UNIT – 2

CHILD DEVELOPMENT AT
ELEMENTARY LEVEL

Written by: Dr. Afia Iqbal .

Reviewed by: Dr. Sidra Rizwan

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 CONTENTS
Introduction 58
Objectives 58
2.1 Early Childhood 59
2.1.1 Physical motor development 59
2.1.2 Cognitive and intellectual development 59
I Piaget’s stages of cognitive development 61
(i) Sensori motors 61
(ii) Pre-Operational 61
(iii) Concrete operation 61
(iv) Formal operation 62
II Information Processing 62
(i) Memory 62
(ii) Attention 62
(iii) Language 63
III Factors that affect children cognitive development 63
(i) Biological factors 63
(ii) Environment factors 63
2.1.3 Personality and Social Development 64
I Theories of personality development 64
(i) Piaget theory of cognitive development 64
(ii) Kohlberg theory of moral development 65
(iii) Freud’s theory of psychosexual development 65
(iv) Erikson theory of psycho-social development 67
II Socialisation 69
III Moral development 69
IV Emotional and Social development 70
V Behaviour disorder of childhood 71
VI Influence of Parents on their children 72
VII Influence of the parents on their children 72
2.2 Middle Childhood 74
2.2.1 Physical & Motor development 74
(i) Motor skills 74
(ii) Physical activity helps children develop 74
(iii) Learning disabilities 75
2.2.2 The cognitive and intellectual development 76
I Cognitive tasks, skills and process and their types 67
(i) Attention process 76
(ii) Memory 77
(a) Strategies of remembering 77
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 (iii) Concrete operation thought 78
(iv) Conservation 78
(v) Moral reasoning 79
III Individual differences in cognition 79
(i) Intelligence 79
(ii) Gender difference 79
(iii) Language Development 79
2.2.3 Personality and Social development in middle childhood 80
I The developing Social Self 80
II Society of children 80
(i) Peer groups 80
(ii) Friendship 81
(iii) Popularity 81
(iv) Playing games and sports 81
(v) Helping and sharing co-operating and competing 81
(vi) Stealing, Lying and cheating 82
(vii) Acting aggressively 82
(viii) Social understanding 82
(ix) Learning social rules 82
(x) Solving social problems 83
2.2.4 Adjustment and learning problems of middle childhood 83
I Sources of adjustment difficulties 84
(i) Parents 84
(ii) Social relationship 84
(iii) School 84
2.2.5 Types of adjustment problem 85
(i) Anxiety 86
(ii) Depression 86
(iii) Aggression 86
(iv) Fears 87
(v) Activity 88
(vi) Self-Assessment 88

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 INTRODUCTION
The period of a child’s development is divided in to three stages, early childhood,
middle childhood, and adolescence. Early childhood is a time of tremendous physical
changes across all areas of development. Middle childhood is an important time when
children develop foundational skills for building healthy social relationships and learn
roles that will prepare them for adolescence and adulthood. Child’s healthy development
and lifelong learning depends on his experiences of childhood. According to Education
Encyclopedia, early and middle childhood sets the stage for: school success, self-
discipline, health literacy, eating habits, healthy relationships with family and friends and
the ability to make good decisions about risky situations and conflict negotiation. There
are four broad domains of development in childhood: physical, cognitive, affective, and
social development.
Physical Development means biological and physiological development, the
improvement of motor skills, and physical health. Children undergo rapid spurts in
weight and height as well as improvement in athletic abilities, followed by observable
changes in physical appearance and behavior. Cognitive development includes
intellectual and language development, memory capacities and reasoning abilities.
Affective development includes personality, motivation, self-esteem and emotional
development. Children attain personal competencies through participation in different
activities; emotional attachments to parents and other family members; and a deepening
sense of oneself. Social development includes interpersonal understanding and social
skills, ethical and moral development, and maintaining close relationships. They develop
mutual understandings of others through interactions with family and peers.

OBJECTIVES
After studying the unit the prospective teachers will be able to:
1. discuss the concept of physical development in childhood.
2. identify different theories of personality.
3. explain cognitive and intellectual development in childhood.
4. distinguish behaviour disorders of childhood.
5. specify personality and social development problems in children.
6. evaluate personality and children adjustment and learning problems.

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 2.1 EARLY CHILDHOOD
Early childhood usually expands from birth to 6 years of age. Early child
development (ECD) encompasses physical, motor, cognitive and socio emotional
development.
2.1.1. Physical and Motor Development
Childhood is a time of rapid physical development. Physical growth is quite
dramatic and rapid during infancy. In the toddler years, this growth occurs at a slower
and steadier pace. Children’s body change proportions and get sleeker and straighter in
shape with the development of strong muscles necessary for work and play. Normally
between birth and three years of age a child becomes doubles in height and quadruples in
weight along with mastery in many skills, including sitting, walking, using a spoon,
toilet training, scribbling, and sufficient hand-eye coordination to catch and throw a ball.
Motor development includes gross motor development and fine motor development.
Gross motor refers to physical skills that use large body movements involving the entire
body while fine motor refers smaller and more precise movements. Between ages 2 and 3
years, young children stop "toddling," and develop a smoother gait, and ability to run,
jump, and hop. Children who are 3 to 4 years old can climb up the stairs with some
"back-up" assistance. 3 to 4 year olds can jump and hop higher, catch and throw. Many
can even hop on one foot for short periods of time. By ages 4 to 5, children can go up and
down the stairs like adults. Their running continues to smooth out and increase in speed.
Children of this age can also skip and add spin to their throws. During ages 5 to 6, young
children continue to refine earlier skills and enjoy learning to play organized sports.
Fine motor skills: Skills that require hand-eye coordination. By ages 2 to 3 years,
children can mold clay into rough shapes, build towers out of blocks and scribble with a
crayon. Around ages 3 to 4 years, children start to manipulate clothing fasteners, like
zippers and snaps, continue to gain independence in dressing and undressing themselves,
begin using scissors to cut paper, 3 to 4 years refine their eating skills like using forks and
spoons. During ages 4 to 5 years, children continue to refine motor skills. Their artistic
skills improve, and they can draw simple stick figures and copy shapes such as circles,
squares, and large letters. By age 5 most children demonstrate fairly good control of
pencils, crayons, and scissors.
2.1.2. Cognitive and Intellectual Development
Children not only grow physically but also mentally during early childhood
Children’s abilities to observe, understand, produce language and interact with the world
flourish in an amazing way. From birth to 4 weeks, children glance at mother’s face.
From 1 to 3 months, they smile and their attention span increases. Between 3 and 6
months, vocalize some sounds, and start saying "mama" or "dada" between 6 and 9
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months. From 9 to 12 months, understand basic commands and imitates sounds. During
second year children begin sorting things by shape and color. They use several words by
18 months and several phrases by 2 years and recognize the name for many people and
objects.
Over the first three years of life, children develop a spoken vocabulary of
between 300 and 1,000 words and start using sentences of up to four words. Between 3
and 4 years children understand what counting is and know some numbers. They can
name few colors and remember some parts of stories that are read to them. Their
vocabulary reaches about 1,500 words. By the age 5 years children speak about 2,000
words, and use hundreds of words in five-to seven-word sentences, learn to use the past
tense, and tell familiar stories using pictures as cues. They start to learn and understand
grammar rules. All English-speaking children follow a regular sequence when using these
rules. They start developing a feeling for time, have more questions than ever; enjoy
rhymes and silly sounds. According to Piaget, children in the early childhood build on
skills learned and mastered before infancy stage. Their play becomes increasingly
imaginary filled with fantasies, involving more characters and scenarios, games with
sophisticated rule. In early childhood, children master the Symbolic thought ability to
picture, remember, understand, and replicate objects in their minds. They can talk about
or draw places they visited, create new scenes and creatures from their imagination.
Conservation is a person's ability to understand that certain physical characteristics of
objects remain the same, even if their appearance has changed. Children’s ability of
conservation in early childhood is not accurate in case of volume or number. For example
a child will not understand that rearranging six keys to make a different formation (e.g.,
spreading them out or moving them closer together) change the number of items present.
Transformation is a person's ability to understand how certain physical characteristics
change while others remain the same in a logical, cause and effect sequence. In early
childhood children do not readily understand how things can change from one form to
another. For example first children are shown two 1-inch round balls of clay. Then, they
are presented with one 1-inch round ball of clay and one 1-inch ball of clay squished flat.
They do not understand that the flat ball had been round before and was squished to make
its new shape.
Egocentrism is the inability to see the world by someone else's point of view. In early
childhood children have egocentrism, they explain situations from their own perspective
and understanding. They have a hard time understanding why banging on pots and pans
or playing with a musical toy could increase their mother's headache when they're having
so much fun.

