Middle/Late Childhood: A Case Study

Improved Essays
Middle/Late Childhood The developmental stage of middle/late childhood occurs when a child is between nine and eleven years old. In this stage, children are off at school, further developing their cognitive, physical, and social/emotional processes. School helps foster cognitive development in middle/late childhood because children are learning new skills and applying them in school and on tests. Jean Piaget suggested that children in this stage go through what he calls the Concrete-Operational period, where children are limited to what is “tangible and real,” (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014, p. 158). In this stage, children are able to perform mental operations, which can be defined as, “cognitive actions that can be performed on objects or ideas,” …show more content…
In middle/late childhood, a child’s growth continues at a steady pace. Typically, children in this stage of development grow eight pounds and around two to three inches per year (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014, p. 180). At the end of this stage, though, girls typically grow taller than boys because they enter puberty sooner, and thus they are taller than boys for a couple of years (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014, p. 180). Like in the previous stages of development, both boys and girls need to consume healthy foods, and more of them to help them grow. According to Kail & Cavanaugh (2014), “The average 7- to 10-year-old needs about 2,400 calories each day. The exact figure depends on the child’s age and size can range anywhere from roughly 1,700 to 3,300 calories daily,” (p. 180). On top of that, a child’s motor skills continue to develop into middle/late childhood. In terms of gross motor skills, when children are eleven years old, nearly all children can throw a ball three times farther and can jump about twice as far as they could when they were six years old (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014, p. 181). Fine motor skills continue to develop along with gross motor skills in middle/late childhood. As mentioned before, fine motor skills have to do with the fingers and hands and make it possible to complete smaller physical tasks. In school, some of the tasks that show …show more content…
I asked her about any milestones she has experienced, and she responded that she remembers being able to work problems backward in the third grade. When I asked about her school life, she said that it was good overall, but that she had difficulty with the standardized tests at the end of the year (the EOG tests). The participant had test anxiety, so that most likely played a role in her difficulty taking any standardized tests. I asked if she was physically active during this stage, and she said that she was, although it was more outdoor activity and she did not engage in any organized sports team. She did focus on nutrition. I asked about her friendships during this stage, and she responded that she had a very strong, supportive bond with all of her friends. The interviewee said that she had a positive experience developing through middle/late childhood. There are many developmental changes that occur in middle/late childhood in terms of cognitive, physical, and social/emotional

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Henoildo Personality

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to Piaget, children in the middle childhood are in their concrete operational stage. They are beginning to think logically, but can only apply logic to physical objects. They gain abilities of conservation and reversibility. They start thinking more rational and organized. Problem solving becomes easier, but is still reached through concrete thinking.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Healthy eating and physical activity are most important for your child You can help your child learn healthy habits that last a lifetime. By making it a family thing so they don't think only they have to eat a certain way if everyone is doing it they will adapt better and they will be the only thing they know is to eat healthy and stay active. Childhood obesity has been a problem since 1999. Childhood obesity contributes to an early start of puberty. The average age for girls would be 8 and for boys it’s 9.If…

    • 1310 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    By the age of 4-5 years a child can usually play cooperatively and well with other children. They may also be able to sort out minor disagreements between themselves. They are able to tolerate delay for longer periods especially when this is explained to link in with routine of the day which they are now familiar with. They show concern when they can see their peers visibly upset and will try to comfort them. As language has developed they are able to express their emotions through language rather than behaviour.…

    • 300 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Theories and Theorists From first steps, first words and more all children go through similar stages of development. Many theorists have studied these developmental milestones, and put them into broad stages of development, which many children go through during certain time frames. Jean Piaget, one of the most well known child development theorist, formed the Cognitive Development Theory which has helped educators to understand a child’s cognitive abilities from birth to early adolescence. Jean Piaget disagreed with behavioral theorists who believed that a child’s learning depended on reinforcers. He believed that a child’s learning is active, which was the foundation of his Cognitive Development Theory.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Piaget believes that children vigorously obtain information and adapt it to their prior knowledge and notions about the world they know. Therefore, children create their comprehension of actuality from their individual experiences. Piaget separated intellectual development into four separate periods that investigative the changes in child’s cognitive make up. The first stage is Sensorimotor where a child develops coordination of their senses with motor response and occurs within the first two years of life. Between the ages of two through seven the Precoperational stage takes place and children develop symbolic thinking, how to accurately use syntax, and fully use grammar to communicate complete ideas.…

