Middle Childhood and Adolescence

In the book, Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence, the author, Lawrence Steinberg, starts out the first chapter by explaining how we once thought that the brain was mostly done maturing by adolescence, but with new research we are learning that the brain continues to develop into one’s twenties. He goes on to say that children are hitting puberty earlier in life and placing them “at significantly greater risk for a host of physical, mental, and behavioral problems, including depression, delinquency, and even cancer” (9). The reason why children are going through puberty is based on a mix on environmental and genetic influences. The more nourished and fed you are the higher chance of you going through puberty earlier. Although this was the case in 1850-1950, the continuing decline of age in puberty today, is due to more troubling reasons. The five mains reasons for today is: 1. Obesity 2. Artificial light 3. Endocrine disruptors 4. Premature birth 5. Family stress. Steinberg explains how adolescent is a time of neuroplasticity and the longer period of adolescence can have good consequences or severely negative consequences, depending on if they’re in a stimulating environment or a toxic environment.

Adolescence is popularly known to be a very tumultuous stage in a person’s life. In the adolescent stage (also coined the identity vs. role confusion stage by theorist Erik Erikson) bodies are changing rapidly, emotions are unfamiliar and unexplainable, and refraining from succumbing to peer pressure is more challenging than ever.

The groups that are formed as adolescents often determine group associations as adults and define an individual within their social group that will either set them with or against other groups. This is described in an article on social groupings by Colin Allen, which mentions that our social associations as adolescents are strong indicators to future patterns of social norms as adults. Therefore, the group of students in the movie, The Breakfast Club, can also be extrapolated to adult group dynamics. However, the varying social norms between groups can present conflicts when adults are required to function within a very diverse group of individuals. In The Breakfast Club, the Jock, Geek, Prom Queen, Delinquent, and the Freak groups are brought together initially through an autocratic or directive leadership role, used to bring the group together in order to proceed to the next phase of group development. This stage is particularly important within a group of

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.

Middle school is a period of transition for adolescents. Students are no longer the children were once were in elementary school; they are beginning to mature into the adults they will need to become. Gifted learners at the middle-school level face the same developmental and tasks tasks and challenges that their peers do. Yet, gifted learners also possess traits that are different from their peers, which often make them misunderstood or ignored. The need for teachers to identify these students and differentiate instruction in a way that addresses the needs of the gifted students in the classroom is becoming more crucial than ever.

Imaginary audience and personal fable are both part of the adolescents egocentrism. Adolescent egocentrism as proposed by Elkind is a heightened self-consciousness that is reflected in their belief that others are as interested in them as they are themselves and in their sense of unique individuality.

Middle school was the point in every middle scholar’s life to find a group where they fit in. These groups were called cliques, a group centered around gossiping about others and even gossiping about one another in the group. In middle school this group became your community. The group you do everything with and told everything to. This group is almost like your other family. Sadly, this community, the people you surround yourself with can lead to negative thinking about others. Your community can easily persuade your actions and thoughts because the people you surround yourself with have such a big influence on your life.

In this paper I plan to discuss the developmental stages of adolescence. Adolescents are also referred to as "teenagers" or "young adults." Adolescence begins after the childhood stage and ends right before adulthood. The years of adolescence range from 12 years old to 21 years old. The years of adolescence can be quite a roller coaster ride. Young people in this stage encounter a great deal of changes in their life as they prepare for adulthood. I will discuss emotional, intellectual, physiological, and social domains of development and how it relates to adolescents. I will also discuss some helpful tips for teachers to aide in communicating effectively to adolescents and understanding their

This group of teenagers were clearly obsessed with themselves and constantly worried about other’s views towards them. The group consisted of four boys and four girls who were obviously interested in each other romantically and sexually. The girls were frequently staring up at me because they immediately noticed that I was looking at them and taking notes. The girls would look up at me and then fix their hair and turn to one of the other girl’s and make a comment. This is an example of egocentrism because the girls thought very highly of themselves and what others think of them. This can be very common amongst teenagers who are anxious, deal with depression or are put into new situation (Berger, 2014, p.430). Watching the group of eight teenagers interact with each other, it was clear that they were trying to figure out who they are in life and what they like in a person. Erikson’s term for the 5th stage of development describes the feeling of not understanding who they are as a teenager. Erikson called this stage the identity versus role confusion stage in which teenagers ask themselves who they are as a person and what they mean in life (Berger, 2014, p. 459). The best part about observing this group of teenagers was when one of the girls spotted me observing them and she decided to comment towards me. I was looking at the group of girls and commented to a friend

What variables influence the adolescent developmental process? Does biology outweigh the effect of environment? Do teenagers mature in a continuous or discontinuous fashion? What effect do early verse later experience influence the young people’s maturity into adulthood? Through the ages, researches have investigated these questions to better understand the growth adolescent experience between the ages of ten to twenty-one. The intermingling of the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional process constitutes the development of an adolescent. By examining the effects of nature verse nurture, continuous verse discontinuous development, and early verse later experiences, we will conclude that the developmental process in an adolescent is the intertwining of all these variables and not a result of one over the other.

There are five characteristics that all adolescents have. These characteristics are biological growth and development, an undefined status, increased decision-making, increased pressures, and the search for self. The brain and the endocrine system control biological growth and development. During the early stages of adolescence, individuals experience growth in height and weight, changes in the body, the development of sexual characteristics, and skin problems. For example, I started getting curves in my body when I hit puberty. My body started to develop changes. Our society’s expectations for children and adults are clear, but for the adolescent, expectations are inexplicit. Some adolescents are treated like children, but some are treated like adults. There is an undefined status. For example, my parents pay for my lunch, but I have to have a job so I can support myself.

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.

Adolescence is the distinct transitional stage between childhood and adulthood in human development, extending primarily over the teenage years and terminating legally when the age of majority is reached (Rathus, 2014). However in some instances, this biological, cognitive, social and emotional maturity may not be reached until a later stage and may be dictated by gender. Adolescence is characterised by rapidly changing and unpredictable behaviour (Freud, as cited in Rathus 2014), heightened and unstable emotions (Hall, as cited in Rathus 2014), disturbances in identity, the gradual development of one’s moral reasoning (Kohlberg, as cited in Rathus, 2014) and the gradual establishment of one’s independence. Several of these changes may occur at differing phases in adolescent growth. This development is categorized into three separate stages; early adolescence, middle adolescence, and late adolescence. Early Adolescence, commencing from the ages of eleven or twelve until the age of fourteen, comprises of several features such as rapid biological development and maturity, heightened stress levels and limited coping capabilities. On the other hand, middle adolescence, from the approximate age of fourteen to sixteen, involves the gradual cease of biological change, an increase in coping strategies and declined stress levels. Furthermore, late adolescence, commencing from the age of sixteen until the age of eighteen or nineteen, encompasses physical maturity, whereby the

During adolescence is also when Piaget says the idea of egocentrism remerges. This is related to body image problems, imaginary audience and personal fable. A personal fable is when an adolescent believes that their problems are unique and imaginary audience is when adolescents believe everyone is talking about them (McGraw-Hill Education, 2015) . When looking at my life knowing about these ideas I realized just how much I experienced imaginary audience and personal fable. I remember going through an emo phase, which is a phase defined by rebellion and a certain “Goth”, aesthetic in which I thought that “no one understood me”, which I am

In this essay, I will discuss my experience during middle and late childhood. I will address three stages which are the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development. The physical development consists of body and brain growth, health issues, and motor skills. The cognitive development consists of language, memory, and attention. Socioemotional development is based on relationship, employment, and personality.