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Printed Page 247 7.1.4 Health Problems Although few children are seriously ill during middle childhood, many have at least one chronic condition that might interfere with school, play, or friendship. Individual, family, and contextual influences interact with one another in the causes and treatments of every illness. To illustrate the dynamic interactions of every health condition, we focus on two examples: obesity and asthma. UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS How could 18 percent of the children be in the top 5 percent? Answer Mathematically, of course, only the top 5 percent of any group are above the 95th percentile (that's what percentile means). But the children's weight and height percentiles were set by the BMIs of U.S. children from 1975 to 1980. Today, for 6- to 11-year-olds, 20 percent of the boys and 16 percent of the girls are as heavy as only 5 percent were then (see BMI table in Appendix A). CHILDHOOD OBESITY Body mass index (BMI), as mentioned in Chapter 5, is the ratio of weight to height. Childhood overweight is usually defined as a BMI above the 85th percentile, and childhood obesity is defined as a BMI above the 95th percentile of children that age (Barlow et al., 2007). In 2010, 18 percent of 6- to 9-year-olds were obese (Ogden et al., 2012). Childhood obesity is increasing worldwide, having more than doubled since 1980 in all three nations of North America (Mexico, the United States, and Canada) (Ogden et al., 2011). U.S. data from the twenty-first century find obesity rates are no longer rising in children, but the current plateau is far too high. About one-third (32.6 percent) of 6- to 11-year-old children are overweight, more than half of whom are obese (Ogden et al., 2012) (see Figure 7.2). OBSERVATION QUIZ Generally, rates of obesity increase every year from ages 2 to 19, but boys and girls in one group here seem less likely to be overweight in adolescence than in middle childhood. Which group, and why? (see answer, page 250) FIGURE 7.2 Fatter and Fatter As you see, obesity (defined here as the 95th percentile or above, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000 growth charts) increases as children grow older. Not shown is the rate in infancy, which is significantly lower for every group. The "All Groups" rate includes children of groups not shown separately, such as biracial, Asian, Hawaiian, Alaskan native, and American Indian. Source: Ogden et al., 2012. The World Health Organization uses another set of statistics, with lower cutoffs between healthy and excess weight, and thus some international statistics report even more childhood obesity (Shields & Tremblay, 2010). No matter what standards are used, however, childhood obesity is far too high. Childhood overweight correlates with asthma, high blood pressure, and elevated cholesterol (especially LDL, the "lousy" cholesterol). As excessive weight builds, school achievement often decreases, self-esteem falls, and loneliness rises (Harrist et al., 2012). If obese children stay heavy, they become adults who are less likely to marry, attend college, or find work that reflects their ability (Han et al., 2011; Sobal & Hanson, 2012). There are "hundreds if not thousands of contributing factors" for childhood obesity, from the cells of the body to the norms of the society (Harrison et al., 2011, p. 51). More than 200 genes affect weight by influencing activity level, food preferences, body type, and metabolism (Gluckman & Hanson, 2006). Having two copies of an allele called FTO (inherited by 16 percent of all European Americans) increases the likelihood of both obesity and diabetes (Frayling et al., 2007). ESPECIALLY FOR Teachers A child in your class is overweight, but you are hesitant to say anything to the parents, who are also overweight, because you do not want to insult them. What should you do? (see response, page 252) But do not blame genes for today's increased obesity, since genes change little from one generation to the next (Harrison et al., 2011). Family practices, however, have changed. Obesity is more common in infants who are not breast-fed; in preschoolers who watch TV and drink soda; and in school-age children who are driven to school, sleep too little, and rarely play outside (Hart et al., 2011; Institute of Medicine, 2006; Rhee, 2008). During middle childhood, children themselves contribute to their weight gain. They have pester power— the ability to get adults to do what they want (Powell et al., 2011). Usually, they pester their parents to provide calorie-dense foods, but children who learn about health from their teacher or nurse can pester in the opposite direction—to play outside, to join a sports team, and so on. All these family contexts changed for the worse toward the end of the twentieth century. For instance, pester power increases as family size decreases. No wonder childhood obesity has increased dramatically, worldwide (see Infographic 7, page 249). Same Situation, Far Apart: Not Chips or Cookies Children have high energy but small stomachs, so they enjoy frequent snacks more than big meals. Yet snacks are typically poor sources of nutrition. Who is healthier, the Bangladeshi American children eating cotton candy at a state fair in Texas or the Japanese children eating takoyaki (an octopus dumpling) as part of a traditional celebration near Tokyo? BOB DAEMMRICH/PHOTOEDIT BLOOM IMAGE/GETTY IMAGES VISUALIZING DEVELOPMENT Childhood Obesity Around the Globe Obesity now causes more deaths worldwide than malnutrition. There are more than 42 million overweight children around the world. Obesity is caused by factors in every system—biological, familial, social, and cultural. One specific example is advertisements for unhealthy foods, often marketed directly to children (see below). SOURCES & CREDITS LISTED ON P. SC-1 RESPONSE FOR Physical Education Teachers (from page 246) Discuss with the parents their reasons for wanting the team. Children need physical activity, but some aspects of competitive sports are better suited to adolescents and adults than to children. Finally, social practices and policies have an impact (Branca et al., 2007), sometimes positive, sometimes not. Communities and nations determine: the quality of school lunches; the location of vending machines and fast food restaurants; the prevalence of parks, bike paths, and sidewalks; the subsidies for corn oil and sugar. One particular culprit is advertising for candy, cereal, and fast food (Linn & Novosat, 2008). Such advertising is illegal or limited on children's television in some nations—and the rate of childhood obesity correlates with how often children see food commercials (Lobstein & Dibb, 2005). ANSWER TO OBSERVATION QUIZ (from page 248) Non-Hispanic Blacks. The reasons are not known, but one possibility is that African American teenagers become more aware of the larger society and more able to make their own food choices. Note, however, that children and adolescents of every group carry more excess weight than is healthy. Since every system (bio-, micro-, macro-, and exo-) is relevant, it is not surprising that parents blame genes or outsiders, while medical professionals and political leaders blame parents. The media contend that advertisements are only suggestions and parents or children are to blame if they follow harmful suggestions. Rather than trying to zero in on any single factor, a dynamic-systems approach is needed: Many factors, over time, make a child overweight (Harrison et al., 2011). Changing each one makes a difference, although no single change is sufficient. The answer to the first "What Will You Know?" question at the beginning of this chapter is that everyone is at least a tiny bit at fault. ASTHMA Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways that makes breathing difficult. Although asthma affects people of every age, rates are highest among school-age children and have been increasing worldwide for decades (Cruz et al., 2010). In the United States, child asthma rates have tripled since 1980. Parents report that 10 percent of U.S. 5- to 9-year-olds currently have asthma; 6 percent have had an attack within the past year (National Center for Health Statistics, 2011) (see Figure 7.3). FIGURE 7.3 Not Breathing Easy Of all U.S. children younger than 18, 14 percent have been diagnosed at least once with asthma. Why are Puerto Rican and African American children more likely to have asthma? Is that nature or nurture, genetics or pollution? Source: Bloom et al., 2009; National Center for Health Statistics, 2011. Curiously, although U.S. children classified as Hispanic have high rates of asthma, those born in Mexico have half the rate of asthma as those of Mexican heritage who are born in the United States; yet for those of Puerto Rican heritage, asthma is more likely if they were born in Puerto Rico than in New York (Lara et al., 2006). Obviously, ethnicity and birthplace are both influential; experts do not agree as to why. Many researchers seek the causes of asthma. A few alleles have been identified as contributing factors, but none acts in isolation (Akinbami et al., 2010; Bossé & Hudson, 2007). Several aspects of modern life—carpets, pollution, house pets, airtight windows, parental smoking, cockroaches, less outdoor play—contribute to the increased rates of asthma (Tamay et al., 2007), but again no single factor is the cause. Some experts suggest a hygiene hypothesis, proposing that "the immune system needs to tangle with microbes when we are young" (Leslie, 2012, p. 1428). Children may be overprotected from viruses and bacteria. Because parents are worried about hygiene, young children are not exposed to minor infections and diseases that would strengthen their immunity. This hypothesis is supported by data showing that (1) first-born children develop asthma more often than later-born ones; (2) farm children have less asthma and other allergies; (3) children born by cesarean delivery (very sterile) have more asthma. However, none of those prove the hygiene hypothesis. Perhaps farm children are protected by drinking unpasteurized milk, by outdoor chores, or by genes that are more common in farm families, rather than by being more often exposed to a range of bacteria (von Mutius & Vercelli, 2010). Pride and Prejudice In some city schools, asthma is so common that using an inhaler is a sign of prestige, as suggested by the facial expressions of these two boys. The "prejudice" is more apparent beyond the walls of this school nurse's room, in a society that allows high rates of childhood asthma to occur. KATHY MCLAUGHLIN/THE IMAGE WORKS The incidence of asthma increases as nations get richer, as seen dramatically in Brazil and China. Better hygiene for wealthier children is one explanation, but so is increasing urbanization, which correlates with more cars, more pollution, more allergens, and better medical diagnoses (Cruz et al., 2010). One review of the hygiene hypothesis notes that "the picture can be dishearteningly complex" (Couzin-Frankel, 2010, p. 1168). PREVENTION OF HEALTH PROBLEMS The three levels of prevention (discussed in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6) apply to every health problem, including the two just reviewed, obesity and asthma. Primary prevention requires changes in the entire society. Better ventilation of schools and homes, less pollution, fewer cockroaches, fewer anti biotics, and more outdoor play would benefit everyone. Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative is an example of primary prevention if it makes everyone more likely to be active. Secondary prevention decreases illness among high-risk children. If asthma or obesity runs in the family, then breast-feeding for a year, regular and sufficient sleep, and lowfat diets would prevent some illness. Annual check-ups by the same pediatrician—who tests vision, hearing, weight, posture, blood pressure and more—can spot potential problems while secondary prevention is still possible. Finally, tertiary prevention treats problems after they appear. For child overweight, that means more exercise and less junk food (not a strict diet). For asthma, prompt use of injections and inhalers prevents hospitalization. Hypoallergenic materials (e.g., for mattress covers) also reduce asthma attacks—but not by much, probably because such measures begin too late (MMWR, January 14, 2005). But even if tertiary prevention does not halt a condition, it can reduce the burden, as the following illustrates. Asthma in Two 8-Year-Old Girls A team of social scientists analyzed statistics to produce The Measure of America, which compares development in the United States and elsewhere (Burd-Sharps et al., 2008; Lewis & Burd-Sharps, 2010). Their statistical analysis considered data from hundreds of thousands of people. They also presented case studies to illustrate the impact of SES, like this one of Sophie and Alexa, both 8-year-old girls with asthma. Sophie is a vibrant eight-year-old who was diagnosed with severe asthma when she was two. She lives in a house in a New York City suburb with a park down the street and fresh air outside—an environment with few asthma triggers. Her family has private health insurance, a benefit of her father's job, with extensive provisions for preventative care and patient education. Her parents' jobs have personal and sick days that give them time off from work to take her to the doctor. After some early difficulty finding a suitable medication regime, she has settled into a routine of daily-inhaled medication (at a cost of $500 per month, fully covered by insurance), annual flu shots, and a special medication she takes only when she is sick with a cold. Sophie sees her pediatrician regularly and a top-flight asthma specialist yearly, to monitor her progress; has a nebulizer for quick relief in case of a serious attack; and can rely on nebulizers in her school and after-school program as well. Sophie has never had to go to the emergency room for an attack, almost always participates in gym, and misses about two or three days of school a year due to asthma-related problems. Alexa is also eight years old and was first diagnosed with severe asthma at age three. She lives with her mother in a Brooklyn apartment three blocks from a waste transfer station that receives, sorts, and dispatches thirteen thousand tons of garbage each weekday. In addition to the acrid smell of garbage, the cockroaches that frequent her apartment also trigger Alexa's asthma attacks through allergens in their droppings. Her mother works at a minimum-wage job; she loses income when she takes Alexa to the doctor, fills emergency prescriptions, or stays home with Alexa when she is sick. Alexa's mother could qualify for SCHIP, which would provide health insurance for Alexa, but she has never heard of it. Instead, Alexa is officially listed as living with her grandmother, whose Medicaid coverage extends to Alexa. Alexa sees a doctor annually, though her grandmother fears Alexa is not benefitting from the latest advances in asthma care. Alexa misses twelve to fifteen days of school each year, does not participate in gym, and spends up to eight fearful nights each year in a hospital emergency room. When she misses consecutive days of school, she struggles with schoolwork. She wishes she could run around like her classmates. [Burd-Sharps et al., 2008, p. 67] These cases highlight economic disparities in prevention. However, as with obesity, severe asthma in childhood can be blamed on genes, parents, schools, doctors, and neighborhoods, as well as on public policies regarding poverty and health care. Who is to blame is a political dispute, and people disagree about the target for prevention—primary, secondary, and tertiary. But no one wants Alexa to spend "eight fearful nights" in the hospital each year. The scientists studying asthma have found a multitude of causes. They have documented increases in every nation, which is disheartening. But, recently, researchers are restoring hope, because they have found that some efforts make a difference. We conclude this A View from Science with one encouraging study. One hundred caregivers for children with asthma agreed to allow a Spanish-speaking counselor to come repeatedly to their homes to help their children (Borrelli et al., 2010). These adults were addicted to smoking: They did not necessarily want to quit. The counselor placed a smoke monitor in the child's bedroom. A week later, she showed the caregiver how much smoke exposure the child had experienced. Then, in three sessions, she provided specific counseling on quitting, based on the best research on addiction, with particular sensitivity to Latino values. Three months later, one-fourth of the caregivers had quit smoking. Many of the rest had cut down. The average child's exposure to smoke was reduced by half, and asthma attacks were less frequent (Borrelli et al., 2010). Note that precise knowledge and personal encouragement were provided here—which not all parents have. Other research confirms that most adults, including those who are neither parents nor Latino, want to protect children but lack specific knowledge. As proven with hearing and vision impairments, with measles and malnutrition, many professionals can help reduce childhood illness, if research shows them how to do it. RESPONSE FOR Teachers (from page 248) Speak to the parents, not accusingly (because you know that genes and culture have a major influence on body weight), but helpfully. Alert them to the potential social and health problems their child's weight poses. Most parents are very concerned about their child's well-being and will work with you to improve the child's snacks and exercise level. Most 6- to 11-year-olds are healthy and capable of self-care, with less disease than at any other time of life. Active play is crucial at this age, for learning as well as for health. Unfortunately, obesity and asthma are increasingly common among school-age children. Health problems among children are partly genetic, partly familial, and partly the result of laws and values in the society. Health Problems

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Printed Page 253 7.2.1 Piaget and Middle Childhood Piaget called the cognition of middle childhood concrete operational thought, characterized by concepts that enable children to use logic. Operational comes from the Latin word operare, "to work; to produce." By calling this period operational, Piaget emphasized productive thinking. The 6- to 11-year-old school-age child, no longer limited by egocentrism and static reasoning, performs logical operations. However, thinking at this stage is concrete—that is, logic is applied to visible, tangible, real things, not to abstractions, which are understood at the next stage, formal operations. A HIERARCHY OF CATEGORIES One concrete example is classification, the organization of things into groups (or categories or classes), according to some characteristic that they share. For example, family is a category that includes parents, siblings, and cousins. Other common classes are people, animals, toys, and food. Each class includes some elements and excludes others, and each is part of a hierarchy. Piaget devised many experiments to reveal children's understanding of classification. For example, an examiner shows a child a bunch of nine flowers—seven yellow daisies and two white roses (revised and published in Piaget et al., 2001). The examiner makes sure the child knows the words flowers, daisies, and roses. Then comes the pivotal question: "Are there more daisies or more flowers?" His Science Project Concrete operational 10-year-olds like Daniel, shown here with some of his family's dairy cows, can be logical about anything they see, hear, or touch. Daniel's science experiment, on the effect of music on milk production, won first place in a Georgia regional science fair. AP PHOTO/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE, CHRIS THELEN Until about age 7, most children say, "More daisies." Young children seem unable to justify their answers, but some 6- or 7-year-olds can do so. They explain that "there are more yellow ones than white ones" or that "because daisies are daisies, they aren't flowers" (Piaget et al., 2001). By age 8, most children can classify correctly: "More flowers than daisies," they say, and they can explain why they think so. MATH CONCEPTS Another logical concept is seriation, the understanding that things can be arranged in a logical series. Seriation is crucial for using the alphabet or the number sequence (not merely memorizing, which younger children can do). For example, while most 5-year-olds can count up to 100, few can correctly estimate where any particular two-digit number would be placed on a line that starts at 0 and ends at 100. Generally, children can do this by age 8 (Meadows, 2006). Concrete operational thinking allows children to understand math operations. For example, once children understand conservation (explained in Chapter 5), they realize that 12 + 3 = 3 + 12, and that 15 is always 15. Reversibility allows the realization that if 5 × 3 = 15, then 15 divided by 3 must be 5. Although logic connects to math concepts, you will learn later in this chapter that research finds more continuity than discontinuity in number skills. Thus, Piaget was mistaken: There is no sudden shift between preoperational and concrete operational logic. Nonetheless, Piaget's experiments revealed that after about age 6, children use mental categories and subcategories more flexibly and inductively. They are less egocentric and more advanced thinkers, becoming operational in ways that younger children are not (Meadows, 2006). Piaget and Middle Childhood