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 Children in early childhood are unable to group items in larger sub-groups and
smaller sub-groups based on similarities and differences. They don't have the ability to
organize things into hierarchical categories.
I. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
There are four important stages of cognitive development:
(i) Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)
This is the first stage in Piaget's theory, where infants have the following basic
senses: vision, hearing, and motor skills. In this stage, knowledge of the world is limited
but is constantly developing due to the child's experiences and interactions. According to
Piaget, when an infant reaches about 7–9 months of age they begin to develop object
permanence, this means the child now has the ability to understand that objects keep
existing even when they cannot be seen. An example of this would be hiding the child’s
favorite toy under a blanket, although the child cannot physically see it they still know to
look under the blanket.
(ii) Preoperational Stage: (begins about the time the child starts to talk about)
During this stage of development, young children begin analyzing their
environment using mental symbols. These symbols often include words and images and
the child will begin to apply these various symbols in their everyday lives as they come
across different objects, events, and situations. However, Piaget named it
“preoperational” stage because children at this point are not able to apply specific
cognitive operations, such as mental math. In addition to symbolism, children start to
engage in pretend play in which they pretend to be people they are not (teachers,
superheroes). Some deficiencies in this stage of development are that children who are
about 3–4 years old often display what is called egocentrism. However, at about 7 years,
thought processes of children are no longer egocentric and are more intuitive, meaning
they now think about the way something looks instead of rational thinking.
(iii) Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)
During this stage, children between the age of 7 and 11 use appropriate logic to
develop cognitive operations and begin applying this new thinking to different events
they may encounter. Children in this stage incorporate inductive reasoning, which
involves drawing conclusions from other observations in order to make a generalization.
Unlike the preoperational stage, children can now change and rearrange mental images
and symbols to form a logical thought; an example of this is reversibility in which the
child now has the ability to reverse an action just by doing the opposite.
(iv) Formal operations: (about early adolescence to mid/late adolescence)
The final stage of Piaget’s cognitive development defines a child as now having
the ability to “think more rationally and systematically about abstract concepts and
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hypothetical events”. Some positive aspects during this time is that child or adolescent
begins forming their identity and begin understanding why people behave the way they
behave. However, there are also some negative aspects which include the child or
adolescent developing some egocentric thoughts which include the imaginary audience
and the personal fable. An imaginary audience is when an adolescent feels that the world
is just as concerned and judgmental of anything the adolescent does as they are, an
adolescent may feel as is they are “on stage” and everyone is a critique and they are the
ones being critiqued. A personal fable is when the adolescent feels that he or she is a
unique person and everything they do is unique. They feel as if they are the only ones that
have ever experienced what they are experiencing and that they are invincible and
nothing bad will happen to them it will only happen to others.
II. Information processing
The Information Processing model is a way of examining and understanding the
cognitive development of children. This model, conceptualizes children's mental
processes through the metaphor of a computer processing, encoding, storing, and
decoding data. By 2 to 5 years of age, nearly all children have developed the skills to
focus attention for extended periods, recall old information, recognize previously
encountered information and recreate it in the present.
Memory: most children cannot remember anything in their childhood prior to age 2 or
3. A 4-year-old child can remember what he wore at Birthday party and tell his friend
about it when he returns to school. Between the ages of 2 and 5, long-term memory
begins to form. Part of long-term memory involves storing information about the
sequence of events during familiar situations as "scripts". Scripts help children
understand, interpret, and predict what will happen in future scenarios. For example,
children understand that a visit to the grocery store involves a series of steps: mom enters
the store, gets a grocery cart, selects items from the shelves, waits in the check-out line,
pays for the groceries, and then loads them into the car.
Attention: Between the ages of 5 and 7, children learn how to focus and use their
cognitive abilities for paying attention and memorizing lists of words or facts. This skill
is obviously crucial for children starting school who need to learn new information, retain
it and produce it for tests and other academic activities. They also develop the capacity to
process information. This capacity allows them to make connections between old and
new information. For example, children can use their knowledge of the alphabet and
letter sounds (phonics) to start sounding out and reading words. During this age,
children's knowledge base also continues to grow and become better organized.
Language: children's use of language also becomes more mature and complicated with
age. Between ages 4 -5-children's ability to understand language at a more complicated
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level also develops. Children develop the ability to understand that a sentence may have
meaning beyond the exact words being spoken. They start to understand the use of basic
metaphors based on very concrete ideas, tailor their speech to the social situation; for
example, children will talk more maturely to adults than to same-age peers.
III. Factors that Affect Children Cognitive Development
(1) Biological factors
(a) Sense organs: Sense organs are important as they receive stimuli from
the environment. Their proper development helps in receiving correct
stimuli. Defective sense organs collect defective stimuli and as a result
wrong concepts can be formed and the cognitive development will not be
perfect.
(b) Intelligence: Children with low Intelligence Quotient are unable to
receive stimuli properly thus their cognitive development lags behind.
(c) Heredity: Cognitive development is also influenced by the hereditary
traits; one gets from his parents.
(d) Maturation: with the maturation child gets more interaction with his
environment that is necessary for a good cognitive development.
(2) Environment factors: External influences that affect cognitive development and
are mostly controllable. They include:
(а) Learning opportunities: The opportunity a child gets to learn affects the
cognitive development. The more opportunities he gets the better is the
cognition.
(b) Economic status: Economic state of the family also helps in the
development of cognition. Children from better economic status get more
opportunities and better training and it helps in cognitive development.
These children also have better nutritional diets as compared to those
who come from poor backgrounds.
(c) Play: Play is very important in developing cognition. Through play
activities, the child interacts with the environment, receives stimuli and
responds to them. child playing with toys learns many new experiences,
becomes imaginative and does drama.
(d) Various types of stimuli (TV, books, toys): As child grows, he gets
various stimuli from environment through his senses. Stimuli such as
books, television, mobile, computer and learning toys are important in
developing cognitive abilities.These stimuli form concepts and symbols.
Experts recommend that children be exposed to books at an early age and
little amounts of television and computer as this tends to reduce
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 cognitive development.
(e) Family and society: Children who interact frequently with other people
tend to become brighter and gain confidence as compared to those who
relate with less people. It is important for children to interact with others
as this helps them to build their language and speaking skills. They are
also likely to be read to which makes them learn faster.
2.1.3. Personality and Social Development
I. Theories of personality development
i. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, also known as a
developmental stage theory was created by the Swiss developmental
psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). It is a comprehensive theory
about the nature and development of human intelligence and deals with
the nature of knowledge and how humans acquire, construct, and use this
knowledge. Piaget believed that, cognitive development was an
organization of mental processes that result from biological maturation
and environmental experience. Children develop an understanding of the
world around them, experience discrepancies between what they already
know and what they discover in their environment and then adjust their
ideas accordingly. He claimed that cognitive development is at the center
of the human organism, and language is contingent on knowledge and
understanding acquired through cognitive development. Piaget develop
four important stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor stage
(birth to age 2), preoperational stage (age 2 to 7), concrete-operational
stage (ages 7 to 12), and formal-operational stage (ages 11 to 12, and
thereafter). Child-centered classrooms and "open education" are direct
applications of Piaget's theory.
ii. Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development
Lawrence Kohlberg started as a developmental psychologist and then
moved to the field of moral education. Kohlberg believed that people
progressed in their moral reasoning through a series of six stages which
could be more generally classified into three levels.
The first level of moral thinking is that generally found at the elementary
school level. In the first stage of this level, people behave according to socially
acceptable norms because they are told to do so by some authority figure (e.g., parent or
teacher). This obedience is compelled by the threat or application of punishment. The
second stage of this level is characterized by a view that right behavior means acting in
one's own best interests.
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 The second level of moral thinking is that generally found in society, hence the
name "conventional." The first stage of this level (stage 3) is characterized by an attitude
which seeks to do what will gain the approval of others. The second stage is one oriented
to abiding by the law and responding to the obligations of duty.
The third level of moral thinking is one that Kohlberg felt is not reached by the
majority of adults. Its first stage is an understanding of social mutuality and a genuine
interest in the welfare of others. The last stage is based on respect for universal principle
and the demands of individual conscience. While Kohlberg always believed in the
existence of Stage 6 and had some nominees for it, he could never get enough subjects to
define it, much less observe their longitudinal movement to it.
Kohlberg believed that individuals could only progress through these six stages one by
one. They could not "jump" stages. According to Kohlberg, it was important to present
individuals with moral dilemmas for discussion which encourage their development in
that direction. In this way moral development can be promoted through formal education.
Kohlberg believed that most moral development occurs through social interaction.
Kohlberg's classification can be outlined in the following manner:
LEVEL STAGE SOCIAL ORIENTATION

