Chapter 11: Physical Development in Middle Childhood – Flashcards

-Years 6 to 11 -Often called "school years" because its onset is marked by the start of formal schooling

-By age 6, the brain has reached 90% of its adult weight

-Physical growth during the school years continues at the slow, regular pace of early childhood

-At age 6, the average North American child weighs about 45 pounds and is 3 1/2 feet tall. -Over the next few years, children will add about 2 to 3 inches in height and 5 pounds in weight each year.

-Between ages 6 and 8, girls are slightly shorter and lighter than boys. By age 9, this trend reverses. -The dramatic adolescent growth spurt occurs two years earlier in girls than in boys. -Lower portion of the body is growing the fastest. -Girls have slightly more body fat and boys more muscle.

-Worldwide, a 9 inch gap exists between the smallest and largest 8 year olds -Long, lean physiques are typical in hot, tropical regions and short, stalky ones in cold, Arctic areas.

-Age-related averages for height and weight

-changes in body size from one generation to the next -children today are larger in size than past generations -In most industrialized nations, the secular gain in height has slowed in recent decades, weight gain, however, is continuing

-During middle childhood, the bones of the body lengthen and broaden. However, ligaments are not fully attached to bones. This combined with increasing muscle strength, gives children unusual flexibility of movement.

-Between ages 6 and 12, all 20 primary teeth are lost and replaced by permanent ones, with girls loosing their teeth slightly earlier than boys. -The first teeth to go are the lower and then the upper front teeth -Most children need help with flossing until age 9 -More than 50% of US school-age children have tooth decay

-A condition in which the upper and lower teeth do not meet properly -Occurs in one-third of school-age children -Can be caused by thumb sucking after permanent teeth erupt or because of crowding of permanent teeth.

-The weight of the brain increases by only 10% during middle childhood and adolescence -White matter rises steadily throughout childhood -Gray matter peaks in middle childhood and then declines as synaptic pruning proceeds -40% of synapses are pruned over childhood and adolescence -Around 7 to 8, an increase in androgens (male sex hormones) occurs in children of both sexes.

-Obesity: a greater than 20% increase over healthy weight, based on body mass index (BMI)- a ratio of weight to height associated with body fat. A BMI about the 85th percentile for a child's age and sex is considered overweight, a BMI above the 95th percentile is considered obese. -32% of US children are overweight -17% are obese -China has had a fortyfold increase in overweight children over the past 25 years- affecting twice as many boys as girls

-Identical twins are more likely to share the disorder than fraternal twins -Heredity accounts for only a tendency to gain weight -Growth stunted children are more likely to be overweight than their non-stunted age-mates -A stressful family life contributes to children's diminished self-regulatory capacity, amplifying uncontrolled eating -Children who got less nightly sleep were more likely to be overweight five years later -Children who devoted more than 3 hours per day to TV accumulated 40% more fat than those devoting less than 1 3/4 hours.

-How can a stressful daily life prompt overeating? 1. Elevated stress hormones, including cortisol, which signal the body to increase energy expenditure and the brain, in turn, to boost caloric intake 2. Chronic stress triggers insulin resistance- a pre-diabetic condition that frequently includes a raging appetite 3. Impaired self-regulation

-Only 1/4th of overweight parents judged their overweight children to have a weight problem -The most effective interventions are family-based and focus on changing behaviors. -Rewarding children for giving up inactivity seems to increase their sense of personal control over exercising- a factor linked to sustained physical activity

-Michelle Obama -Aims to create partnerships among federal and state governments, communities, businesses, schools, and health organizations to solve the childhood obesity problem -Its goals include: 1. Increased public education about healthy eating and physical activity, including limiting time devoted to TV watching 2. Greater access to healthy, affordable foods in low-income neighborhoods, where over weight and obesity are highest 3. Laws mandating improved labels on foods and menus specifying nutritional content and calories 4. Improved quality of government supported school breakfasts and lunches 5. Expanded opportunities for physical activity in schools as well as in communities, by building more parks, recreation centers, and walking and bike paths