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Printed Page 253 7.2.2 Vygotsky and Middle Childhood Like Piaget, Vygotsky felt that educators should consider thought processes, not just the outcomes. He recognized that younger children are confused by some concepts that older children understand because they have not yet learned to process the ideas. THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTION Unlike Piaget, however, Vygotsky regarded instruction as crucial (Vygotsky, 1934/1994). He thought that peers and teachers provide the bridge between developmental potential and needed skills and knowledge, via guided participation, scaffolding, and the zone of proximal development, as explained in Chapter 1 and Chapter 5. ESPECIALLY FOR Teachers How might Piaget's and Vygotsky's ideas help in teaching geography to a class of third-graders? (see response, page 256) Confirmation of the role of social interaction and instruction comes from children who, because of their school's entry-date cutoff, begin kindergarten when they are relatively young or old, not quite 5 or almost 6. Achievement scores of those 6-year-olds who began school relatively young, and thus already had a year of first grade, far exceed those of 6-year-olds who were born only one month later but had just completed kindergarten (Lincove & Painter, 2006; NICHD, 2007). This proves that children learn a great deal from time in school. This comparison doesn't necessarily mean that it is best to enter kindergarten at age 4, since as first-graders they may not be as proficient as their classmates who are almost a year older. But it does mean that school advances abilities that mere maturation does not. Remember that Vygotsky believed education occurs everywhere, not only in classrooms. Children mentor one another as they play together. They learn from watching television, from eating with their families, from observing people on the street, and from every other daily experience. This education—which includes things adults may wish children not learn—accumulates from infancy on. He Knows His Stuff Many child vendors, like this boy selling combs and other grooming aids on the streets of Manaus, Brazil, understand basic math and the give-and-take of social interaction; but, deprived of formal education, they know little or nothing about history and literature. DAVID R. FRAZIER PHOTOLIBRARY, INC./ALAMY An example of knowledge acquired from the social context comes from children in the northeast Indian district of Varanasi. Some of them have an extraordinary sense of spatial orientation—such as knowing whether they are facing north or south, even when they are inside a room with no windows. In one experiment, after Varanasi children were blindfolded, spun around, and led to a second room, many of them knew which direction (north, south, east, west) they were currently facing (Mishra et al., 2009). They learned that skill because people in their culture refer to the compass orientation to name the location of objects and so on. (Although the specifics differ, a cultural equivalent might be to say that the dog is sleeping southeast, not that the dog is sleeping by the door). This amazing sense of direction, or any other skill learned in childhood, does not automatically transfer from one context to another. The blindfolded children retained their excellent sense of direction in this experiment, but a child from Varanasi might become disoriented in a tangle of mega-city streets—still knowing where north is, but not knowing how to get downtown. A child who is logical about math may not be logical about family relationships. In the United States, adults are particularly concerned that 6- to 11-year-olds learn academic skills and knowledge. For this, Vygotsky's emphasis on mentoring is insightful. For instance, a large study of reading and math ability in thirdand fifth-grade children found that high-scoring children usually had had three sources of cognitive stimulation: Their families (parents read to them daily when they were toddlers) Preschool programs (classmates were involved in a variety of learning activities) First grade (teachers emphasized literacy, with sensitivity to individual needs). Although low-SES children were less likely to have all three experiences, the achievement scores of those few low-SES children who did have these mentoring advantages were higher than the average of high-SES children who did not have all three advantages (Crosnoe et al., 2010). In other words, active mentoring trumped socioeconomic status. Culture affects mentors and methods. This was evident in a study of 80 Mexican American children in California (Silva et al., 2010). Half were from families in which indigenous Indian learning was the norm: Children from that culture are expected to learn by watching others and to help one another if need be. The other half were from families more acculturated to U.S. norms; the children were accustomed to direct instruction, not observational learning. They expected to learn from adults and then to work on their own, without collaborating with their peers. (Indeed, in some classrooms, children are seated at separate desks and told to keep their eyes on their own papers, not to look at other children.) Researchers compared children from both backgrounds in a study in which children waited passively while a teacher taught their sibling how to make a toy. If they tried to help their brother or sister (more common among the indigenous children), they were prevented from doing so. A week later, the children were surprised to have an opportunity to make the toy themselves. The children from indigenous Indian backgrounds were better at it. This shows that they learned more from observation than did the children who were more used to U.S. learning methods. Vygotsky and Middle Childhood

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Printed Page 255 7.2.3 Information Processing and the Brain As you learned in Chapter 1, the information-processing perspective is more recent than either Piaget's or Vygotsky's theories. Information processing benefits from technology, which allows for more detailed data and analysis than was possible 50 years ago, particularly in neuroscience (P. H. Miller, 2011). Rather than describing broad stages (Piaget) or social contexts (Vygotsky), this perspective was inspired by the knowledge of how computers work. This leads many information-processing researchers to describe each small increment of input, processing, and output. CONNECTING PARTS OF THE BRAIN Recall that the maturing corpus callosum connects the hemispheres of the brain, enabling balance and two-handed coordination, while myelination speeds up thoughts and behavior. The prefrontal cortex—the executive part of the brain—plans, monitors, and evaluates. All of these neurological developments are evident in early childhood, and they continue in middle childhood and beyond. Increasing maturation results "by 7 or 8 years of age, in a massively interconnected brain" (Kagan & Herschkowitz, 2005, p. 220). Such connections are crucial for the complex tasks that children must master (M. H. Johnson et al., 2009). One example is learning to read. Reading is not instinctual: Our ancestors never did it. Consequently, the brain has no areas dedicated to reading, the way it does for talking, gesturing, or face recognition (Gabrieli, 2009). How do humans read without brain-specific structures? The answer is "massive interconnections" between the parts of the brain that deal with sounds, vision, comprehension, and so on—all coordinated by the prefrontal cortex. Interconnections are needed for many social skills as well—deciding whom to trust, figuring out what is fair, interpreting ambiguous gestures and expressions. Younger children are not proficient at this. That's why they are told, "Don't talk to strangers," whereas adults use judgment to decide which strangers merit what kinds of interactions. Adults ask strangers for directions, for the time, for weather predictions—but adults know that some strangers should not be queried. During middle childhood, various parts of the brain connect to enable reading, writing, logic, and social decisions (Crone & Westenberg, 2009). For many activities, children use more parts of their brains than adults do, thus requiring more connections (M. H. Johnson et al., 2009). SPEED OF THOUGHT Reaction time is how long it takes the brain to respond to a stimulus; specifically, how quickly an impulse travels from one neuron to another to allow thinking to occur. Reactions are quicker with each passing year of childhood because increasing myelination and repeated sequences of action reduce reaction time. Speedy reactions allow faster and more efficient learning. For example, school achievement requires quick coordination of multiple messages within the brain. The result is a child who can read a sentence fluently, write a paragraph, or even answer a multiple-choice question. Indeed, reaction time relates to every intellectual, motor, and social skill, in school or not. A simple example is being able to kick a speeding soccer ball toward a team-mate; a more complex example is being able to calculate when to utter a witty remark and when to stay quiet. Young children find both impossible; fast-thinking older children sometimes succeed. By early adolescence, reaction time is quicker than at any later time—few adults can beat a teenager at a video game. Teenage emotions also rise or fall quickly, as described in Chapter 9. PAY ATTENTION Neurological advances allow children to do more than think quickly. As the brain matures, it allows children to pay special heed to the most important elements of their environment. A crucial step in information processing occurs before conscious awareness, as the brain responds to input by deciding if it merits consideration. Selective attention is the ability to concentrate on some stimuli while ignoring others. This improves markedly at about age 7. Older children learn to notice various stimuli (which is one form of attention) that younger children do not (such as the small difference in the appearance of the letters b, p, and d) and to select the best response when several possibilities conflict (such as whether a c sounds like an s or a k) (Rueda et al., 2007). In the classroom, selective attention allows children to listen, take concise notes, and ignore distractions (all difficult at age 6, easier by age 10). In the din of the cafeteria, children comprehend one another's gestures and expressions and react. On the baseball diamond, older batters ignore the other team's attempts to distract them, and older fielders start moving into position as soon as a ball is hit their way. Indeed, selective attention underlies all the abilities that gradually mature during the school years. "Networks of collaborating cortical regions" (M. H. Johnson et al., 2009, p. 151) are required because attention involves not just one brain function but three: alerting, orienting, and executive control (Posner et al., 2007). RESPONSE FOR Teachers (from page 254) Here are two of the most obvious ways. (1) Use logic. Once children can grasp classification and class inclusion, they can understand cities within states, states within nations, and nations within continents. Organize your instruction to make logical categorization easier. (2) Make use of children's need for concrete and personal involvement. You might have the children learn first about their own location, then about the places where relatives and friends live, and finally about places beyond their personal experience (via books, photographs, videos, and guest speakers). LEARNING MATH One of the leaders of the information-processing perspective is Robert Siegler, who has studied the day-by-day details of children's understanding of math (Siegler & Chen, 2008). Remember that some logical ideas explained by Piaget relate to math understanding, but information-processing research finds that those ideas (such as conservation and seriation) do not necessarily lead to proficient calculations. Siegler has shown that a child attempts, ignores, half-uses, abandons, and finally adopts new and better strategies to solve math problems. Siegler compares the acquisition of knowledge with waves on a beach when the tide is rising. There is substantial ebb and flow as information is processed (Thompson & Siegler, 2010). A practical application of the idea that knowledge comes in waves is that children need lots of practice in order to master a new idea or strategy. Just because a child says a correct answer on one day does not mean that the achievement is permanent. Lapses, earlier mistakes, momentary insights are all part of the learning process—and adults need to be patient as well as consistent in what they teach. Since brains develop connections in response to experience, teachers should never give up on a child. Similarly, sex differences in the brain are mostly the result of experience, not hormones, so both boys and girls need extensive practice reading, calculating, and so on (Jordan-Young, 2010). MEMORY One foundation of new learning appears to be memory, which allows children to connect various aspects of past knowledge. Memory is now often studied with an information-processing approach. Input, storage, and retrieval underlie the increasing cognitive abilities of the schoolchild. Each of the three major steps in the memory process—sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory—is affected by maturation and experience. Sensory memory (also called the sensory register) is the first component of the human information-processing system. It stores incoming stimuli for a split second after they are received, with sounds retained slightly longer than sights. To use terms explained in Chapter 3, sensations are retained for a moment, and then some become perceptions. This first step of memory is already quite good in early childhood, improves slightly until about age 10, and remains adequate until late adulthood. Once some sensations become perceptions, the brain selects those perceptions that are meaningful and transfers them to working memory for further analysis. This is selective memory, the result of selective attention as just described. It is in working memory (formerly called short-term memory) that current, conscious mental activity occurs. Processing, not mere exposure, is essential for getting information into working memory, which is why working memory improves markedly in middle childhood (Cowan & Alloway, 2009) (see Table 7-1). As Siegler's waves metaphor suggests, memory strategies do not appear suddenly. Gradual improvement occurs from toddlerhood through adolescence (Schneider & Lockl, 2008). Children develop strategies to increase working memory (Camos & Barrouillet, 2011), and they use these strategies occasionally at first, then consistently. ESPECIALLY FOR Teachers How might your understanding of memory help you teach a 2,000-word vocabulary list to a class of fourth-graders? (see response, page 259) Cultural differences are evident here, with children learning ways to master whatever their culture expects. For example, many Muslim children are taught to memorize all 80,000 words of the Quran, and they develop strategies to remember long passages—strategies that non-Muslim children do not know. The ability to draw a face is not particularly valued in many Muslim families, but it is valued among some other groups—and those children develop strategies to improve their work, such as learning the ratio of distance of forehead, eyes, mouth, and chin. Finally, information from working memory may be transferred to long-term memory, to store it for minutes, hours, days, months, or years. The capacity of long-term memory—how much can be crammed into one brain—is very large by the end of middle childhood. Together with sensory memory and working memory, long-term memory organizes ideas and reactions, with more effective brain functioning over the years of middle childhood (Wendelken et al., 2011). Verbs and Adverbs Erin, Ally, Paige, and Sabrina perform rap lyrics they wrote to review key concepts for an upcoming assessment test. Such mnemonic devices are beyond younger children but may be very helpful in middle childhood. AP PHOTO/THE HERALD, DAVID E. DALE Crucial to long-term memory is not merely storage (how much material has been deposited) but also retrieval (how readily past learning can be brought into working memory). For everyone, at every age, retrieval is easier for some memories (especially memories of vivid, emotional experiences) than for others. And for everyone, long-term memory is imperfect: We all forget and distort memories. KNOWLEDGE As information-processing researchers have found, the more people know, the more they can learn. Having an extensive knowledge base, or a broad body of knowledge in a particular subject, makes it easier to master new, related information. Three factors facilitate increases in the knowledge base: past experience, current opportunity, and personal motivation. The third one is crucial. Because of motivation, children's knowledge base is not always what their parents or teachers would like. Lack of motivation helps explain why some students don't remember what they learned in science class but do remember the scores of local athletic contests. Specific examples of the results of motivation on the knowledge base include that many U.S. schoolchildren memorize words and rhythms of hit songs, know plots and characters of television programs, and can recite the names and histories of baseball players—yet they may not know whether World War I occurred in the nineteenth or twentieth century, or whether Afghanistan is in Asia or Africa. This provides a clue for teachers: New concepts are learned best if they are connected to personal and emotional experiences (Schneider & Lockl, 2008; Wittrock, 1974/2010). Parents likewise need to do more than tell children what they want them to know; they need to actively involve them. This understanding led to the idea of "take your child to work day" in order to teach children about future employment. CONTROL PROCESSES The mechanisms that combine memory, processing speed, and the knowledge base are control processes; they regulate the analysis and flow of information within the system. Control processes include emotional regulation (part of impulse control, explained in Chapter 9) and selective attention, explained earlier on page 256. Equally important is metacognition, sometimes defined as "thinking about thinking." Metacognition is the ultimate control process because it allows a person to evaluate a cognitive task, determine how to accomplish it, monitor performance, and then make adjustments. RESPONSE FOR Teachers (from page 257) Children this age can be taught strategies for remembering by making links between working memory and long-term memory. You might break down the vocabulary list into word clusters, grouped according to root words, connections to the children's existing knowledge, applications, or (as a last resort) first letters or rhymes. Active, social learning is useful; perhaps groups of students could write a story each day that incorporates 15 new words. Each group could read its story aloud to the class. Metacognition and other control processes improve with age and experience. For instance, in one study, children took a fill-in-the-blanks test and indicated how confident they were of each answer. Then they were allowed to delete some questions, making the remaining ones count more. By age 9, the children were able to estimate correctness; by age 11, they were skilled at knowing what to delete (Roebers et al., 2009). That is metacognition, knowing which of one's ideas are solid and which are shaky. You learned that long-term memory is imperfect. Gradually children become more adept at differentiating what they know with certainty from what they only imagine. Unlike younger children, older children use control processes to know whether a certain thought was just a hope, fantasy, or dream. Control processes can allow knowledge in one domain to transfer to another domain. This is the case for bilingual children, who learn to inhibit one language while using another. They are advanced not only in language but also in other measures of executive control (Bialystok, 2010). Information processing improves spontaneously during childhood, but children can learn explicit strategies and memory methods, with cultural differences as mentioned earlier. Table 7-1 notes memory improvements from birth to age 11. How much of this improvement involves metacognition? Sometimes teaching of memory strategies is explicit, more so in some nations (e.g., Germany) than in others (e.g., the United States) (Bjorklund et al., 2009). Often children with special needs require help learning control processes (Riccio et al., 2010). Genes matter as well. Children with the long allele of dopamine D4 benefit from knowing how well they are doing in each learning task—that seems to help them control their effort. Children without that allele are not affected by immediate feedback (Kegel et al., 2011). Piaget recognized concrete operational thought, when children can use logic regarding their actual (concrete) experiences. Vygotsky stressed the social instruction that helps schoolchildren learn. Information-processing theorists note children's step-by-step learning. Brain advances during middle childhood allow for faster reactions, selective attention, broader knowledge base, and development of control processes. All aspects of memory (sensory register, working, and long-term) improve in middle childhood, making metacognition possible. Information Processing and the Brain

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Printed Page 245 7.1.3 Physical Activity Expert Eye-Hand Coordination The specifics of motor-skill development in middle childhood depend on the culture. These flute players are carrying on the European Baroque musical tradition that thrives among the poor, remote Guarayo people of Bolivia. DAVID MERCADO/REUTERS/CORBIS Beyond the sheer fun of playing, some benefits of physical activity—especially games with rules—are immediate. For example, a Canadian study found that 6- and 7-year-olds who felt victimized nonetheless improved academically if they played sports (Perron et al., 2011). Active play contributes to the following: Better overall health Less obesity Appreciation of cooperation and fair play Improved problem-solving abilities Respect for teammates and opponents of many ethnicities and nationalities Playing sports during middle childhood also poses risks, however: Loss of self-esteem (teammates and coaches are sometimes cruel) Injuries (sometimes serious, including concussions) Reinforcement of prejudice (especially against the other sex) Increased stress (evidenced by altered hormone levels, insomnia) Where can children reap the benefits and avoid the hazards of active play? There are three possibilities: neighborhoods, schools, and sports leagues. NEIGHBORHOOD GAMES Neighborhood play is flexible. Rules and boundaries are adapted to the context (out of bounds is "past the tree" or "behind the parked truck"). Stickball, touch football, tag, hide-and-seek, and dozens of other running and catching games go on forever—or at least until dark. The play is active, interactive, and inclusive—ideal for children of both sexes and several ages. It also teaches ethics. As one scholar notes: Children play tag, hide and seek, or pickup basketball. They compete with one another but always according to rules, and rules that they enforce themselves without recourse to an impartial judge. The penalty for not playing by the rules is not playing, that is, social exclusion... [Gillespie, 2010, p. 298] Idyllic Two 8-year-olds, each with a 6-year-old sister, all four day-dreaming or exploring in a very old tree beside a lake in Denmark—what could be better? Ideally, all the world's children would be so fortunate, but most are not. HENRIK WEIS/CULTURA/CORBIS Unfortunately, "not playing" is not only a consequence of ignoring the rules but also of not having the time or a place to play. Vacant lots and empty fields are increasingly scarce. A century ago, 90 percent of the world's children lived in rural areas; now most live in crowded cities or at the city's edge. To make matters worse, many parents keep their children inside because they fear "stranger danger"—although one expert writes that "there is a much greater chance that your child is going to be dangerously overweight from staying inside than that he is going to be abducted" (quoted in Layden, 2004, p. 86). Homework and video games compete with outdoor play, especially in the United States. According to an Australian scholar: Australian children are lucky. Here the dominant view is that children's after school time is leisure time. In the United States, it seems that leisure time is available to fewer and fewer children. If a child performs poorly in school, recreation time rapidly becomes remediation time. For high achievers, after school time is often spent in academic enrichment. [Vered, 2008, p. 170] The United States is not the worst-offending nation in terms of using after-school time as study time instead of play time. South Korea in particular is known for the intensity of "shadow education," which is extra tutoring that parents find for their children, hoping to improve their test grades later on (Lee & Shouse, 2011). ESPECIALLY FOR Physical Education Teachers a group of parents of fourth- and fifth-graders has asked for your help in persuading the school administration to sponsor a competitive sports team. how should you advise the group to proceed? (see response, page 250) EXERCISE IN SCHOOL Active play during school hours has also declined. A study of 10,000 third-graders throughout the United States found that about one-third had less than 15 minutes of recess daily, with city-dwellers in low-SES families most likely to have no recess at all (Barros et al., 2009). Paradoxically, school exercise may actually improve academic achievement (Carlson et al., 2008). How could this be? A review of the research suggests several possible mechanisms that involve the brain, including direct benefits of increased blood flow and increased release of neurotransmitters, as well as the indirect results of better mood and thus better ability to concentrate (Singh et al., 2012). The Centers for Disease Control recommends that children be active (e.g., not sit on the sidelines awaiting a turn) for at least half the duration of their physical education classes (Khan et al., 2009). Many schools do not reach this goal. ©The New Yorker Collection 2001, Pat Byrnes From Cartoonbank.Com. All Rights Reserved. Several schools have after-school sports teams, which do provide exercise but also increase injuries. National organizations are developing practices that may prevent concussions among 7- and 8-year-olds in football practice as well as halt full-body impact among children playing ice hockey, but the fact that regulations are needed to protect children from serious harm is sobering (Toporek, 2012). ATHLETIC CLUBS AND LEAGUES Private or nonprofit clubs and organizations offer additional opportunities for activity, with culture and family affecting specifics: Some children learn golf, others tennis, others boxing. Cricket, baseball, and soccer are each practiced by most boys in some nations, by almost none in others. Unfortunately, children from low-SES families or with disabilities are less likely to belong to local clubs and teams (e.g., Little League), yet they would benefit most from the strength, activity, and teamwork of organized play. Even when joining is free, these children are less likely to be involved in extracurricular activities of any kind, and they suffer because of it (Dearing et al., 2009). Why Helmets? Sports organized by adults, such as this football team of 7- to 8-year-old boys sponsored by the Detroit Lions and Police Athletic League of Detroit, may be harmful to children. The best games are those that require lots of running and teamwork—but no pushing or shoving. JIM WEST/AGE FOTOSTOCK Physical Activity

