Author: jones.6008

Factors Influencing Development

Nutrition:

https://www.google.com/search?q=nutrition&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS794US794&sxsrf=ACYBGNTprZv7EfAR9XKb8ea5nGly0d-q2g:1575594400662&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjL1b7E6p_mAhUPJzQIHXN8CxwQ_AUoAnoECBMQBA&biw=1280&bih=561&dpr=2.5#imgrc=ljDAhWEN3Q3rtM: 

Food is the fuel for the body. At the middle childhood age, children are growing a lot, so nutrition is of utmost importance for growth and development. The CDC suggests that children and adolescents eat:

  • A variety of fruits and vegetables.
  • Whole grains.
  • Fat-free and low-fat dairy products.
  • A variety of protein foods.
  • Oils.

Malnutrition can have detrimental effects on a child including stunting their growth, cognitive delays, and obesity. School lunches do a great job of providing the appropriate nutrients that your children need, but it is important to have healthy options at home too. Along with eating well, children need to be drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated.

Childhood Nutrition Facts. (2019, May 29). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/nutrition/facts.htm.

Family Structure:

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/the-agenda/all-in-the-family_97899

Family support is important for all children, but at this age, the family dynamic starts to change. For parent-child relationships, at middle childhood, the amount of time children spend with their parents decreases immensely. It is important for parents to recognize that this change is completely normal. Rather than being an authoritarian, reasoning with your children is beneficial at this age because their cognitive development allows for logical thinking. For this reason, children benefit from oversight parenting where they can make supervised decisions on their own. With siblings, this is the stage where sibling rivalry tends to increase. They are also still a good source of support though. Overall, a close-knit family structure is recommended so these kids can get the support they need, but they also need to start having some more independence.

Berk, L.E. & Meyers, A.B. (2016). Infants and Children: Prenatal through middle childhood (8th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Technology:

https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/t/technology.htm

Technology can be very useful in a classroom setting to help teachers meet the individual needs of their students, but technology can also be harmful to children at such a vulnerable age. Young adolescents are exposed to media daily whether it be on a computer, the television, or their own person cell phone. One major problem with media is the unrealistic body image the media portrays. Middle Childhood children have a hard time distinguishing what is real online from what is not, so the media can give a distorted view on reality. There is also a lot of content that is out there that is inappropriate for children to see, but they often do anyways because things tend to just pop up on the screen. There are also predators online that parents need to be aware of.

Parents can help their children by adding restrictions to their children’s technology. Restrictions help to censor information before a child sees something that they shouldn’t be looking at. Another way to help middle childhood kids is to educate them on internet safety. We can give them the tools they need to be safe online and how to check to see if a website is a credible source.

John Davies (1993) The Impact of the Mass Media upon the Health of Early Adolescents, Journal of Health Education, 24:sup1, S-28-S-35, DOI: 10.1080/10556699.1993.10616431

Milestones of Middle Childhood Development:

Physical Domain: Adolescent growth spurts begin. Yay for puberty! This occurs about two years earlier for girls than boys. Changes includes getting taller as well as physical and hormonal changes to the body based on sex.

Parents can support children going through these changes by having open discussions about what is going on with their child’s body. It is important for children to know that the changes they are going through are perfectly normal and that it happens at different rates for each individual. When your child starts to grow out of their shoes quickly, it is a good indicator that they are about to shoot up in height and have reached this milestone that is a big growth spurt.

https://www.independentschoolparent.com/lifestyle/understanding-growth-spurts/

Cognitive Domain: Cognitive self-regulation improves. This means that children are starting to better monitor their own progress and correct their behaviors when they are unsuccessful. They have not yet mastered this concept, but it is at this age that students start to look back over their work, reread things they did not understand, or ask questions for clarification.

https://autisable.com/2017/01/15/self-regulation-defined/

Parents can support their children by challenging them at home with problem-solving tasks. It can be anything from helping them pack the car for a trip to having a child help measure ingredients while baking. When doing these activities, parents can ask questions and make suggestions of strategies for the child to use. Children then take the strategies and the problem-solving abilities with them into the classroom. Parents and teachers will know this milestone is reached once students start to check their own progress and have an accurate idea of how well they are doing or not.

Social and Emotional Domain: Friendships become more selective and are rooted in mutual trust. Before this milestone is reached, children are friends with anyone and everyone who will talk to them. Now, children start to choose friends for more than just common interests.

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/meaning-of-friendship

Parents can support their children by encouraging them to be social and make friends. They can also encourage children to think about their friends and to question some of their friendships. The friendships based on trust are those of kindness and compassion. Fitting in becomes more and more important as children grow older, so it is important for children to make meaningful connections with people when they are young. Making friends can be stressful and difficult for some children. Parents need to be supportive and available for their children to talk to about issues with peers. Parents will know that their child has reached this milestone when they see their children start to spend a lot of time with fewer individuals in a much closer way than before.

References:

Berk, L.E. & Meyers, A.B. (2016). Infants and Children: Prenatal through middle childhood (8th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Independent School Parent. (2017, March 28). Understanding Growth Spurts. Retrieved from https://www.independentschoolparent.com/lifestyle/understanding-growth-spurts/.