-The most common vision problem in middle childhood is myopia, or nearsightedness. It affects nearly 25% of children -Heredity plays a role: identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to share the condition. -Compared to children with no myopic parents, those with one myopic parent have twice the risk and those with two have 5 times the risk -Myopia is one of the few health conditions to increase with SES, and it has become more prevalent in recent generations. -Otitis Media (middle ear infection) becomes less common in middle childhood

-Nocturnal Enuresis, or bedwetting during the night -10% of US school-age children are affected -At all ages, more boys than girls are affected -In most cases, the problem has biological roots. -Hereditary is a major contributing factor: parents with a history of bedwetting are far more likely to have a child with the problem and identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to share it. -Punishing school age children for wetting the bed is only likely to make matters worse -To treat it, doctors often prescribe a synthetic hormone called desmopressin, which reduces the amount of urine produced. Once the child stops taking the medication they typically start wetting again- short time solution. -The most effective treatment is a urine alarm that wakes the child at the first sign of dampness. -Today an increasingly number of parents seek treatment for their children

-Children experience a higher rate of illness during the first two years of elementary school then later because exposure to sick children and an immune system that is still developing -Typically illness causes children to miss 1 to 5 days of school per year -About 20-25% of US children have chronic diseases. -The most common chronic disease (accounting for 1/3 of childhood chronic illness) is asthma -Asthma: the bronchial tubes (passages that connect the throat and lungs) are highly sensitive and fill with mucus -Prevalence of asthma has increased steadily over the past several decades. -African Americas, poor children, and obese children are especially at risk

-Health Education in which parents and children learn about the illness and get training in how to manage it -Home visits by health professionals, who offer counseling and social support to enhance parents' and children's strategies for managing the stress of chronic illness -Schools that accommodate children special health and education needs -Disease- specific summer camps, which teach children self-help skills and give parents time off from the demands of caring for an ill child -Parent and peer support groups

-Injury fatalities increase from middle childhood into adolescence, with rates for boys rising considerably about those for girls -Motor vehicle accidents involving children as passengers or pedestrians continue to be the leading cause of injury, followed by bicycle accidents -Highly active, impulsive children, many of whom are boys, remain particularly susceptible to injury in middle childhood. Although they have just as much safety knowledge as their peers, they are far less likely to implement it.

-When given scientific facts, school-age children build on basic biological concepts acquired during the preschool years and their understanding of illness advances -Several reasons underlie the gap between knowledge and practice of healthy behaviors: 1. Health is seldom an important goal for children, who feel good most of the time. They are far more concerned about schoolwork, friends, and play 2. Children do not yet have an adultlike time perspective that relates past, present, and future. They cannot see the connection between engaging in preventative behaviors now and experiencing later health consequences 3. Much health information given to children is contradicted by other sources, such as television advertising and the examples of adults and peers.

1. Running: running speed increases from 12 feet per second at age 6 to over 18 feet per second at age 12 2. Other gait variations: skipping improves. sideways stepping appears around age 6 and becomes more continuous and fluid with age. 3. Vertical jump: height jumped increases from 4 inches at age 6 to 12 inches at age 12 4. Standing broad jumping: distance increases from 3 feet at age 6 to over 5 feet at age 12 5. Precision jumping and hopping (on a mat divided into squares): By age 7, children can accurately jump and hop from square to square, a performance that improves until age 9 and then levels off. 6. Throwing: throwing speed, distance, and accuracy increase for both sexes, but much more for boys than for girls. At age 6, a ball thrown by a boy travels 39 feet per second, one by a girl 29 feet per second. At age 12, a ball thrown by a boy travels 78 feet per second, one by a girl 56 feet per second 7. Catching: Ability to catch small balls thrown over greater distances improves with age 8. Kicking: kicking speed and accuracy improve, with boys considerably ahead of girls. Age age 6 a ball kicked by a boy travels 21 feet per second, one by a girl 13 feet per second. At age 12, a ball kicked by a boy travels 34 feet per second, one by a girl 26 feet per second 9. Batting: batting motions become more effective with age, increasing in speed and accuracy and involving the entire body 10. Dribbling: style of hand dribbling gradually changes, from awkward slapping of the ball to continuous, relaxed, even stroking.

