PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

1. Chapter 9 PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

2. Learning Objectives

3. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

4. The Growing Body Slow but steady… • Height changes • Weight changes • Only time in lifespan when on average girls taller than boys • Variation in heights up to 6 inches not unusual

5. Cultural Patterns of Growth Influences • Sufficient or insufficient nutrition • Disease • Genetic inheritance • Familial stress

6. Should hormones be used to make short children grow?

7. Artificial Hormones: Points to Consider • Currently taken by thousands of children with insufficient natural growth hormones • Costly • Some side effects • Long-term studies of usage not available

8. Nutritional Benefits • Children who received higher levels of nutrients had more energy and felt more self-confident than those whose nutritional intake was lower. What policy implications does this finding suggest? (Source: Based on Barrett & Radke-Yarrow, 1985.)

9. Benefits of Adequate Nutrition Relationship to social and emotional functioning • More peer involvement • More positive emotions • Less anxiety • More eagerness to explore new environments • More persistent in frustrating situations • Generally higher energy levels • (See Guatemalan study, Barrett & Frank, 1987)

10. Consequences of Inadequate Nutrition Undernutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide Undernourished children • Lowered resistance to infection • More likely to die from common childhood ailments and respiratory infections • Frequent illness that impacts growth

11. What would Ugly Betty's life be like in a real elementary school?

12. Obesity • Most common causes: • Genetic factors • Lack of physical activity • Unhealthy eating patterns • Combination of these factors • Only in rare cases is being overweight caused by a medical condition such as a hormonal problem

13. Costs of Childhood Obesity • Obese children • More likely to be overweight as adults • Greater risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases

14. The other side of “fat” • Even very young children are aware of society's fixation on thinness • Lowered self-esteem has been associated with being overweight in girls as young as 5 • Attitude was closely correlated with parents' perceptions

15. Balanced Diet?

16. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

17. Gross Motor Skills

18. Do boys and girls differ in motor skills? Gender differences in gross motor skills became increasingly pronounced during middle childhood • Boys outperform girls • Little or no difference when equal participation in exercise/activities • Influenced by societal expectations

19. Fine Motor Development • Necessary for wide range of school-related tasks • Influenced by increase in amount of myelin speeds up electrical impulses between neurons

20. Health and School-agers Middle childhood is period of robust health • Routine immunizations have produced considerably lower incidence of life-threatening illnesses • More than 90 percent of children in middle childhood have at least one serious medical condition but most are short term illnesses

21. Asthma About asthma • 15 million US children • Periodic attacks of wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath • Theories about increased incidence • Increased air pollution • More accurate diagnosis • Exposure to “asthma triggers” • Poverty

22. Other Health Risks • Accidents • Motor vehicles • Bikes • Fires and burns • Drowning • Gun-related deaths • Reduced by use of seatbelts and helmets

23. PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

24. Identifying the Problem • Psychological disorders in children overlooked for years • Incidence • Symptoms inconsistent from those of adults • Antidepressant drugs used for treatment have never been approved by governmental regulators for use with children

25. Drugs As Treatment FOR • Depression and other psychological disorders treated successfully using drug • More traditional nondrug therapies that largely employ verbal methods simply are ineffective AGAINST • Long-term effectiveness of antidepressants with children not known • Use of antidepressants on developing brains and long-term consequences more generally not known • Correct dosages for children of given ages or sizes not known

26. Depression • Key defining features of major depressive disorder in children and adolescents are same as they are for adults • Way symptoms are expressed varies with developmental stage of child

27. Children with Special NeedsSensory Difficulties: Visual, Auditory, and Speech Problems

28. Do you see what I see? Difficulties in seeing • Blindness (20/200 after correction) • Partial sightedness (20/70 after correction)

29. Say what? • Loss of hearing or some aspect of hearing • Affects 2 percent of school-age children • Varies across number of dimensions

30. Children Who Do Not Hear • Children with speech-language impairment have an impairment of their speech and/or language structures and functions • Parts of the body used in speaking and understanding - the brain, nerves, mouth and throat - may be damaged or not developing or working properly • Level of speech-language impairment can range from mild to severe • Impairment may be obvious before school or not show itself until the child has difficulty learning at school

31. I Am Talking to YOU! Definition • Impairment of speech articulation, voice, fluency, or the impairment or deviant development of language comprehension and/or expression • Impairment of use of spoken or other symbol system that adversely affects educational performance

32. Stuttering • Substantial disruption in rhythm and fluency of speech • Most common speech impairment; 20 percent of all children go through stage • No clear-cut answers to the causes of stuttering

33. Learning Disabilities Discrepancies Between Achievement and Capacity to Learn • Difficulties in acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities • 2.8 million children in US • Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia • ADD/ADHD

34. The Brains of Children With ADHD

35. The Basic Definition in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) “Learning disability” = umbrella term

36. Developmental Reading Disability Dylexia affects 2 to 8 percent of elementary school children • Reading difficulties • Inability to separate sounds in words • Problems sounding out words

37. Developmental Writing Disabilities Writing involves several brain areas and functions (dysgraphia) • Brain networks for vocabulary, grammar, hand movement, and memory must all be in good working order • Developmental writing disorder may result from problems in any of these areas

38. Developmental Arithmetic Disability • Arithmetic involves recognizing numbers and symbols, memorizing facts, aligning numbers, and understanding abstract concepts like place value and fractions • Any of these may be difficult for children with developmental arithmetic disorders, also called dyscalculia

39. What are the most common signs of ADHD? • Persistent difficulty in finishing tasks, following instructions, and organizing work • Inability to watch an entire television program • Frequent interruption of others or excessive talking • Tendency to jump into a task before hearing all the instructions • Difficulty in waiting or remaining seated • Fidgeting, squirming

40. Diagnostic Criteria Behaviors must: • Be excessive, long-term, and pervasive • Appear before age 7, and continue for at least 6 months • Create a real handicap in at least two areas of a person's life, such as school, home, work, or social settings • Be different than "normal" distractibility or overstressed lifestyle prevalent in our society

41. ADHD Treatment Controversy Ritalin or Dexadrine reduce activity levels in hyperactive children and are routinely prescribe • Effective in increasing attention span and compliance BUT side effects considerable and long-term health consequences unclear • Help scholastic performance in short run BUT long-term evidence for continuing improvement is mixed

42. Overprescribing Ritalin? The number of children being given drugs for psychological disorders has increased significantly over the last decade. (Source: U.S. Surgeon General, 2000.)

43. Are there other treatments for ADD/ADHD? Treatments • Behavioral therapy • Diet • Other?

44. Keeping Children Fit • Make exercise fun. Gear activities to the child's physical level and motor skills. • Encourage the child to find a partner. Start slowly. • Urge participation in organized sports activities, but do not push too hard. • Don't make physical activity, such as jumping jacks or push-ups, a punishment for unwanted behavior. • Provide a healthy diet.

45. Review and Reply

46. Review and Reply

47. Review and Apply

48. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

49. What are advances and limitations, in thinking during childhood? Approaches • Piaget • Information-processing • Vygotsky

50. Intellectual Development: Piaget Concrete operational stage • 7 and 12 years • Characterized by active and appropriate use of logic • Logical operations applied to concrete problems • Conservation problems; reversibility; time and speed, decentering