21 Jul For this assignment, you will complete an assessment that provides you with your strongest intelligences and will then answer questions about the results. Please follow the instructions ca
For this assignment, you will complete an assessment that provides you with your strongest intelligences and will then answer questions about the results. Please follow the instructions carefully.
1. Read about the 9 different intelligences in the text. Then, pick which 3 you feel are the ones in which you are the strongest. Identify those 3 and then explain why you picked each.
2. Complete the following assessment online.
https://www.literacynet.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html (Links to an external site.)
3. List the 3 strongest intelligences the assessment identified for you.
4. Do you think these are accurate? Were they different than what you picked? How did you feel about the responses the assessment identified for you?
5. Based on the results provided by the assessment, do you feel as if you are on a path of learning that coincides with the intelligences that are strongest for you? Why or why not?
6. Based on the intelligences provided, what can you add to your life that might provide support for developing these for yourself?
Middle Childhood: Body and Mind
chapter seven
Invitation to the Life Span
Kathleen Stassen Berger | Fourth edition
1
Middle Childhood
Middle childhood
Period between early childhood and early adolescence, approximately from ages 6 to 11
Safeguarded by genetic and environmental factors
Evolutionary perspective
Genes protect children who have already survived the hazards of birth and early childhood
A Healthy Time (part 1)
Lower death rates
Immunizations
Less lethal accidents and fatal illnesses
Fewer chronic conditions
Better diagnostic and preventive medical care
Less secondhand smoke
Better health habits
Specialized programs
Improved oral health
Rates continue to rise with age, up to 13,674 for those aged 85 and older, so this figure cannot portray the entire life span. Details are remarkable as well. Not only are fatal diseases rare, thanks to immunization, but accidents and homicide also dip during middle childhood — and rise rapidly thereafter.
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A Healthy Time (part 2)
Growth and healthy habits
Average child gains about 2 inches and 5 pounds per year.
Maintenance of good health related to adult instruction and regular medical care.
Camps for children with special health needs are beneficial.
A Healthy Time (part 3)
Physical activity
Benefits of physical activity can last a lifetime.
Advances in physical, emotional, and mental health
Academic achievement improvement
Concerns
Harm from sports
Brain injury and other impact-related injury
Better cerebral blood flow and more neurotransmitters
Better mood and energy
Embodied cognition aided
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A Healthy Time (part 4)
Need for movement
Indoor activities often replace outdoor play.
Economic barriers and disabilities may limit participation in league, club and other after school activities.
When academic instruction replaces physical education; less physical activity may cause less learning.
Modern life challenges neighborhood play.
Time for school physical activities and recess is reduced in many schools
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A Healthy Time (part 5)
Brain development
With physical activity
Cerebral blood flow and neurotransmitters and better moods
Embedded cognition
Connection between body movement and thinking
A Healthy Time (part 6)
Health problems: Childhood obesity
Paying attention
Neurological advances allow children to pay special notice to most important environmental elements
Executive control
Selective attention
Reaction time
Improves with physical play and maturation
Reaction time: Time it takes to respond to a stimulus, either physically ( thought).
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A Healthy Time (part 7)
Health problems: Childhood obesity
Many 6- to 11-year-olds eat too much, exercise too little, and become overweight or obese as a result.
18 percent of U.S. 6- to 11-year-olds were obese.
Excessive weight contributes to future health risk increases, average achievement decreases, self-esteem failures, and loneliness.
Since 2000, U.S. rates have leveled off, even declining in preschool children, but increases continue in most other nations, including the most populous two, China and India.
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A Healthy Time (part 8)
Health problems: Childhood obesity
Recent, dramatic increases found in developing nations as food becomes more plentiful; parents no longer worry that their children might starve.
Childhood overweight correlates with asthma, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and loneliness.
As weight builds, school achievement decreases, self-esteem falls, and loneliness rises.
A Healthy Time (part 9)
Health problems: Childhood obesity
Genetic influences
Dozen of genes affect weight by influencing activity level, hunger, food preference, body type, and metabolism.
Social context is crucial.
Parenting practices linked to obesity
Infants—No breast feeding and solid foods before 4 months
Preschoolers—Bedroom TV watching and soda consumption
Schoolagers—Insufficient sleep, extensive screen time, little active play
Ads and Obesity
Nations differ in children’s exposure to televised ads for unhealthy food.
