Transcript Invitation to the Life Span by Kathleen Stassen Berger

Invitation to the Life Span
by Kathleen Stassen Berger
Chapter 7- Middle Childhood
Body and Mind
1
A Healthy Time
Middle Childhood
• Time of relative health, steady, but less rapid growth
than in early childhood
Weight problems
• Many 7- to 11-year-olds eat too much, exercise too
little, and become overweight or obese as a result.
• Body mass index (BMI)- The ratio of weight to
height
• Overweight- In a child, having a BMI above the 85th
percentile. (Adults: BMI of 25 to 29)
• Obesity- In a child, having a BMI above the 95th
percentile. (Adults: BMI of 30 or more)
2
A Healthy Time
Physical Activity
•
•
•
•
•
Better overall health
Less obesity
Appreciation of cooperation and fair play
Improved problem-solving and social skills
Physical activity also may increase injuries and
stress, reinforce prejudices, and increase stress
by changing hormone levels.
3
Theories About Cognition
Piaget: Children age 7-11
Piaget’s emphasis is on the child’s discovery
• Concrete operational thought: when they are
able to apply logic in situations that deal with
visible, tangible things
• Classification- The logical principle that things
can be organized into groups (or categories or
classes) according to some characteristic they
have in common.
4
Theories About Cognition
Vygotsky and School Age Children
Vygotsky regarded instruction as essential
• Zone of proximal development: Child still needs
guidance through almost-understood ideas and
abilities
• Children are "apprentices in learning" as they
play with each other, watch television, eat dinner
with their families, and engage in other daily
interactions.
• Language is integral as a mediator, a vehicle for
understanding and learning.
5
Theories About Cognition
Information-processing theory: theory that compares
human thinking processes, of encoding, storing and
retrieval of information
• Sensory memory: Information preserved in original
sensory form for a brief time (about a fraction of a
second)
• Working memory or Short Term Memory: Limited
duration- holds unrehearsed information 10-30 seconds
and limited capacity 7 +/- 2 items
• Long-term memory: limitless amounts of information
can be stored indefinitely
6
Theories About Cognition
Attention
• Selective attention: The ability to concentrate on
some stimuli while ignoring others.
• Automatization: A process in which repetition of a
sequence of thoughts and actions makes the
sequence routine, so that it no longer requires
conscious thought.
• Reaction time: The time it takes to respond to a
stimulus, either physically (with a reflexive
movement such as an eye blink) or cognitively (with
a thought).
7
Theories About Cognition
Metacognition:
• "Thinking about thinking“
• Ability to evaluate a cognitive task
• Then determine how best to accomplish,
monitor and adjust performance on that task
Metamemory:
• The ability to understand how memory works in
order to use it well.
• Metamemory is an essential element of
metacognition.
8
Learning in School
Learning Language: A good time to learn a
second language is in middle childhood.
• English-language learner (ELL): A child who is
learning English as a second language.
• Bilingual education: teachers teach children in
both their native language and English
• English as a Second Language: must master the
basics of English before joining regular classes
• Immersion: taught exclusively in the language not
spoken at home
9
Learning in School
The Reading Wars
• Phonics approach: first teaching the sounds of
each letter and of various letter combinations
• Whole-language approach: encouraging early use
of all language skills-talking and listening, reading
and writing.
The Math Wars
• Historically, math was taught by memorization
(facts, tables and workbooks)
• Inspired especially by Piaget and Vygotsky, many
educators made math instruction more of a
discovery (active and engaging)
10
Measuring the Mind
• Achievement test: are designed to measure
what has been learned
• Aptitude test: are designed to measure
learning potential
• IQ test: test designed to measure intellectual
aptitude, or ability to learn in school.
– Most common aptitude test
– Originally defined as mental age divided by
chronological age, times 100--hence the term
intelligence quotient, or IQ
11
Measuring the Mind
Measuring Aptitude
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC): An IQ test
designed for school-age children to assess many areas
(vocabulary, general knowledge, memory, and spatial
comprehension)
• Flynn effect - The rise in average IQ scores that has occurred
over the decades in many nations.
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act: Law enacted in 2001 to
increase accountability by requiring states to qualify for federal
educational funding by administering standardized tests to
measure school achievement
• National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP): An
ongoing and nationally representative measure of U.S.
children’s achievement in various subjects; nicknamed "the
nation’s report card.“
12
Measuring the Mind
• Mental retardation: Literally, slow, or late, thinking
– Score below 70 on an IQ test
– Behind their peers in the ability to meet the basic
requirements of daily life
• Children with special needs: Children who, because of
a physical or mental disability, require extra help in order
to learn.
• Learning disability: marked delay in a particular area of
learning, not caused by an apparent physical or mental
disability
• Dyslexia: Unusual difficulty with reading; thought to be
the result of some neurological underdevelopment.
13
Measuring the Mind
14
Measuring the Mind
Developmental Psychopathology:
1. Abnormality is normal.
2. Disability changes year by year
3. Adulthood may be better or worse than childhood.
4. Diagnosis depends on the social context.
• The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM-IV-TR):
– recognizes that each child’s cultural frame of reference
needs to be understood before any disorder can be
diagnosed.
15
Measuring the Mind
Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): great
difficulty concentrating or staying still for more than a few
moments. (inattentive, impulsive, and overactive)
Comorbidity: presence of two or more unrelated disease
conditions at the same time in the same person.
Autistic spectrum disorder: Any of several disorders
characterized by impaired communication, inadequate social
skills, and unusual patterns of play.
• Autism: developmental disorder marked by an inability to
relate to other people normally, extreme self-absorption, and
an inability to acquire normal speech.
• Asperger syndrome (also called “high-functioning”
Autism): person has impaired social interaction, extreme
attention to details, but high levels of intelligence in some
areas.
16