Polytechnic University of the

Philippines
College of Education
Sta. Mesa, City of Manila

Written Report in

Child and
Adolescent
Development
Group 7 Middle Childhood
Celso G. Tan Jr.
Ethel G. Factoranan
Kim B. Boncales

BSEDSS 2-1N

Prof. Sofia Guillermo

Middle Childhood (6-12 years old)
There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the
future in Deepak Chopia, Indian Physician and Author
Middle Childhood is the stage when children undergo so many different
changes- physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively. This is the stage
between 6 to 12 years old. Children in this stage receive less attention than
children in infancy or early childhood. The support of the family and friends
of the child is very important during this phase of development
Physical development involves many different factors, height, weight,
and appearance, visual, hearing and motor abilities. Primary school children
undergo many different changes as they go through this stage of
development. This could be caused by different factors; both natural and
environment.
Physical growth during the primary school years is slow but steady.
During this stage, physical development involves: (1) having good muscle
control and coordination, (2) developing eye-hand coordination, (3) having
good personal hygiene and (4) being aware of good safety habits.

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT

In this development stage, children will have started their elementary
grades- Grades 1-3. This period of gradual and steady growth will give
children time to get used to the changes in their bodies. An average increase
in height of a little over 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 about 6.5 pounds a year. Most children will
slimmer appearance compared to their preschool years 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.

A number of factors could indicate how much a child grows, or how

much changes in the body will take place.

Genes
Food (4-6 years old needs 1,800 calories) (7-10years old 2,000
calories)
Climate
Exercise
Medical Conditions
Diseases and Illness

Gross Motor Skills Development

During middle childhood, children continue to build on and improve gross

motor skills; the large-scale body movement skills such as walking and
running that they first learned during earlier developmental stages. In
general, boys develop these skills slightly faster than do girls, except for
skills involving balance and precise movements such as skipping, jumping
and hopping.
At this age, children run faster than previously possible, often clocking more
than eighteen feet per second. They can also jump higher (on average
between four and twelve inches off the ground) and farther (on average,
three to five feet or more). These figures are average for children of this age
range and will not apply to individual children. No two children will develop
physical skills in exactly the same pattern or time frame. Caregivers who
have concerns about how their children's gross motor skills are developing
should consult with their pediatrician.
Middle-Childhood-aged children also refine their control over gross motor
skills, learning to master where they hop, skip, throw, and jump. They are
able to gain this improved control and coordination due to increases in their
flexibility (e.g., their range of movement in joints and muscles), balance, and
agility (e.g., their ability to change their body's position, which requires a
combination of balance, coordination, speed, reflexes, and strength) Kids at
this age also learn how to synchronize the movement of their body's various
parts, allowing for the development of smoother, more coordinated wholebody movement routines such as are needed for participating in organized

sports (e.g., throwing a football, batting a baseball, or dribbling a basketball).

Due to their progress with regard to the growth and maturity of motor,
cognitive, and social skills, many children will now become capable and
competitive participants on sports teams.

Fine Motor Skills Development

Children in middle childhood also continue to hone their fine motor skills
which can be distinguish from gross motor skills in that they require handeye coordination. In contrast to how gross motor skills develop, girls tend to
develop fine motor skills slightly faster than do boys.
Specifically, middle-childhood-aged children show dramatic improvements
with regard to their printed handwriting and ability to write in cursive letters
(e.g., "script" forms of handwriting). They also develop the ability to draw
complex and detailed pictures that for the first time begin to incorporate
depth cues (i.e., such as drawing farther away objects smaller) and 3D
elements. Often, children's artistic ability can truly begin to shine during this
stage as improved fine motor skills and imagination combine.
During this stage, children also learn how to use their hands to successfully
accomplish manual activities other than drawing or writing. For instance,
they become capable of executing complex detail-oriented craft projects
involving beading, sewing, scrap booking, building models, and good at using
simple tools such a hammer or a hand mixer (both under adult supervision,
we hope!). Learning to touch type becomes a serious possibility at this time.
Children also commonly become quite skillful at playing complicated games
involving hand-eye coordination, including video and computer games.
Children's easy use of communications tools such as cell phones and
computers, which becomes possible as they master increasingly complex
fine motor skills, exposes them to a world much larger and more complicated
than they can possibly imagine. Parents need to be aware of both the
positive and negative potential effects of allowing children of this age to play
video games and access the Internet. Please refer to our article on Children
and Media for further discussion of this serious issue, including a clear

explanation of the dangers and opportunities associated with children's use

of media and strategies for protecting them from media's worst influences.

Physical Development: Age 711

Ages 7 through 11 comprise middle childhood. Some authorities divide
middle childhood into earlymiddle (ages 79) and late middle (ages 1011)
periods. Like infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, these older children grow
both physically and cognitively, although their growth is slower than it was
during early childhood.
Physical development in middle childhood is characterized by considerable
variations in growth patterns. These variations may be due to gender, ethnic
origin, genetics, hormones, nutrition, environment, or disease. While children
of this age group follow the same basic developmental patterns, they do not
necessarily mature at the same rate. Most girls experience a preadolescent
growth spurt around age 9 or 10, while most boys experience the same
growth spurt around age 11 or 12. Children who do not receive adequate
nutrition or medical attention may be at risk for stunted or delayed growth
development. For example, children who live in countries where malnutrition
is not a problem tend to be taller than children who live in countries where
malnutrition is a problem.
Physical changes, brain and nervous system development, gross and fine
motor skills, and health issues are important aspects of physical
development during middle childhood as in previous developmental stages.

Physical changes

By the beginning of middle childhood, children typically have acquired a

leaner, more athletic appearance. Girls and boys still have similar body
shapes and proportions until both sexes reach puberty, the process whereby
children sexually mature into teenagers and adults. After puberty, secondary
sexual characteristicsbreasts and curves in females, deeper voice and
broad shoulders in malesmake distinguishing females from males much
easier.
Girls and boys grow about 2 to 3 inches and gain about 7 pounds per year
until puberty. Skeletal bones and muscles broaden and lengthen, which may
cause children (and adolescents) to experience growing pains. Skeletal
growth in middle childhood is also associated with losing the deciduous
teeth, or baby teeth.
Throughout most of middle childhood, girls are smaller than boys and have
less muscle mass. As girls enter puberty, however, they may be considerably
larger than boys of the same age, who enter puberty a few years later. Once
boys begin sexually maturing, their heights and weights eventually surpass
the heights and weights of girls of the same age.

Brain and nervous system development

Brain and nervous system developments continue during middle childhood.
More complex behavioral and cognitive abilities become possible as the
central nervous system matures.
Early in middle childhood, a growth spurt occurs in the brain so that by age 8
or 9, the organ is nearly adultsize. Brain development during middle
childhood is characterized by growth of specific structures, especially the
frontal lobes. These lobes, located in the front of the brain just under the
skull, are responsible for planning, reasoning, social judgment, and ethical
decision making, among other functions. Damage to this part of brain results
in erratic emotional outbursts, inability to plan, and poor judgment. The most
anterior (front) portion of the frontal lobes is the prefontal cortex, which
appears to be responsible for personality.
As the size of the frontal lobes increases, children are able to engage in
increasingly difficult cognitive tasks, such as performing a series of tasks in a
reasonable order. An example is assembling a mechanical toy: unpacking the
pieces, connecting the parts, making the model move by adding a power

sourcea series of tasks that must be completed in the correct order to

achieve certain results.
Lateralization of the two hemispheres of the brain, also continues during
middle childhood, as does maturation of the corpus callosum (the bands of
neural fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres), and other areas of
the nervous system. Interestingly, children achieve concrete operations
around age 7 when the brain and nervous systems have developed a certain
amount of neural connections. When these neural connections have
developed, a child's ability to perceive and think about the world advances
from an egocentric, magical viewpoint to a more concrete and systematic
way of thinking.

Motor skills
Motor skills are behavioral abilities or capacities. Gross motor skills involve
the use of large bodily movements, and fine motor skills involve the use of
small bodily movements. Both gross and fine motor skills continue to refine
during middle childhood.

Children love to run, jump, leap, throw, catch, climb, and balance. Children
play baseball, ride bikes, roller skate, take karate lessons, take ballet lessons,
and participate in gymnastics. As schoolage children grow physically, they
become faster, stronger, and better coordinated. Consequently, during
middle childhood, children become more adept at gross motor activities.

Children enjoy using their hands in detailed ways, too. From early in
preschool, children learn and practice fine motor skills. Preschool children
cut, paste, mold, shape, draw, paint, create, and write. These children also
learn such skills as tying shoelaces, untying knots, and flossing their teeth.
Some fortunate children are able to take music lessons for piano, violin, flute,
or other instruments. Learning to play an instrument helps children to further
develop their fine motor skills. In short, along with the physical growth of
children comes the development of fine motor skills, including the sense of
competence and confidence to use these skills.

