. REVERSIBILITY One of the most important developments in this stage is an understanding of reversibility, or awareness that actions can be reversed. An example of this is being able to reverse the order of relationships between mental categories (For example in arithmetic, 3+4 =7 -3 =3)

Cognitive milestones Elementary-aged children encounter developmental milestones. They develop certain skills within a particular time frame. The skills they learn are in a sequential manner, meaning they need to understand numbers before they can perform a mathematical equation. Each milestone that develops is dependent upon the previous milestones they achieved. Up until age 8, a child learns new skills at a rapid pace. Once they reach the age of 8, the skills they learn start to level off and it usually is a steady increase of new skills.