Pre-conventional 1 Obedience and Punishment

2 Individualism, Instrumentalism, and Exchange
Conventional 3 "Good boy/girl"
4 Law and Order
Post-conventional 5 Social Contract
6 Principled Conscience
iii. Sigmund Freud's Psychosexual Development Theory
Sigmund Freud (1856), was an Austrian neurologist who developed the
field of psychoanalysis and many theories including those that focus on
the unconscious, the interpretation of dreams, Id, ego, and super ego, and
what is referred to as the psychosexual development theory.
Psychosexual development is often referred to as the Oedipus Complex.
The Oedipus Complex teaches that the unconscious holds repressed
thoughts. Freud taught that these unconscious thinking patterns form
during several stages of development until they are eradicated by normal,
healthy sexual development. Freud’s theory of psychosexual
development is divided into five stages. These are oral, anal, phallic,
latency, and genital.
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(a) Oral Stage: The oral stage occurs in an infant’s life from birth to
18 months. During this time, an infant is focused with receiving
oral pleasure. This occurs through breast or bottle feeding, or
sucking on a pacifier. It is believed that if an infant receives too
much or too little oral stimulation, they may develop a
personality trait that is fixated on oral gratification, may focus on
activities that involve the mouth such as over eating, biting the
fingernails, smoking, or drinking. The theory states that these
people may develop personality traits such as becoming
extremely gullible or naive, always following others and never
taking the lead, and becoming extremely dependent upon others.
(b) Anal Stage: The anal stage is directly related to a child’s
awareness of bowel control and gaining pleasure through the act
of eliminating or retaining feces. Freud’s theory puts the anal
stage between 18 months and three years. It is believed that
when a child becomes fixated on receiving pleasure through
controlling and eliminating feces, he/she can become anal
retentive or anal expulsive. Anal retentive children are obsessed
with control, perfection, and cleanliness while anal expulsive
children are extremely disorganized, live in chaos, and are
known for making messes.
(c) Phallic Stage: Freud believes the phallic stage or the Oedipus or
Electra complexes occur during three to six years of age. The
belief is that male children harbor unconscious, sexual attraction
to their mothers and rivalry feelings with their father while
female children develop a sexual attraction to their father. These
feelings naturally resolve once the child begins to identify with
their same sex parent. If a child becomes fixated during this
phase, the result could be sexual deviance or a confused sexual
identity.
(d) Latency Stage: The latency stage is named so because Freud
believed there weren't many overt forms of sexual gratification
displayed. This stage is said to last from the age of six until a
child enters puberty. Most children throughout this age form
same sex friendships and play in a manner that is non-sexual.
Unconscious sexual desires and thoughts remain repressed.
(e) Genital Stage: The last stage of the psychosexual development
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 theory begins at puberty and develops with the physiology
changes. Freud believed the unconscious sexual desires that were
repressed and made dormant during the latency stage, awaken
due to puberty. The prior stages of development result in a focus
on the genitals as a source for pleasure and teens develop and
explore attractions to the opposite sex.
iv. Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
Every person has his own unique identity composed of the different
personality traits. These personality traits can be positive or negative,
innate or acquired, and vary from person to person based on the degree
of environmental influence. Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial
Development emphasizes the sociocultural determinants of development
and presents them as eight stages of psychosocial conflicts that all
individuals must overcome or resolve successfully in order to adjust well
to the environment. According to Erikson’s theory, an individual
encounters a certain crisis that contributes to his/her psychosocial growth
at each of the eight stages of psychosocial development. Whenever an
individual experiences such crisis, he/she is left with no choice but to
face it and think of ways to resolve it. Failure to overcome such crisis
may lead to significant impact on his/her psychosocial development.
Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development
Stage One – Trust versus Mistrust: Infants must learn how to trust others, particularly
those who care for their basic needs. A newborn is like a helpless being and therefore,
might view the outside world as threatening. Depending on how he is treated by people
around him, the sense of threat can be replaced by trust. When this happens, the infant
gains a sense of security and will learn to trust people around him. The first and most
important person to teach an infant about trust is usually the parents. Parents take good
care of their children, attend to their needs, provide them with food, shelter, and make
them feel comfortable and secure.
Stage Two – Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt: At this stage, children should be
taught the basic ways of taking care of themselves, including changing their clothes and
feeding themselves.
Stage Three – Initiative versus Guilt: At this stage, children like to explore and do
things on their own. They can learn new concepts introduced in school and are expected
to practice these lessons in real life. They know that they can accomplish these tasks on
their own, but if they fail to do so and end up asking for assistance from others, they may
feel a sense of guilt.
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Stage Four – Industry versus Inferiority: As children grow, they mature and their level
of self-awareness increases. At this stage, children become more competitive. They want
to do things that other children of the same age can do. When they make the effort to
perform a task and succeed, they develop self-confidence. However, if they fail, they tend
to feel that they are inferior to others.
Stage Five – Identity versus Role Confusion: During adolescence, an individual is
expected to develop his or her sexual identity. Some adolescents may feel confused and
are unsure whether an activity is age-appropriate for them. The individual may also
experience identity crisis as a result of the transition from childhood to adulthood or by
expectations from themselves and from people around them, e.g. their parents.
Stage Six – Intimacy versus Isolation: People in their 30s become worried about
finding the right partner and fear that if they fail to do so, they may have to spend the rest
of their lives alone. Young adults are most vulnerable to feel intimacy and loneliness
because they interact with a lot of people in this phase of their lives. It’s not always a
success story for every young adult to find someone with whom they can share a lifelong
commitment. Some may choose to spend the rest of their lives as singles.
Stage Seven – Generativity versus Stagnation: Adults who are in their 40s and 50s
tend to find meaning in their work. They feel like at this point in their lives, they should
be able to contribute something meaningful to the society and leave a legacy. If they fail
to achieve this, they feel like they have been an unproductive member of the society.
Stage Eight – Ego Integrity versus Despair: People who are in their 60s or older are
typically retirees. It is important for them to feel a sense of fulfillment knowing that they
have done something significant during their younger years. When they look back in their
life, they feel content, as they believe that they have lived their life to the fullest. If they
feel that they haven’t done much during their life, it’s likely that they will experience a
sense of despair.

