Chapter 11: The School Years Biosocial Development

1. Chapter 11: The School YearsBiosocial Development Dr. M. Davis-Brantley

2. Context Changes • Major influence on development during this time is the change in social context • Also there is a higher self-reliance in that the child no longer needs the parent for self-care such as dressing, eating • Independence is a large part of this aspect of the child’s development

3. The School Years: Health • Children during middle childhood (ages 7 to 11) are at their healthiest • However, childhood obesity has become a deadly trend throughout recent years • Almost 1/3 of American children are obese • Obese means having a body weight composed of >30% of fat • Obesity is likely to decrease the chance a child will exercise, thus increasing the child’s body weight • Obesity increases the risk of other serious health problems in adulthood such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes • Also psychological problems may result • Genetics could play a significant role in obesity • Adopted children whose biological parents were obese are more often overweight than other adoptees • Cultural implications include: • Dictates type of food likely to be consumed by a member of said culture • American food is causing obesity in other cultures • What are schools doing about the problem?

4. Brain Development • By age 7, the basic areas of the sensory and motor cortexes as well as the more complex language, logic, memory, and spatial areas • Emotional regulation, theory of mind, left-right coordination, the executive portion of the brain also are all becoming more efficient overall • However there are many advances during this time • The prefrontal cortex allows the child to analyze consequences before lashing out, throwing a tantrum, etc… • There is an advanced ability to attend to information from many areas at once and pay special attention to the most important elements of a situation • This is referred to as selective attention—Ex: Paying attention to teacher and taking notes or watch a ball, run in the direction of the ball, and watch where the other teammates are running • Automatization is also a significant advancement in the brain • Automatization is a process by which thoughts and actions are repeated in sequences so often that they become automatic, or routine, and no longer require much conscious thought • After many repetitions of the same behavior (with neurons firing together with a particular sequence), then less neuronal effort is needed, because firing one neuron leads to a chain reaction that fires an entire sequence

5. Developmental Psychopathology • Child with special needs is a child who requires extra help in order to learn due to a physical or mental disability • Individual Education Plan a legally required document specifying a series of educational goals for a child with special needs • Developmental Psychopathology is a field in which knowledge about normal development is applied to the study and treatment of various disorders • Based on a variety of research, developmental psychopathologists have come up with 4 major lessons • Abnormality is normal • Disability changes over time • Adolescence and adulthood may be better or worse • Diagnosis depends on the social context

6. Pervasive Developmental Disorders • Pervasive Developmental Disorders—Severe problems such as autism, that affect many aspects of a young child’s psychological growth • Autism—is a PDD marked by an inability to relate to others in an ordinary way, by extreme self-absorption, and by an inability to learn normal speech • “…inability to relate in an ordinary way to people…and extreme aloneness that, whenever possible, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside” (Kanner, 1943) • Interesting Video on Autism and alleged low-functioning autistic--“A voice all her own” • Genetics of Autism • Teratogens are the primary known cause of Pervasive Developmental Disorders

7. Attention-Deficit Disorders • Attention-Deficit Disorder(ADD)—A condition in which a child has great difficulty concentrating • Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)—A condition in which a child has great difficulty concentrating for more than a few moments at a time and, as a result, is inattentive, impulsive, and overactive • There is a need for distraction and diversion is accompanied by excitability and impulsivity • Can be a result of neurological deficits, genetic vulnerability, prenatal teratogens, anoxia, postnatal damage, etc…

8. Learning Disabilities • Learning Disabled—Having a marked delay in a particular area of learning that is not associated with any obvious physical handicap, overall mental retardation, or unusually stressful environment • Review Educating Children with Special Needs • Mainstreaming • Least Restrictive Environment • Inclusion