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Printed Page 259 7.3 Language Advances By age 6, children have mastered the basic vocabulary and grammar of their first language. Many also speak a second language fluently. These linguistic abilities form a strong knowledge base, enabling some school-age children to learn up to 20 new words a day and to apply complex grammar rules. Here are some specifics. Language Advances

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Printed Page 275 7.5.3 Autism Spectrum Disorder Of all the special-needs children, those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are probably the most troubling, not only because their problems are severe but also because the causes of and treatments for autism are hotly disputed. Most children with autism can be spotted in the first year of life, but some seem quite normal at first and then deteriorate later on. This disorder affects about 1 in every 110 children in the United States (three times as many boys as girls and more European Americans than Latino, Asian, or African Americans) (Lord & Bishop, 2010). UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS The reported incidence of autism has increased. The rate in this text, 1 in 110, is generally accepted, but one 2012 report suggested a rate of 1 in 88 and the draft of the DSM-5 (not yet published) has stricter criteria, probably reducing the rate to 1 in 150. Why do these variations occur? Answer These variations occur because no laboratory test is definitive; consequently, parents, hospitals, school systems, and clinicians differ in their assessments ( Atladóttir et al. 2012; Davidovitch et al., 2012; J. S. Miller et al., 2013). SYMPTOMS There are two signs of an autism spectrum disorder: (1) problems in social interaction and the social use of language, and (2) restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. Children with any form of autism find it difficult to understand emotions. That makes them feel alien, like "an anthropologist on Mars," as Temple Grandin, an educator and writer with autism, expressed it (quoted in Sacks, 1995). Consequently, they do not want to talk, play, or otherwise interact with anyone, and they are slow to develop a theory of mind (Senju et al., 2010). Some children with autism spectrum disorder never speak, rarely smile, and often play for hours with one object (such as a spinning top or a toy train). Others are called "high-functioning" and are extremely talented in some specialized area, such as drawing or geometry. Such high-functioning children are still said by some to have Asperger syndrome, but most clinicians and the DSM-5 consider this a part of the autism spectrum. Many are brilliant in unusual ways (Dawson et al., 2007), as is Grandin, a well-respected expert on animal care (Grandin & Johnson, 2009). However, social interaction is always impaired. Grandin was bewildered by romantic love. Far more children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder now than in 1990, either because the incidence has increased or because more children receive the diagnosis. You read that currently about 1 child in 110 has an autism spectrum disorder. Some other estimates put the number even higher—perhaps 1 child in 40. Underlying that range is the reality that no measure diagnoses autism definitively: Many people are socially inept—do they all have autism? No; for a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder a person's symptoms must be severe enough to significantly impact their ability to function. RESPONSE FOR Health Workers (from page 272) Medication helps some hyperactive children, but not all. It might be useful for this child, but other forms of intervention should be tried first. Compliment the parents on their concern about their child, but refer them to an expert in early childhood for an evaluation and recommendations. Behavior-management techniques geared to the particular situation, not medication, will be the first strategy TREATMENT Some children with autism are on special diets, take vitamin supplements, or are on medication. One drug in particular, risperidone, relieves some symptoms (although research reports side effects, including weight gain), but no biochemical treatment has proven successful at relieving the disorder itself. As you already know, medication use is controversial: Whether a child takes risperidone depends on many factors other than symptoms (Arnold et al., 2010; Rosenberg et al., 2010). Many parents first noticed their infants' lack of social responses after vaccinations and believe that thimerosal, an antiseptic containing mercury that was once used in immunizations, was the cause. No scientist who examines the evidence agrees: Extensive research has disproven this hypothesis many times (Offit, 2008). Thimerosal was removed from most vaccines a decade ago, but the rate of autism is still rising. Precious Gifts Many children with autism are gifted artists. This boy attends a school in Montmoreau, France, that features workshops in which children with autism develop social, play, and learning skills. PHANIE/PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC. Doctors fear that parents who cling to this hypothesis are not only wrong but are harming millions of other children. Indeed, in the United States, the 2012 rate of whooping cough was higher than in any year since 1960. Babies younger than 2 months have died of whooping cough because they are too young to be immunized and because older children whose parents do not vaccinate them spread contagious diseases. One popular treatment for autism is putting the child in a hyperbaric chamber to breathe more concentrated oxygen than is found in everyday air. Two studies of hyperbaric treatments—both with randomized participant selection and with control groups—reported contradictory results, either benefits (Rossignol et al., 2009) or no effect (Granpeesheh et al., 2010). Part of the problem may be multifinality and equifinality: Children with autism spectrum disorders share core symptoms (equifinality), but they differ in causes—from genes to birth trauma, from prenatal toxins to postnatal chemicals—and those same causes sometimes have other outcomes (multifinality). Many behavioral methods to improve talking and socialization have been tried, with mixed results (Granpeesheh et al., 2009; Hayward et al., 2009; Howlin et al., 2009). Many clinicians use a mix of behavior analysis, sensory play, and communication therapy to help children with ASD develop imaginative play, cognitive flexibility, and an understanding of the feelings of others. Early and individualized education of the child and parents sometimes succeeds, although special education is not a panacea, as you will now see. Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Printed Page 276 7.5.4 Special Education Developmentalists are well aware that physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development interact to affect each child's behavior. That means doctors, parents, teachers, and policy-makers need to work collaboratively for each child. However, this does not necessarily occur. Special education is one example. CHANGING POLICIES In the United States, a series of reforms in the treatment and education of children with special needs began with the 1975 Education of All Handicapped Children Act, which stipulated that children with special needs must be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Most of the time, LRE has meant educating children with special needs in a regular class, sometimes called mainstreaming. Sometimes children are sent to a resource room, with a teacher who provides targeted tutoring. Other times, students attend an inclusion class, which means that children with special needs are "included" in the general classroom, with "appropriate aids and services" (Kalambouka et al., 2007). A recent strategy is called response to intervention (RTI) (Fletcher & Vaughn, 2009; Shapiro et al., 2011). All children who are below average are given some special intervention. Most of them improve. For those who do not, more intervention occurs. Only if repeated intervention fails is the child referred for testing. Professionals use a battery of tests (not just IQ or achievement tests) to decide whether a child needs special education. If so, they discuss an individual education plan (IEP) with the parents to specify educational goals for the child. COHORT AND CULTURE Developmentalists consider a child's biological and brain development as the starting point for whatever special assistance will allow each child to reach full potential. Then home and school practices are crucial. All Together Now Kiemel Lamb (top center) leads autistic children in song, a major accomplishment. For many of them, music is soothing, words are difficult, and hand-holding in a group is almost impossible. AP PHOTO/THE TUSCALOOSA NEWS, DUSTY COMPTON However, as Table 7-5 shows, among all the children in the United States who are recognized as having special needs, cohort changes are notable, and some basic categories (e.g., attention-deficit disorder) are missing. The number of 3- to 21-year-olds served by special education increased from 8 percent in 1980 to 13 percent in 2010. About 6 percent of children with educational disabilities are now designated as autistic and almost 6 percent as developmentally delayed (Aud et al., 2012). Neither of those two categories existed in 1977. Most children who were considered "mentally retarded" in the 1970s would be called autistic or developmentally delayed if they were diagnosed today. Labels change more quickly than children do. These are U.S. designations. Other nations have quite different policies. For instance, in Finland almost every child is recognized as having some special educational needs, but almost no child is labeled or removed from the class for that reason. Instead, every teacher works to help each child, with his or her special needs (Sahlberg, 2011). Fourth-Grade Challenge How much weight can a bridge hold? Thirty-three students in gifted classes at an Idaho elementary school designed and built toothpick bridges and then tested them. David Stubbens (shown here) added 61 pounds to the bucket before his bridge collapsed. AP PHOTO/MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS, GEOFF CRIMMINS GIFTED AND TALENTED The impact of cohort and culture is also apparent when children are unusually gifted. They are not covered by the federal special education laws, but every U.S. state selects and then educates them. How they do it varies tremendously. Should such children be accelerated, skipped, segregated, enriched, or left alone? At one time, such children were simply put ahead a grade or more, but that left them socially isolated. As one such gifted student remembers: Nine-year-old little girls are so cruel to younger girls. I was much smaller than them, of course, and would have done anything to have a friend. Although I could cope with the academic work very easily, emotionally I wasn't up to it. Maybe it was my fault and I was asking to be picked on. I was a weed at the edge of the playground. [Rachel, in Freeman, 2010, p. 27] Lifelong problems occurred for this girl partly because she skipped two grades. She still thinks it might have been her fault that she was a weed not a flower. Currently, the most common solution for gifted and talented children is to teach all such children together. Ideally, the children are neither bored nor lonely because each is challenged and appreciated. Their brains develop as well. As you know, a child's brain is quite plastic, and all children learn whatever their context teaches. Thus, talents may be developed, not wasted, with special education. However, if the gifted designation occurs at age 5 (as it often does), children of lower-SES families, or those from less privileged ethnic groups, may be unfairly excluded. Bias against girls, or boys, may be problematic as well. This concern is not abstract. Consider data from the United States in 2006 (Snyder & Dillow, 2011). Of every 150 schoolchildren in Kentucky, 23 are designated gifted and talented; only 1 in 150 in Massachusetts is designated as such. Obviously, something in the culture or politics of those states, not in the nature of the children, influences this determination. Most states have 10 percent more girls than boys in gifted classes (sexism or biology?), yet three states (Kansas, New Mexico, and South Dakota) have about 10 percent more boys than girls in such classes. In most states, the proportion of European American children in gifted-and-talented classes is twice as high as the proportion of minority groups (economics or biology?), but proportions are almost equal in Utah. Why? In most states, higher proportions of African Americans than Hispanics are designated as gifted, but the opposite is true in Texas (racism or genetics?). DIFFERENCE AS THE RULE Scholars all find "much heterogeneity and diversity of high human potential in terms of varied developmental niches, trajectories, and pathways" (Dai, 2010, p. 121). With so many complexities, many nations avoid special education of the gifted, or of any child with special needs, at least until high school or college. China insists that effort, not innate ability, leads to excellence, and thus all children are educated together. In many nations of Asia and Africa, every child is expected to help his or her classmates, so separating out the gifted or the disabled would undercut education. In Scotland, too, all children are educated together (Smith, 2006). This sometimes occurs in the United States as well. For instance, the school board in Montgomery County, Maryland (known for high-achieving students), abolished the designation of gifted beginning in 2009 (Sternberg et al., 2011). A leading U.S. educator suggests that we give up the notions of "the normal," "the disabled," and "the gifted" as they are typically applied in schools, especially for the purposes of classification and grouping, and simply accept difference as the rule. [Borland, 2003, p. 121] Considering development in body and mind during middle childhood, differences abound—in size, health, skill, logic, intelligence, language, and more. The next chapter describes other major differences in family structures and social contexts. What are the implications? Answers are suggested at the end of Chapter 8. Emotional and behavioral disorders in childhood are difficult to diagnose and treat, in part because of multifinality and equifinality. In diagnosis of special needs, bipolar disorder is often confused with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, although the treatment for the two differs. Learning disabilities are common, with dyslexia and dyscalculia problematic in school. Children with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty with social interaction, language, and creative play. Special Education

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The Nature of the Child 1. All theories of development acknowledge that school-age children become more independent and capable in many ways. 2. Erikson emphasized industry, when children busily strive to master various tasks. If they are unable to do so, they feel inferior. Freud described a latency period, when psychosexual needs are quiet. 3. Children develop their self-concept during middle childhood, basing it on a more realistic assessment of their competence than they had in earlier years. 4. Children need to develop pride in themselves and in their background, although high self-esteem is not valued in every culture. 5. Both daily hassles and major stresses take a toll on children, with accumulated stresses more likely to impair development than any single event on its own. The child's interpretation of the situation and the availability of supportive adults, peers, and institutions aid resilience. Families and Children 6. Families influence children in many ways, as do genes and peers. Although most siblings share a childhood home and parents, each sibling experiences different (nonshared) circumstances within the family. 7. The five functions of a supportive family are to satisfy children's physical needs; to encourage learning; to nurture friendships; to foster self-respect; and to provide a safe, stable, and harmonious home. 8. The most common family structure worldwide is the nuclear family, usually with other relatives nearby. Other two-parent families include adoptive, same-sex, grandparent, and stepfamilies, each of which sometimes functions well for children. However, each also has vulnerabilities. 9. Generally, it seems better for children to live with two parents rather than one because a parental alliance can support children's development. Single-parent families tend to be less stable, with changes in where they live and who belongs to the family. 10. Income affects family function. Poor children are at greater risk for emotional and behavioral problems because the stresses that often accompany poverty hinder effective parenting. High income may be stressful as well. No matter what the family SES, instability and conflict are harmful. The Peer Group 11. Peers teach crucial social skills during middle childhood. Each cohort of children has a culture, passed down from slightly older children. Close friends are wanted and needed. 12. Popular children may be cooperative and easy to get along with or may be competitive and aggressive. Much depends on the age and culture of the children. 13. Rejected children may be neglected, aggressive, or with-drawn. Aggressive and withdrawn children have difficulty with social cognition; their interpretation of the normal give-and-take of childhood is impaired. 14. Bullying of all sorts—physical, verbal, relational, and cyber—is common, with long-term consequences for both bullies and victims. Bullies themselves may be admired, which makes their behavior more difficult to stop. 15. Overall, a multifaceted, long-term, whole-school approach, with parents, teachers, and bystanders working together, seems the best way to halt bullying. Careful evaluation is needed to discover if a particular strategy changes the school culture. Children's Moral Values 16. School-age children seek to differentiate right from wrong. Peer values, cultural standards, and family practices are all part of their personal morality. 17. Kohlberg described three levels of moral reasoning, each related to cognitive maturity. His theory has been criticized for focusing too much on abstractions. 18. When values conflict, children often choose loyalty to peers over adult standards of behavior. When children discuss moral issues with other children, they develop more thoughtful answers to moral questions. SUMMAR

