“The path of development is a journey of discovery that is clear only in retrospect, and it’s rarely a straight line” (Kennedy-Moore & Lowenthal, 2011). Because development happens this way, it can have many implications for teachers. There are multiple factors and processes that contribute to the variability of individual development of children, however, these differences can be overcome and teachers can give every child the support they need to achieve. Factors specific to the middle childhood years include vocabulary development, differing temperaments, development of attention, fine motor coordination, gross motor skills development and concrete operational development, including conservation, classification and seriation. Although they can create some disorder, these factors should not significantly hinder a child’s education, but teachers should adjust their lesson plans to accommodate all kinds of abilities, including physical abilities. With greater myelinisation of the nerve cells, children develop better conductivity by middle childhood (Hoffung et al., 2013). Because of this, fine motor coordination improves, meaning children can now do more hand-coordinated activities, like needlework, building models and playing instruments (Hoffung et al., 2013). Hoffung and her research partners (2013) also found that by the age of seven, the average child can button their clothing and tie their shoe laces and furthermore, by eight, children can use both hands independently. As middle childhood progresses, children’s handwriting improves, becoming more legible and organised, until by eleven or twelve, their manual skills have reached the same level as an adult (Feder & Majnemer, 2007). Variability occurs in the classroom if some ch... ... middle of paper ... ...acher, 67, 507-511. doi:10.1002/trtr.1248 Sharma, M. (2006). School-based interventions for childhood and adolescent obesity. Obesity Reviews, 7, 261-269. doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2006.00227.x Soukup, J. H., Wehmeyer, M. L., Bashinski, S. M., & Bovaird, J. A. (2007). Classroom variables and access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities. Exceptional Children, 74(1), 101-120. Thies, K., & Travers, J. F. (2001). Growth and development through the lifespan. Thorofare, NY: Slack. Visser, J. (2003). Developmental coordination disorder: a review of research on subtypes and comorbidities. Human Movement Science, 22, 479-493. doi:10.1016/j.humov.2003.09.005 Wright, B. C., & Dowker, A. D. (2002). The role of cues to differential absolute size in children’s transitive inferences. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 81, 249–275. doi:10.1006/jecp.2001.2653
Seefeldt, C., & Wasik, A. (n.d.b). Education.com - print. Education.com - print. Retrieved May 6, 2014, from http://www.education.com/print/cognitive-development-preschoolers/
Steinberg, L., Bornstein M.H., Vandell, D.L., Rook, S.R., (2011). Lifespan Development: Infancy Through Adulthood. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Theorists such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, and Lawrence Kohlberg have studied and documented information about the stages of childhood development. The three main stages of childhood development are early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence. Each stage contains developmental behaviors and characteristics of different age groups. However, the childhood development stage that this paper is focus on is the middle childhood stage. During this phase in a child’s life, they go through a variety of changes. Such changes include; physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes. According to this course text, HDEV (2010), middle childhood comprises children between the ages of 6 to 12 years. In addition, in relation to the information that is presented in this text about the
2.) Howlin, Patricia, Tony Charman, and Mohammad Ghaziuddin. The SAGE handbook of developmental disorders. Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE, 2011. Print.
Children between the ages of 8-12 are defined as being within the developmental stage of middle childhood. At this age, the rapid development of previous stages has decreased and the physical changes within this period are slower and more defined. The refinement of gross and fine motor skills is a critical aspect of this stage as the delayed or retarded development can have significant impact on the areas of cognitive, social and emotional development. In order to ensure children are equipped with the correct knowledge and understanding of health, well being and healthy eating, the period of middle childhood is one in which these aspects are incorporated and failure to properly do so can result in long term ramifications and problems.