II. Socialisation
The term socialisation refers to the process of interaction through which the
growing individual learns the habits, attitudes, values and beliefs of the social group into
which he has been born. Socialisation is a life-long process that makes children
responsive to the society. It prepares them to fit in the group and to perform the social
roles. Socialisation takes place at different stages such as primary, secondary and adult.
The primary stage involves the socialisation of the young child in the family. Family is
the primary and the most influential source of education. Children learn their language,
customs, norms and values in the family. The secondary stage involves the school where
child learns very important lessons in social conduct from his peers. Schools not only
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help children in learning language and other subjects but also inculcate the concept of
time, discipline, team work, cooperation and competition. Formal socialisation takes
through direct instruction and education in schools and colleges. The third stage is adult
socialisation. Adult socialisation teaches them to take on new duties, bring change in
their views and behaviour. Socialisation takes place rapidly if the agencies of
socialisation are more unanimous in their ideas and skills. When there is conflict between
the ideas, examples and skills transmitted in home and those transmitted by school or
peer, socialisation of the individual tends to be slower and ineffective.
Television and other mass media, play an important role in the process of socialisation by
transmitting information and messages that influence the personality of children to a great
extent. They are the instrument of social power as they encourage individuals to support
the existing norms and values or oppose or change them. Authors, editors and advertisers,
with their messages, join the teachers, the peers and the parents in the socialisation
process.
III. Moral Development
Morality is the ability to differentiate between right and wrong and to understand
how to make the right choices. Moral development of children depend on their
experiences at home, the environment around them, and their physical, cognitive,
emotional, and social skills. Between the ages of 2 and 5, many children start to show
morally-based behaviors and beliefs. Many young children also start to show empathy-
based guilt when they break the rules. Children between the ages of 5 and 10 think that
authority figures such as parents and teachers have rules that young people must follow
absolutely. Rules are thought of as real, unchangeable guidelines rather than evolving,
negotiable, or situational. But when children grow older, develop more abstract thinking,
and become less self-focused, they turn out to be capable of forming more flexible rules
and applying them selectively for the sake of co-operation.
According to Kohlberg, young children at this age base their morality on a punishment
and obedience orientation. He believed that young children behave morally because they
fear authority and try to avoid punishment. In other words, little kids follow the rules
because they don't want to get in trouble. Most young children can understand the
difference between "good" and "bad" behavior, and this understanding provides the basis
for more complicated moral thinking in the future.
Children between the ages 5 and 6 typically think in terms of distributive justice,
or the idea that material goods or "stuff" should be fairly shared. In other words, everyone
should get his or her exact "fair share. They cannot consider other factors, such as need or
effort. But by age 6 or 7, children begin to consider what people have earned or worked
for when thinking about distributive justice. Children can also reason that some people
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should get more because they worked harder.
IV. Emotional and Social Development
Every Child develops at his/her own pace. Different internal and external factors
impact a child's level of emotional development. Internally, temperament (the innate or
genetic component of an individual's personality) can affect how children respond to the
world emotionally. Children who have more easy-going temperaments tend to have a
easier time learning to regulate their own emotions as well as to respond to other people's
emotions more positively. Children who have difficult or slow-to-warm-up temperaments
tend to struggle to regulate their own emotions and will typically react to other people's
strong emotions by becoming distressed themselves.
Externally, role models and the environment will also influence how children react to the
world emotionally. During early childhood, the immediate level of a child's environment
consists of family and direct caregivers such as teachers and babysitters. Children with
caregivers who show warmth, compassion, understanding, as well as genuine concern
and help toward others will also learn to show empathy and pro-social behavior during
later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Children who witness caregivers modeling
mostly angry, punitive, and cold emotional responses will struggle more to develop
empathy and prosocial behavior.
On a larger level the culture of the local community will also have an effect on
children's emotional development. It includes the characteristics of a child's
neighborhood or school system, such as safety, traditions, and culture. For example, if
children grow up feeling unsafe or focused primarily on meeting basic survival needs, the
fear of violence or sense of insecurity will flavor children's emotional reactions and
beliefs. But if children live in a safe, supportive community, they will have a more
positive view and emotional response to that environment.
The child's nation or residence also affects emotional development. A child
growing up in a peacetime country may develop more positive emotional responses and
skills than a child growing up in a war-torn country governed by martial law or
threatened by terrorist attacks.
V. Behaviour Disorder of Childhood
To be naughty, defiant and impulsive from time to time is perfectly normal for
children. But some children have disruptive behaviour disorders or extremely difficult
and challenging behaviours that are outside the norm for their age. The most common
disruptive behaviour disorders are:
Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)
Around one in ten children under the age of 12 years are thought to have
oppositional defiant disorder, with boys outnumbering girls by two to one. Some of the
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typical behaviours of a child with ODD include:
 Easily angered, annoyed or irritated,  Frequent temper tantrums
 Argues frequently with adults, particularly  Refuses to obey rules
parents,
 Seems to deliberately try to annoy or  Low self-esteem
aggravate others,
 Seeks to blame others for any misfortunes or  Low frustration threshold
misdeeds,
Conduct disorder (CD)
Children with conduct disorder are often judged as ‘bad kids’ because of their delinquent
behaviour and refusal to accept rules. Around five per cent of 10 year olds are thought to
have CD, with boys outnumbering girls by four to one. Around one-third of children with
CD also have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Some of the typical
behaviours of a child with CD may include:
 Frequent refusal to obey parents or other authority figures
 Repeated truancy
 Tendency to use drugs, including cigarettes and alcohol, at a very early age
 Lack of empathy for others
 Being aggressive to animals and other people or showing sadistic behaviours
including bullying and physical or sexual abuse
 Keenness to start physical fights and use of weapons in physical fights
 Frequent lying
 Criminal behaviour such as stealing, deliberately lighting fires, breaking into
houses and vandalism
 A tendency to run away from home
 Suicidal tendencies – although these are more rare.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Around two to five per cent of children are thought to have attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder with boys outnumbering girls by three to one. The characteristics
of ADHD can include:
 Inattention – difficulty concentrating, forgetting instructions, moving from
one task to another without completing anything.