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Printed Page 255 7.2.3 Information Processing and the Brain As you learned in Chapter 1, the information-processing perspective is more recent than either Piaget's or Vygotsky's theories. Information processing benefits from technology, which allows for more detailed data and analysis than was possible 50 years ago, particularly in neuroscience (P. H. Miller, 2011). Rather than describing broad stages (Piaget) or social contexts (Vygotsky), this perspective was inspired by the knowledge of how computers work. This leads many information-processing researchers to describe each small increment of input, processing, and output. CONNECTING PARTS OF THE BRAIN Recall that the maturing corpus callosum connects the hemispheres of the brain, enabling balance and two-handed coordination, while myelination speeds up thoughts and behavior. The prefrontal cortex—the executive part of the brain—plans, monitors, and evaluates. All of these neurological developments are evident in early childhood, and they continue in middle childhood and beyond. Increasing maturation results "by 7 or 8 years of age, in a massively interconnected brain" (Kagan & Herschkowitz, 2005, p. 220). Such connections are crucial for the complex tasks that children must master (M. H. Johnson et al., 2009). One example is learning to read. Reading is not instinctual: Our ancestors never did it. Consequently, the brain has no areas dedicated to reading, the way it does for talking, gesturing, or face recognition (Gabrieli, 2009). How do humans read without brain-specific structures? The answer is "massive interconnections" between the parts of the brain that deal with sounds, vision, comprehension, and so on—all coordinated by the prefrontal cortex. Interconnections are needed for many social skills as well—deciding whom to trust, figuring out what is fair, interpreting ambiguous gestures and expressions. Younger children are not proficient at this. That's why they are told, "Don't talk to strangers," whereas adults use judgment to decide which strangers merit what kinds of interactions. Adults ask strangers for directions, for the time, for weather predictions—but adults know that some strangers should not be queried. During middle childhood, various parts of the brain connect to enable reading, writing, logic, and social decisions (Crone & Westenberg, 2009). For many activities, children use more parts of their brains than adults do, thus requiring more connections (M. H. Johnson et al., 2009). SPEED OF THOUGHT Reaction time is how long it takes the brain to respond to a stimulus; specifically, how quickly an impulse travels from one neuron to another to allow thinking to occur. Reactions are quicker with each passing year of childhood because increasing myelination and repeated sequences of action reduce reaction time. Speedy reactions allow faster and more efficient learning. For example, school achievement requires quick coordination of multiple messages within the brain. The result is a child who can read a sentence fluently, write a paragraph, or even answer a multiple-choice question. Indeed, reaction time relates to every intellectual, motor, and social skill, in school or not. A simple example is being able to kick a speeding soccer ball toward a team-mate; a more complex example is being able to calculate when to utter a witty remark and when to stay quiet. Young children find both impossible; fast-thinking older children sometimes succeed. By early adolescence, reaction time is quicker than at any later time—few adults can beat a teenager at a video game. Teenage emotions also rise or fall quickly, as described in Chapter 9. PAY ATTENTION Neurological advances allow children to do more than think quickly. As the brain matures, it allows children to pay special heed to the most important elements of their environment. A crucial step in information processing occurs before conscious awareness, as the brain responds to input by deciding if it merits consideration. Selective attention is the ability to concentrate on some stimuli while ignoring others. This improves markedly at about age 7. Older children learn to notice various stimuli (which is one form of attention) that younger children do not (such as the small difference in the appearance of the letters b, p, and d) and to select the best response when several possibilities conflict (such as whether a c sounds like an s or a k) (Rueda et al., 2007). In the classroom, selective attention allows children to listen, take concise notes, and ignore distractions (all difficult at age 6, easier by age 10). In the din of the cafeteria, children comprehend one another's gestures and expressions and react. On the baseball diamond, older batters ignore the other team's attempts to distract them, and older fielders start moving into position as soon as a ball is hit their way. Indeed, selective attention underlies all the abilities that gradually mature during the school years. "Networks of collaborating cortical regions" (M. H. Johnson et al., 2009, p. 151) are required because attention involves not just one brain function but three: alerting, orienting, and executive control (Posner et al., 2007). RESPONSE FOR Teachers (from page 254) Here are two of the most obvious ways. (1) Use logic. Once children can grasp classification and class inclusion, they can understand cities within states, states within nations, and nations within continents. Organize your instruction to make logical categorization easier. (2) Make use of children's need for concrete and personal involvement. You might have the children learn first about their own location, then about the places where relatives and friends live, and finally about places beyond their personal experience (via books, photographs, videos, and guest speakers). LEARNING MATH One of the leaders of the information-processing perspective is Robert Siegler, who has studied the day-by-day details of children's understanding of math (Siegler & Chen, 2008). Remember that some logical ideas explained by Piaget relate to math understanding, but information-processing research finds that those ideas (such as conservation and seriation) do not necessarily lead to proficient calculations. Siegler has shown that a child attempts, ignores, half-uses, abandons, and finally adopts new and better strategies to solve math problems. Siegler compares the acquisition of knowledge with waves on a beach when the tide is rising. There is substantial ebb and flow as information is processed (Thompson & Siegler, 2010). A practical application of the idea that knowledge comes in waves is that children need lots of practice in order to master a new idea or strategy. Just because a child says a correct answer on one day does not mean that the achievement is permanent. Lapses, earlier mistakes, momentary insights are all part of the learning process—and adults need to be patient as well as consistent in what they teach. Since brains develop connections in response to experience, teachers should never give up on a child. Similarly, sex differences in the brain are mostly the result of experience, not hormones, so both boys and girls need extensive practice reading, calculating, and so on (Jordan-Young, 2010). MEMORY One foundation of new learning appears to be memory, which allows children to connect various aspects of past knowledge. Memory is now often studied with an information-processing approach. Input, storage, and retrieval underlie the increasing cognitive abilities of the schoolchild. Each of the three major steps in the memory process—sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory—is affected by maturation and experience. Sensory memory (also called the sensory register) is the first component of the human information-processing system. It stores incoming stimuli for a split second after they are received, with sounds retained slightly longer than sights. To use terms explained in Chapter 3, sensations are retained for a moment, and then some become perceptions. This first step of memory is already quite good in early childhood, improves slightly until about age 10, and remains adequate until late adulthood. Once some sensations become perceptions, the brain selects those perceptions that are meaningful and transfers them to working memory for further analysis. This is selective memory, the result of selective attention as just described. It is in working memory (formerly called short-term memory) that current, conscious mental activity occurs. Processing, not mere exposure, is essential for getting information into working memory, which is why working memory improves markedly in middle childhood (Cowan & Alloway, 2009) (see Table 7-1). As Siegler's waves metaphor suggests, memory strategies do not appear suddenly. Gradual improvement occurs from toddlerhood through adolescence (Schneider & Lockl, 2008). Children develop strategies to increase working memory (Camos & Barrouillet, 2011), and they use these strategies occasionally at first, then consistently. ESPECIALLY FOR Teachers How might your understanding of memory help you teach a 2,000-word vocabulary list to a class of fourth-graders? (see response, page 259) Cultural differences are evident here, with children learning ways to master whatever their culture expects. For example, many Muslim children are taught to memorize all 80,000 words of the Quran, and they develop strategies to remember long passages—strategies that non-Muslim children do not know. The ability to draw a face is not particularly valued in many Muslim families, but it is valued among some other groups—and those children develop strategies to improve their work, such as learning the ratio of distance of forehead, eyes, mouth, and chin. Finally, information from working memory may be transferred to long-term memory, to store it for minutes, hours, days, months, or years. The capacity of long-term memory—how much can be crammed into one brain—is very large by the end of middle childhood. Together with sensory memory and working memory, long-term memory organizes ideas and reactions, with more effective brain functioning over the years of middle childhood (Wendelken et al., 2011). Verbs and Adverbs Erin, Ally, Paige, and Sabrina perform rap lyrics they wrote to review key concepts for an upcoming assessment test. Such mnemonic devices are beyond younger children but may be very helpful in middle childhood. AP PHOTO/THE HERALD, DAVID E. DALE Crucial to long-term memory is not merely storage (how much material has been deposited) but also retrieval (how readily past learning can be brought into working memory). For everyone, at every age, retrieval is easier for some memories (especially memories of vivid, emotional experiences) than for others. And for everyone, long-term memory is imperfect: We all forget and distort memories. KNOWLEDGE As information-processing researchers have found, the more people know, the more they can learn. Having an extensive knowledge base, or a broad body of knowledge in a particular subject, makes it easier to master new, related information. Three factors facilitate increases in the knowledge base: past experience, current opportunity, and personal motivation. The third one is crucial. Because of motivation, children's knowledge base is not always what their parents or teachers would like. Lack of motivation helps explain why some students don't remember what they learned in science class but do remember the scores of local athletic contests. Specific examples of the results of motivation on the knowledge base include that many U.S. schoolchildren memorize words and rhythms of hit songs, know plots and characters of television programs, and can recite the names and histories of baseball players—yet they may not know whether World War I occurred in the nineteenth or twentieth century, or whether Afghanistan is in Asia or Africa. This provides a clue for teachers: New concepts are learned best if they are connected to personal and emotional experiences (Schneider & Lockl, 2008; Wittrock, 1974/2010). Parents likewise need to do more than tell children what they want them to know; they need to actively involve them. This understanding led to the idea of "take your child to work day" in order to teach children about future employment. CONTROL PROCESSES The mechanisms that combine memory, processing speed, and the knowledge base are control processes; they regulate the analysis and flow of information within the system. Control processes include emotional regulation (part of impulse control, explained in Chapter 9) and selective attention, explained earlier on page 256. Equally important is metacognition, sometimes defined as "thinking about thinking." Metacognition is the ultimate control process because it allows a person to evaluate a cognitive task, determine how to accomplish it, monitor performance, and then make adjustments. RESPONSE FOR Teachers (from page 257) Children this age can be taught strategies for remembering by making links between working memory and long-term memory. You might break down the vocabulary list into word clusters, grouped according to root words, connections to the children's existing knowledge, applications, or (as a last resort) first letters or rhymes. Active, social learning is useful; perhaps groups of students could write a story each day that incorporates 15 new words. Each group could read its story aloud to the class. Metacognition and other control processes improve with age and experience. For instance, in one study, children took a fill-in-the-blanks test and indicated how confident they were of each answer. Then they were allowed to delete some questions, making the remaining ones count more. By age 9, the children were able to estimate correctness; by age 11, they were skilled at knowing what to delete (Roebers et al., 2009). That is metacognition, knowing which of one's ideas are solid and which are shaky. You learned that long-term memory is imperfect. Gradually children become more adept at differentiating what they know with certainty from what they only imagine. Unlike younger children, older children use control processes to know whether a certain thought was just a hope, fantasy, or dream. Control processes can allow knowledge in one domain to transfer to another domain. This is the case for bilingual children, who learn to inhibit one language while using another. They are advanced not only in language but also in other measures of executive control (Bialystok, 2010). Information processing improves spontaneously during childhood, but children can learn explicit strategies and memory methods, with cultural differences as mentioned earlier. Table 7-1 notes memory improvements from birth to age 11. How much of this improvement involves metacognition? Sometimes teaching of memory strategies is explicit, more so in some nations (e.g., Germany) than in others (e.g., the United States) (Bjorklund et al., 2009). Often children with special needs require help learning control processes (Riccio et al., 2010). Genes matter as well. Children with the long allele of dopamine D4 benefit from knowing how well they are doing in each learning task—that seems to help them control their effort. Children without that allele are not affected by immediate feedback (Kegel et al., 2011). Piaget recognized concrete operational thought, when children can use logic regarding their actual (concrete) experiences. Vygotsky stressed the social instruction that helps schoolchildren learn. Information-processing theorists note children's step-by-step learning. Brain advances during middle childhood allow for faster reactions, selective attention, broader knowledge base, and development of control processes. All aspects of memory (sensory register, working, and long-term) improve in middle childhood, making metacognition possible. Information Processing and the Brain

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Printed Page 259 7.3.1 Vocabulary Homework Despite first appearances, this is not teacher and student but father and daughter, as Dad becomes excited about his 7-year-old's science project. Actually, if she is as intrigued as she appears to be, he is teacher as well as father. Children learn most of their vocabulary with friends and family, not in class. RADIUS IMAGES/PHOTOLIBRARY By age 6, children know the names of thousands of objects, and they use many parts of speech—adjectives and adverbs, as well as nouns and verbs. As Piaget recognized, they soon become more flexible and logical; they can understand prefixes, suffixes, compound words, phrases, metaphors, and figures of speech. This is a major accomplishment. The humorist James Thurber remembered: the enchanted private world of my early boyhood.... In this world, businessmen who phoned their wives to say they were tied up at the office sat roped to their swivel chairs, and probably gagged, unable to move or speak except somehow, miraculously, to telephone.... Then there was the man who left town under a cloud. Sometimes I saw him all wrapped up in the cloud and invisible.... At other times it floated, about the size of a sofa, above him wherever he went.... [I remember] the old lady who was always up in the air, the husband who did not seem able to put his foot down, the man who lost his head during a fire but was still able to run out of the house yelling. [Thurber, 1999, p. 40] Adults may not realize that figures of speech are culture-specific. A book written by an American who lived in China for decades cites many metaphors having to do with baseball that U.S. children know: such as "drop the ball," "throw a curve," "strike out" (Davis, 1999). If a teacher wants a class to pay attention and says, "Keep your eye on the ball," some immigrant children might find their attention wandering as they try to see where the ball might be. Because school-age children are able to create as well as understand metaphors, asking them to do so reveals emotions that might not be expressed in other ways. For instance, one 11-year-old said that his asthma is like a jellyfish, which has a deadly sting and vicious bite and tentacles which could squeeze your throat and make your bronchioles get smaller and make breathing harder. Or like a boa constrictor squeezing life out of you. [quoted in Peterson & Sterling, 2009, p. 97] That boy felt that he alone had to fight his disease, which he considered evil and dangerous—and beyond help from his parents. Other children in the same study had more benign metaphors. This suggests a strategy for teachers who want to know how a child feels about something—ask for a metaphor. Vocabulary

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Printed Page 260 7.3.2 Adjusting to the Context One aspect of language that advances markedly in middle childhood is pragmatics, the practical use of language, which includes the ability to use words and other devices to communicate well with varied audiences in different contexts. As children master pragmatics, they become more adept in all domains. Shy 6-year-olds cope far better with the social pressures of school if they use pragmatics well (Coplan & Weeks, 2009). LEARNING THE CODES Mastery of pragmatics allows children to change styles of speech, or "codes," depending on their audience. Each code includes many aspects of language—tone, pronunciation, gestures, sentence length, idioms, vocabulary, and grammar. Sometimes the switch is between formal code (used in academic contexts) and informal code (used with friends); sometimes it is between standard (or proper) speech and dialect or vernacular (used on the street). Many children use code in text messaging, with numbers (411), abbreviations (LOL), and emoticons (:-D), as well as spelling that teachers might mark wrong but that is pragmatic (r u ok?). ESPECIALLY FOR Parents You've had an exhausting day but are setting out to buy groceries. Your 7-year-old son wants to go with you. Should you explain that you are so tired that you want to make a quick solo trip to the supermarket this time? (see response, page 262) Children need instruction from teachers to become fluent in the formal code because the logic of grammar (whether who or whom is correct or when a sentence is incomplete) is almost impossible to deduce. Peers teach the informal code, with curses, slang, gestures, and alternate grammar. Code changes are obvious when children speak one language at home and another at school. Every nation includes many such children; most of the world's 6,000 languages are not school languages. Typical Yet Unusual Not unusual that these children are texting in French—they live in Bordeaux, and typically children everywhere text their friends. The oddity is that a girl and a boy are lying head-to-head, which rarely occurs in middle childhood. The explanation? They are siblings. Like dogs and cats that grew up in the same household, familiarity overtakes hostility. BSIP/PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC. For instance, English is the language of instruction in Australia, but 17 percent of Australian children speak one of 246 other languages at home (Centre for Community Child Health, 2009). In the United States, 23 percent of all 5- to 17-year-olds speak a language other than English at home, though most of them also speak English well. In addition, some children speak an English dialect at home that is quite different from the pronunciation and grammar codes of the English taught at school. LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE The questions of when, how, to whom, and even whether schools should provide second-language instruction are answered in different ways from nation to nation. Some schools teach several languages throughout childhood, while others punish children who utter any word that is not in the majority language. Almost every European child speaks two languages by age 10, as does almost every Canadian child, although many of these children are not equally fluent in both languages. African children who are talented and fortunate enough to reach high school often understand three languages. In the United States, less than 5 percent of children under age 11 study a language other than English in school, although most have some exposure to a second language in songs or phrases (Robelen, 2011). What about children who do not speak the school language? One approach is immersion, in which children are placed in the regular class, with native speakers. As the name implies, immersed students either sink or swim. Another approach is the opposite: Children are taught in their first language for several years, and then the second language is taught as a foreign tongue. Between these extremes lie bilingual schooling, with instruction in two languages, and, in North America, ESL (English as a second language), in which all non-English speakers are placed in a special class where they are taught intensively and exclusively in English. All the Same These five children all speak a language other than English at home and are now learning English as a new language at school. Although such classes should ideally be taught to true English-language learners (ELLs), children who already speak English are sometimes mistakenly included in such classes (like 8-year-old Elana, from Mexico). AP PHOTO/DANIEL SHANKEN Children sometimes successfully master a second language and sometimes fail: The research is not clear as to which approach is best (Gandara & Rumberger, 2009). As you remember, motivation is crucial for learning in middle childhood. Children need to feel they are accepted and appreciated for who they are and that their original language is accepted and respected, in order to want to learn another language. RESPONSE FOR Parents (from page 260) Your son would understand your explanation, but you should take him along if you can do so without losing patience. You wouldn't ignore his need for food or medicine; don't ignore his need for learning. While shopping, you can teach vocabulary (does he know pimientos, pepperoni, polenta?), categories (root vegetables, freshwater fish), and math (which size box of cereal is cheaper?). Explain in advance that you need him to help you find items and carry them and that he can choose only one item that you wouldn't normally buy. Seven-year-olds can understand rules, and they enjoy being helpful. Success is also affected by personality, ability, and background. Home literacy (frequent reading, writing, and listening in any language) and cultural values have an effect. As explained in Chapter 5, ideally parents themselves encourage language development in two languages. If that is impossible, it is better for the child's family to listen and talk frequently in at least one language than not to speak at all. Although cognitive research leaves no doubt that a second language can be learned in middle childhood if taught logically in a step-by-step fashion, whether that happens is affected by factors beyond cognitive research: SES, expectations, and national policies. Language continues to develop rapidly during middle childhood. Because children are now more logical, they can understand metaphors, prefixes, suffixes, and formal codes. Social acceptance is crucial; pragmatics is evident as children learn the informal code. Children advance in two languages if motivation is high and instruction is individualized. Adjusting to the Context

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Printed Page 262 7.4.1 International Schooling CARTOONSTOCK.COM Specifics of national education reveal that cultures differ in what they value. Although literacy and numeracy (reading and math) are goals for all children almost everywhere, many aspects of curricula vary by nation, by community, and by subject. In France in 2000, for example, children had physical education for three hours and arts instruction for more than two hours each week (Marlow-Ferguson, 2002). By contrast, half of all U.S. 18- to 24-year-olds say they had no arts education in childhood, either in school or anywhere else (Rabkin & Hedberg, 2011). Educational practices differ radically even between nations that are geographically close. For example, in Germany the average schoolchild studies science three times more often than in the Netherlands (Snyder & Dillow, 2010). Same Situation, Far Apart: Spot the Hidden Curriculum Literacy is central to the curriculum for schoolchildren everywhere, no matter how far apart they live. However, in the U.S. classroom at the left, boys and girls learn together, clothes are casual, history books are paperback and illustrated, and children of every background read the same stories with the same patriotic—but not religious—themes. All these aspects of the hidden curriculum are absent from the boy memorizing his holy book on the right. WILL & DENI MCINTYRE/CORBIS OLIVIER CIRENDINI/LONELY PLANET/GETTY IMAGES THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM Variation is even greater in aspects of the hidden curriculum, which refers to implicit values and assumptions evident in course selection, schedules, tracking, teacher characteristics, discipline, settings, teaching methods, sports competition, student government, extracurricular activities, and so on. Even within nations, such practices differ. When I changed from one school to another (as described in this chapter's opening anecdote), I was punished for making a joke during a math lesson—which would not have happened in my old school. Whether students should be quiet or talkative is part of the hidden curriculum, taught to students from kindergarten on. This was especially apparent to me when I taught high school students at the United Nations school. One student newly arrived from India not only was quiet in class discussions but also stood up when I called on him—to the surprise of his classmates. Within a week, he learned to stay in his seat, but he never spoke spontaneously. More generally, if teachers differ from their students in gender, ethnicity, or economic background, the hidden message may be that education is irrelevant for these children's daily lives. If some students are in gifted classes, the message may be that they are more capable of learning and that less is expected of the other students. A curriculum of social values is expressed in the school's physical setting, which might include spacious classrooms, wide hallways, and large, grassy playgrounds—or cramped, poorly equipped rooms and cement play yards or play streets. In some nations, school is outdoors, with no chairs, desks, or books, where a downpour cancels class. What is the hidden curriculum there? Coming and Going Two U.S. elementary schools—one in Modesto, California (left), the other in Wayzata, Minnesota (right)—illustrate differences in hidden curriculum. Political leaders and taxpayers often disagree with parents and teachers as to whether this affects classroom learning. ED CRISOSTOMO / MODESTO BEE /ZUMAPRESS.com © ANDREA RUGG/BEATEWORKS/CORBIS INTERNATIONAL TESTING Over the past two decades, more than 50 nations have participated in at least one massive test of educational achievement. Results are studied by political leaders because, if achievement rises, the national economy advances—a sequence that seems causal, not merely correlational (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2009). Better-educated adults become more productive, as well as healthier, workers. Science and math are tested in the Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMSS). The main test of reading is the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Both of these tests have been given several times, with East Asian nations usually at the top and the United States rising, but not as high as other nations (see Tables 7.2 and 7.3). Most developing nations do not give these tests, but when they do, scores are low, with Yemen at the bottom. Many experts wonder what factors produce higher achievement. Teachers are often thought to be crucial. After a wholesale reform of the educational system, scores of children in Finland recently increased dramatically (Sahlberg, 2011). Teachers may be one crucial component. Only the top 3 percent of high school graduates in Finland are admitted to teachers' colleges, where they receive five years of free college education, including a master's degree in education theory and practice, and advanced training in an academic discipline. Then Finnish teachers are granted more autonomy within their classrooms than is typical in other systems, and they have time and are encouraged to work with colleagues (Sahlberg, 2011). Buildings are designed to foster collaboration, with comfortable teacher's lounges (Sparks, 2012). Teachers might be the reason for Finland's success, or it may be something more basic regarding Finland's size, population, culture, or history. © THE NEW YORKER COLLECTION 1998 MIKE TWOHY FROM CARTOONBANK.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. TIMSS experts videotaped 231 math classes in three nations—Japan, Germany, and the United States (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999/2009). The U.S. teachers presented math at a lower level than did their German and Japanese counterparts, with more definitions but less connection to what the students had already learned. Few students were engaged because in math, "teachers seem to believe that learning terms and practicing skills is not very exciting" (p. 89). By contrast, the Japanese teachers were excited about math instruction, working collaboratively and structuring lessons so that the children developed proofs and alternative solutions, alone and in groups. Teachers used social interaction and followed an orderly sequence (lessons built on previous knowledge). Such teaching reflected all three theories of cognition: problem solving from Piaget, collaborative learning from Vygotsky, and sequencing from information processing. Remember that Japanese students excel on the TIMSS, which suggests that all three theories may be relevant. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SCHOOL PERFORMANCE In addition to marked national, ethnic, and economic differences, gender differences in achievement scores are reported. The PIRLS results find girls ahead of boys in verbal skills in every nation and, traditionally, boys scored ahead of girls in math and science. In recent TIMSS, however, gender differences in math have narrowed or disappeared. Boys were slightly higher (10 points) than girls overall; the differences were even smaller (6 points) in the United States. Fourth-grade girls scored higher in math than did boys in Russia, Singapore, Algeria, and Iran (Gonzales et al., 2009). Such results lead to a gender-similarities hypothesis, that males and females are similar in cognition, with "trivial" exceptions (Hyde et al., 2008, p. 494). Academic achievement also shows gender differences. During middle childhood, girls have higher grades overall, including in math and science. Then, at puberty, girls' achievement dips, especially in science. Many reasons for these gender differences have been suggested (Halpern et al., 2007). For instance, girls are ahead in physiological maturation (bones, teeth, etc.), which may make it easier for them to sit at desks and concentrate. Then, at puberty, sexual thoughts may interfere with academic ones. Alternatively, social prejudice may favor young girls but not young women. Since most elementary school teachers are women, girls in the early grades may feel (or be) encouraged. Then, when girls begin to prepare for adulthood, they seek the skills that women seem to need, which they conclude from personal observation do not include the expertise in calculus that would prepare them to be engineers or physicists (Weisgram et al., 2010). For that reason, their motivation may falter in science and math. Research on fifth-graders with high IQs found an intriguing gender difference: When academic material became confusing, girls were less likely to persevere, but boys enjoyed the challenge (Dweck, 2007). Such discrepancies could be explained by nature or nurture. However, do not make too much of either explanation for gender differences in school achievement. When scores are compared, gender differences are tiny compared with SES or national ones. The 443-point difference between Hong Kong and Yemen (667 and 224) dwarfs the 10-point gender divide. International differences are usually explained as rooted in educational practices, national values, and economic wherewithal. Such factors are relevant within nations as well, as we will now see. International Schooling

