Middle Childhood Reflection Essay

I always try to respect race, religion and cultural identity as there is the need for continuity and security, This is one of the reasons why I always address each young person by his/her name.

8th grade was great I wasn’t the youngest, I was in the oldest grade. At this point I had middle school perfectly handled. Going to high school and being a freshman is terrifying you're the smallest you don’t know what a seminar B is and when you go to it. I loved middle school. I love high school; the only reason that I love it is because I have middle school to reflect off of. I have those experiences to help me have more. I use middle school to reflect and learn from everything that I did. I’m doing well in high school so far only because I have I have past experiences so that I can make choices that best benefit me now. Arnold Spirit from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and the Narrator from “The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant” are reflective because they both took action while being unique making it much harder than necessary. At the end of it they learned a valuable lesson and made the best decision for themselves.

Across all aspects and various lenses of development it is evident that children from birth until adolescence require guidance. In contrast, some theorists such a Piaget suggest that children are vastly independent and do not require parental or adult assistance for majority of their development. However, theorists such as Vygotsky believe otherwise. As Vygotsky was discussed during lecture, his developmental theory surrounding the methods of which children learn was a main focus. Namely, the methods of which children learn with adult

SHC 32: Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s setting.

The intelligence of a child is demonstrated by the use of signs, improvement of language, memory and the imagination when articulating in the non-logical and non-reversible way. The child’s sphere of socialization improves when the child is engaged with other people around them; if this does not happen and the child is reserved to itself there is a possibility the child will lack ability to make his/her own decisions in life after (Dodge, 2004).

From this lesson, I would like to know the meaning of social construction of childhood. I am very familiar with the history of psychology and children’s literature. My grandmother used to live with us when I was a young, and she told me many stories of the past. For this reason, I am able to link the materials I study to the real world. The social construction of childhood is somehow new to me. Especially the way Postman (1999) expresses social construction of childhood. For example, he stated, “In the twentieth century, childhood began to unravel, and by the twenty-first, may be lost altogether- unless there is some serious interest in retaining it”. (p. 116). This lesson inspired me to express my point of view of social construction of

171).” This, in other words, is when a child cannot completely perform a task independently but can do it with a bit of assistance from a more competent figure. This zone of proximal development is something I experience with Blair. At two years old she has got to pick out her tooth and hairbrush, but she still needs a bit of help with both operations. Another idea that Vygotsky believed in was the method of scaffolding. This is known as the support for learning and problem solving that encourages independence and growth (Feldman 2012). For example, sometimes Blair has a tough time communicating using her words. I often encourage conversation by asking questions that instigate more of a response from Blair. This helps her grow in her communication and is good practice for her. Cognitive development was viewed by Vygotsky as the product of social interactions. He focused on the social aspects of development and learning instead of concentrating on individual performance.

The development of children can depend on many factors, one of the important ones being socioeconomic status (SES). SES can be defined as a multidimensional construct, including measures of social factors such as power, prestige and hierarchical social status, and economic resources (Hackman and Farah, 2009). Child development can be studied from multiple dimensions such as physical, mental, social, and emotional development among others. For the purposes of this study, I will be focusing on how socioeconomic status affects child cognitive development.

Over the past eight weeks this class has not only fulfilled my major requirements, but also made me understand more about the complexity of child development and how I can become a better person as a future parent and educator. Since I am an Education major, the four topics that would benefit me in the future are Erikson’s stages, Induction, Educational Self Fulfilling Philosophy, and Adolescence. I plan to be successful with my career and use what I have learned in Child Development to prepare future’s leaders of tomorrow.

Social constructionism gives meaning to phenomenon in social context and connections between culture and society build up realities in their circumstances. The studies of this idea have been conducted more than thirty years by a number of North American, British and continental writers (Burr, 1995). However, in childhood studies this notion appears later on. It is mostly held universally, childhood is a stage that biologically existing in human life in early years. It should be considered this childhood is constructed in the society. As a social being, it brings into the mind the relationship between society and child, inevitably. However, the dominant understanding of childhood attributes biological and social

There are many different theories when it comes to how children learn best, but when bits and pieces are taken from each a strong theory can be crafted for each individual child. These theories come from information processing, Jean Piaget, Lev Vgotsky, and Maria Montessori. Information processing looks at children’s scripts and how long-term memory works to help children learn, Piaget uses the concepts of object permanence and egocentrism to explain the ways children view different things, Vygotsky focuses on the zone of proximal development and scaffolding to give children the best environment to lean, and lastly, Montessori uses a trained adult and self-directed play to enhance learning in young children. These concepts combined are great ways to help a child develop cognitively and it is important to understand each one.

To begin with, socioeconomic status is categorized an individual’s or family’s social status regarding income and occupation. I believe children from a low socioeconomic status have a disadvantage in learning language as opposed to a higher socioeconomic status. Language acquisition is the process that humans can perceive, dissect, and understand language. Much research has been conducted on infants and children to support this. According to Spencer, Clegg, and Stackhouse (2012), many young children in that are from areas of social disadvantage learn words at a different pace than their peers that are more advantaged. Many studies have been published to support this. However, one

Middle childhood, is a very exciting time for young children from the ages of seven to twelve years old. It’s known as the school years and new social and cognitive traits are being learned at home and at school. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory found this to be the latentcy period in which no much happens. He described this because children at this age sexual and aggressive urges are repressed ("Stages of Growth Development," 1898-1987). This paper will also discuss the changes from middle childhood to adolescence, the affects of parents and peers and the affects they have on developing children.

When I was a young child I would love to hear my parents tell me that we were going on a trip. I would be full of excitement, because I knew that we would be going to a place that I had never seen before. My parents, my brother, and I would pack our luggage and venture out in our small gray minivan. Three of my most cherished memories in our minivan are when we went to Disney World, the beach, and the mountains.

Children's views of self become more differentiated. As they get older, children discover that they may be good at some things and not so good at others. Children's self- concepts become divided into personal and academic spheres. During middle childhood children begin social comparison. Social comparison is the desire to evaluate one's own behavior, abilities, expertise, and opinions by comparing them to those of others. During middle childhood children deal with the crisis industry versus inferiority stage. The stage is characterized by a focus on efforts to attain competence in meeting the challenges presented by parents, peers, school, and other complexities of the modern world. This is a time of their life where the child develops a self esteem. Self-esteem in an individual's overall and specific positive and negative self-evaluation. Self concept reflects beliefs and cognitions about the self, self-esteem is more emotionally oriented. The self-esteem of most children tends to increase during middle childhood with a brief decline around age of 12. Some evidence shows that members of minority groups have lower self-esteem then those of the majority group. Children build a sense of self efficacy during their elementary years. Self efficacy refers to learned expectations that one is capable of carrying out a behavior or producing a desired outcome in a particular situation.