 Impulsivity – talking over the top of others, having a ‘short fuse’, being
accident-prone.
 Over activity – constant restlessness and fidgeting.
Risk Factors in Children’s Behavioural Disorders
The causes of ODD, CD and ADHD are unknown but some of the risk factors include:
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  Gender – boys are much more likely than girls to suffer from behavioural
disorders. It is unclear if the cause is genetic or linked to socialisation
experiences.
 Gestation and birth – difficult pregnancies, premature birth and low birth
weight may contribute in some cases to the child’s problem behaviour later
in life.
 Temperament – children who are difficult to manage, temperamental or
aggressive from an early age are more likely to develop behavioural
disorders later in life.
 Family life – behavioural disorders are more likely in dysfunctional families.
For example, a child is at increased risk in families where domestic violence,
poverty, poor parenting skills or substance abuse are a problem.
 Learning difficulties –problems with reading and writing are often
associated with behaviour problems.
 Intellectual disabilities – children with intellectual disabilities are twice as
likely to have behavioural disorders.
 Brain development – studies have shown that areas of the brain that control
attention appear to be less active in children with ADHD.
VII. Influence of Parents on their Children
The parenting styles influence the development of children across childhood.
Over the course of childhood, parents' styles and its effects on the child tend to remain
same. Children who are socially responsible, competent, successful in school, and high in
self-esteem belong to authoritative parents. But the authoritarian style of parents, with its
perfectionism, harsh discipline and rigidity affects children adversely. Children of such
parents are generally rated lower than their peers in cognitive ability, competence and
self-esteem, but higher in aggression. Children of permissive parents also tend to be less
self-reliant, and less responsible but more aggressive and impulsive than their peers.
Children raised in disengaged homes show more behavior problems.
Children tend to do better in traditional two-parent families than single -parent family.
Children's adjustment to parents’ divorce depends on factors concerning the child;
 The parents' handling of the situation
 Financial circumstances
 Custody and visitation arrangements
 Contact with the noncustodial parent (usually the father) and
 A parent's remarriage.
Children living with only one parent are at heightened risk of behavioral and academic
problems, in part related to socioeconomic status.
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 2.2 MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
Middle childhood usually expands from 6-12 years. The rate of physical growth
is slow and steady but the rate of cognitive, emotional, and social development is
tremendous. Middle childhood affects the future Physical, cognitive, emotional, language
and social development of child and in turn influences the later success in life.
2.2.1 Physical & Motor Development
Physical development in middle childhood is characterized by considerable
variations in growth patterns. Boys and girls follow the same basic developmental
patterns in middle childhood, but they do not necessarily mature at the same rate.
Children’s bones broaden and lengthen dramatically during middle childhood; generally
children grow about 2 - 3 inches taller and gain about 7 pounds per year until puberty.
Majority of the girls experience a preadolescent growth spurt in 9 – 10 year of age, while
most boys experience the same growth spurt two years later around age 11 or 12.
Motor skills are behavioral abilities or capacities. As children grow, their motor skills
increase, giving them an opportunity to participate in a variety of physical activities.
i. Motor Skills
Gross motor skills: Children continue to develop and improve gross
motor skills such as walking and running. Usually, boys develop these skills a
little earlier than girls, except for skills that involve balance and precise
movements such as jumping, hopping, throwing, catching, striking, kicking and
skipping.
Fine Motor Skills: Children in middle childhood continue to develop and
sharpen their fine motor skills. Girls tend to develop fine motor skills slightly
faster than do boys. Middle-childhood-aged children show dramatic
improvements with regard to their printed handwriting and ability to write in
cursive letters and manual activities such as beading, sewing, scrap booking and
building models. They become quite skillful at playing video and computer
games.
ii. Physical activity helps children develop
Participation in physical activities like cycling, hiking, playing basketball
or cricket is necessary for a healthy life. It can also be a fun for children. Parents’
support and encouragement to be physically active significantly increases a
child’s activity level. Children of middle childhood are also influenced to
participate in physical activity by friends, peers, other family members, and
people depicted in the media. Teachers also influence a child’s level of physical
activity. Physical training period should be provided at school daily, where
enjoyable activities should be offered.
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 iii. Learning disabilities
The term learning disabilities covers a large range of challenges that
children may experience in school. Different processes of nervous system are
involved in perceiving and understanding information, using concepts through
verbal (spoken or written language) or nonverbal means. A problem in one or
more such processes causes a specific learning disability. Learning disability
manifests itself with a deficit in one or more of the following areas: attention,
reading, writing, processing, memory, reasoning, spelling, coordination,
calculation, reasoning, emotional maturity and social competence. Learning
disabilities do not affect child's intelligence but make it more difficult for
children to read, write, reason, spell or organize information.
Different Types of Disabilities
a. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD): Attention Deficit
Hyperactive Disorder is a biological based condition causing a persistent
pattern of difficulties such as:
 Inattention- the child finds it extremely difficult to pay attention to certain
topics in class as they become easily distracted by almost anything around
him.
 Hyperactivity- the child is usually in constant motion and may constantly
be fiddling, leg swinging and squirming in their chair.
 Impulsivity- the child has a very difficult time controlling their impulses.
They will not stop and think before they act. They say and do whatever
comes into their mind without thinking about the consequences.
b. Dyscalculia
Difficulty in performing math calculations is called dyscalculia. It affects
arithmetic operations.
c. Dysgraphia
Difficulty in expressing thoughts in writing is called dysgraphia. It is used to
refer to extremely poor handwriting.
d. Dyslexia
Difficulty in understanding written words is. Some common signs of
Dyslexia are:
 poor reading comprehension
 difficulty reading — trouble identifying individual words
 poor spelling
 letter reversals (e.g. writing b for d or vice versa), trouble sequencing letters,
(e.g. "left" for "felt").
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 e. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
It is a complex neurobiological condition that affects the normal function of
the immune, endocrine and nervous systems. It impacts normal brain
development leaving most individuals with communication problems,
difficulty with typical social interactions and a tendency to repeat specific
patterns of behaviour.
f. Mental Retardation
If a child learns and develops more slowly than other children of his age
group, he is called mentally retarded or intellectually disabled.
It is possible for children, displaying characteristics of a learning disability,
to overcome learning disabilities and be successful, if their disability is
noticed earlier and helped by professional right away. Such children are
more likely to be successful if parents and teachers organize interventions at
right time.
2.2.2 The cognitive and intellectual development
