Middle Childhood

Physical Development

Children have more control over coordination and in turn have increased flexibility,
balance, and agility. A child may be able to throw a ball at a target with coordination. The
body allows for lots of coordinated movement. Child, especially girls, enter puberty
during this period. This stage is characterized by hair growth on the body, the
development of breasts and change in the hormones.

Language Development

The childs vocabulary continues to grow. The definitions they once knew may take on a
slight, more adult definition of the words. They is an understanding of words in an active
and passive sense.

Cognitive Development

Thought processes in this stage are more logic based and concrete as in contrast to in the
previous stages. The child is able to think in more complex thought. This is reflected in
the increased complexity of school subjects such as math, science, reading, and writing.
At this stage, children may questioning the logic of rules set forth by parents. They will
follow rules if they believe it holds logical value but may question those which they
believe does not hold logical value.

Social/Emotional Development

Children are more independent in this stage although less secure of their newfound
freedoms. They are expressive of their likes and dislikes in this stage. Often, they were
their feelings on their sleeves. This may be due to the influx of hormones. There is also
growth in emotional understanding as in to understand that others may not feel the same
as they do.

Moral Reasoning/Self-Regulation Development

This stage is centered by hormones. Hormones affect emotions. It is common for a

childs frustrations to be shown. There is often a battle to regulate their emotions because
they are in new territory which are related to this new stage which is completely different
from other stages previously.

Sign of atypical development

In this stage, it is common for children to be diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. This is

characterized by an inability to pay attention to school work or activities which leads to
continuous careless mistakes. If the child is not developing normally as a boy/girl does
through puberty, they may be experiencing hormonal related deficiencies.

Social factor influencing development

Children at this stage are introduction to even more institutions outside of the home.
These institutions are even further from the parents. This increases diverse thinking by
meeting and dealing with people of other backgrounds.

Cultural factor influencing development

Some cultures are impoverished so that there are no early intervention programs to curtail
the consequences of living and being a part of that culture. This is likely to happen of
those in the lowest socioeconomic rung.

Strategy to influence learning and development

Children in this stage can be introduced to different activities so that they can grow.
Activities can be things such as team sports, band, cheerleading, debate teams, etc. These
activities encourage the child to explore their interests and abilities.

References
Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood. (2015, May 26). Retrieved from About Education:
http://psychology.about.com/od/early-child-development/a/cognitive-development-in-middlechildhood.htm
Middle Childhood (6-8 Years of Age). (2015, May 26). Retrieved from Center for Disease Control and
Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/middle.html
Middle Childhood (9-11 Years of Age). (2015, May 26). Retrieved from Center for Disease Control and
Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/middle2.html