Middle childhood is a time of great change for children ages six to eleven. During this stage children are leaving behind their early childhood and entering into middle childhood, a period which transitions them towards independence. Not only are children faced with the unknown, but their bodies and minds are changing rapidly as well. They begin to realize the concepts of friendship and learn to interact with people using defined sentences.

 

 

 

Once children hit elementary school, which is usually around the age of six, their bodies begin to grow around 2-3 inches and gain up to 5-7 pounds a year. During this time their baby fat begins to decrease and, in its place, they begin to develop muscle. Baby teeth are also starting to fall out anywhere from 6 to 7 years of age, which is when their jaw grows to a more mature size and allows room for permanent teeth. Then, at the end of middle childhood, when a child hits eleven years old, they begin to grow at a more rapid pace. An average girl at the age of eleven will reach 4 feet tall, while the average boy reaches about 1 ½ inches shorter then 4 feet. Physical development relies upon motor skills. Without the development of motor skills during middle childhood, a child would not be able to balance themselves enough to be active, which allows them to gain muscle mass and become more active independently.

 

 

Boys and girls during middle childhood develop different motor skill strengths. Girls usually out perform boys in fine motor skills, while boys out perform girls in gross motor skills. Gross motor skills are a children’s ability to run, skip, jump, balance, flexibility, agility, and force. Fine motor skills are the ability to write, draw, and depict objects and be able to relate to them. As children enter middle school they begin to rapidly improve their writing skills and are able to complete tasks such as making their beds and dressing appropriately without adult supervision.

 

 

When a child enters middle childhood, their brains are beginning to rapidly develop. As their brains develop children are able to use concrete examples and process logical reasoning due to an increase of memory and learning strategies. While children progress through middle childhood their short-term memory increases significantly, which helps them to attain information for longer periods of time. Children are able to comprehend logical questions and have the capability to answer them. Another thing that changes is that children are able to understand that they can select and transform information where younger kids don’t.

 

 

 

Many children struggle with disabilities all over the world. Nearly 3 to 5% of middle childhood kids struggle with speech impairments such as stuttering, along with nearsightedness, short attention spans, impulsive behaviors leading to violence, and hyperactive behavior. Children are also affected by disabilities such as spinal bifida, muscular dystrophy, dyslexia, and sensory problems. Many teachers have stated that children with dyslexia or attention-deficit disorder need additional attention to help them learn and cope with their problems.

Dyslexia is a severe reading problem that refers to children with an average or above average IQ, but has a reading level 1 ½ grades below standard. Some of the signs and common patters are word reversal, slowly reading word for word or skipping chunks completely, trying to pronounce small words like cat and saying cold instead, reversing words when writing, spelling words as they sound and not correctly, and not being able to remember what they have read once they have finished. Many of the children who have a disability become reluctant to go to school because they often experience negativity from their peers.

 

 

Children throughout middle childhood feel that school and friendship are extremely important. Studies show that children find that the two most crushing events is failure at school and rejection by peers. Children begin to realize that friendship can last in middle childhood, whereas younger children associate friendship with activities. Also, attraction to aggressive peers and people who stand out begins to increase through middle childhood to junior high.

Boys and girls have different statuses throughout middle childhood. Boy’s social status results on social dominance, athletic ability, toughness, and being cool. Girl’s status is often based on family background, socioeconomic status, and physical appearance. Changes appear in peer interaction as well. From ages 5-8 peer interaction increases from 10% to 30% and begin to realize that friends do things for them, but they can’t seem to comprehend that they can do things for each other. Children ages 9-11 recognize that their friends need to be loyal and, at times, they won’t keep friends through big fights, which are known as the “fair-weather” period. However, boys are more likely to keep their friends through fights, where girls are more likely to lose their friends, or make up in few weeks.

 

 

Upon entering middle childhood, a child already knows how to talk. However, they do learn how to refine their language skills. As time goes on, they begin to understand the true meaning of the words they use. They also learn that some words have two meanings. Both of these concepts are attributed to cognitive development.

Children begin to add detail to their sentences and become better at maintaining conversation throughout middle childhood. From the 1^st grade to the end of high school, a child a will learn about 6,500 words a year. Studies show that children with strong cultural backgrounds and language influences develop a larger vocabulary. Parents are also a huge influence on a child’s language skills, because they learn a lot of their grammar, vocabulary, and social language from them.

 

Social Cognition 

 

Social cognition is the study of how people process social information, especially its encoding storage, retrieval, and application to social situations.

Children often turn to same gender friends, who help develop self-esteem, popularity, and conformity. Popularity and conformity becomes the main concern of middle childhood kids.

One of the reasons for this is because children move from a close family environment, to being at school, where they are constantly around their peers. They begin to understand society and feel that peer pressure is a negative affect of friendship and relationships.

Children 6-11 feel that their parents are helpful, their teachers are fair, and their friends are loyal. Family relationships are extremely important to a child, but they learn to function away from them, which helps pave the way for their independence.

 

 

Middle childhood education begins with language development, because their way of thinking changes. Studies show that children who are fluent in two languages perform better in school, because their vocabulary and culture is increased. They begin to use analytical approaches to words and their vocabulary enlarges. They also begin to make large advancements in grammar and improve in logical reasoning. Children can construct the appropriate use and understanding of subjects and comparative use. Reading helps them with science and social studies, because it covers the understanding of the material. They are also presented with poems and short stories. As time goes on they become more analytical and logical in their approach to word use.

 

 

Intelligence is gained through genetic and environmental factors of development. Influences from a child’s parents are a major factor to the genetic development of intelligence. IQ tests figure out the genetic influence of a child, which usually ranges from 0.0 to 1.0. However, the other half is determined from environmental factors, which are socioeconomic statuses, parent attitudes, culture and education opportunities, and other social factors. Studies show that poor families have a lower intelligence rate then wealthy families. Another cause for greater intelligence was found in the eldest child, who often scored better on IQ tests then their younger siblings.

 

 

 

 

Creativity is the ability to think in novel and unusual ways and come up with unique solutions. There are two ways of thinking. The first is convergent thinking, which produces one answer, and the second is divergent thinking, which produces many answers. Studies show that brainstorming is an effective strategy that encourages children’s creative thinking. Creative children are often quite intelligent, but intelligence is measured by high scores and quite often intelligent kids are not creative.