Physical Development in Middle Childhood

Chapter 11

Physical Development in Middle Childhood

Learning Objectives

After reading Chapter 11, students will learn:

• Describe physical development in middle childhood.
• Explain the link of nutrition to overall functioning.
• Learn about childhood obesity.
• Understand how to encourage children to become more physically active.
• Describe health during middle childhood.
• Explain asthma and its causes.
• Describe psychological disorders in middle childhood.
• Explain the controversy of using antidepressants to treat childhood psychological disorders.
• Describe gross and fine motor skills in middle childhood.
• Understand the social benefits of physical competence.
• Explain threats to children’s safety.
• Describe sensory difficulties and their prevalence.
• Understand learning disabilities in middle childhood.
• Describe attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Describe mainstreaming and full inclusion of children with special needs.

Key Terms and Concepts

183

asthma

visual impairment

auditory impairment

speech impairment

stuttering

learning disabilities

attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

least restrictive environment

mainstreaming

full inclusion

183

Chapter Outline

I.  The Growing Body

A.  The middle-childhood years are characterized by slow and steady growth, with children gaining, on average, about 5 to 7 pounds per year and 2 to 3 inches. Weight is redistributed as baby fat disappears.

1. School-aged children grow, on average, 2 to 3 inches per year.

2. This is the only time during the life span when girls are, on average, taller
than boys.

3. By age 11, the average girl is 4' 10".

4. The average 11-year-old boy is 4' 9 1/2".

5. During middle childhood, bodies become more muscular and strength increases.

6. Variations of a half a foot in children the same age are not uncommon.

7. In part, growth is genetically determined, but societal factors such as affluence, dietary habits, nutrition, and disease also contribute significantly.

B.  Proper nutrition is linked to positive personality traits and cognitive performance.

1. Study indicates that children who received higher levels of nutrients in countries with inadequate nutrition were more involved with peers, showed more positive emotions, had less anxiety, and had more moderate activity levels.

2. Nutrition is also linked to cognitive performance.

a. Well-nourished Kenyan children performed better on tests of verbal and cognitive abilities than those who had mild to moderate malnutrition.

C.  Obesity is defined as body weight that is more than 20 percent above the average for a person of a given height and weight.

1. 10 percent of all children are obese.

2. This proportion has risen 54 percent since the 1960s.

3. Obesity can be caused by a combination of genetic and social characteristics.

a. Some parenting behaviors may produce children who lack internal controls to regulate their own food intake.

b. School-age children tend to engage in little exercise and are not particularly fit.

c. The correlation between TV viewing and obesity is strong.

(1) Passive activity

(2) Replaces social play

(3) May snack more

(4) Greater exposure to commercials for food products

4. The goal of treatment is to maintain a child’s current weight through diet and exercise, rather than seeking to lose weight.

D.  Health during Middle Childhood

1. The health of children in the school years is generally good, and few health problems arise.

2. Colds or other respiratory infections are typically the most serious illnesses that occur during middle childhood.

3. More than 90 percent of children are likely to have one serious medical condition over the 6-year period of middle childhood.

4. About one in nine has a chronic, persistent condition, such as a migraine headache.

a. More than 7 percent of children under 18 suffer from Asthma, a chronic condition characterized by periodic attacks of wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath.

b. Asthma attacks are triggered by a variety of factors.

(1) Respiratory infections

(2) Airborne irritants

(3) Stress

(4) Exercise

c. The occurrence of asthma has almost doubled over the last decade.

(1) Increasing air pollution

(2) More accurate diagnoses

(3) Exposure to triggers, such as dust

(4) Poverty

5. The incidence of childhood depression is surprisingly high.

a. Experts suggest that between 2 and 5 percent of school-aged children suffer from depression.

b. About 1 percent are so depressed they express unmistakable
suicide ideas.

c. Like adult depression, childhood depression can be treated effectively.

d. Childhood depression manifests itself differently than adult depression.

e. Depressed children often appear angry and irritable rather than sad as depressed adults appear.

6. Some 8 to 9 percent of children suffer from anxiety disorders, in which they experience intense, uncontrollable anxiety about situations that most people would not find bothersome.

II.  Motor Development and Safety

A.  School-age children’s gross and fine motor skills develop substantially over middle childhood.

1. An important improvement in gross motor skills is muscle coordination.

2. During the middle-childhood years, great improvements occur in gross motor skills. Cultural expectations probably underlie most gross motor skill differences between boys and girls. Fine motor skills also develop rapidly.

3. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that there is no reason to separate the sexes in physical exercise and sports until puberty, when the smaller size of females begins to make them more susceptible than males to injury in contact sports.

4. Fine motor skills advance because of increases in the amount of myelin insulating the brain neurons between the ages of 6 and 8.

5. School-age children who perform well physically are often more accepted and liked by their peers than those who perform less well.

a. Physical maturity more than athletic competence may ultimately determine athletic performance.

b. It is important to help children avoid overemphasizing the significance of physical ability.

(1) Sports should be fun.

(2) Sports help maintain physical fitness.

(3) Participation in sports teaches physical skills.

(4) Sports help children become comfortable with their bodies.

6. Physical competence is important for a number of reasons, some of which relate to self-esteem and confidence. Physical competence also brings social benefits during this period, especially for males.

B.  Increasing independence and mobility of school-age children lead to new safety issues.

1. The most frequent source of injury to children is automobile-related injuries, annually killing 5 out of every 100,000 children between the ages of 5 and 9.

2. Fires, drowning, and gun-related deaths follow in frequency.

3. An emerging area of potential danger for children is cyberspace. Unsupervised access to the Internet and the World Wide Web may permit children to explore offensive areas and come into contact with people who might take advantage
of them.

a. Cyberspace makes available material that many parents find objectionable.

b. Parents should warn children not to meet face-to-face any people whom they have met on the computer without a parent being present.

c. Parents should also supervise materials used on computers.

