Lecture - Middle Childhood 7-11 Flashcards
What are the five main domains that we need to be able to describe the attributes of and importance of development in?
- Memory and problem solving
- Language
- Emotion regulation
- Cognitive flexibility
- Social
These attributes enable kids to think and grow up like adults
Change in one area helps to change another - there is overlap between these domains
In terms of being 7-11, what happens neurocognitively?
So your brain becomes 90% adult’s weight by the age of 6. The key structures of the brain are in place by this age.
- SYNAPTOGENESIS happens: Synaptogenesis is the formation of synapses between neurons in the nervous system. So new neutrons are forming and you’re making connections with other neutrons and the neural pathways are being strengthened.
- You also have MYELINATION of the nerve pathways.
- The cerebral cortex will grow THICKER - but like, full brain development doesn’t stop like frontal cortex will continue going on till age 25ish
- You also have lateralisation changes via the corpus callosum aka increasing interaction between two hemispheres so you’re able to integrate and describe different ideas (bc left is language and right is ability to think spatially)
1 Memory and Problem Solving:
- If you increase synaptic connections, what do you increase?
- So in this childhood development, you have increase in memory storage and info r_____ as well as increased ability to think about what?
- Why do children perform on par with adults when recalling 2-3 items but fall behind when items increase?
- You will increase memory capacity, and this will help with things like problem solving and overall thinking as well as memory
- retrieval……and increased ability to think about ideas in parallel
- Because they’re less likely to use strategies like adults can chunk information (group one set in food and other in activities etc and remember through that) and these strategies will increase throughout childhood
So like with adults, they have experience as well as and experience enhances memory
Before 7, how do you set kids up for all this learning?
“Believe that you’re good at learning”
-doesn’t matter if you’re dub but believe you’re good
(#1) Executive skills (I think this is under problem solving)
Executive function is a set of mental skills that help you get things done. These skills are controlled by an area of the brain called the frontal lobe. Increasing myelination and development of frontal lobe leads to development of executtive skills (there’s change over this period).
Describe the different skills involved
- Having a working memory: this memory allows us to hold information in our minds when deciding how to act
- We get selective attention - age is related to ability to pay attention.
- We get cognitive flexibility (#4) - if you have high cognitive flexibility then you can shift from one set of rules or expectations to another
- if you have difficulties with cognitive flexibility skills then you have problems like concrete thinking, insistence on sticking to rules, difficulty shifting from original idea or can’t appreciate other’s POV and inflexible interpretations or cognitions (“things wont ever work out) or have literal interpretations - You need to know how to inhibit responses as part of executive skills. So having delayed gratification (hold off something that’s really rewarding for a goal later on), control your emotional response and have impulse control.
- Have some organisation and planning like problem solving, generate alternative solutions and anticipate outcomes (anticipating comes with the problem solving)
2: Emotion Regulation Skills
- What is emotional reactivity?
- What is emotional regulation?
- Children are increasingly ____-_____ in regulating emotions
- What can we do to help with this domain?
- It is the speed and intensity of a child’s negative emotional response
- Referes to how quicly a child reacts emotionally, how deeply they feel the emotions and then how quickly they return to normal emotion - It is the ability to monitor, evaluate and modify emotional reactions to accomplish goals.
- Self-reliant
- We can help children recognise their emotions and validate the emotions to tame them.
- By stating what they are in empathetic way that mirrors the child’s emotional state then it’s helpful bc when bring language in, you bring in the rational part of the brain and dampens down the emotional response
- “You’re really sad” in a sad tone “It sounds really tough” - you help them recognise their emotions and you’re validating it and that makes them feel better and you’re using lanuage to calm down emotional reactivity
3 Language processing skills
- What do you expect in a middle childhood kid?
- What does language support?
- What if you have difficulties with language processing?
- You can have conversations with strangers and use long + complex sentences and keep convo going etc
- Language supports emotion regulation skills
- If adults can find ways of expressing themselves through language then they have greater ability to control emotions/more capable of regulating emotions - If have difficulties in language then you have difficulty in expressing thoughts, needs, or concerns. You’ll often appear not to have understood what was said and you have difficulty knowing/saying how you feel
5 - Social development
So all of these abilities (cognitive ability, language ability, emotional development - they come together to help or hinder social development)
- What is the theory of mind?
- What does attachment have to do with middle childhood?
- What are social skills that are involved in social development
- It’s the ability to think that someone else can think differently to you and this is developing over this middle period as well
- Attachment: Remains imp throughout life and this process changes in middle childhood where proximity of caregiver isnt that imp but being assured of their availability is imp = you can access that adult if you need to - has good implications for social skills etc
- Social skills include like having increased ability to understand their own POV and the point of others
Peers:
- What happens when you play together with guys and girls?
- Size of groups
- Cooperativeness
- What happens to kids unable to make friends?
- What about ids who have secure attachments with parents?
- How are popular children described?
- What can you say about timid vs aggressive kids?
- Segregate
- Boys play in larger groups and girls in smaller ones
- Girls are more cooperative
- They’re at risk for development of psychological difficulties
- More likely to develop good peer friendships
- They’re helpful and friendly and capable of following rules and have imaginative play
- For some unpop children, this wont change overtime. Two groups of unpop: agressive and timid. Agressive tend to interpret ambiguous social cues as agressve so they respond aggressivly and they dont take turns in convo aka they talk to themselves and less able to take view of other child. Timid kids are more likely to have low self-esteem etc but you can teach them skills they’re lacking like appropriate seld-disclosure. Also for agress kids, anger management imp and having cooperative games - increases integration.
Go read table on slide 18
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Resilience - personal qualities: what are they?
These are related to protective factors so like kids with these qualities did better in bad situations
Includes:
- Intellectual ability
- Easy temperament
- Sociability
- Effective coping strategies
What about social factors that contribute to resilience?
- Having family warmth, cohesion, emotional support and having positive attachment styles
- Having positive school experiences, good peer relationships and positive relationship swig other adults
What are some clinical tips to deal with middle childhood kids?
Communicate with both kid and parent
Child is a valuable source of info so develop rapport and respect their wishes and thoughts. Keep checking understanding.