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Printed Page 272 7.5.1 Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity, Bipolar, and Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorders Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder are discussed together because they are often comorbid and confused with one another (Miklowitz & Cicchetti, 2010). Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is a new diagnosis that helps to resolve this confusion. Almost Impossible The concentration needed to do homework is almost beyond Clint, age 11, who takes medication for ADHD. Note his furrowed brow, resting head, and sad face. SACRAMENTO BEE/LEZLIE STERLING/ZUMA PRESS ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER Perhaps 10 percent of all young children have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which means they have difficulty paying attention and may also be filled with uncontrollable urges to be active or to act out impulsively. Children with ADHD can be inattentive, impulsive, and overactive and are thus disruptive when adults want them to be still (Barkley, 2006). About twice as many boys as girls have ADHD (National Center for Health Statistics, 2011). A typical child with ADHD, when made to sit down to do homework, might look up, ask questions, think about playing, get a drink, fidget, squirm, tap the table, jiggle his or her legs, and go to the bathroom—and then start the whole sequence again. Not surprisingly, such children tend to have academic difficulties; they are less likely to graduate from high school and college (Loe & Feldman, 2007). The number of children diagnosed with ADHD has increased in the United States from about 5 percent in 1980 to about 10 percent currently. Rates are affected by ethnicity, with more European American children than Latino ones thought to have ADHD—at least as measured by medication use. The rate has doubled in Europe as well, although more U.S. children than European ones are diagnosed with the problem (e.g., Hsia & Maclennan, 2009; van den Ban et al., 2010). ESPECIALLY FOR Health Workers Parents ask that some medication be prescribed for their kindergartener, who they say is much too active for them to handle. How do you respond? (see response, page 275) Diagnosis itself is a problem since some adults are quick to blame children (especially boys) for normal activity. Experts say that ADHD should be diagnosed only when it is apparent in at least two places (e.g., home and school) and when hyperactivity does not improve with consistent structure and guidance. A first step is for parents and teachers to learn how to provide that guidance (Subcommittee on ADHD, 2011). BIPOLAR DISORDER Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme mood swings, from euphoria to deep depression. Children with this disorder usually experience at least one episode of grandiosity. They might believe, for instance, that they are the smartest person in school, a genius destined to save the world. At other times, they might be severely depressed, unwilling or unable to read, play, or go to school. They are far more irritable than the typical child; the younger a child is, the more difficult the diagnosis (Miklowitz & Cicchetti, 2010). Go Team Remember that abnormality is normal. Which of these boys has been diagnosed with a serious disability? Michael, second from the right, has bipolar disorder. MARC ASNIN/REDUX One U.S. study reported that medical visits for youth under age 18 with a primary diagnosis of bipolar disorder increased 40-fold between 1995 and 2003, a period when adult diagnoses of bipolar merely doubled (Moreno et al, 2007). Such a rapid increase suggested to critics that childhood bipolar disorder was a diagnosis in the mind of the observer, not in the moods of the child. Others suggested that the rapid increase in diagnosis was the result of earlier misdiagnosis, not current overdiagnosis (Markowitz & Chicetti, 2010; Santosh & Congraman, 2008). DISRUPTIVE MOOD DYSREGULATION DISORDER None of these critics doubted, however, that there were many children who were brought to pediatricians and psychologists by parents (or referred by teachers) because they were too often rageful and irritable, even on their best days. These weren't just children going through a difficult phase, but children who were chronically angry, and their behavior was occurring at home, at school, and for months on end. In the new edition of the DSM-5, a new type of depressive disorder is included, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), to describe the behavior of these children. These are children who may scream over a dropped ice cream cone, or throw a remote control across the room rather than share it—and who look sad or angry when they are not losing their temper. These behaviors may not be precursors of adult bipolar disorder but may instead predict later anxiety and depressive disorders, now apparent in a storm of unregulated feeling. DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN DISORDERS Bipolar disorder "remains notoriously difficult to differentiate from other psychiatric illnesses in youth" (Phillips, 2010, p. 4). Many children diagnosed with either ADHD or bipolar disorder may be more accurately diagnosed with the other. It is hoped that the new DMDD diagnosis will result in more accurate diagnosis and effective treatment. Both disorders are more common in children with a parent who suffers from psychopathology of some sort. Some parents have the same disorder as the child. When the parent's disorder is unlike the child's, children with ADHD often have a parent with learning disabilities, whereas children with bipolar disorder often have a parent with mood disturbances, such as depression. This suggests a genetic link as well as multifinality. Both disorders correlate with unusual brain patterns. Children with either disorder are less able than the average child to distinguish emotions when looking at faces. That is true for both disorders, but activation of distinct parts of the amygdala differs between the two (Brotman et al., 2008, 2010). RESPONSE FOR Teachers (from page 270) The advantages are that all the children learn more aspects of human knowledge and that many children can develop their talents. Art, music, and sports should be an integral part of education, not just a break from academics. The disadvantage is that they take time and attention away from reading and math, which might lead to less proficiency in those subjects on standard tests and thus to criticism from parents and supervisors. Treatment involves (1) counseling and training for the family and the child, (2) showing teachers how to direct attention and increase structure to help the children learn, and, if that does not help, (3) medication to stabilize moods for bipolar children and to calm children with ADHD. Ongoing monitoring is crucial because some drugs help children with ADHD but harm children with bipolar disorder. Even with an accurate diagnosis, each child responds differently to each drug, and responses change with time. Giving psychoactive medication to children is controversial, as the following explains. Drugs for Children In the United States, more than 2 million children and adolescents younger than 18 take prescription drugs to regulate their emotions and behavior. The rate has leveled off in recent years but remains high, with more than 1 in 20 children taking psychoactive drugs in middle childhood, usually for ADHD (Rabin, 2011; Scheffler et al., 2009; Zuvekas et al., 2006). In many other nations as well, drug use in middle childhood is increasing (Hsia & Maclennan, 2009; van den Ban et al., 2010). The drug most commonly prescribed in middle childhood is Ritalin (for ADHD), but at least 20 other psychoactive drugs treat ADHD, depression, anxiety, developmental delay, autism, bipolar disorder, and many other conditions. Children aged 2 to 5 also take psychoactive drugs more often than was the case a decade ago, although that rate (about 1 child in 600) is far lower than the rate for older children (Olfson et al., 2010). Because they have been inadequately tested in children, many drugs are prescribed "off label"—they have not been approved for patients of that age or for the particular condition for which they are prescribed. Much of the American public is suspicious of any childhood psychiatric medicine (dosReis & Myers, 2008; McLeod et al., 2004; Rose, 2008). That suspicion affects drug use. One small study of parents whose children were diagnosed with ADHD found that about 20 percent believed drugs should never be used for children (dosReis et al., 2009). A larger study found that only about half (56 percent) of the parents of U.S. children who are diagnosed with ADHD give them medication every day (Scheffler et al., 2009). African American children have more ADHD symptoms but are less often medicated, for reasons that include fragmented medical care and distrust of doctors (T. W. Miller et al., 2009). The opposite perspective comes from professionals who find that medication helps schoolchildren with emotional or behavioral problems, particularly ADHD (Epstein et al., 2010; King et al., 2009; Scheffler et al., 2009). Many educators and psychiatrists consider it tragic that only 56 percent of the children diagnosed with ADHD take the corresponding medication regularly (National Center for Health Statistics, 2011). They argue that if a child had type 1 diabetes, parents would give insulin; so, logically, when a child has an emotional illness, parents should give medicine if it helps. Some parents agree with that perspective. The same study that found 20 percent of parents always opposed to drugs also found 29 percent who believed that drugs were necessary. They blamed doctors for waiting too long to prescribe (dosReis et al., 2009). Although many drugs help children with their immediate problems, the long-term effects of drug use are a major concern. Three questions are often raised: Will children who take drugs become adolescent addicts? Will height be stunted? Will medication cause other psychiatric disorders? The answer to all three is no, according to scientific longitudinal studies. In fact, childhood medication for children who are unable to function normally reduces the risk of later illegal drug use and of other disorders, and it does not make children shorter than their genes destined them to be (Biederman et al., 2009, 2010; Faraone & Wilens, 2003). The rate of developing another psychiatric disorder is compared not with the overall average but with the rate in children who have the same initial psychological problems but are not medicated. This is important because the incidence of pathology for young children who have special needs is higher than average, no matter what treatment they are given (Geller et al., 2008; Loe & Feldman, 2007; Molina et al., 2009). It is a mistake to blame earlier medication for emotional problems in adolescence. There is another issue, however. As more drugs are prescribed, more abuse of those drugs occurs. Ritalin in particular is sometimes taken by teenagers who want an extra boost (Setlik et al., 2009). Either they get the drug from someone who actually has ADHD, or they pretend to have ADHD themselves, or they buy it illegally. Finally, although harmful effects are not evident, and many children benefit from drug use in the short term, there is scant evidence that long-term use has any benefits (Sroufe, 2012). As you see, neither side has all the evidence in their favor. Since psychoactive drugs, taken daily from childhood on, add to the profits of drug manufacturers, some people suspect that money contaminates the research. Everyone agrees that, when children have special needs, parents and teachers need support and training. People on both sides agree that drugs are not a lifelong solution. Whether short-term use in childhood is a benefit depends on many specifics, about which adults disagree. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity, Bipolar...

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Printed Page 306 8.3.2 Bullying From a developmental perspective, childhood bullying is connected to many other aspects of aggression, including maltreatment at home and delinquency in the community (discussed in Chapter 6 and Chapter 10). Here we focus on bullies and victims in school. Bullying is defined as repeated, systematic attacks intended to harm those who are unable or unlikely to defend themselves. It occurs in every nation, in every community, and in every kind of school (religious or secular, public or private, progressive or traditional, large or small). Although adults are often unaware of it, children recognize it as common. As one girl said, "There's a little bit of bully in everyone" (Guerra et al., 2011, p. 303). Bullying may be of four types: Physical (hitting, pinching, or kicking) Verbal (teasing, taunting, or name-calling) Relational (destroying peer acceptance and friendship) Cyberbullying (using electronic means to harm another) The first three are common in primary school and begin even earlier, in preschool. Cyberbullying is a particularly devastating form of relational bullying, more common in secondary school than in primary school, and is discussed in Chapter 9. A key word in the definition of bullying is repeated. Almost everyone experiences an isolated attack or is called a derogatory name at some point in middle childhood. Victims of bullying, however, endure shameful experiences again and again—being forced almost daily to hand over lunch money, laugh at insults, drink milk mixed with detergent, and so on—with no one defending them. Victims tend to be "cautious, sensitive, quiet...lonely and abandoned at school. As a rule, they do not have a single good friend in their class" (Olweus et al., 1999, p. 15). Some adults think that victims are particularly ugly or odd, but this is not usually true. Victims are chosen because of their personality and isolation; they may be teased about their appearance, but it is their emotional vulnerability that attracts the bully. As one boy said: You can get bullied because you are weak or annoying or because you are different. Kids with big ears get bullied. Dorks get bullied. You can also get bullied because you think too much of yourself and try to show off. Teacher's pet gets bullied. If you say the right answer too many times in class you can get bullied. There are lots of popular groups who bully each other and other groups, but you can get bullied within your group too. If you do not want to get bullied, you have to stay under the radar, but then you might feel sad because no one pays attention to you. [quoted in Guerra et al., 2011, p. 306] Remember the three types of unpopular children? Neglected children are not victimized; they are ignored, "under the radar." But if their family is supportive, they may be emotionally strong (Bowes et al., 2010). Who Suffers More? The 12-year-old girl and the 10-year-old boy both seem to be bullying younger children, but their attacks differ. Some developmentalists think a verbal assault is more painful than a physical one because it lingers for years. PETER TITMUSS/ALAMY HENRY KING/GETTY IMAGES Rejected children, however, often have trouble at home as well. Most of them are withdrawn-rejected, but some are aggressive-rejected. The latter are bully-victims (or provocative victims) (Unnever, 2005), "the most strongly disliked members of the peer group," with neither friends nor sympathizers (Sandstrom & Zakriski, 2004, p. 110). One study found that teachers tend to mistreat bully-victims, making their problems worse (Khoury-Kassabri, 2009). Unlike bully-victims, most bullies are not rejected. Although some have low self-esteem, others are proud; they bully because they are pleased with themselves and they find bullying cool (Guerra et al., 2011). Often bullies have a few admiring friends, more as they refine their social perception. Typically, bullying is a social event, as bullies show off their power (not true for cyberbullying but very true for physical bullying). Bullies usually pick victims who are already rejected by most classmates (Veenstra et al., 2010), who have no friends to stick up for them, and who cannot alone fight back effectively. That is true for all forms of bullying, relational as well as physical, for both sexes, but there are some sex differences in bullying type. Boy bullies are often big; they use physical aggression on smaller, weaker boys. By contrast, girl bullies are sharp-tongued, preferring verbal aggression. They mock or spread rumors about shyer, more soft-spoken girls. Remember the latency period, in which children are involved with others of their own sex, both as friends and as victims. Bullies generally turn on their own, seeking admiration from other boys or other girls. Occasionally, boys accept other boys who bully girls, but girls almost never bully boys in middle childhood. This changes at puberty: Boys are no longer admired for bullying girls, but girls are allowed to bully boys as a defense against (or expression of ?) sexual feelings (Veenstra et al., 2010). CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF BULLYING Bullying may originate with a genetic predisposition or a brain abnormality. When a toddler is aggressive, parents, teachers, and peers usually teach that child to rein in those impulses, developing emotional regulation (Chapter 6) and effortful control. However, the opposite may occur (Granic & Patterson, 2006). Young children become more aggressive if their families create insecure attachment, provide a stressful home life, are ineffective at discipline, or include hostile siblings. Peers are influential as well. Some peer groups approve of bullying, and children in those groups entertain their classmates by mocking, excluding, punching, and insulting one another (N. E. Werner & Hill, 2010). On the other hand, when students themselves disapprove of bullying, its incidence is reduced (Guerra & Williams, 2010). Young bullies and victims sometimes escape serious depression or other harm. Both bullies and victims can be identified in first grade and "need active guidance and remediation" before their behavior patterns become truly destructive (Leadbeater & Hoglund, 2009, p. 857). Unless bullies are deterred, they and their victims risk lower school achievement and relationship difficulties later on. Bystanders suffer, too (Ma et al., 2009; Monks & Coyne, 2011; Nishina & Juvonen, 2005; Rivers et al., 2009). CAN BULLYING BE STOPPED? Most victimized children find ways to halt ongoing bullying—by ignoring, retaliating, defusing, or avoiding. A study of older children who were bullied one year but not the next indicated that finding new friends was crucial (P. K. Smith et al., 2004). Friendships help individual victims, but what can be done to halt bullying altogether? Buddies, Not Bullies Within the past two decades, virtually every U.S. state has passed laws against bullying, and many schools have specific anti-bullying curricula. Positive demonstrations by the children themselves (as shown here by Noel Rodriguez and Jonathan Almendarez, who have just acted out a skit showing how to stop a bully) are better than adult lectures, laws, or punishments. CRAIG RUTTLE/MCT/NEWSCOM OBSERVATION QUIZ These boys share a characteristic that might make them particularly vulnerable to bullying. What is it? (see answer, page 310) We know what does not work: increasing students' awareness, instituting zero tolerance for fighting, or putting troubled students together in a therapy group or a classroom (Baldry & Farrington, 2007; Monks & Coyne, 2011). This last measure tends to make daily life easier for some teachers, but it increases aggression. We also know that each specific school, with their teachers, students, and practices, can make much more difference than the macrosystem can (such as a state policy against bullying, or a national value). For example, a study of over a thousand schools in Colombia (where guerilla and paramilitary troops have fought for decades) found that regional poverty, population density, and homicide rate did not correlate with bullying nearly as much as did hostility and lack of empathy within each school (Chaux et al., 2009). Empathy can be taught via cooperative learning, friendship encouragement, and school pride. A "whole school" approach—including all teachers and bystanders, parents and aides, bullies and victims—seems to be most effective. For example, a Colorado study of children with high self-esteem found that when the overall school climate seemed to encourage learning, friendship, and cooperation, children with high self-esteem were unlikely to be bullies; yet when the school climate was hostile, those with high self-esteem were often bullies (Gendron et al., 2011). Peers are crucial: If they are taught to notice bullying, become aware, and yet do nothing (some antibullying programs don't teach them what to do), that is no help. However, if peers empathize with victims and refuse to admire bullies, that reduces classroom aggression (Salmivalli, 2010). Efforts to change the entire school are credited for recent successes in decreasing bullying in 29 schools in England (e.g., Cross et al., 2010), throughout Norway, in Finland (Kärnä et al., 2011), and often in the United States (Allen, 2010; Limber, 2011). A review of all research on successful ways to halt bullying finds the following (Berger, 2007): Everyone in the school must change, not just the identified bullies. ESPECIALLY FOR Parents of an Accused Bully Another parent has told you that your child is a bully. Your child denies it and explains that the other child doesn't mind being teased. What should you do? (see response, page 311) Intervention is more effective in the earlier grades. Evaluation is critical: Programs that seem good on paper might not work. This final point merits special emphasis. Longitudinal research finds that some programs reduce bullying and others increase it. Results depend on the age of the children, the strategies employed, and the outcome measures used (peer reports, teacher reports, suspensions, etc.). Objective follow-up suggests that, although well-intentioned efforts sometimes fail, bullying can be reduced. Schoolchildren want and need friends to encourage and support them and to convey the culture of children. Some children are popular, others not, primarily for their behavior and degree of conformity. Bullying is common in middle childhood, occurring in every school, in every nation. Bullying can be reduced by an effort that engages everyone in a school—children, teachers, parents, principals—to change the school culture so that empathy and friendship increase. Bullying

