My First Observation Of The Middle Childhood

There are various discourses of childhood that help us understand how childhood is viewed and how children themselves are seen. It is important to also look outside the system world and look towards the life worlds as it gives a more realistic view of various childhoods and shows how diverse the concept of childhood is because children do not share the same experiences. Regardless if you are looking at the system or life world the notions of rights, opportunities and capabilities are often discussed. These notions aids us in understanding childhood, however they can often obstruct us as well.

Childhood itself is a slightly ambiguous term, and is not a fixed definite period of life. The book “AS level sociology” written by Rob webb, Hal Westergaard, Kieth Trobe and Liz Steel defines childhood as “ a socially defined age status” going on to say that there are major differences in how childhood is defined, both historically, and culturally, similarly, Stephen Wagg says of childhood;

All children and young people develop at different rates, but the order which they advance in differs very little. Children’s development tends to progress from head to toe, inner to outer, from simple to complex and from general to specific.

For my middle childhood observation I chose a 10 year old female by the name of Mycah Landry. Just to give you a bit of a background, Mycah attends a magnet school and makes straight A’s. She is a very smart young girl. We will start off by comparing Mycah’s physical development to that of Berger’s in the text. As documented in the text “Unlike infants or adolescents, school-age children’s growth is slow and steady. Self-care is easy –from brushing their new adult teeth to dressing themselves, from making their own lunch to walking to school. In these middle years, children depend less on their families and do not yet need to cope with the body changes and impulses of adolescence. Muscles become steadily stronger.” From my observation I

Lareau, in Unequal Childhoods, focuses on socioeconomic status and how that affects outcomes in the education system and the workplace. While examining middle-class, working-class and poor families, Lareau witnessed differing logics of parenting, which could greatly determine a child’s future success. Working-class and poor families allow their children an accomplishment of natural growth, whereas middle-class parents prepare their children through concerted cultivation. The latter provides children with a sense of entitlement, as parents encourage them to negotiate and challenge those in authority. Parents almost overwhelm their children with organized activities, as we witnessed in the life of Garrett Tallinger. Due to his parents and their economic and cultural capital, Garrett was not only able to learn in an educational setting, but through differing activities, equipping him with several skills to be successful in the world. Lareau suggests these extra skills allow children to “think of themselves as special and as entitled to receive certain kinds of services from adults” (39). Adults in the school system are in favor of these skills through concerted cultivation, and Bourdieu seems to suggest that schools can often misrecognize these skills as natural talent/abilities when it’s merely cultivated through capital. This then leads to inequalities in the education system and academic attainments.

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.

After my observation I came to the conclusion that the subject meets the milestones and stages for the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. Judging from the drawing that the girl made we can assume that the girl is gifted. According to my naturalistic observation there is nothing unusual in the development of the girl. According to her age she is absolutely adequate.

As a Learning Assistant, working in Year 3, I worked closely with a seven year old girl who, for the purpose of this case study, I will call Jane. Jane was a confident and happy girl who, despite not being particularly academically gifted, always participated with class discussions and activities enthusiastically.

I am a middle child. I am not the assertive, naturally confident first-born, nor am I an attention-seeking youngest child; I am the quiet, quintessential middle child. For the first 16 years of my life, I was always an afterthought to the craziness of my two sisters, and I loved it‒ it made me independent and self-reliant. I have always been very comfortable being the easy-going child, happily accepting anything that comes my way. Never have I felt that my parents loved me any less; they merely had to worry less about me than they did my siblings, with their stubbornness and constant desire for affirmation. I easily slid under the radar, preferring to mind my own business and handle problems on my own. There was never anything wrong with my

Riley is growing into a healthy young lady. She happens to be right in the perfect rate of growing like child her age should be. This young lady is at twenty pounds and at a length of twenty three inches. Her weight is in the ninety third percentile and her length is in the seventy second percentile. Riley is producing the right reflexes at the proper age. By the age of four to six months most of the reflexes infants have are gone (Santrock, 2014).

| |2. Vygotsky’s theory believed that economic and cultural forces were very influential in child development. |

Alexander, Enrique, and Alexis are the names of the children I observed. They have different gross motor skills and fine motor skills. However, their differences are in the sophistication of each ability. Alexander, who is 7 years old is very active. He was jumping and trying to count by jumping on the tile floors to see how many there were across the living room. He is developing typically to his age. What has influenced this level of physical development is the amount of myelin in the brain increases and raises the speed at which electrical impulses travel between neuron. Which, makes massages reach muscles more rapidly and control them better. Enrique, in the other hand, his physical development is more sophisticated than Alexander’s.

Nurses working with children must not only understand the pathophysiology of illness but also integrate knowledge of growth and development among children, where growth represents to the quantitative changes in the body (height, weight etc.) and development define the increase in their capability or function. Anne is become under the age group of school age, as per the major theories of development, which is considered by growing physical ability, intellectual skills, and independence. In regards, the physical growth and development milestones during the school-age children begin to play sports, and fine motor skills are well developed over the school activities. Children gain 3-5 IB per year and grow 4-6 cm per year, and able to concentrate

For this ten minute observation I observed a girl with brown hair, she had bangs across her forehead and her hair length went along her ears, hardly touched her neck. She was wearing a pink stripped shirt that had stripes on the top 3/4 of the shirt and the rest was pink and white flowers and she was wearing jeans that had purple, pink, and white butterflies on the back pockets, and her shoes were blue and pink with a Velcro strap. She was in the other room today where there is a stage in the far right corner and to the left of that there is a reading area. Behind that there is some tables where the children can play and interact.

Observing Maison inside his home, I primarily see a healthy young boy. He is a small boy for his age at 2 feet 4 inches and 29 pounds but that does not stop him. He runs around the house and has nonstop energy like other kids his age. He has also developed gross motor skills like walking up stairs and throwing a ball. His fine motor skills are also developing.