Middle childhood is a time of steady growth and few serious illnesses. Increasing independence and self-
Advances in medical care have reduced childhood sickness and death. During these years, health habits, including daily oral care, protect children from later health problems.
Physical activity aids health and joy in many ways. However, current social and environmental conditions make informal neighborhood play rare. School physical education is less prevalent than it was formerly. Children who most need physical activity may be least likely to have it.
Childhood obesity is a worldwide epidemic. Although genes are part of the problem, too little exercise and the greater availability of unhealthy foods are the main reasons today’s youth are heavier than their counterparts of 50 years ago. Parents and policies share the blame.
The incidence of asthma is increasing overall, with notable ethnic differences. The origins of asthma are genetic; the main triggers are specific environmental allergens, although research on asthma finds marked variation in causes, triggers, and consequences. Preventive measures include longer breast-
Brain development continues during middle childhood, enhancing every aspect of development. Notable are advances in reaction time and automatization, allowing faster and better coordination of many parts of the brain and body. Experience enhances coordination of brain impulses.
IQ tests quantify intellectual aptitude, which increases in middle childhood. Most such tests emphasize language and logic ability and predict school achievement. IQ scores may change over time, as culture and experience enhance particular abilities.
Achievement tests measure accomplishment, often in specific academic areas. Aptitude and achievement are correlated, both for individuals and for nations, and have risen in the past decades.
Critics of IQ testing contend that intelligence is manifested in multiple ways, which makes conventional IQ tests that assume g, too narrow and limited. Multiple intelligences include creative and practical abilities as well as many skills not usually valued in typical North American schools.
Developmental psychopathology uses an understanding of normal development to inform the study of unusual development. Four general lessons have emerged: Abnormality is normal; disability changes over time; a condition may get better or worse in adolescence and adulthood; diagnosis depends on context.
Children with attention-
People with a specific learning disorder have unusual difficulty in mastering a specific skill or skills that other people learn easily. The most common learning disorders that impair achievement in middle childhood are dyslexia (unusual difficulty with reading), dyscalculia (unusual difficulty with math), and dysgraphia (unusual difficulty with writing and spelling).
Children with autism spectrum disorder typically have problems with social interactions and language. They often exhibit restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. Many causes are hypothesized. ASD is partly genetic; no one now views ASD as primarily the result of inadequate parenting. Treatments are diverse and controversial.
About 13 percent of all school-
A strategy to reduce the number of children with special needs is to notice when children are having difficulty and then providing special help. This strategy, called response to intervention, allows most children to learn.
Some children are unusually intelligent, talented, or creative. Many states and nations provide special education for them. The traditional strategy—
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