Developmental Psychology
Middle and Late Childhood
Physical Development
o Girls retain somewhat more fatty tissue than boys
o Tooth decay remains one of the most common
chronic untreated conditions
o Access to proper dental care is important for young
children
o Recommended calories per day for schoolchildren 9
to 13 years of range from 1,400 to 2,600 depending
on gender and activity level
o Sleep: average of 10 hrs a day
 Factors that affect children’s sleep:
 Exposure to media screens
 Physical inactivity
 Secondhand smoke
 Poor housing
 Vandalism
 Lack of parks and playgrounds
 Persistent snoring, at least 3x a week, may
indicate a child has sleep-disordered breathing,
which is linked to behavioral and learning
difficulties
o Faster and more efficient information processing
and an increased ability to ignore distractions
o The overall volume of gray matter (linked with IQ)
increases pre-puberty and declines post-puberty
 Decline is due to loss in the density of gray
matter
 Gray matter volume peaks 1 to 2 years earlier in
girls than boys
 The loss in density of gray matter with age is
balanced by another change – a steady increase
in white matter
o Motor Skills continue to improve in middle
childhood
 Children play games during recess which
usually involves socialization
 Boys typically play physically (running),
whereas girls loves games that involves verbal
expression or counting out loud (jump rope,
hopscotch)
 Rough-And-Tumble Play – wrestling, kicking,
tumbling, grappling, and chasing, accompanied
by laughing and screaming
 6-9 year olds need more flexible rules, shorter
instruction time, and more free time to practice
than older children
 Older children are able to process instruction
and learn team strategies
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
o Body Image (how one believes one looks) becomes
important early in middle childhood, especially for
girls, which could lead to eating disorders during
adolescence (may be influenced by playing
unrealistic dolls such as barbie)
o Causes of obesity:
 Overweight parents or other relatives
 Poor nutrition
 Eating fast food
 Sugar
 Inactivity
o Acute Medical Conditions – occasional, short-
term conditions, such as infections and warts
o Chronic Medical Conditions – physical,
developmental, behavioral, or emotional conditions
that persists 3 months or more such as asthma and
diabetes
o Asthma – chronic, allergy-based respiratory disease
characterized by sudden attacks of coughing,
wheezing, and difficulty breathing
 Caused by genetics, smoke exposure, low levels
of vitamin D
o Diabetes – one of the most common diseases in
school-aged children
 Characterized by high levels of glucose in the
blood as a result of defective insulin production,
ineffective insulin action, or both
 Type 1: result of an insulin deficiency that
occurs when insulin-producing-cells in the
pancreas are destroyed
 Type 2: characterized by insulin resistance and
used to be found mainly in overweight and older
adults
o Hypertension – high blood pressure; children with
hypertension are more likely to have learning
disabilities and may have problems with executive
functioning
o Accidental Injuries are the leading cause of
accidental death among school-age US Children
Cognitive Development
Concrete Operational Stage by Jean Piaget
o At about 7 years of age, children enter the stage of
Concrete Operations according to Jean Piaget
o Children can now think logically because they can
take multiple aspects of situations into account

o However, their thinking is still limited to real
situations in the here and now
o Better understanding of:
 Spatial concepts – allows to interpret maps and
navigate environment
 Causality – makes judgement about cause and
effects
 Categorization
 Seriation – arranging objects in a series
according to one or more dimensions
 Transitive Inferences/Transivity – e.g. A < B
<C
 Class Inclusion – ability to see the relationship
between a whole and its parts, and to understand
categories within a whole
 Inductive and Deductive reasoning
 Inductive Reasoning – involves making
observations about particular members of a class
of people, animals, objects, or events, and then
drawing conclusions about the class as a whole
 Deductive Reasoning – starts with a general
statement about a class and applies it to
particular members of the class
 Piaget believed that children in the concrete
operations stage only used inductive reasoning
 Conservation
 Principle of Identity: still same object even tho
it has different appearance
 Principle of Reversibility: can picture what
would happen if he tried to roll back the clay of
snake
 Decenter: ability to look at more than one
aspect of the two objects at once
 Numbers
Information-Processing Approach: Planning,
Attention, Memory
o Executive Function – the conscious control of
thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals
or solve problems
o As children develop the ability to mentally juggle
more concepts at the same time, they are also able
to develop more complex thinking and goal-directed
planning
o Development of the ability to regulate attention,
inhibit responses, and monitor errors
o School-age children can concentrate longer than
younger children and can focus on the information
Developmental Psychology
Middle and Late Childhood
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
they need and want while screening out irrelevant
information
 Selective Attention – the ability to deliberately
direct one’s attention and shut out distractions
 Inhibitory control – the voluntary suppression
of unwanted responses
o The efficiency of working memory increases greatly
in middle childhood
o Mnemonic Device – strategy to aid memory
o External Memory Aids – writing down things to
remember
o Rehearsal – conscious repetition
o Organization – placing information into categories
o Elaboration – children associate items with
something else
o Metamemory – the knowledge of and reflection
about memory processes
Psychometric Approach: Assessment of Intelligence
o Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-
IV) – most widely used individual test
 Another common test is Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scales
o Otis-Lennon School Ability Test – a popular
group tests for kindergarten thru Grade 12
o Critics claim that the tests underestimate the
intelligence of children who are in ill health or do
not do well on tests
o IQ tests do not directly measure native ability,
instead, they infer intelligence from what children
already know
o Cortical thickness is influenced by genes
o Theory of Multiple Intelligence – conventional
intelligence tap only three types of intelligence:
linguistic, logical-mathematical, and to some extent
spatial
 Howard Gardner
 The other five, which are not reflected in IQ
scores are, musical, bodily-kinesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist
o Triarchic Theory of Intelligence – intelligence
consists of three elements:
a. Componential: analytic aspect, determines how
efficiently people process information; helps
people solve problems, monitor solutions, and
evaluate results
b. Experiential: insightful or creative, determines
how people approach novel or familiar tasks;

enables people to compare new information with
what they already know and to come up with
new ways of putting facts together
c. Contextual: practical, helps people deal with
their environment; the ability to size up situation
and decide what to do
o Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-
ABC-II) – an individual test for ages 3-18,
designed to evaluate cognitive abilities in children
with diverse needs and from varying cultural and
linguistic backgrounds
Language and Literacy
o Children use increasingly precise verbs, simile and
metaphor
o Rarely use passive voice
o Understanding of rules of syntax becomes more
sophisticated with age
o Sentence structure continue to become more
elaborate
o Boys tend to use more controlling statements,
negative interruptions, and competitive statements
o Girls phrase their remarks in a more tentative,
conciliatory way and are more polite and
cooperative
Child in School
o Self-Efficacy – an individuals belief that they can
execute behaviors necessary to attain specific
performance
o Doing well in school increases self-efficacy
o Girls tend to do better in school than boys
o Children who are disliked by their peers tend to do
poorly in school
o Many educators argue that smaller classes benefit
students
Educating Children with Special Needs
o Intellectual Disability – significantly subnormal
cognitive functioning
o Intervention programs have helped many of those
mildly or moderately disabled and those considered
borderline to hold jobs, live in the community, and
function in society
o Learning Disabilities – difficulty in learning that
involves understanding or using spoken or written
Developmental Psychology
Middle and Late Childhood
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
language, and the difficulty can appear in listening,
thinking, reading, writing, and spelling
a. Dyslexia – most commonly diagnosed LD;
severe impairment in their ability to read and
spell
b. Dysgraphia – difficulty in handwriting
c. Dyscalculia – developmental arithmetic
disorder
o ADHD – most common mental disorder in
childhood
o Autism Spectrum Disorder – Pervasive
Developmental Disorder
 Autistic Disorder – severe developmental ASD
that has onset during the first 3 yrs of life
 Asperger Syndrome – mild ASD
o Creativity – the ability to see things in a new light-
to produce something never seen before or to
discern problems others fail to recognize and find
new and unusual solutions
o Convergent Thinking – seeks single correct
answer
o Divergent Thinking – involves coming up with
wide array of fresh possibilities
Psychosocial Development
Self
o At this time, judgement about the self become more
conscious, realistic, balanced, and comprehensive as
children form representational systems
o Representational Systems: broad, inclusive self-
concepts that integrate various aspects of the self
o She can compare her real self with her ideal self and
can judge how well she measures up to social
standards in comparison with others
o According to Erikson, in the event that children are
unable to obtain the praise of adults or peers in their
lives, or lack motivation and self-esteem, they may
develop a feeling of low self-worth, thus develop a
sense of inferiority
Approximate Crisis Virtue
Age Developed
School Age Industry vs. Competency
Age (5-13 yrs) Inferiority
o Developing a sense of industry involves learning
how to work hard to achieve goals

o Maladaptive Tendency: Narrow Virtuosity –
children that aren’t allowed to “be children” and
push into one area of competence
o Malignant Tendency: Inertia – suffer from
inferiority complexes
o As children grow, they are more aware of their own
and other people’s feelings
o Children are typically aware of feeling shame and
pride and a clearer idea of the difference between
guilt and shame
o Emotional Self-Regulation – voluntary control of
emotions, attention, and behavior
o Children tends to become more empathetic and
more inclined to prosocial behaviors
o Gender Stereotypes – broad categories that reflect
general impressions and beliefs about males and
females
Child in the Family
o Coregulation – children and parents share power
o The amount of autonomy parents provide affects
how their children feel about them
o Children are more apt to follow their parents’
wishes when they believe the parents are fair and
concerned about the child’s welfare
o Parents of school-age children tends to use
inductive techniques as a form of discipline
o Children exposed to high levels of family conflict
are more likely to show a variety of responses that
can include internalizing or externalizing behaviors
 Internalizing behaviors – anxiety, fear,
depression-anger turned inward
 Externalizing behaviors – aggression, fighting,
disobedience, hostility
o If family conflict is constructive, it can help
children see the need for rules and standards and
