During a child's middle and late childhood,

they grow taller, heavier, and stronger. They

have continuous physical changes with

their bodies, fine tune their motor skills, and

learn to gain greater control over their

bodies.

This period involves slow and consistent growth

Children grow an average of 2-3 inches a year during elementary

school years

Children gain an average of 5-7 pounds a year (mainly because of

their skeletal and muscular systems growing)

Head and waist circumference decrease as height increases

Bones continue to ossify (yielding to pressure & pull more than

mature bones)

Muscle mass/strength increase gradually as "baby fat" decrease,

usually doubling their strength capabilities

Brain volume stabilizes by the end of this period, but significant changes in various structures and regions of the brain continue to occur.

Pathways and circuitry in the prefrontal cortex continue to increase and as a result, a child has increased attention, reasoning, and cognitive control.

Thickness of the cerebral cortex (cortical thickness) changes.

Cortical thickness was observed in the temporal and frontal lobe areas which caused children show improvements in language abilities ,such as reading.

Running, climbing, skipping rope, swimming, bicycle riding, skating

etc. are just some that can be mastered

Improvements occur because of the myelination of the central

nervous system

Children can use their hands as tools more easily

Playing musical instruments and writing in cursive are a reflection in

the improvement of motor skills

In gross motor skills (involving muscle activity) boys usually

outperform girls

In fine motor skills (involving complex, intricate, and rapid

movements) girls usually outperform boys

Children's’ motor skills become much more

coordinated and smoother than they were

in early childhood

Children at this age are far from physical maturity, so they need to

be active

Increased fatigue more in long periods of sitting than

running or jumping

Exercise plays an important role in children's

development because it helps refine their developing

skills

•offer more physical

fitness programs run by

volunteers at school

facilities

•Improve physical fitness

activities in school

•Have children plan

community and school

activities that really

interest them

•Encourage families to

focus more on physical

activity, and encourage

parents to exercise more

Middle to late childhood for the most part is a

time of excellent health. Disease and death

are less prevalent than in other periods of

childhood and adolescence. However, there are some health problems that children have

during this time that harm their development.

Leading cause of death and

the most common cause of

severe injury are:

•Car accidents either as

passenger or pedestrian

other injuries include

bicycles, skateboards,

roller skates and other

sports equipment

This is an increasing child health

problem. Overweight children have an

increased risk for developing:

•Pulmonary problems, such as

sleep apnea and hip problems

•Diabetes, high blood pressure,

and high cholesterol levels are

very common

•Some children also develop low

self esteem issues

Uncommon in children, but things that children do now can

lead to this later in adulthood!!!!!

•Second leading cause of death in U.S.

•Child cancers (ages 5 to 14) mainly attack

the white blood cells (leukemia), brain,

bone, lymph system, muscles, kidneys, and

nervous system.

•Most common is leukemia, a cancer where

bone marrow manufactures an

abundance of abnormal white blood cells

that "crowd out" normal cells, making the

child susceptible to bruising and infection.

•Advancements in cancer treatment has

increased the survival rate in child cancer

patients.

Based on research from the National Center for Education Statistics , the four

largest groups of students with a disability being served by federal

programs and receiving special education services in the U.S. public

school systems are those with:

Learning disabilities - 5.6 % of all children in public schools

Speech and language impairments - 3.0 % of all children in

public schools

Mental retardation - 1.1 % of all children in public schools

Emotional disturbance - 0.9 % of all children in public schools

According to the definition created by the U.S. Government, a child with a learning disability suffers from difficulty in learning that

involves understanding or using spoken or written language.

This difficulty will appear in :

•Listening

•Thinking

•Reading

•Writing

•Spelling

•Mathematics

•visual

•hearing

•motor disabilities

•mental retardation

•emotional disorders

•environmental disadvantages

•cultural disadvantages

•economic disadvantages

Three times as many boys than

girls are classified as having a

learning disability. This is due to: a greater biological vulnerability

Precise cause of learning disabilities have not yet been

determined by scientists and researchers. scientists do know based on evidence from Brain Imagery

Techniques (such as Magnetic Resonance Imagery - M.R.I.)

that it is unlikely that learning disabilities reside in one specific

brain location.

Evidence Suggest that learning disabilities

are due to:

Problems in integrating information from

multiple brain regions and/or difficulties

in brain structures & functions

•Dyslexia

•Dysgraphia

•Dyscalculia

•Attention Deficit

Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

a category of learning disabilities involving a severe

impairment in the ability to read and spell

a learning disability that involves difficulty in handwriting

(also known as developmental arithmetic disorder) a disability that involves math computation

a disability that consistently showcases one ore more of the following

characteristics over time : inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity

1. inattention - difficulty focusing on any

one thing , and/or becoming bored with

a task after a few seconds or minutes

2. hyperactivity - being in constant motion,

showing high levels of consistent physical

activity

3. impulsivity - not thinking before acting,

and being impulsive while having

difficulty curbing their reactions

1. ADHD with predominately

inattention

2. ADHD with predominantly

hyperactivity/impulsivity

3. ADHD with both inattention and

hyperactivity/impulsivity

There is some controversy surrounding ADHD due in part to the fact that no definitive causes of ADHD have yet been found. The number of children diagnosed and treated for ADHD has increased substantially in recent decades, and this disorder is 4 - 9 times more prevalent in boys than girls. Some experts are concerned that due to the heightened awareness of this disorder, many children are being incorrectly diagnosed.