    • 162 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Most of the kids by the first five minutes of this observational period finished and cleaned up their table. Seeing such a drastic that seems to come from about 4 to 6 is amazing, unlike the preschoolers and toddlers the middle childhood kids have begun to take on more responsibility for their actions and are actually able to contribute to the world around them. For example, one of the kids needed a napkin, and rather than just asking a caregiver to get it, they got up and retrieved the napkin. Understandably, this is nothing special and in all honesty I may be finding such meaningless task a bit too exciting, but simply put, the change that can be noticed each age group and with such a large change from the preschoolers observed before it is just amazing to think about how much…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It appears she tried her best in school and focused on her school work. She said her freshman year was primarily about fitting in, or at least feeling the need to. Which I agree with and speculate that a vast amount of students believe the same. My mom was a social student and had a large group of friends. She also participated in sports.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    1. Why did Piaget call cognition in middle childhood concrete operational thought? Piaget called cognition in middle childhood concrete operational thought, for the ability children have to perform logical operations regarding their life experiences and perceptions. They aren’t limited by egocentrism anymore, but apply critical thinking.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    I observed a child at Lawton Chiles Elementary School for 15 hours. I observed EJ, a five years old African American child. On my first day, I walked into the kindergarten classroom to start my observation. Throughout my days of observing EJ, I noticed that he did not know all of the colors in a rainbow. He could not count to the number ten neither.…

    • 1331 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Evaluate the view that stage-based approaches to development are unable to account for individual differences in development In a quest to explain development, stage based approaches are often used. Stage based approaches look at the development of children in particular being divided into concrete stages, in which the fundamental development takes place (Bukatko & Daehler, 2001). One of the most relevant stage based approach is that of Piaget. Piaget believed that cognitive development could be divided into 4 stages, separated by age that occurred in a linear sequence, where one needs to complete one stage in order to move on to the next.…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The major changes you face during late childhood is emotional traits like developing a sense of accomplishment with interest in making plans and achieving goals. Another major change is the child becomes more attached to parental figures and tends to be more forgetful with school work, chores, and cleaning. A social change for late childhood is they start to lose touch with their early and middle childhood…

    • 68 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Human development is an intriguing as well as complex process that compiles what happens genetically as well as what one experiences through the aging process. Biological, cognitive, and psychosocial perspectives are each vital to our development, and each are specialized towards our individual personalities. University of Utah(2016) states that some traits are genetic and passed down from our parents, and others through experience and learning. In this essay, we will be looking at how biological, cognitive, and psychosocial perspectives have shaped my development from birth up till now. Biological perspective is how one is genetically influenced by our parents.…

    • 1717 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Farkhanda Wajibul SOCU 306 Week 3 Assignment 1 March 20, 2016 Case Study Personality development is quite an interesting focus. After all, personality is the complex cluster of mental, emotional, and behavioral characteristics that distinguish a person as an individual (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016, p.114).…

    • 1515 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ann’s teaching methods illustrate Piaget’s theories through… active development Cognitive development is defined by Duchesne and McMaugh (2016) as a person’s capability to consider, comprehend and evoke the environment that we live in. This is impacted by experiences with physical item and actions, and also though social interaction with people around you. This concept of the capability within children interested Piaget and he sought to identify a universal process of cognitive development through questioning how their thought processes change and evolve from birth through maturation, activity and social transformation (Duchesne & McMaugh, 2016). He focused not just on what the children know, but the particular errors that children make in…

    • 1119 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Discussion Children in middle childhood sometimes experience social, cognitive, and physical development at different rates than their peers. Although Haylee’s cognitive development is experiencing strains and shortcomings than what is expected at her age, she is at an age where she still has the ability to improve her cognitive development through time, effort, and encouragement. Summary of Strengths, Obstacles, and Limitations Strengths Past the struggles and limitations that have set Haylee back, she also possesses strengths that Jerica believe will benefit her in the long run.…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays