Physical Growth and Development in Middle Childhood: Obesity and Cognitive Development, Study notes of Developmental Psychology

Download Physical Growth and Development in Middle Childhood: Obesity and Cognitive Development and more Study notes Developmental Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 9 Physical Growth and Development in Middle childhood Physical Growth and Development • Boys and girls grow 1 – 3 inches per year • Gain 5 – 8 pounds per year • Girls have growth spurt around ages 10 – 12 • Boys have growth spurt around ages 12 - 13 Contributing Causes of Obesity • Genetics - Inherited tendency aggravated by too little exercise and too much of the wrong foods. • Environment - Tend to eat the same as the people around them. Cultural and family influences. • Inactivity - Children who watch 4 or more hours of TV each day have a higher BMI than children who watch 2 hours of TV each day. • Obese children suffer teasing from peers. 2006 Center for Disease Control Study • Most schools do not provide enough opportunity for physical activity. • Daily physical education nearly non-existent today : Found in 4% of elementary schools, 8% in middle school and 2% in high school. • “No Child Left Behind Act” has forced some school districts to cut down on physical education to allow more time for academics. How much do kids need? National Association of Sports and Physical Education • Elementary school kids need 150 minutes of physical education per week . • Middle school and high school kids need 225 minutes of physical education. • 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. (AHA) • One out of three kids gets this. Changing Habits • Even if schools changed, the best solution is for parents to be a good role model. • Encourage your kids to do active family activities like taking a walk, roller blading, going swimming. • Plan activities for your kid’s friends that are active and fun. Medical Problems • Kids have 6 – 7 bouts of colds, flu and viruses each year. • Asthma is the most prevalent chronic illness. It is the number one cause of childhood disability, affecting 1.4 U.S. children. Prevalence has increased 232 percent since 1969. Asthma • Some causes might be tightly insulated houses, environmental toxins and allergies. • Tobacco smoke in the house, pets and use of gas stoves are risk factors for asthma. • Children miss an average of 10 days of school and experience 20 days of limited activity with developmental implications. Conservation • Child now can solve the problem of the ball of clay or the two glasses of water. Understands reversability. • Horizontal Decalage – Unable to transfer learning about one type of conservation to other types even though the underlying principles are the same. Piaget’s Three Stages of Moral Development • Stage I - Ages 2 – 7 Obedience to authority • Corresponds to Pre-operational stage • Thinks rigidly about right and wrong, there is no black or white. • Rules come from adults and cannot be changed. • Punishment is deserved regardless of intent Moral Development (Continued) • Second stage – Ages 7 – 11 • Increasing flexibility based on mutual respect and cooperation • Corresponds to Concrete Operations • Develop a sense of justice, based on fairness and equity for all • Consider intent Con’s to Intelligence Testing • IQ tests infer intelligence from what children already know. Much of this knowledge is from schooling or culture and does not measure native ability • Tests are unfair to minorities – – Black children on average score 15 pts. lower than white children – Hispanic children fall in between – Asian children have high scholastic achievement but do not have a significant edge in IQ. Differences are probably a result of environment – income, nutrition, living conditions, intellectual stimulation, schooling, culture, etc. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence • Each person has several distinct forms of intelligence. • Eight distinct kinds of intelligence: Different parts of the brain process different kinds of information. • Gardner would assess intelligence directly by observing its products – how well a child tells a story, remember a melody, or get around in a strange area. Individual testing by observation. Eight Types of Intelligence • Linguistic - Writing, editing, translating • Logical-mathematical - Science, business, medicine • Musical - Musical composition, conducting • Spatial - Architecture, carpentry, city planning • Bodily-kinesthetic - Dancing, athletics, surgery • Interpersonal - Teaching, acting, politics • Intrapersonal - Counseling, spiritual leadership • Naturalist - Hunting, fishing, gardening, cooking Parenting Style • Highest achieving 5th graders had authoritative parents. These children were curious and interested in learning, liked challenging tasks and enjoyed solving problems by themselves. • Authoritarian Parents – Lower-achieving children – Relied on extrinsic rewards and too close of supervision. • Permissive Parents – Lower achieving children also, did not seem to care how their children did in school. Self-fulfilling Prophecy • Children live up or down to other people’s expectations for them. • Oak School Experiment - Teachers were falsely told at the first of the year which students had unusual potential. These students were selected at random. Yet several months later, these children showed unusual gains in IQ. What happened? Social Promotion • Policy of automatically promoting children even if they do not meet academic standards. • Although retention can be a wake up call, in most cases it is the first step to lowered expectations, poor performance, and ultimately dropping out of school. • Need to identify at-risk students early and intervene before they fail.