Middle Childhood Essay examples

During their lives children and young people all experience some sort of transitions. These could be either common transitions or less common transitions. Common transitions include; being left with an unfamiliar carer, changing schools, starting puberty. Less common transitions include; them, a family member or friend becomes seriously ill, or dies, them or a close friend moves away, their parents split up and get divorce meaning they have to live with only one parent or between the two.

The six principles of the life course paradigm are Historical Time and Place, Situational Imperatives, Linked Lives, Agency, Life Stage, and Accentuation. Historical Time and Place is the life courses structured differently through history and across geopolitical units. Situational Imperatives is social demands of new situations constrain roles-related behavior. Linked Lives is the effects of social change depends on one’s relationships with other people. Agency has to do with people striving to maintain sense of control over their setting and their biography. Life Stage effects of social change depends on the age of the person experiencing it. Accentuation is behavioral patterns before transition are magnified with social change. (Shanaham and Macmillan, 2008, 55)

The life course perspective theory is a micro theory that delves into a subject’s past to interpret present endeavors that may assist in predicting future behavior or misconduct. It could be classified as a road map to an individuals expected behavior and may provide reasoning for that individuals’ life choices, not only in relation to criminal behavior but also on ones ability to sustain relationships.

The life-course perspective focuses on “transitions and trajectories” that give us a unique way to understand change since an individuals’ life trajectories are linked with others and their trajectories. This perspective recognizes changes in individuals, families, and social organizations over a period of time. Individuals and their family members are living with stressors that reflect their current time period, thus making family stress able to change over one’s life course.

In a narrative format I will provide a comprehensive summary of the concepts and presuppositional assumptions of the life course perspective including an overview of its main principles, strengths and weaknesses. I will give definition and all points need to be made of the life life course perspective.

Transitions are changes that take part of our lives and are out of our control. Transitions are essential part of every person’s life but can be harder to adjust in early years. Although in early years’ transitions are supported by family, friends and practitioners/carers. Children’s early experiences of transitions can have a big effect on how they handle transitions in adult life.

The life course approach started in the 1960’s prior to this the life cycle approach was used which as Bengston et al (Reference) stated did not really consider the psychological or sociological aspects. The life cycle approach focused on life events that an individual was likely to go through such as marriage and child bearing, whilst the life cycle approach can offer some beneft to showing intergenerational patterns and it is useful to show the cycle of

“A middle school is a school organization containing grades six to eight that, first provides developmentally appropriate and responsive curricular, instructional, organizational, guidance, and overall educational experiences; and second, places major emphasis on 10-15 year olds’ developmental and instructional needs” (Teaching in the Middle School, 6). The researcher has a great point for the fact that a middle school should be focus on the needs of diverse young adolescents. All young adolescents are in a special time in their lives that require extra guidance during this crazy change. Middle school students test out the boundaries and want to learn about new activities and interests during this stage. It takes a special person who wants to teach these diverse students who need the extra support from their teachers to show them what’s out there for them and to introduce them to new things.

There is a general process known as a life course that individuals follow which encourages the progression and successfulness of the life events within the course of one’s life. This essay will discuss the stages of a life course from a westernised perspective, drawing on a number of academic and sociologically based texts in an aim to outline the generational influences of the structural organisation of life events.

The middle childhood is to leave the play years to start maturing years to start adolescence (Berk, 2010). During the middle childhood, children began to have a lot physical changes. As well as, they begin to discover there identify that they are. For example, secondary sexual organs begin to develop in the boys and girls, they will confuse about identify. The puberty is the cycle when children are out of control because they will transition to leave the children to enter adolescence. For instance, physical and behavioral changes will have some consequences if pre-adolescences do not deal well with them. Middle childhood is divided into two categories 6 to 8 and 9 to 12 years that reflects on children’s behavior (Nuru-Jeter et al., 2010). For instance, children learn to interact with other children, and how they will manage emotions and behaviors. Also, how they have to act with adults and children that totally different it. Also, the girl and boy have different physical and behavior changes for the gender difference. Middle childhood development makes for some factors that influence on physical changes, brain and nervous system, and social and emotional changes.

Popularized in the 1960s, the term lifecourse is adapted from modern sociology and refers to “the study of biography, of history and of the problems of their intersection within social structure” (Mills, 1959, p. 149). The aim of studying the lifecourse is to gain an understanding of how development and ageing within different historical and geographical contexts affects a person’s life (Elder, et al., 2006), focusing on the cultural aspects of an individual’s maturation. This term is different from lifecycle, which emphasises the biological development of an individual, not the social aspects that parallel their physical maturation and are culturally specific. Early examples of the lifecourse approach centred on intergenerational relationships within the family cycle with children maturing, marrying and becoming parents, thus starting the cycle again (Glick, 1947; Hill, 1970).

The article is an example of Life-Course Sociological Research. Welsh and Farrington (2012) described a life-course (or developmental) theoretical framework as referring to theories that attempt to explain behaviour and changes in behaviour throughout life. More

“Play is developmentally appropriate for primary-age children and can provide them with opportunities that enrich the learning experience” (Copple & Bredekamp 2009). Early childhood education holds two main focuses; a child-based focus and a family-based focus. Early childhood education has positive outcomes on the child through their learning experiences, and their growth and development. Based on the family, the results of early education happen through the communication that the family has with the educators and by the encouragement they get from within themselves, and also from the educators.

By the time kindergarden started, I was reading and writing all by myself. My mother said that I was so developmentally advanced that I treated kindergarden like social time. I had many friends and continued to include everyone. At this time I was especially close with my neighbor Layne and my other friend Meagan. I was with my neighbor almost every second of every day. We even went to the same in-home day care. My teachers took note of this and always paired us up with shy people so we could break them out of their shell. One of those shy people was my other friend Meagan. My parents were very impressed with all of the respect and kindness I showed at such a young age.

They form relationships with their peers, develop spoken vocabulary, and began to decipher between genders and their roles. Middle childhood is the development of personality, motivation, and inter-personal relationships. Growth at this stage is usually slowed until puberty is reached. Children at this age tend to learn by hands-on learning activities.