III.  Children with Special Needs

A.  Visual, auditory, and speech impairments, as well as other learning disabilities, can lead to academic and social problems and must be handled with sensitivity and appropriate assistance.

1. One student in 1,000 requires special education services relating to Visual Impairment, legally defined as difficulties in seeing that may include blindness (less than or 20/200 after correction) or partial sightedness (20/70 after correction).

a. Visual impairments can also include the inability to see up-close and disabilities in color, depth, and light perception.

2. Auditory Impairment, a special need that involves the loss of hearing or some aspect of hearing, affects 1 to 2 percent of school-age children and can vary across a number of dimensions.

a. The loss may be limited to certain frequencies.

b. Loss in infancy is more severe than after age 3.

(1) Children who have little or no exposure to the sound of language are unable to understand or produce oral language themselves.

(2) Abstract thinking may be affected.

3. Auditory impairments are sometimes accompanied by Speech Impairments, speech that is impaired when it deviates so much from the speech of others that it calls attention to itself, interferes with communication, or produces maladjustments in the speaker.

a. 3 to 5 percent of school-age children have speech impairments.

b. Stuttering, a substantial disruption in the rhythm and fluency of speech is the most common speech impairment.

4. Some 2.3 million school-age children in the U.S. are officially labeled as having Learning Disabilities, difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities.

a. Some suffer from dyslexia, a reading disability that can result in the misperception of letters during reading and writing, unusual difficulty in sounding out letters, confusion between left and right, and difficulties in spelling.

b. Although the causes of dyslexia are unknown, increasing evidence suggests that it’s caused by a problem in the part of the brain responsible for breaking words into the sound elements that make up language.

c. Also, the causes of learning disabilities are not well understood but they are generally attributed to some form of brain dysfunction or by such environmental causes as poor early nutrition or allergies.

5. Children with ADHD exhibit another form of special need. ADHD is characterized by inattention, impulsiveness, failure to complete tasks, lack of organization, and excessive amounts of uncontrollable activity. Treatment of ADHD with drugs is controversial because of unwanted side effects and doubts about long-term consequences.

a. 3 to 5 percent of school-age children are estimated to have ADHD.

b. Ritalin or Dexedrine are stimulants used to reduce hyperactivity levels in children with ADHD. It is generally effective in increasing attention span, but in some cases side effects are considerable and long-term health risks are unclear.

6. Children with exceptionalities are generally placed today in the least restrictive environment, typically the regular classroom. Mainstreaming and full inclusion can benefit exceptional students by permitting them to focus on strengths and gain useful skills of social interaction. In 1975, Public Law 94-142, called the Education for all Handicapped Children Act, was enacted.

a. It ensured that children with special needs be put in the Least Restrictive Environment, the setting that is most similar to that of children without special needs.

b. This act came to be called Mainstreaming, an educational approach in which exceptional children are integrated to the fullest extent possible in the traditional educational system and are provided with a broad range of educational alternatives.

(1) Research failed to discern any advantages for special-needs children placed in separate, rather than regular classrooms.

(2) The labeling of students relegated to special classrooms often produced negative expectations and self-concepts.

(3) Special-needs children must learn to function in a normal environment.

(4) Research shows that special-needs children and normal children benefit from mainstream classrooms.

(5) Potential benefits have lead some professionals to promote a broader model known as Inclusion, which is the integration of all students, even those with the most severe disabilities.

7. Although the causes of learning disabilities are not well understood, some form of brain dysfunction seems to be involved.

Lecture Suggestions

Use Developmental Psychology: Prentice Hall Lecture Launcher, DVD

Obesity

According to recent statistics, the number of obese or seriously overweight children and adolescents in the U.S. has more than doubled during the last 30 years. A study released by the National Center for Health Statistics shows that 4.7 million American children and adolescents are severely overweight. According to the American Medical Association, children who weigh more than the following are considered overweight:

The researchers defined obesity as those in the 95th percentile of BMI (Body Mass Index).

BMI = (weight ÷ 2.2) ÷ (height X .0254)2

The study examined a national sample of nearly 3,000 children and adolescents from 1988 to 1991 and found some of the steepest increases among African American girls. Among boys, those least likely to be overweight were whites from 6 to 11 years old and African Americans from 12 through 17.

Experts believe that children are overweight for the same reasons adults are: lack of physical activity, as a result of too much TV, video games, and computers in addition to eating a diet with too many calories.

In addition to being a serious health hazard (increased risk of heart attacks, high blood pressure, strokes, and diabetes), being obese carries a social stigma. You can ask the class for any volunteers to talk about whether they were obese when young or if they knew anyone in grade school who was overweight. What were the consequences?

Sources:

Gibbs, W. W. (August, 1996). Gaining on fat. Scientific American, 88–94.

This article is very informative about obesity and the fact that in all industrialized nations, people are getting heavier. It also dispels the myth that Americans are the heaviest in the world (Western Samoa and several Pacific islands are worse.) There is a good chart showing the health risks of being over a certain BMI.

Squires, S. (October 3, 1995). Study sees alarming growth in ranks of overweight kids. The Arizona Republic. A7.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Students are fascinated with the concept of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as they all seem to be aware of someone who has been diagnosed with it. Your lecture should concentrate on three areas: (a) the diagnostic criteria for ADHD (see Handouts 11–2, 11–3, 11–4); (b) the effects on school performance and social interactions; and (c) the treatment of the disorder, which includes stimulants such as Ritalin and Dexedrine and cognitive behavior training.