Chapter 11 Summary

1. Middle childhood is a time of steady growth and few serious illnesses. Increasing independence and self-care allow most school-age children to be relatively happy and competent.
2. Advances in medical care, including effective immunization, have reduced childhood sickness and death.
3. Physical activity aids health and joy in many ways. However, current social and environmental conditions make informal neighborhood play rare and school physical education less prevalent.

4. 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.
5. The incidence of asthma is increasing overall, with notable ethnic differences. The origins of asthma are genetic; the triggers are specific environmental allergens. Preventive measures include longer breast-feeding, increased outdoor play, and less air pollution, particularly from cars.

6. 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.
7. IQ tests quantify intellectual aptitude. Most such tests emphasize language and logic ability and predict school achievement. IQ scores sometimes change over time, partly because of maturation but primarily because of experience.
8. 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.
9. Critics contend that intelligence is manifested in multiple ways, which makes conventional IQ tests too narrow and limited. Multiple intelligences include creative and practical abilities as well as many skills not usually valued in typical North American schools.

10. 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.
11. Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have potential problems in three areas: inattention, impulsiveness, and overactivity. Stimulant medication often helps children with ADHD to learn, but any drug use by children must be carefully monitored.
12. People with a specific learning disability have unusual difficulty in mastering a specific skill or skills that other people learn easily. The most common learning disabilities that impair achievement in middle childhood are dyslexia, unusual difficulty with reading, and dyscalculia, difficulty with math.
13. Children with autism spectrum disorder typically have problems with social interactions and the social use of language. They often exhibit restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. Many causes are hypothesized. Autism is partly genetic; no one now views autism as primarily the result of inadequate parenting. Treatments are diverse: All are controversial and none are certain to help.
14. About 13 percent of all school-age children in the United States receive special education services. These services begin with an IEP (individual education plan) and assignment to the least restrictive environment (LRE), usually the regular classroom.
15. Some children are unusually intelligent, talented, or creative, and states and nations provide special education for them. Specifics of that education vary and are controversial.