The School Years: Biosocial Development

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Part IV
Chapter Eleven

• The School Years Biosocial Development

A Healthy Time Brain Development Children with
Special Needs
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The School Years Biosocial Development

• there are similarities among all school-age
  children but also differences suddenly become
  significant (size, health, learning ability, in
  almost everything)

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A Healthy Time

• Middle childhood
• the period between early childhood and early
  adolescences, approximately from age7 to 11
• genetic and environmental factors safeguard
  children most fatal diseases and accidents occur
  before age 7

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A Healthy Time

• Size and Shape
• the rate of growth slows down, allowing children
  to undertake their basic self-care
• muscles become stronger can master almost any
  motor skill
• lung capacity expandschildren run faster and
  exercise longer without breathing more heavily

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A Healthy Time

• Size and Shape
• Overweight
• having a BMI (body mass index) of 25
• being above the 85th percentile
• Obesity
• having a BMI of 30 or more
• being above the 95th percentile

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A Healthy Time

• Physical Activity
• active play benefits children in every way
• benefits of sports can last a lifetime
• better overall health
• less obesity
• appreciation of cooperation and fair play
• improved problem-solving abilities
• respect for teammates and opponents from many
  ethnicities and nationalities

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A Healthy Time

• Physical Activity Hazards
• loss of self-esteem as a result of criticism from
  teammates or coaches
• injuries (the famous Little League elbow is one
  example)
• reinforcement of prejudices (especially against
  the other sex)
• increases in stress (evidenced by altered hormone
  levels, insomnia)
• time and effort taken away from learning academic
  skills

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A Healthy Time

• Chronic Illness
• about 13 of all children have special health
  needs, some get worse during the school years
• any chronic condition can limit active play and
  impede regular school attendance

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A Healthy Time

• Asthma
• a chronic disease of the respiratory system
• inflammation narrows the airway from the lungs to
  the nose and mouth
• signs and symptoms include wheezing, shortness of
  breath, chest tightness, and coughing

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A Healthy Time

• Three Levels of Asthma Prevention
• Primary
• better ventilation of schools and homes
• decreased pollution/eradication of cocroaches
• construction of many more play areas
• Secondary
• breast-feeding
• ridding the house of dust, pets, smoke and other
  allergens
• regular checkups
• Tertiary
• use of injections and inhalers
• hypoallergenic materials

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Brain Development

• Advances in Brain Functioning
• Reaction Time
• the time it takes to respond to a stimulus,
  either physically or cognitively
• Selective Attention
• the ability to concentrate on some stimuli while
  ignoring others
• Automatization
• a process in which repetition of a sequence of
  thoughts and actions makes the sequence routine,
  so that it no longer requires conscious thought

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Brain Development

• Aptitude and Achievement
• Aptitude
• the potential to master a particular skill or to
  learn a particular body of knowledge
• IQ tests
• tests designed to measure intellectual aptitude,
  or ability to lean in school.

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Brain Development

• Criticisms of IQ Testing
• many developmentalists criticize IQ tests
• no test can measure potential without also
  measuring achievement
• every test score reflects the culture of the
  people who wrote, administer and take it
• intellectual potential changes over the life span

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Brain Development

• Criticisms of IQ Testing
• a more fundamental criticism concerns the very
  concept that there is one general thing called
  intelligence
• humans may have multiple intelligences if so,
  the use one IQ score is based on a false premise

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Brain Development

• Sternberg (1996) describes three distinct types
  of intelligence
• Academic measured by IQ and achievement tests
• Creative evidenced by imaginative endeavors
• Practical seen in everyday problem solving
• Emotional Intelligence the ability to regulate
  ones emotions and perceptive understanding of
  other peoples feelings

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Brain Development

• The most influential of all theories is Gardners
  8 theories
• linguistic
• logical-mathematical
• musical
• spatial
• bodily-kinesthetic (movement)
• interpersonal (social understanding)
• intrapersonal (self-understanding)
• naturalistic (understanding of nature, as in
  biology, zoology, or farming)

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Children with Special Needs

• a physical or mental disability, require extra
  help in order to learn
• often slowness, impulsiveness, or clumsiness is
  the first problem to be noticed
• other problems become apparent once formal
  education begins

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Developmental Psychopathology

• the field that uses insights into typical
  development to study and treat developmental
  disorders and vice versa

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Developmental Psychopathology

• four lessons apply to everyone
• abnormality is normal
• disability changes year by year
• adulthood may be better or worse
• diagnosis depends on the social context

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Attention-Deficit Disorder

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADAH)
• a condition in which a person not only has great
  difficulty concentrating for more than a few
  moments but also is inattentive, impulsive, and
  overactive.

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Attention-Deficit Disorder

• Learning Disabilities
• a marked delay in a particular area of leaning
  that is not caused by an apparent physical
  disability, by mental retardation, or by an
  unusually stressful home environment
• dyslexia
• unusual difficulty with reading thought to be
  the result of some neurological underdevelopment

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Attention-Deficit Disorder

• Autistic Spectrum Disorders
• Autism
• a developmental disorder marked by an inability
  to relate to other people normally, extreme
  self-absorption, and an inability to acquire
  normal speech
• Autistics Spectrum Disorder
• any of several disorders characterized by
  inadequate social skills, usually communication,
  and abnormal play
• Asperger Syndrome
• a specific type of autistic spectrum disorder
  characterized by extreme attention to details and
  deficient social understanding

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Educating Children with Special Needs

• Individual education plan (IEP)
• a document that specifies educational goals and
  plans for a child with special needs
• Least restrictive environment (LRE)
• a legal requirement that children with special
  needs be assigned to the most general educational
  context in which they can be expected to learn