Middle School Transition

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The transition that I think it more difficult for most children is the transition into middle school. Middle school is the time when children are in between being an adult and a child. There are many more changes that occur in middle school than high school that affect a child’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional wellbeing. One of the major changes that happen to children while transitioning into middle school is puberty (physically). Puberty is the period of time in which a child changes from a sexually immature person to a one who is capable of reproduction. For girls puberty can begin as early as age 9 and as late as age 16, and for boys puberty can begin as early as age 10 and as late as age 19. Puberty causes many physical changes …show more content…

Secondary sex characteristics (physical features that differentiate adult males from adult females but are not directly involved in reproduction) include new distributions of muscle and fat tissue, growth on certain parts of the body, the development of breasts in females, and the lowered pitch of the male voice. Most adolescents also experience noticeable changes in their skin and sweat glands. This causes the skin to become rougher and more oily, which may cause acne. The sweat glands also enlarge and become more active, especially in the genital and underarm areas resulting in new body odors. These physical changes that adolescents have no choice but to go through can affect them emotionally, socially, and cognitively in many ways. The releases of these new hormones that come with puberty not only affect their brain, but these changes also affect how they feel about themselves. They might not like how they look anymore. This will affect how they interact with others and how others interact with them. Bullying increases during adolescent for many reasons. Some adolescents bully others …show more content…

When they go to middle school, they aren’t with just one teacher all day anymore like in elementary school. In middle school, most adolescents have about six different teachers. The content areas are more concentrated with each period/block covering a different subject (language arts, social studies, math, science, physical education/health, and an elective). Middle schoolers have to learn how to transition between classes for the first time in a new place. The schools tend to be larger with more students than an elementary school. They have more freedom, but also more rules than elementary school, such as not being tardy. These cognitive changes that adolescents have no choice but to go through can affect them emotionally, socially, and physically in many ways. Emotionally most adolescents feel overwhelmed especially their first year in middle school. They have way more homework and projects to do in middle school so this may be more stressful for them (emotional). They start getting less sleep devoting more time to homework and waking up earlier for school (physical). Adolescents also have to adjust to being separated from childhood friends because in middle school they begin to separate students based on test scores

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