The amount of this advertising continues to correlate with childhood obesity (e.g., Hewer, 2014). Parents can reduce overweight by limiting screen time and playing outside with their children. The community matters as well: When neighborhoods have no safe places to play, rates of obesity soar.
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Differences in Prevalence of Obesity
Figure 7.1
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Health Problems: Asthma
Asthma
Definition
Incidence
Signs and symptoms
Hygiene hypothesis
In some city schools, asthma is so common that using an inhaler is a sign of pride, as suggested by the facial expressions of these two boys.
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways that makes breathing difficult.
Sufferers have periodic attacks, sometimes rushing to the hospital emergency room.
In the U.S., childhood asthma rates have tripled since 1980 (see Figure 7.2). U.S. parents report that 15 percent of their 5- to 11-year-olds have been diagnosed with asthma at some time, and almost 11 percent still suffer from it (National Center for Health Statistics, 2014).
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Cognition (part 1)
Piaget and middle childhood
Concrete operational thought
Piaget's term for the ability to reason logically about direct experiences and perceptions.
Classification
Logical principle that things can be organized into groups (or categories or classes) according to some characteristic they have in common.
Seriation
Things can be arranged in a series. Seriation is crucial for understanding the number sequence and logical series.
In middle childhood, children develop the ability to use mental categories and subcategories flexibly, inductively, and simultaneously.
By age 11, children use mental categories and subcategories flexibly, inductively, and simultaneously, unlike at age 7.
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Inside the Brain Coordination and Capacity
Piaget recognized that connections allow logical ideas to be applied to many specifics.
Today brain scans can demonstrate maturation and classification proposed by Piaget.
Hubs, especially near corpus callosum; damage and brain dysfunctions
Links between hypothalamus and amygdala; stress and early maltreatment
Neurological pathways from general to particular and back again; maturation
Cognition (part 2)
Vygotsky and culture
Education occurs everywhere and knowledge is acquired from social context.
Instruction is essential.
Guiding each child using scaffolding through the zone of proximal development is crucial.
Language is integral as a mediator, a vehicle for understanding and learning.
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Cognition (part 3)
Vygotsky
Play with peers, screen time, dinner with families, neighborhood play — every experience, from birth on, teaches a child
Girls Can’t Do It
As Vygotsky recognized, children learn whatever their culture teaches. Fifty years ago, girls were in cooking and sewing classes. No longer. This 2012 photo shows 10-year-olds Kamrin and Caitlin in a Kentucky school, preparing for a future quite different from that of their grandmothers.
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Cognition (part 4)
Information-processing perspective
Compares human thinking processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of data, looking at sensory input, connections, stored memories, and output.
Select relevant units of information
Analyze and connect
Express conclusions in understanding ways
Supports the notion that brain connections and pathways are forged from repeated experiences in day-to-day learning
Cognition (part 5)
Children’s cognition in math
Children do not suddenly grasp the logic of number system (Piaget).
Math knowledge accrues gradually (Siegler).
Some early math achievements (i.e., counting) do not correlate with later math achievements (information-processing theory).
Information Processing and the Brain (part 1)
Extensive knowledge base makes it easier to master new, related information.
Factors influencing knowledge base
Experience
Current opportunity
Personal motivation
Control processes
Emotional regulation
Selective attention
What this child sees is dependent on her knowledge base and personal experiences.
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Information Processing and the Brain (part 2)
Control processes (Executive processes)
Involve neurological mechanisms that combine memory, processing speed, and knowledge base
Require brain to organize, prioritize, and direct mental operations
Develop spontaneously with prefrontal cortex maturation but still Influenced by maturation and experience
Control processes allow a person to step back from the specifics to consider more general goals and cognitive strategies
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Information Processing and the Brain (part 3)
Cognitive control
Metacognition
Metamemory
Executive functions
Ability to use executive processes
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Cognition (part 6)
Language
Every aspect of language — vocabulary, comprehension, communication skill, and code-switching — advances each year from age 6 to 11.
Vocabulary
Understanding of prefixes, suffixes, compound words, phrases, and metaphors builds.
Cognition (part 7)
Language context adjustment
Pragmatics
Ability to use words and devices to communicate in various contexts
Allow children to change formal, informal, and linguistic codes to fit audience
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Cognition (part 8)
Bilingual education
Strategy in which school subjects are taught in both the learner’s original language and the second (majority) language
ELLs (English Language Learners)
ESLs (English as a Second Language)
Immersion
Bilingual education: A strategy in which school subjects are taught in both the learner’s original language and the second (majority) language
ELLs (English Language Learners): Children in the U.S. whose proficiency in English is low—usually below a cutoff score on an oral or written test. Many children who speak a non-English language at home are also capable in English; they are not ELLs.
