Human development refers to the processes of change and stability throughout human life. The early stages of development in children are important in their life span. Children in middle childhood are those who are in the age between 6 to 11 years old. Most children in middle childhood start their formal education in primary school. In this stage, they have more opportunities to expose themselves to people and environment they had never known. In general, children in middle childhood are characterized by 3 major domains which are physical, cognitive and psychosocial (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1). The first domain that describes children in middle childhood is physical characteristic. The physical characteristic of middle childhood includes their height and weight, and motor development (Papalia, Olds & Feldman, 2009). Motor development is sub-divided into two distinct groups which are gross motor and fine motor (Papalia et al., 2009). According to Santrock (2008), children grow in an average of 2 to 3 inches and gain approximately 5 to 7 pounds annually. Girls are slightly shorter and lighter than boys between ages 6 to 8. However, girls become heavier and taller than boys after age 8 (Papalia et al., 2009). In addition, girls have more body fat compared with boys whereas boys are more masculine than girls in this period (Papalia et al., 2009). One of the sub-division of motor development is gross motor. Gross motor is the physical skills involving large muscle (Papalia et al., 2009). This kind of motor skill improves children’s abilities of force, movement, balance, and flexibility in middle childhood. Examples of gross motor activities are running, jumping, hopping, and cycling (Papalia et al., 2009). Fine motor is another... ... middle of paper ... ...9(2), 31-41. Livingston, J. (1997). Metacognition: An overview. Retrieved from: http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/cep564/metacog.htm Magnuson, K., & Berger, L. M. (2009). Family structure states and transitions: Associations with children’s wellbeing during middle childhood. J Marriage Fam, 71(3). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2836533/pdf/nihms181881.pdf Middle childhood: Cognitive and language development (2008). Retrieved from http://mcweb1guides.s3.amazonaws.com/520157.pdf Middle childhood: Psychosocial development (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mc.edu/faculty/files/1813/5293/4195/Berger9thedition_Ch_13_notes.pdf Papalia, D. E., Olds, S. W., & Feldman, R. D. (2009). Human development (11th ed.). New York, USA: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Santrock, J.W. (2008). Life-span development. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Schuster, C. S., and Ashburn, S. S., (1980). The Process of Human Development: A Holistic Approach. Boston: Little, Brown and Company Inc.
Gross motor development is the review of the child’s capability to move in a consistent man...
Berger, K. (2015). The Developing Person: Through the Life Span (9th ed.). New York, NY: Worth.
Gross motor skills in middle childhood have become a smooth movement and are no longer awkward as in previous stages. For most children there is an emerging interest in performing physical activities using the increased competence and skill that have been developed. As children gain muscle coordination movements such as running, skipping, jumping, throwing and catching become proficient and are able to be performed correctly.
Middle childhood is the time where children start to fully develop their skills. They develop their comprehension skills, communication skills, and many more. In order to get a better look into the life of children during this stage, I decided to observe my niece’s friend, Ryan, who is almost at the end of her middle childhood stage. Ryan is an eleven year old girl who attends Bassett Elementary. I choose to observe Ryan because, she is a very unique girl who does not always fit into what the average girl her age is like.
Elementary School Journal, 108(1), 63-79. Sigelman, C.K., & Rider, E.A., (2006). Life-Span Human Development 5th Edition. Vernon, A.
A newborn child’s physical and motor development is an evident progression throughout their first years and later in life. A child’s motor development is more of a slower progress, from going to gross motor skills to more fine motor skills in a few months while physical development is an apparent process. The environment affects children in their physical and motor growth, as they learn and adapt to new stimuli everyday as they develop. Separately, these developments start at different times, but function hand in hand as a child grows. Physical development is apparent at conception, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence; while motor development
The fourth stage of development occurs between the ages of 5 and 12 years old. As children enter elementary school, their social circle expands to include their teachers and peers. Children also begin to form their own identities independent of family members. In elementary school, the desire to excel academically as well as socially plays an important role in building the self-confidence of a child. Children strive to achieve goals while seeking approval from family members, teachers and peers. If children fail to succeed academically or fit in with their
As children grow towards adolescence they go through many stages of development. Child development refers to the stages of physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and language growth that occurs from the birth to beginning of adulthood. All aspects of a child's development may be affected by many different factors, including a poor learning environment, lack of social interaction, cultural background differences, abuse, and loss of a parent. All of the before mentioned examples can affect the child's maturation, "a biological growth process that enables orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience" (Myers 172). Children grow and mature at very different rates, some faster than others, which is why it is necessary to understand the importance of the different types of child development. Though all parts of child development are important, it is probably language learning that is most important to a child's development as a whole.
The development of children differs from individual to individual, depending on their unique temperament, leaning style, family, and upbringing. Research theorists such as Jean Piaget and Erick Erickson have endeavored to organize child development into universal, predictable sequences of growth that typically occurs in most children. In this paper I will be discussing my life story from infancy to adolescence and intergrading the theorists, domains, models that I have learned in child development classes.
In Erickson’s Stages of Development a child in middle childhood, (or children from age six to age eleven), move through the industry versus inferiority stage. This stage is marked by the child working to gain new skills and in general just being productive (Click P. M., Parker J., 2002, p. 89). A child who is successful in their attempts will gain confidence in themselves and move on into adolescence firmly on the industrious side. A child who is not successful in acquiring the skills they try will move on to the adolescent stage with the mindset that they are inferior to their peers.
Craig, G. J., & Dunn, W. L. (Ex.: 2010). Understanding human development (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Physical and motor development are two similar but different areas that describe child development. Physical development encompasses all of the various changes a child's body goes through. Those changes include height, weight, and brain development. Motor development is the development of control over the body. This control would involve developing reflexes such as blinking, large motor skills like walking, and fine motor skills like manipulating their fingers to pick up small objects like Cheerios. It is important to objectively study physical and motor development in children to gain knowledge on what characteristics are considered typical for each age and stage of development. This will enable me to be aware of when a child or children are developing at an irregular pace, and devise recommendations or find experiences and other resources that can aid in stimulating their development and to work towards closing achievement gaps. This particular assignment was to observe the selected child and reaffirm the importance of studying physical and motor development, and to develop ideas on how to involve it in my work as an early childhood professional.
The various aspects of child development encompass physical growth, emotional and psychological changes, and social adjustments. A great many determinants influence patterns of development and change.
The infancy stage of development begins with the child is born, and continues until about eighteen months. During this stage a lot of growth takes place, especially physical growth. This stage of development coincides with Erikson’s stage of trust vs. mistrust.