... (2009) The science of development. In R.V. Kail & A. Barnfield (Eds.), Children and their development (pp. 8 – 22). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Now there are development standards defined and expectations of a child as a whole. The development standards define the milestones a child should pass by a certain age. These milestones are basically “what children should know and be able to do”. (Shala 7). Because of this early childhood development’s main goal is to thoroughly progress a child’s potential in their social, motor, and cognitive development. (“Early” 1). While development itself is made up of changes in the amount of difficulty attempting certain activities and acquiring skills, gradual movement from basic to complex adjustments in learning, and gaining new ways to move one's body. (Damovska et al 13). For this reason it has become dire for programs to exist that are aimed at younger groups of children so that their mental and social development may continue on track. (“Early” 1). While their level of behavioral unde...
Budd, G. M., & Volpe. S. L. (2006). School based obesity prevention: Research, challenges and recommendations. Journal of School Health, 76, 485-495. Cited in McDevitt, T., & Ormrod, J.E. (2010). Child Development And Education. (4th ed.). New Jersey. Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Childhood studies is a disciplinary that looks at childhood from birth to 18 years as this is the age range that the United Nations Convention has placed on childhood. Although there are many sub-categories within childhood studies such as early years, middle years and youth, the lines between when one stops and the next one starts are vague, it depends on a number of different things such as area for the end of early years, places vary for instance, early years in Sweden is 7 and in Wales is 8 according to Montgomery (Farrington-Flint and Hammersley, 2016) and puberty, which ends the middle years but this depends on the child’s age that they reach puberty, as all children develop differently. Childhood studies is interdisciplinary, which means that they take several perspectives and look back on work from other academic sources such as; psychology, anthropology, education, health and social
Berk, L. E. (2010). Development through the lifespan (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
How many of you have heard of developmental coordination disorder or know someone with this disorder? Most of you probably have not heard of this disorder or have it. Developmental coordination disorder is a neuro-developmental disorder that is usually a childhood disorder, which affects one in every twenty children. (Cairney 3). According to Morven Ball, the disorder used to be known as clumsy child syndrome, motor-learning difficulties, or dyspraxia. It can also be described as when the motor ability is below what the age and cognitive ability. The disorder affects three parts of the brain that cause problems with static or dynamic balance or poor postural control, poor sensorimotor, and problems with motor learning. (Cairney 33). Doctors
Make a Difference at Your school, Center for Disease Control (CDC) can help find and utilize strategies to prevent obesity among adolescents and children in the U.S. Obesity among children and adolescents can cause many serious immediate and long term health and psychological impacts such as diabetes, heart diseases, discrimination, and self-esteem issues. Less than 25% of adolescents eat the recommended and needed amounts of fruits and vegetables for each day, and 64% of high school students aren’t meeting the recommended daily physical activity for a persons of their age. When looking at children and adolescents in the 95% of young people are enrolled in school, since 1980 obese children ages 6-11 has doubles and ages 12-19 has tripled. Studies
Berger, K. (2007) The developing person through the life span (7th ed). Worth: New York,
In this age spectrum, children are using movement to satisfy their basic needs such as maneuvering around and touching items in their environment. These motor skills help children of this age learn how to walk and use their hands. For this group, resources such as Little Tikes toys that help toddlers during the beginning, walking stage and manipulatives, like blocks, will allow children to build these skills. Children at six months are learning to use their hands and body to occupy their personal needs, such as eating. “Children use their whole hand to grasp objects, or food” (Significant Child Development Milestones, 2013). Children at twelve months are beginning to use their index fingers and thumbs to grasp objects while also continuing to use the body strength to pull up. These milestones prepare children for the next milestone, like walking and eating without an adult’s
As I personally take the time to have a reflection over the course of “Child and Adolescent Development” I find myself intrigued with the amount of knowledge I gained during this course this semester. I wanted to take the time to concentrate on three specific areas in which I felt I had the most growth, but also came as a challenge to me as well. It is important when reflecting over a course that I look at what I found to be challenging, as this was an opportunity of growth for me individually. In this paper I will review some of the main topics that I found to be interesting but also resourceful for my future aspiration not only as a family life educator but also a mother one day.