Immersion: A strategy in which instruction in all school subjects occurs in the second (usually the majority) language that a child is learning.
ESL (English as a second language): An approach to teaching English in which all children who do not speak English are placed together in an intensive course to learn basic English so that they can be educated with native English speakers.
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Bilingual Education
More children in the United States are now bilingual and more of them speak English well, from about 40 percent of the bilingual children in 1980 to 82 percent in 2011.
Hurray for Teachers? More children in the U.S. are bilingual and most of them now speak English well, growing from about 40 percent in 1980 to 82 percent in 2011.
In the U.S., almost 1 school-age child in 4 speaks a language other than English at home.
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Cognition (part 9)
Poverty and language
SES affects cognitive development.
Poor and slower language mastery
Smaller vocabularies and impaired grammar than those from higher-SES families
School learning slowdown in every subject
SES affects brain development.
Hippocampus development impact
Less language heard early in life
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Teaching and Learning
Hidden curriculum
Unofficial, unstated, or implicit patterns within a school that influence what children learn; not formally prescribed, but instructive to the children
Physical surroundings
Teacher ethnicity
Teacher expectations
Hidden curriculum—The unofficial, unstated, or implicit rules and priorities that influence the academic curriculum and every other aspect of learning in a school.
Variation is greater in hidden curriculum
Course offerings
Schedules and tracking
Teacher characteristics
Discipline and teaching methods
Sports competition
Extracurricular activities
Student government
Physical setting
Literacy and numeracy: Valued everywhere
Geography, music, and art: Not essential in all places
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Learning in School
International testing
International Achievement Test Scores
Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMSS)
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
See Tables 7-1 and 7-2 for additional information
Although the TIMSS is very useful, different countries' scores are not always comparable because sample selection, test administration, and content validity are hard to keep uniform.
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
Inaugurated in 2001, a planned five-year cycle of international trend studies in the reading ability of fourth-graders
Found gender difference
Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMSS)
International assessment of the math and science skills of fourth- and eighth-graders
Higher achievement related to teacher education, autonomy within classroom, buildings designed to foster collaboration (Finnish study)
Found gender differences
Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Measures the ability to apply learning to everyday issues. East Asian nations always rank high, and scores of more than a dozen nations (some in Europe, most in Asia) surpassed the United States
30
Lifelong Learning
Shown here are PISA scores for 15-year-olds. Finland is among the highest-scoring nations, and the United States is middling (just slightly below the overall average).
Thirty nations are below the United States and 30 nations are higher.
For comparison, this graph also shows the highest-scoring (Singapore) and lowest scoring (Dominican Republic) nations.
Finnish elementary school students do not score much better or worse than their United States peers on the TIMSS or PIRLS, but educators in Finland do not believe that tests
in childhood are the best measure of learning. Instead they prefer to focus on using knowledge later on, as measured by a test further described in Chapter 15 , the PISA.
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Teaching and Learning (part 1)
International schooling has marked national, ethnic, and economic differences.
Creating equally valid questions for everyone is impossible.
Cultures differ in what they value.
Educational practices differ within and across cultures.
Variation is greater in hidden curriculum.
Elaborate and extensive measures are in place to make the PIRLS, TIMSS, and PISA valid. Test items are designed to be fair and culture-free, and participating children represent the diversity (economic, ethnic, etc.) of each nation’s child population. Thousands of experts work to ensure validity and reliability. Consequently, most social scientists respect the data gathered from these tests.
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Teaching and Learning (part 2)
Gender differences in school performances
PIRLS: Girls ahead of boys in reading in every nation.
TIMSS: Gender differences among fourth-grader math have narrowed or disappeared.
Girls have higher report card grades, including math and science.
What accounts for this finding? How do you know?
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Teaching and Learning (part 3)
Schooling in the U.S.
Increases in international tests scores
Largest disparities between incomes and ethnic group test scores
National Standards
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
An ongoing and nationally representative measure of U.S. children’s achievement in reading, mathematics, and other subjects over time; nicknamed “the Nation’s Report Card.”
Disparities between national and state scores; Latino and African and European American 4th grade reading and math scores; high school graduation
What are the causes of these disparities?
