Middle Childhood

Explains at least two physical developmental milestones that typically developing children

should attain during this period of development

. Children that are the age of six to eleven years of age practices, renes, and master

complex gross and ne motor and perceptual skills. Middle childhood children can play sport

games such as basketball, kickball, and have relays.

Explains at least two language developmental milestones that typically developing children

should achieve in this period of development

Children that are middle childhood debates and arguments with their siblings and parents.

At this age children can hold meaningful conversations with a rich vocabulary. This period

during early and middle childhood is specically characterized by substantial developmental

changes (improvements) in executive functioning abilities (Best & Miller, 2010). This protracted

course of development is supported by neuroimaging that demonstrates that the brain regions

associated with EF, such as the prefrontal cortex, are activated during infancy (Bell & Fox,

1992), and that the myelination of prefrontal connections continues well into adolescence

(Klingberg, Vaidya, Gabrieli, Moseley, & Hedehus, 1999). Language is needed for the

construction and use of the embedded rule structures that helps children to solve a given problem

or conict (Zelazo & Frye, 1998). This idea is expanded in the hierarchical competing systems

model (Marcovitch & Zelazo, 2009), which proposes that childrens rst cognitive processes

arise from a habit system, based exclusively on infants previous experiences.

Explains at least two cognitive developmental milestones that typically developing children

should achieve in this period of development

 Young children have a more attention span and can see things more logical with

reasoning. Middle childhood develops ability to understand others perspectives. Recent

research has demonstrated that language, specically the timing of certain linguistic milestones,

is associated with the development of numerous cognitive abilities, including childrens

conceptualization of objects, spatial relations, and numbers. For instance, infants as young as 12

13 months can use words to facilitate their object category formation (Waxman & Markow,

1995). Between 18 and 22 months, children can use verbal information to update or reorganize

their representations of absent objects (Ganea, Shutts, Spelke, & DeLoache, 2007), object

locations (Ganea & Harris, 2013), and spatial relations (Casasola, Wilbourn, & Yang, 2006).

During the preschool years, language also plays a role in childrens numerical understanding

(Geary, Bow-Thomas, Liu, & Siegler, 1996) and in the development of higher order cognitive

abilities, like theory of mind (ToM; de Villiers & Pyers, 2002),

Explains at least one sign that may signal atypical development during this period of

development

With increasing social-cognitive development, the ability to conceptualize and share in

the experiences of others becomes an important asset in establishing and maintaining

relationships as well as social adjustment (Malti & Ongley, 2013). Impairment in theory of mind

is a fundamental deficit that places individuals at high risk for poor social interaction and

communication.

Describes at least one strategy that families can use to influence their childrens learning

and development during this period of development

 The best influence that families can have is to get the professional help that their child

need to reach their developmental skills such as a counselor at a school. To gain a sufficient

understanding of the child's difficulties, assessment often spans many aspects of behavior,

including cognitive, social, and emotional development as well as family, school, and other

significant factors (e.g., health conditions) when providing clinical services, (Catanzaro, B. C.

and Eslinger, P. J. 2016), .Recently research has shown that childrens informal activities during

middle childhood, such as math, sport, and planning activities, have implications for their beliefs

in these domains (e.g., importance, self-concept of ability),cognitive abilities ,selection of high

school courses, and participation in later formal and informal activities (e.g., Eccles, Wigfield, &

Schiefele, 1998; Gauvain, 1999; Simpkins, Fredricks, Davis-Kean, & Eccles, 2003). Math,

science, and computer out-of-school activities are particularly interesting for two reasons. First,

many of these activities are complex (e.g., maneuvering through computer programs) and

parents encouragement and assistance may be critical to childrens motivation, enjoyment, and

eventual persistence in these challenging activities. Second, these activities are traditionally

stereotyped as more appropriate for boys than girls (Bamossy & Jansen, 1994; Huston, 1985;

Huston-Stein & Bailey, 1973; Jacobs, 1991; Jacobs & Eccles, 1992; Shashaani, 1994b; Wilder,

Mackie, & Cooper, 1985).

Reference

Middlemiss, Wendy; Barrasso-Catanzaro, Christina; Eslinger, Paul J. In: Family Relations. Feb

2016, Vol. 65 Issue 1, p108, 12 p.; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc. Language: English,

Database: Expanded Academic ASAP