The term cognitive development refers to the process of growth and change in
mental or intellectual abilities such as thinking, understanding and reasoning. Children of
middle childhood develop the ability to think in concrete ways such as addition,
subtraction, division, ordering (alphabetize and sort), and transforming objects and
actions.
I. Cognitive tasks, skills and process and their types
The actions which help define cognitive thought process are cognitive tasks or
skills. All the processes that require only a small number of mental processes and result
in learning are called cognitive processes. The most important cognitive processes are
following:
i. Attention process
During middle childhood, children’s ability to process inputs become more
effective as the duration of their attention span increases. Their ability to ignore
the automatic tendency of attention to become captured by distractions (such as
sounds outside the window) also improves. Therefore they endure and benefit
from classroom instruction and become more efficient learners. Children’s ability
to pay attention is a typical progressive improvement in middle-childhood. Some
children have to struggle hard to concentrate in the increasingly challenging
environments of school, family and society.
ii. Memory
According to Information Processing Theory, children's memory capacity and the
ability to use their memory also increases and improves during middle childhood.
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 Children store increasing amounts of information and reliably retrieve this
information later on when required to complete homework, tests, and other
educational activities due to their improved memory skills. They also become
more experienced to organize the information they memorize in addition to
increases in actual memory capacity.
a) Strategies of remembering
Generally memory is considered a prerequisite skill to successful learning. In
addition to increases in actual memory capacity, children in middle childhood
also become more sophisticated to organize the information they remember.
There are some strategies that can systematically improve memory and have been
helping students at STRONG Learning Centers for years, not only on homework
and tests, but continuing to be valuable in their daily lives.
1. Chunking: To break up information into small chunks and memorize it is called
chunking. For example when we memorize a telephone number, a locker
combination, or a social security number we use chunking. It's easier to
remember long numbers when we "chunk" them into groups of threes, fours and
fives. That's because most people can only remember about three, four or five
bits of information at a time.
2. Understanding: Understanding before memorizing something is important, so
try to understand it first. A good way to do this is by making a connection
between your experiences and what you are learning. The better the relation
between the new information and what one already knows, the easier is learning.
3. Graphic Organizers or Mind maps: Graphic Organizers help children see
things they are trying to learn. They help organize information. There are many
different types of graphic organizers.
 Web for the main topic and details
 Venn diagram for comparing and contrasting
 Cause and Effect Design with the event in the middle box, the causes listed
in the left boxes and the effects listed in the right boxes by lines).
 Cycle Organizer consists of shapes drawn in a cyclic pattern with words in
each shape to represent things or events that go in cycles.
4. Visualization: To visualize means to see an image in your head without actually
looking at it. Visualization can help children learn almost anything.
5. Association: Another learning strategy is to associate, or "connect," each word or
event with a person, place, thing, feeling, or situation. For example, you may
connect what you are trying to learn with someone you know, or with a movie
character or scene.
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6. Rhyming: We all used rhyming in the ABC song to learn the alphabet. And the
rhyme "I before E, except after C, or when it sounds like A as in neighbor or
weigh." This is also a great strategy even when learning the times tables. For
example, 7 and 7 went down the line to capture number 49; 8 and 4 made some
stew and gave it to 32. (Rhymes don't have to make sense!)
7. Acronyms: An acronym is a word made up from the first letters of a list of
words. Here's how it works. You take the list of words or facts that you want to
remember and put them in an order so that the first letters of each word, or the
first syllables, spell a real word or a made-up word.
8. Rehearsing: When you want to remember information, you have to practice it,
or else it fades. So, just as actors need to rehearse in order to remember their
lines, children need to rehearse to remember what they are learning.
iii. The concrete operational thought
The concrete operational thought or logical thinking is the characteristic of
middle childhood. Children of this age group become more logical about
concrete and specific things, gain a better understanding of mental operations but
they still struggle with abstract ideas and have difficulty understanding abstract
or hypothetical concepts.
Logic: Piaget determined that children in the middle childhood were fairly good at the
use of inductive logic that involves going from a specific experience to a general
principle. But they also have difficulty using deductive logic, which involves using a
general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event. For example, a child
might learn that X=Y, and Y=Z, but might still struggle to understand that X=Z.
Reversibility: One of the most important developments of middle childhood is an
understanding of reversibility, or awareness that actions can be reversed. An example of
this is being able to reverse the order of relationships between mental categories. For
example, a child might be able to recognize that his or her dog is a Labrador, that a
Labrador is a dog, and that a dog is an animal.
iv) Conservation: Conservation is the ability to understand that re
distributing material does not affect its mass, volume or length. On changing the
shape or appearance the thing remains the same, is conservation. Children
understand; that breaking a candy bar up into smaller pieces does not changes its
amount, the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny
glass.
Sociocentrism: The ability to understand, that other people have their own thoughts.
Children at earlier stages of development are egocentric (self-centered), but in the
concrete stage, egocentrism disappear and they become more sociocentric.
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 v) Moral reasoning: According to Kohlberg, children early in their middle
childhood stage of development will typically display "Preconventional" moral
reasoning. They have internalized basic culturally prescribed rules governing
right and wrong behavior. For instance, they will appreciate that it is considered
immoral to steal from others; that you must earn or be given things and not
simply take them. They realize that morally good behaviors attract praise and
positive regard from peers and adults, while morally bad choices bring about
unpleasant consequences and negative regard.
II Individual differences in cognition
i. Intelligence: Most researchers agree that a combination of both genetic
and environmental factors contribute to the development of intelligence. Based
on studies of identical twins' IQ scores, researchers have determined that the
heritability of intelligence is approximately .50 means that about half of
intelligence is caused by a child's genetics and other half is determined by
environmental factors which include children's socioeconomic status, parents’
attitude towards education, cultural and educational opportunities, and other
similar social factors.
ii. Gender difference: Research has identified differences in several
specific cognitive skills as well as in a range of social and personal
characteristics. The major gender differences are found in verbal, language, and
certain spatial skills. For example, girls tend to produce words at an earlier age,
have a larger vocabulary, and show a higher level of language complexity
beginning in early childhood. They are also better in verbal skills, spelling,