Teaching and Learning (part 4)
Issues within U.S. education today
Should public schools be well-supported by public funds?
Should tuition vouchers be given for private schools?
Should more charter schools open or close?
Does home schooling meet children’s needs?
Should public schools be free of religion?
Should the arts be part of the curriculum?
Should children learn a second language in primary school?
Can computers advance education?
Are there too many students in each class?
Should teachers nurture soft skills as part of the curriculum?
Who decides how these questions will be answered?
Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 1)
Developmental psychopathology links usual with unusual development, especially when the unusual results in special needs.
Four general principles
Abnormality is normal.
Disability changes year by year.
Life may get better or worse.
Diagnosis and treatment reflect the social context.
Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 2)
Measuring the mind
Aptitude
Achievement tests
Multiple intelligences
IQ tests
g
IQ of 100 was exactly average, because when mental age was the same as chronological age
Flynn effect
Aptitude: The potential to master a specific skill or to learn a certain body of knowledge
Achievement test: A measure of mastery or proficiency in reading, mathematics, writing, science, or some other subject.
Multiple intelligences: The idea that human intelligence is comprised of a varied set of abilities rather than a single, all-encompassing one
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Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 3)
Multiple intelligences: Gardner
Seven intelligences: linguistic, logical mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential
Eighth (naturalistic) and ninth (spiritual/existential) added later
Each associated with a region of the brain
In education: Gardner
Schools often are too narrow, teaching only some aspects of intelligence and thus stunting children’s learning
Schools, cultures, and families dampen or expand particular
intelligences
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Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 4)
Neuroscientists and psychologists agree on four generalities
Brain development depends on experiences.
Dendrites form and myelination changes throughout life.
Children with disorders often have unusual brain patterns, and training may change those patterns.
Each brain functions in a particular way (neurodiversity).
Scanning the brain
Brain scans are not accurate in diagnosing cognitive disorders in childhood
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Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 5)
Special needs in middle childhood
Two basic principles of developmental psychopathology complicate diagnosis and treatment.
Multifinality
Equifinality
Some suggest that childhood psychopathology was under-diagnosed in early DSM editions and over-diagnosed in DSM-5.
Multifinality: One cause can have many (multiple) final manifestations.
Equifinality: One symptom can have many causes.
Comorbidity: Presence of two or more disease conditions at the same time can occur in the same person.
As a reference, we use DSM-5 (the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013). The DSM-5 is only one set of criteria — the World Health Organization has another (ICD-11), some experts are using a third (RDoC) for research, and psychiatrists are already discussing DSM-6
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Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 6)
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Potential problems in three areas
Inattention, impulsiveness, and activity
No biological marker; some suggestion of relationship with brain regulation: often comorbid
DSM-5 recognizes learning disorders
Dyslexia (reading)
Dyscalculia (math)
Dysgraphia (penmanship)
Increasing incidence concerns
Misdiagnosis
Drug abuse
Normal behavior considered pathological
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Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 7)
Specific learning disorder
Marked deficit in a particular area of learning that is not caused by an apparent physical disability or by an unusually stressful home environment
Dyslexia
Unusual difficulty with reading; thought to be the result of some neurological underdevelopment
Dyscalculia
Unusual difficulty with math, probably originating from a distinct part of the brain
The DSM-5 diagnosis of specific learning disorder now includes disabilities in both perception and processing of information, evident in unexpected low achievement in reading, math, or writing (including spelling). Children with specific learning disorders have difficulty mastering skills that most children acquire easily.
Those large prism glasses keep the letters from jumping around on the page, a boon for this 8-year-old French boy. Unfortunately, each child with dyslexia needs individualized treatment: These glasses help some, but not most, children who find reading difficult
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Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 8)
Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)
Any of several disorders characterized by poor social understanding, impaired language, and unusual patterns of play
Cause and treatment disputed
Equifinality applies
Most diagnosis at age 4 or later
Gender and ethnic differences in rates
Three categories: Mild, moderate, severe
Equifinality certainly applies to ASD: A child can have symptoms for many reasons; no single gene causes the disorder. That makes treatment difficult; an intervention that helps one child is worthless for another.
It is known that biology is crucial (genes, copy number abnormalities, birth complications, prenatal injury, perhaps chemicals during fetal or infant development) and that family nurture does not cause ASD but may modify it.
Social and language engagement of the child early in life seems the most promising treatment.
