PSYCH 333: Middle childhood
Describe body growth during Middle childhood.
- Slow, regular pace
- Girls get shorter and lighter until about 9 years old (then it reverses)
- Bones get longer and stronger
- Permanent teeth appear
Why is nutrition important at this age?
A well balanced diet helps to maintain good physical fitness and increases learning
What are causes of obesity?
- Low socioeconomic status
- Insufficient sleep
- Parents' eating habits
- Low physical activity
- Stress
What other illness, besides obesity, do children have an increased risk of developping?
Asthma due to environmental factors
Which part of the brain is important for gross motor development?
Cerebellum
Gross motor activity contributes to _____ development.
Cognitive
Some gross motor skills gains:
- Flexibility
- Balance
- Agility
- Force
Which 2 fine motor skills develop?
Drawing and writing
Describe the differences in sex regarding gross and fine motor skills.
Girls excel in fine-motor skills and some motor skills that include flexibility and agility. Boys excel in all gross-motor skills due to experience and body mass
Two ways in which games with rules benefit children:
- Perspective taking
- Emotional and social development
Which of Piaget's cognitive development stages is middle childhood in?
Concrete Operational stage
How old are children in middle childhood?
7-11 years old
Two components of conservation:
Decentration and Reversibility
Define decentration.
Focusing on more than one aspect and relating them to each other
Define reversibility.
Thinking through a series of steps and then mentally reversing them
How do children pass the class inclusion problem?
They are able to focus on multiple category relations at once
Define seriation.
The ability to arrange things along a quantitative dimension.
What is the word for "the ability to seriate mentally?"
Transitive inference
Limitations of concrete operational thought:
- It's hard for kids to grasp abstract ideas
- It's applied to information that can be perceived directly
Continuum acquisition meaning:
Children master concrete ideas step by step, gradually.
Which executive functions enable the performance of complex tasks?
Flexibility shifting, working memory, inhibition
Attention becomes more:
Selective and flexible
Working memory gains:
- Processing time decreases significantly
- More efficient thinking
3 memory strategies:
- Rehearsal (repeating)
- Organization (into categories)
- Elaboration (relating to other things)
What two capacities work together to expand knowledge, and problem solve?
Memory and knowledge
Describe second-order false belief.
This is when a child believes that another person is thinking the same thing as them. By age 7, they understand that this may not be the case
What capacity is necessary for second-order false belief?
Recursive thought (ability to reason about what more than one other person is thinking)
What are context clues helpful for?
Context clues (definitions, examples...) are useful for understanding concepts when the terminology is unfamiliar.
Define "double meanings"
When a word has two meanings and the child understands both of them. Ex.: cool (fun, hip) and cool (cold weather)
Erikson's psychosocial task:
Industry vs. Inferiority
4 components of self-worth:
- Academic competence
- Social competence
- Physical/athletic competence
- Physical appearance