Growth and Body Changes
• Children grow more slowly during middle
childhood than in early childhood or in
adolescence.
- During middle childhood, individuals look slimmer because as they grow taller, their body proportions change.
- Increased lung capacity, endurance, speed
Motor Development
- Influenced by nutrition and heredity
- With slowed growth, children become much more comfortable with their bodies and begin to develop better coordination
- Minimal gender differences; girls slightly more flexible; boys slightly more forearm strength (consider influence of experience)
Motor Development Milestones
- 6 years: moves constantly, even when trying to sit still, rides a bike, swims, swings a bat, enjoys art and making projects, writing, cuts paper into shapes, ties shoes
- 7 years: uses knife and fork, holds pencil with tight grip near tip, writing uniform letters
- 8 years: enjoys team activities and games, copies from blackboard well, increased agility, speed, strength, endless energy
9-10 years: throws a ball accurately, writing refined, team sports, cooking, woodworking, needlework, detailed drawings, girls grow rapidly- some with hormonal changes
11-12 years:
- organized activities like karate and team sports, swimming, model-building, playing an instrument,
- needs outlet for energy during school day, feel invincible, need to develop a healthy lifestyle, starting to experience pre-puberty growth spurt
Brain Development
- Memory span increases
- Faster response time
- Adult vs Child brain
- Plasticity
- Consider effects of trauma, abuse, neglect
Gender Differences
•Who has higher verbal abilities?
•Who has higher spatial abilities?
- Females are wired for empathy and socialization
- Males wired for spatial and mathematical
•What does this mean for STEM programs?
What is happening to recess?
- Under pressure to improve standardized test scores (Nation at Risk), many schools are cutting back recess or eliminating it altogether
- Some new schools are being built without playgrounds!
- May give students “re-energizing” activities, but they are NOT play! (think about leisure vs. recreation)
Obesity
- Body mass index at or above 25
- Increase in prevalence of overweight children since 1970
- High cholesterol and blood pressure
- May affect psychosocial well- being
- High caloric intake, low activity and rarely genetic and thyroid factors
Cognitive Development
During the elementary years:
- children become more skilled at processing information
- thinking becomes more rational and logical
- distinguish among reality and fiction
Development of more powerful and more complex executive functions- can….
can select, sequence, evaluate, revise & monitor the effectiveness of their problem solving plans & behaviors
**scaffolding and zone of proximal development
Piaget’s concrete operations
Paiget’s concrete operations- children are able to solve conservation problems.
•Adding something results in more, objects can belong to more than 1 category
•Metacognition develops: become aware of their own thinking, reflect on their performance
•Concrete Operations: rely on the here and now, not abstract. Conservation develops (quantity vs. appearance). Decenter, understand transformations, reversibility, classification.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=j4lvQfhuNmg
•Horizontal Decalage- conservation in steps
Metacognition
: become aware of their own thinking, reflect on their performance
develops during Piaget’s concrete operations
Concrete Operations:
rely on the here and now, not abstract. Conservation develops (quantity vs. appearance). Decenter, understand transformations, reversibility, classification.
Piaget
Horizontal Decalage-
conservation in steps
Piaget concrete operations
Language development
- Begin studying grammar
* Rules that apply to language - Pragmatic language
* Modify voice, volume and even vocabulary based on context of interaction - ESL-English as Second Language
* Bilingual education
* Total immersion
* Two way bilingual programs/dual language programs
Psychometric Testing
•Psychometric testing
is any standardized (large sample of students)
procedure for measuring intelligence, memory,
aptitude, or personality
Stanford Binet orWeschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV)
o most standardized assessments use a mean
of 100 and standard deviation of 15
o results often used in development of an
individualized education plan (IEP)
Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
- Collaborative effort by school psychologist, teachers, parents or legal guardians
- Legal document ensures child with special needs will receive the educational supports needed in the least restrictive environment
- Inclusion or mainstreaming
- IDEA 2004
- Transition planning, vocational training
Learning Disabilities
- 5% of school aged kids
- 1 or more basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language spoken or written
- Results in challenges with listening, speaking, reading writing, spelling or mathematic calculations
- Differently-abled
- 4x more boys than girls are classified as having reading disabilities
- Girls have reading disabilities at same rate but are not labeled as often
- Do not always lead to low achievement
- Before 1975 kids with LD were not offered a public education
Intellectual Disabilities
- Previously termed Mental Retardation until 2010
- Below average mental functions and adaptive abilities
- Diagnosis must occur before 18 years of age
- Can result from genetic or chromosomal disorders
- IQ score of 75 to 70
- Can range from mild to profound
Types of LD
- Dyslexia- Reading
- Dysgraphia- Writing
- Dyscalculia- Mathematics
- Auditory or Visual processing
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wCqeFxDgacQ
Dyslexia
- Child has extreme difficulty recognizing written words
- Affects reading comprehension and writing
- More prevalent in boys than girls
- Often learn math more easily
- Learn well with multisensory approaches using sight, sound, touch and movement
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
•Involves a collection of vague and global symptoms •Impulsive •Cannot remain seated •Wait their turn •Follow instructions •Stick to tasks •Boys labeled 2x more than girls •Some also have LD •Prescribed amphetamines https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adhd
CO-OP model
(Cognitive Orientation to Occupational Performance)
•New OT intervention based on using and teaching strategies to problem solve
- Ex. Dressing
- Toothbrushing
- Goal, Plan, DO, check
- OT assists with identifying problem solving techniques
- Mental and verbal
- Accommodations
- Sensory-related (tactile cues)
Genius and Giftedness
- May have more complex synaptic connections
- Self select, modify and create environments that compliment their genetic dispositions
- IQ of 130 or greater
- 90-99th percentile in reading or math qualifies for pullout program
Moral Development
The process that allows children to adopt values and principles that assist them in identifying a behavior as right or wrong and to govern their actions based on those perceptions.
•Cognitive learning theory (Bandura): moral standards and socialization process acquired through observation and imitation (children are passive participants).
•Cognitive development theory (Piaget, Kohlberg): moral development is a cumulative process involving stages (children active participants).