Health
Middle childhood tends to be a very healthy period of life in Western
societies. The typical minor illnesses of early childhoodcolds, coughs, and
stomachachesare likely to lessen in frequency in middle childhood. This
improved resistance to common illnesses is probably due to a combination of
increased immunity from previous exposures and improved hygiene and
nutritional practices. Minor illnesses occur, but most illnesses do not require
medical attention. Minor illnesses may help children learn psychological
coping skills and strategies for dealing with physical discomforts.
Major illnesses for schoolage children are the same as major illnesses for
younger children: influenza, pneumonia, cancer, human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV), and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). But obesity, or
being 20 percent or more above one's ideal weight, is a special health
problem that occurs during the school years. About 25 percent of schoolage
children in the United States today are obese, and the majority of these
children go on to become obese adults. Obesity in adulthood is related to
heart problems, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Although obese children
are not at the same medical risks as obese adults, these children should
master effective eating and exercise habits as early as possible to decrease
the risk of later obesity and healthrelated problems.
The majority of disabilities and deaths in middle childhood are the result of
injuries from accidents. In the United States, nearly 22 million children are
hurt in accidents each year. For children, the most common deadly accidents
result from being struck by moving vehicles. Accidents may occur at, near,
and away from home; therefore, adequate adult supervision is always
important. Injuries occurring at school are usually the result of playground
and sportsrelated accidents. Consequently, children should always wear
protective headgear and other safety gear when playing sports and riding
bikes. Other causes of death in middle childhood include cancer, congenital
defects, homicide, and deadly infections.

Motor development
Unimanual- require the use of one hand.

Bimanual- require the use of two hands

Motor skills:
Coordination- a series of movements organized and timed occur in a
paticular way to bring about particular result.
Balance - Is the child's ability to maintain equilibrium or the stability of his
body in different positions.
Static balance- is the ability to maintain equilibrium in a fixed position like
balancing one foot
Dynamic balance- is the ability to maintain equilibrium while moving
Speed- the ability to cover a great distance in the shortest possible time.
Agility- one's ability to quickly change his/her position.
Power- the ability to perform a maximum effort in the shortest possible
period.

Between the ages of about 7 and 11, children are in the period of cognitive
development that Jean Piaget referred to as the concrete operational stage.
During this period of intellectual development, kids become increasingly
skilled at understanding logical and concrete information. However, they still
struggle to grasp hypothetical or abstract concepts. At this age, kids are able
to focus on multiple aspects of a problem or situation and become less
egocentric, meaning that they are able to think about and understand things
from different viewpoints. However, they tend to be more focused on the
"here and now" and less on the future consequences.

Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

How They Think?

Cognitive abilities such as concentration and memory improve significantly

during the middle childhood years. Kids this age have much better attention
spans than they did in early childhood and they are better able to remember
information for longer spans of time. Not only is their ability to pay attention
for longer periods much improved, their selective attention is also much
better. This means that they are capable of tuning out irrelevant distractions
in order to concentrate only on salient details. As you can imagine, this
ability is of particular importance in the classroom since kids can start to
ignore the distractions presented by their classmates in order to pay
attention to teachers and textbooks.
Short-term memory improves considerably between the ages of 7 and 11.
Thanks to this, kids are capable of paying attention to more than one thing at
a time and become capable of thinking much more quickly. These
improvements in memory capacity, speed, and information processing
become immediately apparent in the classroom. Whereas a younger child
might struggle to stay on task and is capable of only focusing on one thing at
a time, the average middle-schooler has become quite adept at mental
multitasking. A student this age can easily focus on a teacher's question,
think about the various possible answers, offer a response, listen to other
kids as they offer their responses, and participate in a class discussion.
The advances in cognitive development that occur during the middle school
years are mostly tied to learning. As kids learn more, they become
increasingly skilled and develop critical areas of their brains. Parents and
teachers can foster this cognitive growth by providing ample opportunities
for learning between the ages of 7 and 11.
Encourage kids to read. Reading can improve cognitive abilities in a number
of ways, including helping kids expand their knowledge base, increasing
language skills, and improving concentration.

Consider bilingual education. Research has demonstrated that learning a

second-language can offer a number of cognitive advantages, including
increased mental flexibility.

Try to build intrinsic motivation. Try offering praise and encouragement

when kids express interest in academic pursuits. Extrinsic rewards, such as
treats or toys, can get kids to do their homework, but such reinforcement

won't necessarily help kids build an internal love of learning. Instead of

focusing on praising outcomes, such as good grades, instead focus your
efforts on rewarding effort and hard work.

REFERENCES

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/middle
.html
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/psychology/developmentpsychology/physical-cognitive-development-age-711/physicaldevelopment-age-711
http://psychology.about.com/od/early-child-development/a/cognitivedevelopment-in-middle-childhood.htm