-During the school years, running, jumping, hopping, and ball skills become more refined -Gains in four basic motor capacities: 1. Flexibility: compared with preschoolers, school-age children are physically more pliable and elastic, a difference evident as they swing bats, kick balls, jump over hurdles, and execute tumbling routines. 2. Balance: improved balance supports many athletic skills, including running, hopping, skipping, throwing, kicking, and the rapid changes of direction required in many team sports. 3. Agility: quicker and more accurate movements are evident in the fancy footwork of dance and cheerleading and in the forward, backward, and sideways motions used to dodge opponents in tag and soccer. 4. Force: older children can throw and kick a ball harder and propel themselves farther off the ground when running and jumping than they could at earlier ages

-Gains in fine-motor skill are especially evident in children's writing and drawing -By age 6, most children can print the alphabet, their first and last names, and the numbers from 1 to 10 with reasonable clarity -Make strokes with the entire arm rather than just their wrists -Master uppercase letters first -By the end of the preschool years, children can accurately copy many two-dimensional shapes -Some depth cues have also begun to appear, such as making distant objects smaller than near ones -Around 9 to 10, the third dimension is clearly evident through overlapping objects, diagonal placement, and converging lines.

-Differences are influenced by both heredity and environment -Taller, more muscular children excel at many motor tasks. -If low SES children are offered affordable lessons and equipment (the right support), they can become highly skilled -Girls have an edge in fine-motor skills of handwriting and drawing and in gross-motor capacities that depend on balance and agility, such as hopping and skipping, but boys outperform girls on all other skills -Compared to a generation ago, many more girls now participate in individual and team sports, though their involvement continues to lag behind boys.

-Games with rules become common -Gains in perspective taking- in particular, the ability to understand the roles of several players in a game- permit this transition to rule- oriented games. -Compared with past generations, children today spend less time gathering informally on sidewalks and in playgrounds.

-About half of US children- 60% of boys and 37% of girls- participate in organized sports outside of school hours at some time between ages 5 and 18 -8 to 12 year old boys in tackle football leagues experience rates of concussion- brain injuries resulting from a blow to the head or body- that equal those of high school and college players.

-friendly chasing and play-fighting -occasionally wrestle, roll, hit, and run after one another, alternating roles while smiling and laughing -Peaks in middle childhood -seems to originate in parent's physical play with babies, especially father's play with sons -Boy's rough and tumble play consists of playful wrestling and hitting, whereas girls tend to engage in running and chasing, with only brief physical contact -Accounts for as much as 10% of free-play behavior before in decline in adolescence -Helps children form a dominance hierarchy: a stable ordering of group members that predicts who will win when conflict arises. Observations of arguments, threats, and phsycial attacks between children reveal a consistent lineup of winners and losers that becomes increasingly stable in middle childhood and adolescence, especially among boys.

-Although most US states require some physical education, only 6 require it in every grade, and only one mandates at least 30 minutes per school day in elementary school and 45 minutes in middle and high school. -Nearly half of US elementary and secondary school students do not attend any phsycial education classes during a typical school week. -Fewer than one-third of 6 to 17 year olds engage in at least moderate intensity activity for 60 minutes per day, including some vigorous activity on three of those days -With the transition to adolescence, phsycial activity declines, more for girls than for boys. -programs should emphasize enjoyable, informal games and individual exercise (walking, running, jumping, tumbling, and climbing. -Children are more likely to sustain physical activity when teachers focus on each child's personal progress and contribution to team accomplishment -80% of school districts no longer require daily recess for elementary school students, fewer than half mandate at least 20 minutes of recess per day -Teacher ratings of classroom disruptive behavior also decline for children who have more than 15 minutes of recess a day -Regular unstructured recess fosters children's health and competence physically, academically, and socially