learn what issues are worth arguing about and what
strategies can be effective
o The more satisfied a mother is with her employment
status, the more effective she is likely to be a parent
o Tho poverty can harm children’s development,
high-quality parenting can buffer children from
potential consequences of poverty
o Children tend to do better in families with two
continuously married parents than in cohabiting,
divorced, single-parent, or step-families
o Parent’s relationship, the quality of their parenting,
and their ability to create a favorable family
Developmental Psychology
Middle and Late Childhood
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
atmosphere affect children’s adjustment more than
their marital status does
o Children whose parents later divorce show more
anxiety, depression, or antisocial behavior prior to
the divorce than those parents who stay married
o Children do better with joint custody
o Co-parenting has been consistently linked to
positive child outcomes
o Most adopted children fall within the normal range
of development
o Children adopted after the age 1 were more likely to
show lower school achievement
o Having a warm and supportive sibling relationship
is associated with better adjustment and better
emotion regulation
o Sisters are higher in sibling intimacy than brothers
or mixed-sex dyads
Child in the Peer Group
o Peer groups helps children learn how to adjust their
needs and desires to those of others, when to yield,
and when to stand firm
o Children can gauge their abilities and gain a clearer
sense of self-efficacy
o Prejudice – unfavorable attitudes towards outsiders
o Children can be negatively affected by
discrimination
o Girls are more likely to engage in cross-gender
activities
o Positive Nomination – asking children who they
like to play with, they like the most, or who they
think other kids like the most
o Negative Nomination – opposite of positive
nomination
o Sociometric Popularity – measures that is
composed of positive nominations, negative
nominations or no nominations
o Popular Children – frequently nominated as bestie
and rarely disliked by peers
o Average children – receive an average no of both
positive and negative nominations
o Neglected Children – infrequently nominated as
bestie but not really disliked
o Rejected Children – disliked by peers
o Controversial Children – frequently nominated
both bestie and most disliked

o Unpopular children can make friends but they tend
to have fewer friends and they prefer younger ones
o Instrumental Aggression – aimed at achieving an
objective
 Proactive
 View force and coercion as effective ways to get
what they want
o Hostile Aggression – intended to hurt another
person
 Reactive
o Hostile Attributional Bias – quickly conclude, in
ambiguous situations that others were acting with ill
intent and are likely to strike out in retaliation or
self-defense
o Bullying – aggression that is deliberately,
persistently directed against a particular target
Mental Health
o Oppositional Defiant Disorder – pattern of
defiant, disobedience, and hostility towards adult
authority figures lasting at least 6 months
o Conduct Disorder – persistent, repetitive pattern,
beginning at an early age of aggressive, antisocial
acts, such as truancy, setting fires, habitual lying,
etc.
o School Phobia – unrealistic fear of going to school
o Separation Anxiety Disorder – excessive anxiety
for at least 4 weeks concerning separation from
home or from people to whom the child is attached
o Social Phobia or Social Anxiety – extreme fear
and/or avoidance of social situations such as
speaking in class
o Generalized Anxiety Disorder – children worry
about everything, tends to be self-conscious, self-
doubting, and excessively concerned with meeting
the expectations of others
o Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder – obsessed by
repetitive, intrusive thoughts, image, or impulses, or
may show compulsive behaviors
o Childhood Depression – disorder of mood that
goes beyond normal, temporary sadness
o Resilient Children – are those who weather
circumstances that might blight others, who
maintain their composure and competence under
challenge or threat
Developmental Psychology
Middle and Late Childhood
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
o Two most important protective factors: Good family
relationship and cognitive functioning
Moral Development
o Kohlberg’s Moral Development Levels:
1. Pre-conventional Reasoning – lowest level
 Children interpret good and bad in terms of
rewards and punishments
 Or they are nice to others so that others will be
nice for them
2. Conventional Reasoning – individuals abide by
certain standards, but they are the standards of the
others, either by parents or the society
3. Post-conventional Reasoning – highest level
 Morality is more internal
 Individuals engage deliberate checks on their
reasoning to ensure that it meets high ethical
standards
o Kohlberg placed too much emphasis on moral
thought and not enough for moral behaviors
o Care Perspective – moral perspective that views
people in terms of their connectedness with others
and emphasizes interpersonal communication,
relationship with others, and concerns fir ithers
o Domain Theory of Moral Development – there
are different domains of social knowledge and
reasoning, including moral, social conventional, and
personal domains
 Developmental Psychology
Middle and Late Childhood
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
o Social Conventional Reasoning – focuses on
conventional rules that have been established by
social consensus in order to control behavior and
maintain the social system
o Moral Personality – pattern of moral
characteristics that is distinctively their own
a. Moral Identity: when moral notions and moral
commitments are central to their lives
b. Moral Character – has willpower, desire, and
integrity to stand up to pressure, overcome
distractions and disappointments, and behave
morally
c. Moral Exemplars – people who have lived
exemplary moral lives
end