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Printed Page 309 8.4 Children's Moral values Although the origins of morality are debatable (see Chapter 6), there is no doubt that middle childhood is prime time for moral development. These are: years of eager, lively searching on the part of children...as they try to understand things, to figure them out, but also to weigh the rights and wrongs.... This is the time for growth of the moral imagination, fueled constantly by the willingness, the eagerness of children to put themselves in the shoes of others. [Coles, 1997, p. 99] Empathy Building Look at their facial expressions, not just their matching hats and gloves. For this 9-year-old sister and 7-year-old brother, moral development is apparent. This is not necessarily the case for all siblings, however; imagine the same behavior but with angry expressions. JOHN ANTHONY RIZZO/UPPERCUT IMAGES/PHOTOLIBRARY That optimistic assessment seems validated by detailed research. In middle childhood, children are quite capable of making moral judgments, differentiating universal principles from mere conventional norms (Turiel, 2008). Empirical studies show that throughout middle childhood, children readily suggest moral arguments to distinguish right from wrong (Killen, 2007). Many forces drive children's growing interest in such issues. Three of them are: (1) peer culture, (2) personal experience, and (3) empathy. As already explained, part of the culture of children involves moral values, such as being loyal to friends and protecting children from adults. A child's personal experiences also matter. For example, children in multiethnic schools are better able to use principles to argue against prejudice than are children who attend ethnically homogeneous schools (Killen et al., 2006). Empathy becomes stronger in middle childhood because children are more aware of one another. This increasing perception can backfire, however. One example was just described: Bullies become adept at picking victims who are rejected by classmates, and then others admire the bullies (Veenstra et al., 2010). However, the increase in empathy during middle childhood at least allows the possibility of moral judgment that notices, and defends, children who are unfairly rejected. Obviously, ethical advances are not automatic. Children who are slow to develop theory of mind—which, as you remember from Chapter 5, is affected by family and culture—are also slow to develop empathy (Caravita et al., 2010). The authors of a study of 7-year-olds conclude that "moral competence may be a universal human characteristic, but that it takes a situation with specific demand characteristics to translate this competence into actual prosocial performance" (van IJzendoorn et al., 2010, p. 1). In other words, school-age children can think and act morally, but they do not always do so. Children's Moral values

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Printed Page 309 8.4.1 Moral Reasoning Much of the developmental research on children's moral thinking began with Piaget's descriptions of the rules used by children as they play (Piaget, 1932/1997). This led to Lawrence Kohlberg's description of cognitive stages of morality (Kohlberg, 1963). KOHLBERG'S LEVELS OF MORAL THOUGHT Kohlberg described three levels of moral reasoning and two stages at each level (see Table 8-3), with parallels to Piaget's stages of cognition (see also Table 1-6). Preconventional moral reasoning is similar to preoperational thought in that it is egocentric; children seek pleasure and avoid pain rather than focusing on social concerns. Conventional moral reasoning parallels concrete operational thought in that it relates to specific practices; children try to follow what parents, teachers, and friends do. Postconventional moral reasoning uses formal operational thought; people use logic, questioning "what is" in order to decide "what should be." According to Kohlberg, cognitive development advances morality. During middle childhood, children's answers shift from being preconventional to conventional: Concrete thought and peer experiences help children move past the first two stages (level I) to the next two (level II). Postconventional reasoning does not appear until later, if at all. Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas to school-age boys (and eventually girls, teenagers, and adults). The story of a poor man named Heinz, whose wife was dying, was one such dilemma. A local druggist sold the only cure for 10 times what it cost to make. Heinz went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said "no." The husband got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that? Why? [Kohlberg, 1963, p. 19] That "why?" is crucial. Kohlberg judged moral development not by the answers but by the reasons for the answers. For instance, someone might say that the husband should steal the drug because he needs his wife to care for him (preconventional), or because people will blame him if he lets his wife die (conventional), or because human life is more important than obeying the law (post-conventional). CRITICISMS OF KOHLBERG Kohlberg has been criticized for not appreciating cultural or gender differences. For example, he valued abstract justice more than family or cultural loyalty: Not every culture agrees (Sherblom, 2008). Furthermore, his original participants were all boys, which may have led him to discount female values of nurturance and relationships (Gilligan, 1982). Another criticism arises from a developmental perspective: Kohlberg did not recognize that although children's morality differs from that of adults, the children's distinct values may be equally valid. Children question adult rules that seem unfair (Turiel, 2006, 2008)—one example of their moral and postconventional thought. In one respect, however, Kohlberg was undeniably correct. Children use their intellectual abilities to justify their moral actions. The role of cognition was evident when trios of 8- to 18-year-olds (each trio about the same age) were asked to decide how to divide a sum of money with another trio of children. Some groups chose to share equally; other groups were more selfish. There were no age differences in the actual decisions, but there were age differences in the arguments voiced. Older children suggested more complex rationalizations for their choices, both selfish and altruistic (Gummerum et al., 2008). Moral Reasoning

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Printed Page 284 8.1.1 Industry and Inferiority Although adults have always taught 6- to 11-year-olds the skills they would need later on, it was not until developmentalists focused on the characteristics of these children that it became clear why they are such great learners. More than people of any other age, children of this age are naturally industrious, practicing whatever skills their culture values, or are busy with their own childhood concerns. At the same time, they are far more vulnerable to criticism than are younger children. ERIKSON'S INSIGHTS The tension between productivity and incompetence is the fourth psychosocial crisis, industry versus inferiority, as described by Erik Erikson. He noted that during these years, the child "must forget past hopes and wishes, while his exuberant imagination is tamed and harnessed to the laws of impersonal things," and he becomes "ready to apply himself to given skills and tasks" (Erikson, 1963, pp. 258, 259). Think of learning to read and add—painstaking and sometimes boring processes. For instance, slowly sounding out "Jane has a dog" or writing "3 + 4 = 7" for the hundredth time is not exciting. Yet children busily practice reading and math: They are intrinsically motivated to read a page, finish a worksheet, memorize a spelling word, color a map, and so on. Similarly, they enjoy collecting, categorizing, and counting whatever they accumulate—perhaps stamps, stickers, stones, or seashells. That is industry. Celebrating Spring No matter where they live, 7- to 11-year-olds seek to understand and develop whatever skills are valued by their culture. They do so in active, industrious ways, as described in every theory. This is illustrated here, as four friends in Assam, northeastern India, usher in spring with a Bihu celebration. Soon they will be given sweets and tea, which is the sociocultural validation of their energy, independence, and skill. LINDSAY HEBBERD/CORBIS Overall, children judge themselves as either industrious or inferior—deciding whether they are competent or incompetent, productive or useless, winners or losers. Being productive is intrinsically joyous, and it fosters the self-control that is a crucial defense against emotional problems (Bradley & Corwyn, 2005). A sense of industry may be a defense against early substance use as well. In a longitudinal study in Arizona of 509 third- and fourth-graders, over a five-month period, an increasing number had tried, or were expecting to try, alcohol (from 58 percent to 72 percent) and cigarettes (from 18 to 23 percent) (Jones, 2011). These children were aged 9 and 10, yet many already wanted the drugs that adolescents use. But here is the crucial finding: The children most likely to anticipate smoking or drinking were those who increasingly felt inferior, not industrious (Jones, 2011). For example, they did not agree that they "stick with things until they are finished" and they were not proud of what they did. FREUD ON LATENCY Sigmund Freud described this period as latency, a time when emotional drives are quiet and unconscious sexual conflicts are submerged. Some experts complain that "middle childhood has been neglected at least since Freud relegated these years to the status of an uninteresting 'latency period'" (Huston & Ripke, 2006, p. 7). But in one sense, at least, Freud was correct: Sexual impulses are quiet. Even when children were betrothed before age 12 (rare today, but not uncommon in earlier centuries), the young husband and wife had little interaction. Everywhere, boys and girls choose to be with others of their own sex. Indeed, boys who scrawl "Girls stay out!" on their clubhouses, and girls who complain that "boys stink," are typical. Industry and Inferiority

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Printed Page 285 8.1.2 Self-Concept As children mature, they develop their self-concepts, which are their ideas about themselves—including their intelligence, personality, abilities, gender, and ethnic background. As you remember, the very notion that they are individuals is a discovery in toddlerhood, and a positive, global self-concept is typical in early childhood. That global self-acceptance changes in middle childhood. The self-concept gradually becomes more specific and logical, as one might expect, given increases in cognitive development and social awareness. As one group explains, "The cognitive ability to combine specific behavioral features of the self (I can run fast and throw far) into higher-order generalizations...(I am athletic) appears in middle childhood..." (Pfeifer et al., 2010, p. 144). Yet as the self-concept becomes more specific and logical, it also becomes less optimistic, incorporating influences from peers and the overall society. For example, some 6-year-olds from minority ethnic groups are refreshingly unaware of prejudice against their group; by age 11, they are aware, usually taking pride in their self-concept as, say, Latino, in defense against specific insults they have heard (Garcia Coll & Marks, 2009). COMPARED WITH OTHERS The schoolchild's self-concept no longer mirrors the parents' perspective. Every theory and every observer notes that children become more concerned with the opinions of their peers as they age from 6 to 11. During preadolescence, "the peer group exerts an increasingly salient socializing function" (Thomaes et al., 2010, p. 812). This does not mean that parents are irrelevant. Increasingly, children regulate their own emotions, but co-regulation (regulating with their parents) is more accurate than independence (regulating alone). In middle childhood, emotional regulation is influenced by parents as well as peers, with parental attachment still mitigating low self-esteem at age 10 and 12 (Kerns et al., 2011). However, not only parents but also peers, older children, and even strangers become potential critics. Children depend on social comparison, comparing themselves with other people, as they develop their self-concept (Carpendale & Lewis, 2004; Davis-Kean et al., 2009). Ideally, social comparison helps them value themselves and abandon the imaginary, rosy self-evaluation of preschoolers. Yet some children—especially those from minority ethnic or religious groups—become newly aware of prejudices they need to overcome (Kiang & Harter, 2008; McKown & Strambler, 2009). Children also compare themselves with peers of the other sex and become aware of gender discrimination; for example, girls complain that they are not allowed to play tougher sports, and boys complain that teachers favor the girls (Brown et al., 2011). For all children, increasing self-understanding and social awareness come at a price. Self-criticism and self-consciousness rise from ages 6 to 11, and "by middle childhood this [earlier] overestimate of their ability or judgments decreases" (Davis-Kean et al., 2009, p. 184) while self-esteem falls. Children's self-concept becomes influenced by the opinions of others, even of children they do not know (Thomaes et al., 2010). In addition, partly because children think concretely during middle childhood, materialism increases and appearances matter. Attributes that adults might find superficial become important to children, which makes self-esteem more fragile and more dependent on externals (Chaplin & John, 2007). For instance, insecure 10-year-olds might covet the latest shoes, smart phones, and so on. They also might criticize the way their parents dress, or talk, or style their hair. CULTURE AND SELF-ESTEEM Ideally, "children develop feelings of self-esteem, competence, and individuality during middle childhood as they begin comparing themselves with peers" (Ripke et al., 2006, p. 261). Research in many nations has found that teaching anxious children to confide in friends as well as to understand their own emotions helps them develop a better self-concept (Siu, 2007). After-school activities, particularly sports, can provide a foundation for friendship and realistic self-esteem. Same Situation, Far Apart: Helping at Home Sichuan, in China, and Virginia, in the United States, provide vastly different contexts for child development. For instance, in some American suburbs, laws require recycling and forbid hanging laundry outside—but not in rural China. Nonetheless, everywhere children help their families with household chores, as these two do. © CORBIS TAO IMAGES LIMITED/GETTY IMAGES Although many North American parents praise their children and want them to be proud of themselves, this is a cultural view, not a universal one (Yamaguchi et al., 2007). Many other cultures expect children to be modest, not prideful. For example, Australians say that "tall poppies" are cut down, and the Japanese discourage social comparison aimed at making oneself feel superior. Even among American children, researchers have found that very high self-esteem in middle childhood can undercut effort and empathy and thus work against healthy development (de Castro et al., 2011; Menon et al., 2007). Culture seems to be more relevant to a child's self-concept than is the child's objective accomplishment. For instance, Japanese children excel at math on the TIMSS, but only 17 percent are confident of their math ability. In the United States, 53 percent of those taking the TIMSS are confident, yet they score significantly lower than the Japanese children do (Snyder & Dillow, 2010). In Estonia, low self-esteem correlates with high academic achievement (Pullmann & Allik, 2008). Self-Concept

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Printed Page 287 8.1.3 Resilience and Stress Before age 6, children depend on their immediate families for food, learning, and life itself. Then "experiences in middle childhood can sustain, magnify, or reverse the advantages or disadvantages that children acquire in the preschool years" (Huston & Ripke, 2006, p. 2). Supportive families continue to be protective, but 6- to 11-year-old children may escape destructive family influences by finding their own niche in the larger world. Some children break free, seemingly unscathed by early experiences. They have been called "resilient" or even "invincible." Resilience has been defined as "a dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity" (Luthar et al., 2000, p. 543). Note the three parts of this definition: Resilience is dynamic, not static: It may be evident at one age but not another. Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress. For example, if a child escapes home problems via academic involvement and school friends, it is positive adaptation. Adversity must be significant. Some adversities are comparatively minor (large class size, poor vision) and some are major (victimization, neglect). Children cope with both, but only major coping is called resilient. Current thinking about resilience (see Table 8-1), with insights from dynamic-systems theory, suggests that, although some children cope better than others, none are unaffected by their past (Jenson & Fraser, 2006; Luthar et al., 2003). Sensitivity is affected by genes, early child rearing, preschool education, and sociocultural values. Some children are hardy, "dandelions" not "orchids" (Ellis & Boyce, 2008). CUMULATIVE STRESS One important discovery is that accumulated stresses over time, including minor ones (called "daily hassles"), are more devastating than an isolated major stress. Almost every child can withstand a single stressful, momentary event, but repeated stresses make resilience difficult (Jaffee et al., 2007). One example comes from children who experienced Hurricane Katrina at the end of August 2005. Years afterward, about half the children were resilient, but the other half (especially those in middle childhood at the time of the hurricane) were still traumatized. The incidence of serious psychological problems was affected more by their later repeated stresses—frequent moves, new caregivers, disruption of schooling—than by the hurricane itself (Kronenberg et al., 2010; Viadero, 2007). An international example comes from Sri Lanka, where many children were exposed to civil war, the 2004 tsunami, poverty, deaths of relatives, and relocation. The accumulated stresses, more than any single adversity, increased pathology and decreased achievement. Researchers point to "the importance of multiple contextual, past, and current factors in influencing children's adaptation" (Catani et al., 2010, p. 1188). COGNITIVE COPING Coping measures reduce the impact of repeated stress. One factor is the child's own interpretation of events. Cortisol increased in low-income children if they interpreted events connected to their family's poverty as a personal threat and if the family lacked order and routines (thus increasing daily hassles) (E. Chen et al., 2010). When low-income children did not take things personally and their family was not chaotic, more were resilient, with less cortisol. The effects are lifelong. Many adults who did not consider themselves poor as children were nonetheless from very low-income families. But because they did not know they were poor, they were not burdened by their poverty. As you remember from Chapter 7, low income in childhood is less likely to harm later health if the child's mother was affectionate and supportive (Miller et al., 2011). This applies to psychosocial health as well as physical health. In general, a child's interpretation of a family situation (poverty, divorce, etc.) impacts how that situation affects him or her (Olson & Dweck, 2008). Some children consider the family they were born into a temporary hardship; they look forward to the day when they can leave childhood behind. Children who endured Hurricane Katrina were affected by their thoughts, both positive and negative, even more than by factors one might expect, such as caregiver distress (Kilmer & Gil-Rivas, 2010). Some children experience parentification: They act as parents, trying to take care of everyone, including their actual parents (Byng-Hall, 2008). They experience the burdens and worries of adulthood, which undercuts their experience of play and friendships in childhood. ESCAPING HOME Children may develop their own friends, activities, and skills, blossoming once they are old enough, becoming "increasingly autonomous and industrious" (Pagani et al., 2006, p. 132). Many activities—from 4-H to midnight basketball, from choir to Little League—help children develop a self-concept as industrious, not inferior. A 40-year study in Hawaii began with children born into poverty, often to parents who were alcoholic or mentally ill. Not surprisingly, many of these children showed signs of deprivation when they were infants (low weight, medical problems, etc.). Experts predicted a troubled future for them, but that did not necessarily happen. Learning as Lifeline Originally from Libya—where bombs, guns, and death were common—this boy's family escaped to a refugee camp in Tunisia. The adults suffer from crowding and deprivation, but some children are resilient—especially with the help of a caring teacher and regular schooling, as seems to be the case here. REUTERS/ANIS MILI One such infant was Michael, born preterm, weighing less than 5 pounds. His parents were low-income teenagers; his father was absent for the first years of his life, returning only to impregnate Michael's mother again and again and again. When Michael was 8 years old, both parents left him and his three younger siblings with their grandparents. Yet Michael ultimately became a successful, happy, loving adult (E. Werner, 1979). Michael was not the only resilient one. Amazingly, about one-third of the high-risk Hawaiian babies coped well. By middle childhood, they had discovered ways to avoid family stresses, to achieve in school, to make good friends, and to find adult mentors. As adults, they left family problems behind (many moved far away) and established their own healthy relationships (E. Werner & Smith, 1992, 2001). As was true for many of these children, attending school and then heading to college can be an escape. Although an easygoing temperament and a high IQ help children cope with adversity, those qualities are not essential. For the Hawaiian children, "a realistic goal orientation, persistence, and 'learned creativity' enabled...a remarkable degree of personal, social, and occupational success," even for those with learning disabilities (E. Werner & Smith, 2001, p. 140). SOCIAL SUPPORT AND RELIGIOUS FAITH Social support is a major factor that strengthens the ability to deal with stress, especially for minority children who are aware of prejudice against them (Gillen-O'Neel et al., 2011). Compared with the homebound lives of younger children, the expanding social world of middle childhood allows new possibilities. Relatives, teachers, peers, pets, community programs (even libraries and concerts) all help children cope with stress (Bryant & Donnellan, 2007). That means anyone might be on the rescue team for children. One study concludes: When children attempt to seek out experiences that will help them overcome adversity, it is critical that resources, in the form of supportive adults or learning opportunities, be made available to them so that their own self-righting potential can be fulfilled. [Kim-Cohen et al., 2004, p. 664] A specific example is children's use of religion, which often provides support via adults from the same faith group. Many studies find that religious involvement particularly helps African American children in communities rife with drugs, early sex, and racial prejudice. The help occurs in three ways: practical (a church or temple becomes a second home, with many activities), social (children use slightly older believers as role models), and cognitive (concepts of sin, grace, and salvation help children make sense of what they see) (Mattis & Mattis, 2011). Faith is psychologically protective when it guides children to reinterpret their experiences (Crawford et al., 2006). Same Situation, Far Apart: Praying Hands Differences are obvious between the Northern Indian girls entering their Hindu school and the West African boy in a Christian church, even in their clothes and hand positions. But underlying similarities are more important. In every culture, many 8-year-olds are more devout than their elders. JONKMANS/LAIF/REDUX NAFTALI HILGER/LAIF/REDUX Prayer may also foster resilience. In one study, adults were required to pray for a specific person for several weeks. Their attitude about that person changed (Lambert et al., 2010). Ethics precludes such an experiment with children, but it is known that children often pray, expecting that prayer will make them feel better, especially when they are sad or angry (Bamford & Lagattuta, 2010). As you now know, expectations and interpretations can be powerful. In middle childhood, children seek to be industrious, actively mastering various skills. Social comparison helps children refine their self-concept. Resilient children cope well with major adversities. Schools, churches, and many other institutions help children escape from difficult family conditions. Resilience and Stress