overall language measures, and writing during school-age years. Boys are better
in spatial skills such as mental rotation (the ability to visualize how an object
would look if you viewed it from a different angle). Boys perform better on
several mathematics skills specifically in problem solving.
iii. Language Development: During middle childhood, language develops
marvelously. Some children learn as many as 20 new words per day and apply
complex grammar rules. The practical application of linguistic knowledge
(pragmatics) also improves noticeably at this time, as does the understanding of
metaphors, jokes, and puns. Children are increasingly able to switch from proper
speech (formal code) to a more colloquial informal code with their peers.
Differences in how well children learn to speak, read, and write the language of
the school may be partly genetic, but many emphasize the social context.
The connection between school achievement and socioeconomic status is
revealed by the fact that children from low-income families are least likely to succeed in
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school. Their difficulty is generally in the area of language and includes having smaller
vocabularies and using simpler grammar.
2.2.3 Personality and Social development in middle childhood
Children undergo dramatic social and emotional changes from early to middle
childhood. As children start school, their social world becomes much larger. Introduction
of school provides them a much richer pool of social experiences with both familiar and
unfamiliar people. During middle childhood, children become more competent and
confident and gain the trust of their parents. Children go to school calmly and without
much drama where they interact successfully with peers as well as listen to the teacher
and follow directions.
I. The Developing Social Self
As children enter school, they start to pay greater attention to those around them.
When they notice other people more and more, they also begin to compare themselves to
their peers and develop a sense of how to fit themselves into their social environment.
Self-concept develops. In the middle childhood children tend to have a naturally
optimistic impression of them. They often overestimate their own abilities to perform
certain actions such as counting to a hundred, jumping rope perfectly, or winning a race
against a classmate. Children do begin to observe how their peers perform these same
tasks and often start comparing themselves to others. Children develop a sense of self-
esteem by gaining mastery of many basic skills.
II. Society of children
During middle childhood children tend to develop the social skills such as
sharing, listening, patience, and cooperation. They become much more selective about
whom they choose as friends. With the growing social world friendships and peer
relations become very important throughout the middle school years, as children begin to
spend a significant amount of time with their peers.
i. Peer groups: Social and moral growth takes place in a positive climate
that fosters peer interaction. Children’s behavior in the peer group is an indicator
of their social competence. Children develop understandings of others and
interact competently with their peers and sustain friendships over time. Their
concerns about acceptance in the peer group often increases.
ii. Friendship: Friends are vital for a healthy development of middle
childhood children. Friendships provide them with more than just fun playmates.
They try to select friends who are kind and accommodating, and somewhat
outgoing and avoid children who are either too shy or too aggressive. Boys tend
to have more friends, whereas girls have closer friends. Children without
friendship in this age can suffer from emotional and mental difficulties later in
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 life. Children learn many social skills, such as how to communicate, cooperate,
and solve problems in interacting with friends. They control their emotions and
respond to others emotions. Children develop positive attitudes about school and
learning when they have friends there. Their school performance changes due to
friends. School is a great place to make friends, but participating in activities
outside of school also provide further opportunities for developing positive social
relationships.
iii. Popularity: During middle childhood central concern of many children
is popularity. Some children have many friends and others have a few. Popular
children show higher levels of positive social behavior and cognitive ability and
lower levels of aggression. Usually social status of boys depends on social
dominance, coolness, toughness and athletic ability, whereas girls’ status depends
more on family background, socioeconomic status, and physical appearance.
iv. Playing games and sports: Children playing sports benefit physically,
develop personal discipline, learn how to get along with others and do better in
school. Children growing up without sports are really disadvantaged as sports are
a set of life lessons and more than a game. Children participating in sports attend
school more and get in less trouble. Such children learn to work together, get a
sense of discipline acquire leadership skills, and learn communication skills.
They are more community and civic minded, and are more successful in the
workplace. Middle child hood children attain a lot of physical and psychological
benefits from sports participation.
v. Helping and sharing co-operating and competing: By the time most
children enter middle childhood they begin to understand the feelings of other
people. They start understanding the idea of sharing and taking turns, although
sharing of favourite toy or game is still hard for them. Sharing teaches children
about compromise, how to negotiate, and how to cope with disappointment.
Praise and encouragement for good sharing will help them to lean cooperation.
vi. Stealing, Lying and Cheating: Stealing, lying, and cheating are all
common but inappropriate behaviors of middle childhood. While most of the
time it is simply a common behavior that will be outgrown, but some severe
forms of these behaviors can indicate a more serious psychological problem.
Stealing and lying are more common in boys than girls, and happen most often in
children of 5 years to 8 years.
Children from 6 years understand what lying is and its moral wrongness.
However, children may continue to lie in order to test adult rules and limits. The child
may admit to telling a lie, but usually he or she has many reasons for having done so.
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Rules are very important at this age, so cheating becomes less important.
Stealing often causes more concern to parents because it may happen outside the home
and may affect other people. Children in this age group may steal because of:
 They may feel peer pressure and the need to fit in.
 They may have low self-esteem.
 They may not have any friends and may be trying to "buy" their friends.
vii. Acting aggressively: Children aren’t born aggressive, they learn it.
However, children, parents, and teachers also can learn how to cope with
aggression. Most recent researches consider aggressive acts not as the sole fault
of the individual, but also as related to a set of social and cultural circumstances.
Children showing high physical aggression in middle childhood tend to come
from low income families, have less well-educated mothers, less sensitive and
responsive parents or divorced parents who are triangulated in marital conflicts.
viii. Social understanding: During the middle childhood, the child's social
world expands and includes more people and settings beyond the home
environment due to natural broadening of psychosocial and cognitive abilities.
The parent-child relationship continues to remain the most important influence
on the child's development. Generally children of responsive and demanding
parents continue to thrive psychologically and socially during the middle
childhood years.
ix. Learning social rules: Learning of some social rules is very important
in middle childhood. Rules are learnt by modeling and practicing not by teaching.
. Role playing games can be a good way to model appropriate behavior and help
children practice responding to different social problems. A list of such rules can
be pasted in class rooms.

