Chapter 10: Physical Development in Middle Childhood

1. Chapter 10: Physical Development in Middle Childhood

2. Physical Growth • Rate of growth slows relative to infancy & early childhood • Rate is roughly 2-3 inches in height and 5 lbs per year • As girls approach 8-9 years, the rate of growth increases relative to boys • Girls begin to develop additional fat cells relative to muscle cells • Girls’ growth rate is faster than boys’ until roughly 13 year—possibly linked with puberty

3. Overweight Children • BMI at or above the 95th percentile of the population of same aged children (normative) • Over 25 percent of American children suffer from obesity, • a greater-than-20-percent increase over average body weight, based on the child’s age, sex, and physical build. • Over 80 percent of obese youngsters remain overweight as adults

4. Causes of Obesity • Obese children tend to have obese parents, and concordance for obesity is greater in identical than fraternal twins • Low-SES youngsters in industrialized nations are more likely to be overweight • lack of knowledge about healthy diet • tendency to buy high-fat, low-cost foods • family stress • Parental feeding practices contribute to childhood obesity

5. Causes of Obesity • obese children are more responsive to external stimuli associated with food • less responsive to internal hunger cues • Obese children are less physically active than their normal-weight peers • obese children tend to watch more television • Linked to sedentary lifestyle • Linked to advertising and models portrayed

6. Outcomes of Obesity • Socio-cultural--Both children and adults rate obese youngsters as unlikable • By middle childhood, • obese children report feeling more depressed • display more behavior problems than normal-weight age mates • psychological consequences of obesity combined with continuing discrimination result in real or perceived reduced life chances

7. Growth and Maturation of the Brain • The rapid decline in processing time over middle childhood is thought to be due to • myelinization • synaptic pruning • Growth spurts during middle childhood: • Frontal, • Temporal, • Occipital • Parietal, (Pribram, 1990)

8. Growth and Maturation of the Brain • Increased function related to • micro-developmental (myelinization and synaptic pruning) and • macro-development (development of various lobes) • Lateralization (isolation of functions to one or the other hemisphere of the brain) increases and further reduces plasticity • Elaborations (development of new connections in the brain) are contingent on brain maturation and experience • Synaptic connections transverse increasingly longer distances across the brain and are correlated with increased flexibility of thought

9. Growth and Maturation of the Brain • Brain growth spurts roughly correspond to Piaget’s observed sequence of cognitive development • By the end of middle childhood the mass of the brain closely matches that of the adult brain • The later in childhood a neurological trauma occurs, the more challenging the recovery and the relocalization of the functions in the brain due to a decrease in plasticity

10. Motor Development • Gross Motor Development • During middle childhood, running, jumping, hopping, and ball skills become more refined. • Motor skills improve in the capacities of flexibility, balance, agility, and force. • Steady improvements also occur in reaction time—11-year-olds can respond almost twice as quickly to a stimulus as 5-year-olds.

11. Motor Development • Fine Motor Development • Fine motor development also improves steadily over the school years. • Gains are especially evident in writing and drawing. • Writing tends to be large at first, and legibility gradually increases. • Drawings show gains in organization, detail, and representation of depth. • School-age children not only depict objects in considerable detail, they also relate them to one another as part of an organized whole.

12. Individual and Group Differences in Motor Development • Parents who encourage physical exercise tend to have youngsters who enjoy it more and who are also more skilled. • Family income affects children’s opportunities to develop a variety of physical abilities. • Girls remain ahead in the fine motor area and skills which depend on balance and agility. • School-age boys’ genetic advantage in muscle mass is not great enough to account for their superiority in many gross motor skills; thus, environment plays a large role in motor development. • Greater emphasis on skill training for girls along with increased attention to their athletic achievements in schools and communities is likely to increase their involvement.

13. Childhood Play and Games • Child-Organized Games • Organized games with rules become common in middle childhood. • Gains in perspective taking allow children to understand the roles of several players in a game and permit the transition to rule-oriented games. • Participation in organized games helps children form more mature concepts of fairness and justice.

14. Adult-Organized Youth Sports • The past several decades have witnessed an expansion of youth sports programs. • Some researchers worry that adult-structured athletics are robbing children of crucial learning experiences and endangering their development. • Children who join teams so early that the skills demanded are beyond their capabilities soon loose interest and drop out. • Parents powerfully influence children’s athletic attitudes and capabilities. • When coaches emphasize effort, improvement, participation, and teamwork, young athletes enjoy their experience more, like their coach and teammates more, and gain in self-esteem

15. Play: Shadows of Our Evolutionary Past • Rough-and-tumble play • Friendly wrestling, rolling, hitting, and chasing among children • School-age youngsters are quite good at telling the difference between playful wrestling and a true aggressive attack • Girls’ rough-and-tumble play consists largely of running and chasing • Boys engage in more playful wrestling and hitting

16. Play: Shadows of Our Evolutionary Past • Dominance hierarchy • stable ordering of individuals • predicts who will win when conflict arises between group members • serves the adaptive function of limiting aggression among group members

17. Physical Education: The Context of School • provide regularly scheduled opportunities for exercise and play • ensure that all children have access to physical activity that supports: • healthy bodies. • a sense of self-worth as physically active and capable beings. • the cognitive and social skills necessary for getting along well with others.

18. Physical Education: The Context of School • The average school-age child gets only 20 minutes of physical education a week Florida has recently increased this for elementary students. • The growing fitness movement among adults has not filtered down to children • Emphasizing informal games and individual exercise—pursuits that are most likely to last into later years. • Physically fit children become more active adults who reap many benefits.

19. Special Needs in Middle Childhood • Biopsychosocial forces tend to create transactions among forces in children’s lives that lead to psychopathology • Determining exact causes of psychopathology among children is difficult due to: • Range of possible causal factors • Comorbidity (presence of two or more disorders)

20. ADHD • Relative to the norm for age mates: • Inability to sustain attention • High levels of activity • Low impulse control • Prevalence rate of ADHD 4%-6% meet clinical definition • Genetic, neurological components involved • Environmental toxins also implicated (lead exposure, prenatal exposure to alcohol and tobacco) • Treatments of choice typically involve drugs (stimulant) & behavioral management

21. Communicative and Learning disorders • Communicative disorders • Articulation—physiological differences; can be treated by speech therapists/pathologists • Expressive/receptive communication (linked to autistic spectrum disorders) • Expressive language disorder linked to early ear infections • Stuttering—frequently declines across childhood; can be associated with stress in later years

22. Communicative and Learning disorders • Learning Disorders • Specific learning disorder—narrowly defined to domain (e.g. reading, math, writing) • Child possesses intelligence at or above normal level • Differences in brain activity with children with communicative and learning disorders linked to differences in information processing • Discriminating between environmental and biological factors is difficult

23. Autism Spectrum Disorders • Lower than average: • Communication - both verbal (spoken) and non-verbal (such as pointing, eye contact, and smiling) • Social - sharing emotions, understanding how others think and feel, and holding a conversation • Routines or repetitive behaviors (stereotyped behaviors) - • repeating words or actions, • obsessively following routines or schedules, and • playing in repetitive ways

24. Autism Spectrum Disorders • Usually seen as early as 18 months • Range of indicators • Does not smile in response to others’ smiles • Engages in repetitive rapid motor behaviors (ex. hand flapping) • Does not point at objects • Does not wave or say “bye-bye” • Overly active, uncooperative, resistant • Shows unusual attachments to object

25. Education for Special Needs Children • IEP (Santa Rosa County’s IST) • Least Restrictive Environment • Resource room • Inclusion • Mainstreaming • Intact classroom • Resource teacher