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Printed Page 244 7.1.2 Medical Care Immunization has reduced deaths dramatically, and throughout childhood lethal accidents and fatal illnesses are far less common than a few decades ago. For example, in the United States, 70 per 100,000 5- to 14-year-olds died in 1950; in 2010, only 15 per 100,000 did (see Figure 7.1). Furthermore, better medical care (diagnostic and preventative) has meant fewer children suffer with chronic conditions such as hearing impairments or anemia, both now half as frequent in middle childhood as they were two decades ago, partly because those problems are diagnosed and treated earlier. In addition, fewer children breathe secondhand smoke: Cotinine (a biomarker that reveals inhaled nicotine) in children's blood declined by 28 percent in just one decade (1994 to 2004) (MMWR, July 11, 2008). Children themselves also have better habits than they did a few generations ago: They more often wash their hands and cover their sneezes. Those with chronic diseases can attend special camps and programs that show them they are not alone as they learn self-care. Establishing good health habits is vital before adolescence. If teenage rebellion leads those with serious, chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes, phenylketonuria, epilepsy, cancer, asthma, and sickle-cell anemia) to ignore special diets, pills, warning signs, and doctors, they get sicker (Dean et al., 2010; Suris et al., 2008). For all children, childhood protects later health. Unfortunately, children in poor health for economic or social reasons are vulnerable lifelong. For low-income children in particular, having a parent who is attentive and responsive (not only regarding health) makes a decided difference for their health in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood (G. E. Miller et al., 2011). Medical Care HighlightAdd Note

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Printed Page 262 7.4 Teaching and Learning As we have just described, 6- to 11-year-olds are great learners. They use logic, develop strategies, accumulate knowledge, and expand vocabulary. Throughout history and worldwide, children are given new responsibilities and knowledge in middle childhood because that is when the human brain is ready. Traditionally, children learned at home: Girls were taught to cook, clean, and care for babies while boys learned to hunt and herd animals. Now more than 95 percent of the world's 7-year-olds are instructed in academics at school (Cohen & Malin, 2010). This is true even in poor nations. In 2010, for instance, India passed a law providing free education (no more school fees) for all 6- to 14-year-olds, regardless of caste. India now has over 100 million young children in school. Internationally, quality and content vary markedly, but most 7-year-olds have some formal education. Teaching and Learning

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Printed Page 271 7.5 Children with Special Needs Many children have learning patterns that respond best to targeted education. Although some differences among children are harmless, others indicate disorders that need to be recognized in order to help children learn. Before leaping from diagnosis to special education, however, three concepts—comorbidity, multifinality, and equifinality— should be considered (Cicchetti & Toth, 2009). Many disorders are comorbid, which means that several problems occur in the same person. A child may need special help to overcome one problem, but every intervention needs to take into account other problems that the child might have. Multifinality means that one cause can have many (multiple) final manifestations. The same genes or past trauma may produce a child who is easily angered (conduct disorder) or quick to cry (major depression). That is multifinality. Equifinality (equal in final form) means that one symptom can have many causes. For instance, a 6-year-old who does not talk may be autistic, hard of hearing, developmentally disabled, or electively mute. Comorbidity, multifinality, and equifinality are reasons to be cautious before leaping from symptom to cure. To illustrate all three concepts, we focus here only on attention-deficit/hyperactivity and bipolar disorders, disruptive mood dysregulation disorders, learning disabilities, and autism spectrum disorders. (Readers interested in any of the hundreds of specific disorders of childhood should study relevant research.) Children with Special Needs

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Printed Page 274 7.5.2 Learning Disabilities The DSM-5 diagnosis of specific learning disorder now combines diagnoses of deficits in the perception or processing of information; such difficulty is commonly referred to as a learning disability. Many children have a specific learning disorder that leads to difficulty in mastering a particular skill that other people acquire easily. Indeed, according to Gardner's view of multiple intelligences, almost everyone has a specific inadequacy or two. Perhaps one person is clumsy (low in kinesthetic intelligence), while another sings loudly but off key (low in musical intelligence). Most such learning disabilities are not debilitating (the off-key singer learns to be quiet in chorus), but every schoolchild is expected to learn reading and math. Disabilities in either of these two subjects often undercut academic achievement and make a child feel inadequate, ashamed, and stupid. The most commonly diagnosed learning disability is dyslexia, unusual difficulty with reading. No single test accurately diagnoses dyslexia (or any learning disability) because every academic achievement involves many specifics (Riccio & Rodriguez, 2007). As you remember, many brain areas are involved in reading: If a child is impaired in one area, the others might be intact. Early theories hypothesized that visual difficulties—for example, reversals of letters (reading was instead of saw) and mirror writing (b instead of d)—were the cause of dyslexia. It now seems that more often dyslexia originates with speech and hearing difficulties (Gabrieli, 2009). Say Ooo Most children teach themselves to talk clearly, but some need special help—as this 5-year-old does. Mirrors, mentoring, and manipulation may all be part of speech therapy. LAURENT/GLUCK A decade ago, dyslexia was diagnosed when a child's reading achievement was far below that child's intellectual potential—that is, scores on achievement tests were lower than IQ. Now fMRI brain scans reveal that children of all intellectual levels (from genius to disabled) can have neurological problems that make reading difficult (Tanaka et al., 2011). It is not necessary to wait until tests reveal low achievement. Dyscalculia is unusual difficulty with math. Dyslexia and dyscalculia are often comorbid, but each is a separate disorder originating from a distinct part of the brain, and each requires targeted education (Butterworth et al., 2011). Often computer programs as well as various auditory and visual treatments help, but simply waiting for a child to outgrow a learning disability is a dangerous strategy. Many children who have learning problems develop behavior problems as well. Learning Disabilities

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Printed Page 291 8.2.1 Shared and Nonshared Environments Family Unity Thinking about any family—even a happy, wealthy family like this one—makes it apparent that each child's family experiences differ. For instance, would you expect this 5-year-old boy to be treated the same way as his two older sisters? And how about each child's feelings toward the parents? Even though the 12-year-olds are twins, one may favor her mother while the other favors her father. MASTERFILE/RADIUS IMAGES Environmental influence on any two children comes either from factors that are shared (both children experience the same environment) or are not shared. For example, all the children raised in one home might be said to share the same parents, and children who grow up in separate nations might have nonshared cultural influences. Many studies have found that children are less affected by shared environment than by nonshared environment. A formula for the influences on a child is G + Shared E + Nonshared E, a formula that is read as: genes plus home environment plus non-home environment. Careful research that applied this formula to twins, full and half siblings, and stepchildren found that most personality traits and intellectual characteristics are the product of genes plus nonshared environments, with little left over for the shared influences, such as those for siblings growing up together. Even psychopathology (Burt, 2009) and sexual orientation (Långström et al., 2010) arise primarily from genes and nonshared environment. Parenting does not make a child heterosexual or homosexual: Identical twins usually have the same sexual orientation, but if they do not, it seems to be because of nonshared factors. Since shared environment has little impact, does this mean that parents merely provide basic care (food, shelter), with little influence on children's personality, intellect, and so on, no matter what rules, routines, or responses they provide? No! Recent findings reassert parent power. The formula and calculation of shared and nonshared influences was correct, but the definition of Shared E was based on a false assumption. Siblings raised together do not share the same environment. For example, if relocation, divorce, unemployment, or a new job occurs in a family, the impact on each child depends on that child's age, genes, resilience, and gender. Thus, moving to another town might disturb a 9-year-old-girl more than her baby brother because she must leave friends behind; divorce generally harms boys more than girls because it weakens connection with their father; poverty may hurt children of one age more than another. The variations just mentioned do not apply equally to all children: Differential sensitivity means that one child is more affected, for better or worse, than another (Pluess & Belsky, 2010). Even if siblings are raised together, the mix of parental personality and children's genes, age, and gender may lead one sibling to become antisocial, another to have a personality disorder, and a third to be resilient (Beauchaine et al., 2009). One of my friends grew up fatherless and poor, but he is a gifted and respected city councilman. His brother was a drug addict killed by gunfire. You probably know other families with divergent children. ESPECIALLY FOR Scientists How would you determine whether parents treat all their children the same way? (see response, page 293) In addition to variations within the home, parents choose for their children many outside, nonshared influences, such as school and neighborhood. Those choices affect the children, sometimes differently for each child (Simpkins et al., 2006). Perhaps the oldest child attended the nearby public school and then family income or values shifted so that a younger sibling attended a religious school 10 miles away. School would be a nonshared influence on these two children, but the parents played pivotal roles. Even identical twins, with the same genes, age, sex, and home, may not share their home or school environment (Caspi et al., 2004). For example, one mother spoke of her monozygotic daughters: Susan can be very sweet. She loves babies...she can be insecure...she flutters and dances around.... There's not much between her ears.... She's exceptionally vain, more so than Ann. Ann loves any game involving a ball, very sporty, climbs trees, very much a tomboy. One is a serious tomboy and one's a serious girlie girl. Even when they were babies I always dressed one in blue stuff and one in pink stuff. [quoted in Caspi et al., 2004, p. 156] By dressing these girls differently from infancy, this mother created different environments for them. It would have been harder for Ann to climb trees if she wore pink, frilly dresses. Shared and Nonshared Environments

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Printed Page 292 8.2.2 Family Structure and Family Function Family structure refers to the legal and genetic connections among people living in the same household. Family function refers to how a family cares for its members. The data affirm that parents are crucial for family function, determining nonshared as well as shared environments. Does it matter what structure the family has? Are some family structures more supportive of parents, enabling well-functioning families? What is a dysfunctional, or a well-functioning, family? Part of the answer is known. No matter what the structure, one family function is crucial: People need family love and encouragement. Beyond that, needs vary by age. As you have seen, infants need responsive caregiving, frequent exposure to language, and social interaction; preschoolers need encouragement and guidance. Later chapters of this text describe the needs of adolescents and adults. During middle childhood, children need five things from their families: Physical necessities. Although children in middle childhood eat, dress, and go to sleep without help, families furnish food, clothing, and shelter. Learning. These are prime learning years: Families choose schools, help with homework, encourage education. Self-respect. Families give each child a way to shine. Especially if academic success is elusive, opportunities in sports, the arts, and so on are crucial. Peer relationships. Families foster friendships, via play dates, group activities, school choice, classroom support. Harmony and stability. Families provide protective, predictable routines within a home that is a safe haven for everyone. CONTINUITY AND CHANGE No family always functions perfectly, but children worldwide fare better in families than in other institutions (such as group residences) and best if families provide the five functions listed above. Item five, harmony and stability, is especially crucial in middle childhood: Children like continuity, not change; peace, not conflict. UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS Since the annual moving rate for each of the five years from ages 5 to 9 is 0.19, what is the average moving rate for each child for the entire 5-year period? Answer The average for each child is 5 × 0.19, which equals 0.95—about one move during middle childhood. As with all quantitative averages, individual variations are lost. Some children move a dozen times (for instance, if they are homeless) and others stay put. The latter are less stressed. To some degree, this is unique to middle childhood. Indeed, a decade or so later, emerging adults enjoy new places, seek challenges, and provoke arguments with friends and family. College students sometimes study in other nations or stay up all night debating issues with friends—not something young children do. Adults may not recognize a child's wish for continuity. Parents often move to a "better" neighborhood during these years, thinking they are securing a better life for their children when, instead, the children may feel vulnerable, not protected. To be specific, in one year (2010), 19 percent of U.S. 5- to 9-year-olds changed residences, a rate five times that of adults older than 65 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2011a). A surprising study revealed the value of continuity (Tanaka & Nakazawa, 2005). The researchers began with the knowledge that children benefit from living with their fathers. Father absence also correlates with poverty and divorce, both also harmful. Given that, these researchers wanted to learn how children would be affected if the father's absence did not correlate with low income and hostile mother-father interaction. Accordingly, they sought to replicate prior father-absence investigation by studying children of happily married couples in which the fathers were gainfully employed and supporting the family. What Must She Leave Behind? In every nation, children are uprooted from familiar places as a result of adult struggles and/or aspirations for a better life. This girl is leaving a settlement in the Gaza Strip, due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has disrupted millions of lives. Worldwide, it's the children who suffer most from relocation. AMIT SHABI/LAIF/REDUX An opportunity for such research arose naturally in Japan. Many Japanese corporations transfer employees temporarily from one location to another to help them understand how the entire company functions. Some families move if the father is the employee and some families do not, so researchers were able to find two similar groups of children, with only one major difference between the groups: whether the father was present or absent every day. The hypothesis was that children who moved with their fathers would benefit because his daily presence would help them with self-esteem, homework, and therefore school achievement. However, the opposite turned out to be true. Although the mothers who moved with their husbands were happier, the schoolchildren who moved were more depressed and their school achievement suffered. It seems that the benefit of father presence was undermined by the stress of change. Other international research also finds that the reason for father absence is significant. In a Mexican study, children who remained at home when their fathers emigrated to support the family were compared with children whose fathers were absent because of divorce; the former group seemed to function much better (Nobles, 2011). However, if the whole family emigrated, school-age children were more stressed than younger ones. Such findings raise a similar question regarding children living in the United States for years, but whose mother or father is being deported. How are these children affected if they go back with their parent (it is estimated that 300,000 such children now live in Mexico) and how are they affected if they stay? Objective research has not yet been published that compares these two eventualities, but it is by no means established that following the father is always best (Cave, 2012). MILITARY FAMILIES A notable example of family functioning occurs for U.S. children in military families. On the first four points on the list of family functions, such children are advantaged compared with children whose parents have similar backgrounds but are not in the service. On average, enlisted parents tend to have higher incomes, better health care, and more education than do civilians from the same backgrounds; in addition, military bases tend to have better schools and more after-school activities. Furthermore, military housing makes it easier for children to have friends because of the proximity of similar families. However, stability is virtually nonexistent. Military parents repeatedly depart and return, and families typically relocate every few years (Riggs & Riggs, 2011; Titus, 2007). Generally speaking, adults are happy when a soldier comes home, but even a safe return may disrupt the children's lives. Military children (dubbed "military brats," a telling nickname) experience emotional problems and decreased achievement with each change (Hall, 2008). For that reason, the U.S. Army encourages caregivers to avoid changes in the child's life: no new homes, rules, family members, or schools (Lester et al., 2011). RESPONSE FOR Scientists (from page 291) Proof is very difficult when human interaction is the subject of investigation, since random assignment is impossible. Ideally, researchers would find identical twins being raised together and would then observe the parents' behavior over the years. The same underlying principles apply to nonmilitary families. Remember that children crave stability. If an out-of-work parent finds a job far away, or if changing circumstances make it easier to leave a destructive neighborhood, an inferior school, or a crowded extended family, most family members may rejoice—but not necessarily the 6- to 11-year-olds. This, of course, does not preclude such moves, but disrupted children need special attention and support. DIVERSITY OF STRUCTURES Worldwide, two cohort factors—more single-parent households (see Infographic 8, page 296) and fewer children per family—have changed childhood from what it was a few decades ago. Most of our discussion here focuses on the United States in about 2012. However, the advantages and disadvantages of each family structure are similar in every culture. In middle childhood, about two-thirds of U.S. children live in two-parent homes (see Table 8-2), most often with both biological parents—an arrangement called a nuclear family. In U.S. nuclear families, the parents are usually married, although in many other nations nuclear families are headed by couples who are not legally wed. Other two-parent structures include adoptive parents, foster parents, grandparents without parents, a biological parent with a stepparent, and same-sex couples. Strictly speaking, these are not nuclear families, but some observers consider them as such. In the United States, about 31 percent of 6- to-11-year-olds currently live in a single-parent family. Far more live in a single-parent family at some point between birth and age 18 because (1) their mother was neither married nor cohabiting when they were born (true for 41 percent in 2011), (2) their parents separated or divorced (about 30 percent), and/or (3) one parent died (about 5 percent). Sometimes two or even all three of these occur for the same child, thus the percentage who experience single parenthood at some point is less than 76 (41 + 30 + 5) percent, but more than half, perhaps 60 percent. Two-parent and single-parent structures are often contrasted with the extended family, a family that includes nonparental adults, usually grandparents and often aunts, uncles, and cousins, all under one roof. In 2010, about one in six U.S. families was an extended family—an increase from 1980 (one in eight) and a decrease from 1940 (one in five) (Pew Social Trends, 2010). Infants are more likely to live in extended families than older children are. Extended families save on housing costs and child care, which makes them more common among low-income households and nations. The distinction between one-parent, two-parent, and extended families is not as simple in practice as on paper. Many young parents live near relatives who provide meals, emotional support, money, and child care, functioning as an extended family. Similarly, extended families can function like nuclear families, especially in developing nations: Some families are considered extended because they share a roof, but they create separate living quarters for each set of parents and children (Georgas et al., 2006). In many nations, the polygamous family (one husband with two or more wives) is an acceptable structure. Generally in polygamous families, income per child is reduced and education, especially for girls, is limited (Omariba & Boyle, 2007). Polygamy is illegal in the United States, although some say that repeated divorce and remarriage is similar to polygamy. In nations where polygamy is legal, divorce is less common but rates of polygamy are declining. In Ghana, for example, men with several wives and a dozen children were once common but now are rare (Heaton & Darkwah, 2011). Same Situation, Far Apart: Happy Families The boys in both photos are about 4 years old. Roberto (left) lives with his single mother in Chicago. She pays $360 a month for her two children to attend a day-care center. The youngest child in the Balmedina family (right) lives with his nuclear family—no day care needed—in the Philippines. Which boy has the better life? The answer is not known; family function is more crucial than family structure. AP PHOTO/CHARLES REX ARBOGAST GREG ELMS/LONELY PLANET IMAGES VISUALIZING DEVELOPMENT A Wedding, or Not? Family Structures Around the World Children fare best when both parents actively care for them every day. This is most likely to occur if the parents are married, although there are many exceptions. Many developmentalists now focus on the rate of single parenthood, shown on this map. Some single parents raise children well, but the risk of neglect, poverty, and instability increases the chances of child problems. SOURCES & CREDITS LISTED ON P. SC-1 Family Structure and Family Function