While there are no known definitive causes of ADHD, some theories of what causes this disorder are :

inheritance from parents

low birth weight

damage to the brain during prenatal or postnatal development

cigarette and alcohol exposure during prenatal development

While most children

have minor emotional

difficulties, a small

percentage of 0.9 of

all children in the

public school system

have emotional

problems serious and

persistent enough to

be classified as

emotional and/or

behavioral disorders.

It consist of serious,

persistent problems

involving relationships,

aggression,

depression, fears

associated with

personal and school

matters, and

inappropriate socio-

emotional

characteristics.

Autism Spectrum Disorders are pervasive developmental disorders that are characterized by : •problems in social interaction

•problems in verbal and nonverbal communication •repetitive behaviors •atypical responses to sensory experiences •mental retardation in some ( others show average or above average intelligence)

The Autistic disorder is a severe

developmental disorder with an onset in the first three years of life that includes :

deficiencies in social relationships

abnormalities in communication

restricted, repetitive , and stereotyped patterns of behavior.

Aspergers syndrome is a mild disorder on the Autism spectrum in which the individual :

displays obsessive,

repetitive routines

preoccupations with a particular subject

restricted range of interests and relationships

relatively good verbal language

displays milder nonverbal language problems

Up until the 1970's children with disabilities were often refused enrollment to public schools. In 1975 the Education for All Handicapped Children Act ( Public Law 94- 142) was passed. This public law required that all students with disabilities be given free, appropriate public education. In 2004 this law was reauthorized and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA)

IDEA has given a legal basis to

the efforts in educating children

with disabilities in the regular

classroom.

The law mandates services to

children with all kinds of

disabilities. Services include:

1. evaluation

2. eligibility determination

3. appropriate education

4. individualized education plan

(IEP)

5. education in the least restrictive

environment (LRE)

With emphasis on the IEP (individualized education plan) and the LRE (education in the least restrictive environment) , the individual with special needs is educated full time in the regular classroom.

For many children inclusion in the regular classroom with modifications or supplemental services is appropriate.

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Some leading experts argue that the effort to educate children with disabilities in the regular classroom has become too extreme. Many believe that children with disabilities may benefit more from an individualized approach that does not involve inclusion , but instead allows special education outside of the regulate classroom.

James Kauffman, a leading expert on special education argues that children need the services of specially trained professionals , altered curricula , and adaptations to make learning possible. He states, " We sell students with disabilities short when we pretend that they are not different from typical students. We make the same err when we pretend that they must not be expected to put forth extra effort if they are to learn to do some things in a different way… Like general education, special education should challenge students with disabilities to become all they can be."

The famous Swiss developmental psychologist, changed the

way we think about the development of children's mind.

A schema is a concept or framework that already exists at

given moment in a person's mind and the organizes

information and provides a structure for interpreting it.

For example, sucking is an early, simple schema. Later on, more complex schemas include licking, blowing, crawling,

hiding, and so forth.

Piaget's interest in schemas had to do with how they help in

organizing and making senses out of current experience.

Assimilation: occurs when

individuals incorporate new information into existing

knowledge

For example - the first time a child

realizes that she might pick up a set of keys, she is assimilating the category "keys" into the schema of "picking up".

Accommodation: occurs when

individuals adjust their schemas to new information

For example- the schema "picking up" becomes modified into different schemas the accommodate the realities of different types of objects.

Stage 3 & 4 are a part of middle and late childhood.

Stage 3- Concrete

Operational Stage

The child can now reason

logically about

concrete events and

classify objects into

different sets.

Stage 4- Formal

Operational Stage

The adolescent reasons in

more abstract,

idealistic, and logical

ways.

•Piaget opened a new way of looking at how children's minds develop.

•We owe him for a long list of masterful concepts that have enduring power and fascination.

•We also owe Piaget for the currently accepted vision of children as active, constructive thinkers who manufacture their own development.

Intelligence: refers to

individual differences in

problem solving-skills and in

important abilities.

Intelligence is understood

as something that is

relatively stable and on

which people can be

compared.

Intelligence is mainly measured through tests. Certainly, a person's intelligence quotient (IQ) can be a powerful measure. The criteria for a good intelligence test: validity, reliability, and standardization.

•Validity, refers to the sourness of conclusions to be drawn from an experiment.

•Reliability is the extent to which a test yields a consistent, reproducible measure of performance. Reliability and validity are related.

•Standardization involves developing uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test, as well as creating norms.