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Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 9)
Special education
Labels, laws, and learning
1975 Education of All Handicapped Children Act
Inclusion class; general classroom (LRE)
Appropriate aids and services
Other strategies
Response to intervention (RTI)
Individual education plans (IEP)
Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 10)
Nature or Nurture
Communities have always had some children with special needs, with physical, emotional, and neurological disorders of many kinds. In some eras, and even today in
some nations, the education of such children was neglected. Indeed, many children were excluded from normal life. Now in the United States every child is entitled to school. As you see, the specific label for such children has changed over the past decades, because of nurture, not nature. Thus teratogens before and after birth,
coupled with changing parental and community practice, probably caused the rise in autism spectrum disorder and developmental delay, the decrease in intellectual disability, and the fluctuation in learning disorders apparent here.
45
Children with Special Brains and Bodies (part 11)
Gifted and talented
High-IQ, unusually talented, and unusually creative children may require special education.
Needs of unusually gifted children not covered by U.S. federal laws.
Each state selects and implements own system.
Controversy about which system to use
46
,
Middle Childhood: The Social World
chapter eight
Invitation to the Life Span
Kathleen Stassen Berger | Fourth edition
1
The Nature of the Child (part 1)
Drive for independence from parents expands the social world.
Learn to care for themselves
Learn from each other
The Nature of the Child (part 2)
Erikson’s insights
Industry versus inferiority
Fourth of Erikson's eight psychosocial crises
Characterized by tension between productivity and incompetence
Children
Attempt to master culturally valued skills and develop a sense of themselves as either industrious or inferior, competent or incompetent.
Signs of Psychosocial Maturation over the Years of Middle Childhood
Responsibly perform specific chores
Manage a weekly allowance and activities
Complete homework
Attempt to conform to peers
Express preferences for after-school hours
Accept some responsibility for pets, younger children
Strive for independence from parents
See chart on page 283 for additional information.
4
The Nature of the Child (part 3)
Parental reactions
Shift from care provision to engagement in dialogue, discussion, and shared activities.
Various levels of release from parental supervision and provision of more autonomy
Decrease in time with parents; increase in time alone and with parents
5
The Nature of the Child (part 4)
Self-concept
Development of more specific and logical ideas about personal intelligence, personality abilities, gender, and ethnic background
Measurement of self to others in relation to own abilities, social status, and other attributes
Formulation of a more reality-grounded view of self; rise in self-criticism and self-consciousness
The Nature of the Child (part 5)
Children who affirm pride in their gender and ethnicity are likely to develop healthy self- esteem.
Some face social prejudice related to their minority or religious group membership.
Developing a sense of pride is more effective for self- confidence than directly preparing children for prejudice.
The Nature of the Child (part 6)
Culture and self-esteem
Cultures and families differ in which attitudes and accomplishments they value.
Emerging self-perception benefits academic and social competence.
Praise for process—not static qualities—encourages growth.
Notice and value of material possessions increases
Same Situation, Far Apart: Play Ball
8
The Nature of the Child (part 7)
Resilience
Capacity to adapt well to significant adversity and to overcome serious stress
Important components
Resilience is dynamic, not a stable trait.
Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress.
Adversity must be significant.
See Table 8.1 for dominant ideas about resilience from 1965 to present day.
Resilience is dynamic – a person may be resilient at some periods but not at others.
Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress – if rejection by a parent leads a child to establish a closer relationship with another adult, that child is resilient.
Adversity must be significant – Resilient children overcome conditions that overwhelm many of their peers.
Accumulated stresses over time, including minor ones, are more devastating than an isolated major stress.
9
The Nature of the Child (part 8)
Cumulative stress
Stress accumulates over time.
Daily hassles can be more detrimental than isolated major stress.
Social context is imperative.
Child soldiers
Homeless children
Separation after natural disaster
Cognitive Coping
Cognitive coping: Factors contributing to resilience
Child's interpretation of events
Support of family and community
Personal strengths such as creativity and intelligence
Avoidance of parentification
Child's interpretation of a family situation (poverty, divorce, etc.) impacts how that situation affects him or her.
Parentification: When a child acts more like a parent than a child. This may occur if the actual parents do not act as caregivers, making a child feel responsible for the family.
11
Families During Middle Childhood (part 1)
Shared and nonshared environments
Most personality traits and intellectual characteristics traced to genes and nonshared environment
Influence of shared environment shrinks with age.
Effect of nonshared environment increases.
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