Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Middle Childhood
Middle Childhood
Your childs growing and becoming more independent. Friendships are very important. These
friendships are important and enhance very your childs development. Peer pressure starts. At
this time in a childs life they are gaining a sense of responsibility and learning independence.
Also, puberty is setting might be showing by now, especially for girls. Another big change is
school children are preparing for middle/ junior high school.
Physical
Throws a ball with accuracy write sketches, and performs other fine motor skills with
improved coordination. This period is marked by continued refinement of fine motor
skills, especially notable among girls(Barnett et al.,2010)
Enjoys teams sports but may still need to develop some of the necessary complex skills
Displays movements that are smoother and more coordinated ; however rapid growth
spurts cause temporary clumsiness
Has abundance of energy but also fatigues
Cognitive
Develops ability to reason based more on experience and logic than on intuition (Piagets
stage of concrete operational thought)
Shows improved understanding of cause and effect
Develops detailed plans and list to reach a goal
Language
Social
Begins to develop moral reasoning. Understands honesty, whats right from wrong, good
and bad, respect (Malti & Latzko, 2010)
Daydreams about future. Talks about career plans
Developmental Alerts
Be involved with your childs school. Go to school events; meet your childs teachers.
Encourage your child to join school and community groups, such as a sports team, or to be a
volunteer for a charity.