Rule #1: Meet and greet politely.

 Say greetings, introductions and goodbyes.
 Politely offer and receive compliments.
 Be able to start and finish conversations.
Rule #2: Take turns talking.
 Listen when others are speaking and look them in the eye.
 Don’t interrupt.
 Respond appropriately and at the right time.
Rule #3: Think about others before acting.
 Don’t touch without asking.
 Don’t cut in line.
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  Wait your turn.
 Stand a comfortable distance away when talking.
Rule #4: Cooperate with others.
 Follow directions when you’re asked to.
 Ask for help when you need it.
 Apologize when necessary.
 Be flexible and open to new idea.
When children don’t follow social rules, they are considered as self-centered or
uncaring by others. Their peers may find this behavior annoying and back away. Such
children may find themselves being left out. Children with poor social skills are bullied
by other children and are considered as disrespectful or rude by adults.
x. Solving Social Problems: Learning and attention issues affect children
social life in different ways. For example, language disorder can make
conversation difficult. Non Verbal Learning Disabilities may affect the ability to
read people’s moods and reactions. ADHD may cause children to speak and act
impulsively.
Parents and teachers can help children with these issues by talking about social
skills and practicing them together.
2.2.4 Adjustment and learning problems of middle childhood
Middle childhood is a time when children move from home into wider social
contexts that strongly influence their development. Children develop "sense of industry"
and learn to cooperate with their peers and adults. The involvement in formal schooling
and organized activities that begin during these years, introduce children to new social
roles in which they earn social status by their competence and performance. Children
who do not master the skills required in these new settings develop a "sense of
inferiority," which can lead to long-lasting emotional, intellectual, and interpersonal
consequences.
Feelings of competence and personal esteem are of central importance for a
child's well-being. Children who do not see themselves as competent in academic, social,
or other domains (such as athletics, music, drama, or scouting) during these years report
anger, depression and social isolation more often than their peers. They are at increased
risk for short-term and long-term academic, behavioral and psychiatric difficulties.
I Sources of adjustment difficulties
(i) Parents
As the child's social world expands and includes more people and settings
beyond the home environment due to natural broadening of psychosocial and
cognitive abilities. Children spend less time with parents as compared to early
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 childhood and are less close to them but the parent-child relationship continues to
remain the most important influence on the child's development. The atmosphere
in the home and family environment is very important for children's
development. Homes with employed mothers tend to be more structured and
more egalitarian than homes with at-home mothers. Maternal employment has a
positive influence on school achievement in low-income families. Low income or
poor parents may have problem in monitoring and providing effective discipline
and emotional support.
(ii) Social relationship
The peer group becomes more important in middle childhood. Peer groups
generally consist of children who are similar in age, sex, ethnicity, and
socioeconomic status, and who live near one another or go to school together.
The peer group helps children develop social skills, allows them to test and adopt
values independent of parents, gives them a sense of belonging, and helps
develop the self-concept. It also may encourage conformity and prejudice.
Popularity influences self-esteem and future adjustment. Popular children tend to
have good cognitive abilities and social skills. Behaviors that affect popularity
may derive from family relationships and cultural values. Intimacy and stability
of friendships increase during middle childhood.
(iii) School
Children's entry into elementary school is the main social event that
differentiates middle childhood from early childhood. For many children entry to
school coincides with participation in other formal organizations and programs
outside the family. When children join different programs in school, they
experience increased individual freedom. They are permitted to move about more
freely, for example, to go to school alone, ride bicycles and play outside. On the
other hand, parents, teachers, and other adults put increasing pressure on children
to be "good," to cooperate with their peers and to show respect for adults. This
pressure increases in school where they are expected to control themselves,
cultivating good "work habits," sitting quietly for long periods of time,
complying with expectations and obeying the rules that are set by others.
As school classes and programs tend to be age-segregated; that is, children of a
certain age are grouped together in one class. Due to this homogeneity of the school class
or peer group children focus attention on their individual strengths and differences in
social skills. The performance of children in an elementary school is systematically
evaluated against preset standards of progress, excellence, and acceptable style. They
may experience failure and frustration, if they do not perform especially if they are less
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skilled than their peers. When children enter the middle-childhood years they are very
optimistic about their ability to master a large range of tasks and activities, including their
school-work. Their ability rating about themselves is very high and actually there is no
relation between their own ability ratings and actual performance levels. By the end of
middle childhood, however, their ability self-concepts and their expectations for success
tend to decline. Because over the elementary school years children are typically far less
optimistic, and there is a much stronger relation between their self-ratings and their actual
performance.
2.2.5 Types of adjustment problem
In psychological terms adjustment is defined as the ability of a person to be at
peace through changes in their behavior or thinking. Some children have problems
adjusting to the changes that occur in middle childhood. As a result, they begin to have
emotional issues. Children who used to be happy and well-adjusted might suddenly begin
to feel anxious or depressed. There are some major emotional issues that can affect
children in middle childhood.
i. Anxiety
If a child who used to be happy and outgoing start to feel nervous all the
time. When going to school or to the park he gets really scared about what might
happen to him and worries that he will get hurt. This is called anxiety. Anxiety is
a part of natural development and it is common in middle childhood.
Approximately 20% of children develop an intense anxiety of some sort. Even
those who do not develop intense anxiety can feel anxious and scared sometimes.
Normal level of anxiety is not only normal but it can help protect children from
danger. For example if a child is scared of snakes he will avoid them and,
therefore, has a lower chance of being bitten. But some children end up with
anxiety that is much higher than normal. Parents can help their children deal with
fear by talking with them and, if necessary, seeking out the help of a counselor or
psychologist who specializes in childhood anxiety.
Besides anxiety about the world at large, children develop a very specific
fear of attending school, which is known as a school phobia. They often develop
stomachaches in the morning that keep them home from school. School phobia is
most common in 11- to 13-year-olds as the social and academic stakes at school
increase dramatically. Bullying becomes more common in the start of middle
school. Middle school academics become more difficult as children move into
more abstract concepts in their classes. All these factors can combine to create
school phobia. As with other anxieties, parents should help support their children
and seek professional help if necessary.
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 ii. Depression
Some children experience depression as they move into middle school.
Signs of depression are noticed in them. For example their grades decline, they
withdraw socially and don't hang out with their friends very much anymore, they
lose their appetite, and they don't sleep well and start suffering from headaches.
iii. Aggression
Sometimes children do not have self-control or social skills to manage
their behavior. When children are not encouraged to express themselves or can’t
find the words to deal with aggressive feelings or they cannot cope with growing
levels of anger in themselves or in others, aggression is displayed. In the early
middle childhood most children lose the impulse and need to attack others
aggressively. An aggressive child may strike a sibling, but rarely hit a friend at
school or on the playground. Foot stomping and door slamming may occur at
home, but not at school. Some children continue to act aggressively throughout
the middle childhood. Boys display aggression in the form of physical attacks
and direct confrontations but girls seldom display physical aggression. Girls act
aggressively by ostracizing, shunning, and defaming others. Physical aggression
decreases in most children during middle childhood. However, some children
continue to fight and follow high aggression. Boys engage in physical aggression
more than girls do. Different factors responsible for aggression are:
The child: A child’s temperament and his/her learned coping skills are critical to
manage aggression. Temperament is that part of the personality that seems to be
controlled by genetics.
The family: The positive and negative interactions of the family and the level of
family stress influence children learning aggression. Children observe and imitate adults
around them handling their anger and frustration and model their behavior after them.
The community: Communities that understand and support children’s rights support
children and all their developmental stages. Places where there are supportive adults and
healthy alternatives for recreation can protect children while they are learning to deal
with situations that give rise to aggression.
The environment: Housing, schools, and neighborhoods can contribute to aggression.
For example, extreme heat or overcrowding has been shown to increase aggression.
The culture: What sorts of models are children exposed to on television and in the
community? When people try to solve problems with physical violence, children
mistakenly learn that this is an appropriate behavior.
What to do? Children need to learn positive problem-solving techniques and positive,
consistent, nurturing discipline to outgrow their aggressive ways. Parents and teachers
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need to place children in environments that support learning of positive social behavior
rather than hostile, aggressive and antisocial acts.
iv. Fears
Majority of children have many fears during middle childhood for example fear
of darkness, fear of animals such as barking dogs, fear of fires, fear of high
places or thunderstorms, fear of kidnappers or fear of death of those around them.
Majority of fears are mild, but even when they intensify, they generally subside
on their own after a while. If fears become extreme, persistent and focused they
develop into phobias. Phobias are strong and irrational fears influencing and
interfering with a child's usual daily activities.
Treating fears and phobias: Generally phobias are not a sign of serious mental illness.
Most phobias are quite treatable. However, if a child's anxieties persist and interfere with
his enjoyment of day-to-day life, he might benefit from some professional help.
Breathing and relaxation exercises can assist youngsters in stressful circumstances too.
Simple, sensitive and straightforward parenting can resolve or at least manage most
childhood fears.

ACTIVITY
1. Write down a brief definition of cognitive and social development.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
2. Make a chart of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.
3. Briefly write the influence of different kinds of parents on their children.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
4. Which five strategies do you recommend good for remembering?

SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Discuss the concept of physical and motor development. How is early childhood
development different from middle childhood development?
2. Describe in your own word the process of cognitive and intellectual development
in early years of life.
3. What do you understand by the term information processing?
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4. Critically examine the theories of moral development and psychosexual
development.
5. Discuss the idea of socialisation.
6. Discuss in detail different aspects of social development in middle childhood?
7. How does individual differ in cognition in middle childhood?
8. What type of adjustment problems children face in middle childhood?
9. Explain Erikson’s views on psycho social development.
10. Discuss the factors that affect child cognitive development.

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