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Printed Page 297 8.2.3 Connecting Family Structure and Function Structure influences but does not determine function. Which structures make it more likely that the five family functions (necessities, learning, self-respect, friendship, harmony/stability) will occur? FUNCTION OF NUCLEAR FAMILIES In general, nuclear families function best; children in the nuclear structure tend to achieve higher grades in school with fewer psychological problems. A scholar who summarized dozens of studies concludes: "Children living with two biological married parents experience better educational, social, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes than do other children" (Brown, 2010, p. 1062). Does this mean that parents should all marry and stay married? Developmentalists are not that prescriptive because some of the benefits are correlates, not causes. To be specific, many advantages of nuclear families begin before the wedding because education, earning potential, and emotional maturity all increase the chance that people will marry, have children, and stay married. Thus, brides and grooms bring personal assets to their new family. In other words, there is a correlation between child success and married parents partly because of who marries, not because of the legality of the union. If all the immature, unmarried parents were forced to wed, their children would not fare as well as children of married parents now do. However, to some extent, marriage itself benefits children. The selection effects noted in the previous paragraph are not the entire story (Amato, 2005; Brown, 2010). Ideally, mutual affection between spouses encourages them to become wealthier and healthier than either would be alone, and that helps their children. Furthermore, the parental alliance, in which mother and father support each other in their commitment to the child, decreases neglect and abuse and increases the likelihood that children have someone to read to them, check homework, invite friends over, buy new clothes, and save for their future. In fact, a broad survey of parental contributions to college tuition found that the highest contributions came from nuclear families. These results might be expected when two-parent families are compared with single and divorced parents because one-parent families average less income. However, even when the income of remarried parents is comparable with that of nuclear parents, they contribute less, on average, to the college tuition of stepchildren (Turley & Desmond, 2011). This and other research suggests that the benefits of nuclear families continue for decades, even after children are grown. FUNCTION OF OTHER TWO-PARENT FAMILIES Although nuclear families may be the ideal, they certainly are not the only way to raise healthy and happy children. The advantages of two-parent families are not limited to biological parents, whose genetic connection to their children partially explains their commitment. No type of two-parent family guarantees good functioning, but the fact that two adults are involved nudge it in the right direction. Adoptive and same-sex parents typically function very well for children, often better than the average nuclear family. Some stepparent families function well also. When children are younger than 2 and a new stepparent forms a happy relationship with the biological parent, the children usually thrive (Ganong et al., 2011). Now some details. A topic of considerable controversy—how same-sex couples function for children—has been a focus of recent developmental research. Small studies are reassuring, but because same-sex marriage is relatively recent and not available in many states and nations, the ideal studies—longitudinal research on a large sample, with valid comparisons to male/female families of the same age, marital status, and education—have not yet been published. Middle American Family This seems to be a typical breakfast in Brunswick, Ohio—Cheerios for 1-year-old Carson, pancakes that 7-year-old Carter does not finish eating, and family photos crowded on the far table. The one apparent difference, that both parents are women, does not necessarily create or avoid children's problems. DAVID MAXWEL/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX Fortunately, for decades some female/female couples have raised children, usually the biological child of one mother who has custody after divorce. In general, their offspring develop well, emotionally and intellectually (Biblarz & Stacey, 2010). Same-sex and other-sex partnerships seem to have similar problems: Such families are sometimes dysfunctional, sometimes not. The stepparent structure also has advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantage is financial, especially when compared with the average single-parent family. However, some biological fathers who do not have custody and some step-fathers who are not genetically related to their stepchildren are reluctant to provide the formal and informal support that children need (Meyer et al., 2011). Furthermore, the other biological parent, as well as the children themselves, may make it difficult for the noncustodial or stepparent to develop a parental relationship with the child. Income and intimacy aside, another disadvantage of stepfamilies is in meeting the fifth family function listed earlier—providing harmony and stability. Instability is typical: Not only does remarriage usually entail moving to a new home, but also older stepchildren leave home sooner than older biological children, new babies arrive more often, and marriages are more likely to dissolve (Teachman, 2008). Harmony may also be absent, especially if the child's loyalty to both biological parents is undermined by ongoing disputes between them. A solid parental alliance is more difficult to form when it includes three adults—two of whom disliked each other enough to divorce, and a third who is a newcomer to the child's life. Cherish the Moment Tom and Jakey expect a happy future as husband and wife. They plan to wed in three months, move into their new house (behind them) and lead a happy, blended family with his smiling daughters, Simone (17) and Shayla (12), now swinging her son, Nathaniel (5). Unfortunately, stepchildren pose unanticipated challenges: Many second marriages end with a second divorce. KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/DETROIT FRE PRES/MCT/NEWSCOM Another version of a two-parent family occurs when grandparents are full-time caretakers for children without parents present (called a skipped-generation family, the most common form of foster care). The hope is that grandparents provide excellent care since they are experienced, mature, and devoted to their grandchildren. Those characteristics may be present, but skipped-generation families average lower incomes, more health problems, and less stability than other two-parent families (Arber & Timonen, 2012). Adequate health care and schooling for the children is particularly difficult in skipped-generation families, partly because schools and insurance plans create barriers and partly because many of these children have special needs due to the circumstances that led them to live with their grandparents in the first place. Thus, skipped-generation families need extra help, but they may not get it (Baker & Mutchler, 2010). Finally, adoptive and foster-parent families vary tremendously in their ability to meet the needs of children. Many of the children in such families pose special challenges, particularly at puberty and later. Again, agencies and communities are not always helpful. FUNCTION OF SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES On average, the single-parent structure functions less well because income and stability are lower. Most single parents fill many roles in addition to parent—including wage earner, daughter or son (single parents often depend on their own parents), and lover (many seek a new partner)—which makes it hard to provide steady emotional and academic support for their children. If they are depressed (and many are), they are less available to meet their children's needs. One case study provided the example of Neesha, who had been late or absent for more than one-third of her fourth-grade year, although she read at the seventh-grade level (reported in Wilmshurst, 2011). Her mother was a single parent, depressed and worried about paying the rent on the tiny apartment she moved into when Neesha's father left three years earlier to live with his girlfriend, now raising his baby. Neesha showed signs of resilience—her academic achievement was far above grade level and she tried to care for her mother. But her family situation made her fragile; she often fell asleep in school and was teased because of it. The school counselor reported: The school principal received a call from Neesha's mother, who asked that her daughter not be sent home from school because she was going to kill herself. She...did not want Neesha to come home and find her dead.... [T]he school contacted the police, who apprehended mom while she was talking on her cell phone...a loaded gun was on her lap.... Neesha said, "Sometimes it's hard being a kid." [Wilmshurst, 2011, pp. 154-155] Neesha is an extreme example. In fact, some single parents are not depressed and do an excellent job with their children. However, the emotional and financial stresses of being a single parent often make it "hard being a kid" for many school-age children. ESPECIALLY FOR Single Parents You have heard that children raised in one-parent families will have difficulty in establishing intimate relationships as adolescents and adults. What can you do about this possibility? (see response, page 300) Community support for single parents makes a difference. In this case, the school and then the police probably saved this single mother's life, as she was then taken to a psychiatric hospital where she was treated for depression. The report does not say what happened with Neesha, however. Her father did not want her. Ideally, another family would provide good care, but no relatives were ready to do so. In general, single parents who need help the most seem least likely to receive it (Harknett & Hartnett, 2011). Neesha's story illustrates the problems that might occur in a single-parent household, but we should also add that millions of children raised by single parents are well loved and nurtured. Remember that difference is not always deficit; good caregiving is more difficult in the single-parent structure, but it is far from impossible. French Bliss Healthy twins (Layanne and Rayanne) born in Paris to thrilled parents—what could be better? Perhaps a wedding: These parents are not married. OWEN FRANKEN/CORBIS CULTURE AND FAMILY STRUCTURE Cultural variations in the support provided for various family structures make it hard to conclude that a particular structure is always best. For example, many French parents are unmarried; U.S. surveys would have classified such women as single parents until recently. However, French unmarried mothers generally live with their children's fathers. French cohabiting parents separate less often than do married parents in the United States, which suggests more stability in the average French cohabiting family than in the average married structure in the United States. An analysis of 27 nations found that for women in particular, the social context had a major impact on their happiness (Lee & Ono, 2012), which probably would affect their ability to parent successfully. In the United States, the cohabiting structure is worse for children than the marriage structure because cohabiting parents separate more often than married parents do (Musick & Bumpass, 2012). This is one example of a general truth: Function is affected by national mores. Ethnic norms matter as well. Single parenthood is more accepted among African Americans (60 percent of African American 6- to 11-year-olds live with only one parent). Consequently, relatives and friends routinely help single parents, who would be more isolated and dysfunctional if they were of another ethnicity (Cain & Combs-Orme, 2005; Taylor et al., 2008). By contrast, single parents head less than 15 percent of Asian American families (see Figure 8.1). Thus, most Asian American children benefit from two caregiving parents, but those with single parents are more vulnerable. Similarly, Latino couples are more likely to marry than non-Latinos, which benefits children, but one result is that unmarried Latino mothers are less happy and more likely to be hostile toward their children than Latino mothers who are married (Gibson-Davis & Gassman-Pines, 2010). FIGURE 8.1 Diverse Families The fact that family structure is affected partly by ethnicity has implications for everyone in the family. It is easier to be a single parent if there are others of the same background who are also single parents. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011. Mexican American families are especially likely to be nuclear or extended, but some of the usual advantages of such families may be absent. If the fathers consider their neighborhood dangerous and value family cohesion (familism), they may be especially strict; their children are likely to consider them cold and punitive (authoritarian). One result is more child anxiety and depression—which means that the two-parent family structure may undercut healthy development (White & Roosa, 2012). RESPONSE FOR single Parents (from page 299) Do not get married mainly to provide a second parent for your child. If you were to do so, things would probably get worse rather than better. Do make an effort to have friends of both sexes with whom your child can interact. All these are generalities; individuals, contexts, and cultures always matter. In the study of Mexican American families just cited, the researchers stress context and culture. The fathers were very strict parents because they reflected the strong Latino emphasis on family support and wanted to protect their children from problems in a low-income, hostile U.S. community (White & Roosa, 2012). The same men, in less dangerous neighborhoods, might have been warm and supportive fathers. When analyzing family structure, always remember variations and do not be too quick to conclude that one structure is better than another. Contrary to the averages, thousands of nuclear families are destructive, thousands of stepparents provide excellent care, thousands of cohabiting couples are great parents, and thousands of single-parent families are wonderful. Structure and culture tend to protect or undercut healthy function, but many parents overcome structural problems and many families of all types provide school-age children with the support and encouragement they need. Divorce for the Sake of the Children Opposing perspectives on divorce begin with three facts. The United States leads the world in rates of divorce and remarriage. Almost half of all marriages end in divorce. On average, children fare best, emotionally and academically, with married parents. On average, divorce impairs children's academic achievement and psychosocial development for years, even decades. One might conclude from these three facts that every couple should marry before they have children and that no married couple should divorce. Many adults, including some political leaders, share this view. But the opposite side—that divorce often benefits children—has proponents as well, who begin by pointing out that any statistic reported as an overall average correlation dismisses variability and does not consider causes. Opinions are strongly influenced by each person's past history and culture. For example, married parents who stay together are much more negative about divorce than are divorced adults. Adults whose parents divorced tend to have a much more positive take on divorce than adults whose parents stayed together (Michelle Moon, 2011). Some say that marriage, not divorce, is the root of the problem (Cherlin, 2009). U.S. culture idolizes both marriage and personal freedom. As a result, if parents disapprove of a future mate, young adults in the United States sometimes assert their independence by marrying "for love." Later, if they are overwhelmed by child care and financial stress while passion fades, the marriage becomes strained, and their parents are not supportive. Divorce seems the best solution. That may be why divorce rates are higher for people who marry soon after they meet or who are relatively young. Because marriage remains the ideal, divorced adults blame their former mate or their own poor decision for the break-up. They seek another spouse—which may lead to another divorce; if they have children in each relationship, the children in particular suffer. From this perspective, a shift in cultural mores is needed, from an individualistic focus to a collectivist one. If adults were more cognizant of their communities, including their responsibility to their parents and their children, they might avoid risky marriages and thus avoid divorce. Children would thrive. This has important policy implications, but not simple ones. Persuading unmarried parents to wed may be short-sighted because such marriages are at high risk of divorce (Brown, 2010). Indeed, at least one longitudinal study of unwed mothers found that those who married were eventually worse off than those who did not (Lichter et al., 2006). Research on unwed parents finds that many consider marriage a much riskier commitment than childbearing (Gibson-Davis, 2011). For their children, it may be. Scholars now describe marriage and divorce as a process, with transitions and conflicts before and after the formal events (Magnuson & Berger, 2009; Potter, 2010). As you remember, resilience is difficult when children must contend with repeated changes and ongoing hassles—yet this is what divorce brings. Coping is particularly hard if divorce occurs during a developmental transition, such as when a child enters first grade or begins puberty, and if parents draw children into marital conflict. Looking internationally, it is noteworthy that in some nations (especially in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia) divorce is rare. In those regions, adults expect marriages to endure, so in-laws help troubled couples stay together. Are children better off because of that? Maybe not. In fact, more child abuse and less child education characterize low-divorce nations. But again, linking these outcomes is a leap, not supported by data. By contrast, in the United States and other nations, marriage partners expect each other to be soul mates, providing great sex, financial support, and intellectual stimulation. This is difficult, and when it does not occur, couples divorce because they are "incompatible" (Wilcox & Dew, 2010). Even sexual compatibility is partly cultural, as infidelity is grounds for divorce in some places, but not in others—especially when the unfaithful spouse is the man, another cultural difference. Given all this, many U.S. young adults avoid marriage in order to avoid divorce. This strategy is working—the age at first marriage in the United States is increasing, which is one reason the divorce rate is falling even faster than the marriage rate (Amato, 2010). Is this a problem or a solution? The research leads to opposite conclusions. For instance, marriages need not be satisfying to the adults in order to function well for the children—an argument against divorce. But a pro-divorce argument arises from other research. If a marriage is harmful to family harmony, then divorce may help the children. This is especially true if both divorced parents are warm, attentive, and involved with their children, separating their interpersonal relationship from their parenting roles (Vèlez et al., 2011). Another finding from developmental research is that marital bliss depends partly on the circumstances of the family at the time. Often the happiest time is right after the wedding, before children are born; the least happy time is when the children are infants or young teenagers. Financial and caregiving strains are greatest when children are younger than 5. Many couples meet that challenge by alternating working shifts, so one parent is always home. That solution has one hazard: Divorce is more common in such families. Knowledge about the developmental path of marriage might help parents through the hard patches. For example, when children are small, couples can make sure they spend time together doing what they both enjoy—dancing, traveling, praying, and so on. Otherwise, infant care not only sucks up time, it also undercuts love. A life-span view provides some perspective: Marriage happiness dips during infancy and rises when all the children are self-sufficient adults. This is a hopeful generality—but like all generalities, it is not always true. Some couples divorce after their children are grown. There is no easy answer, which is why both opposing perspectives thrive. Children are harmed when they live in a home where their parents actively fight, but not if the parents are merely compatible roommates (Amato, 2010). Indeed, some believe that even when spouse abuse makes parents separate, children may benefit if parents make peace and reunite (Holtzworth-Munroe, 2011). This is a minority perspective, but the fact that anyone would advocate it illustrates the problem—people disagree about the effects of divorce on children. Beyond highlighting these opposing perspectives, can any conclusion be drawn by developmental study? As emphasized in the beginning of this discussion, marriage should not occur impulsively. Now we can add that childbearing and divorce should not be impulsive, either. Whether divorce is good for the children depends on careful analysis, case by case. Connecting Family Structure and Function...

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Printed Page 302 8.2.4 Family Trouble Two factors interfere with family function in every structure, ethnic group, and nation: low income and high conflict. Many families experience both poverty and acrimony because financial stress increases conflict and vice versa (McLanahan, 2009). POVERTY Suppose a 6-year-old boy spills his milk, as every 6-year-old sometimes does. In a well-functioning, two-parent family, one parent guides him to mop up the spill while the other parent pours more milk, perhaps encouraging family harmony by saying, "Everyone has an accident sometimes." What if the 6-year-old lives with a single parent struggling with overdue rent, unemployment, and an older child who wants money for a school trip? What if the last of the food stamps bought that milk? Shouting, crying, and accusations are almost inevitable (perhaps the sibling claims, "He did it on purpose," to which the 6-year-old responds, "You pushed me," and a visitor adds, "You should teach him to be careful"). As in this example, poverty makes anger spill over when the milk does. Family income correlates with structure. Many low-income adults are reluctant to marry until both spouses have good jobs, so the married structure is less common as income falls. Since conflicts about money are a major reason for divorce, if such parents do marry, then low income makes divorce more likely. Family function is also affected by income: Obviously money is needed for the first of the five functions listed earlier—physical necessities—and it has an influence on functions 2 through 5 as well. Since most funds for U.S. schools come from local property taxes, learning is affected by neighborhood affluence. Since self-esteem may benefit from costly sports and arts programs, poverty reduces that as well. Friendship is limited if children have many tasks to do at home, and poor families move more often. The effects of poverty on children are cumulative; most children are resilient if income drops for a year, but an entire childhood in poverty is difficult to overcome. Low SES may be especially damaging during middle childhood (Duncan et al., 2010). Several researchers have developed the family-stress model, which holds that the crucial question about any risk factor (e.g., low income, divorce, single parenthood, unemployment) is whether it increases stress. Thus, poverty is less stressful if low income is temporary and the family's net worth (home ownership, investments, etc.) buffers the strain (Yeung & Conley, 2008). However, ongoing economic hardship increases stress, and adults may become tense and hostile (Conger et al., 2002; Parke et al., 2004). Thus, the reaction to poverty, not the sheer monthly income, is crucial. Reaction to wealth may also be harmful. Children in high-income families develop more than their share of developmental problems, such as depression, eating disorders, and drug addiction. One reason may be parental pressure, causing children to develop externalizing and internalizing problems (see Chapter 6) (Ansary & Luthar, 2009). Some intervention programs aim to teach parents to be more encouraging and patient (McLoyd et al., 2006). In low-income families, however, this focus may be misplaced. Poverty itself—with attendant problems such as inadequate schools, poor health, and the threat of homelessness—causes stress (Duncan et al., 2010). Remember the dynamic-systems perspective described in Chapter 1? That perspective applies to poverty: Multigenerational research finds that poverty is both a cause and a symptom—parents with less education and immature emotional control are more likely to have difficulty finding employment and raising their children, and then low income adds to those difficulties (Schofield et al., 2011). If that is so, more income might improve family functioning. Some support for this idea comes from research indicating that children in single-mother households do much better if their father pays child support, even if he is not actively involved in the child's daily life (Huang, 2009). Nations that subsidize single parents (e.g., Austria and Iceland) also have smaller achievement gaps between low- and middle-SES children on the TIMSS. This is suggestive, but controversial and value-laden. Some developmentalists report that raising income does not, by itself, improve parenting (L. M. Berger et al., 2009). CONFLICT There is no controversy about conflict. Every researcher agrees that family conflict harms children, especially when adults fight about child rearing. Such fights are more common in stepfamilies, divorced families, and extended families. Of course, nuclear families are not immune: Children suffer especially if their parents abuse each other or if one parent walks out, leaving the other distraught. The impact of genes on children's reaction to conflict was explored in a longitudinal study of family conflict in 1,734 married parents, each with a twin who was also a parent and part of the research. The twins' husbands or wives, and an adolescent from each family, were also studied. Genetics as well as conflict could be analyzed, since 388 of the pairs of twins were monozygotic and 479 were dizygotic. Each adolescent was compared with a cousin, who had half (if the parent was monozygotic) or a quarter (if the parent was dizygotic) of the same genes (Schermerhorn et al., 2011). Participants were 5,202 individuals, one-third of them adult twins, one-third married to a twin, and one-third adolescents with a twin parent. Conflict was assessed with a questionnaire that included items such as, "We fight a lot in our family." The researchers found that although genes had some effect, conflict itself was the main influence on the child's well-being. For example, whether teenagers became delinquent depended less on the genes they inherited than on the conflict in their families. Open conflict was especially detrimental, leading to externalizing problems in the boys and internalizing problems in the girls. Simple disagreement (assessed by both members of each couple) did not much harm the child—unless the dispute erupted in open conflict (such as yelling in front of the children) or divorce (Schermerhorn et al., 2011). The general conclusion was that conflict had a greater impact than genes. However, one measure did show genetic influence—the adolescents' (not the parents') estimate of how much conflict the family had. From this, the researchers suggest that some teenagers, for temperamental reasons, are more sensitive to conflict than others. Parents influence their children's development primarily in nonshared ways that differ for each child. During middle childhood, families ideally provide basic necessities and foster learning opportunities, self-respect, friendships, harmony, and stability. Every family structure can support child development, but children from nuclear families, on average, are most likely to develop well. Family poverty and conflict are usually harmful to 6- to 11-year-olds, although genes and culture can provide some protection. When parents are stressed, by poverty, divorce, or anything else, they are less likely to nurture children well. Family Trouble

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Printed Page 304 8.3.1 The Culture of Children How to Play Boys teach each other the rituals and rules of engagement. The bigger boy shown here could hurt the smaller one, but he won't; their culture forbids it in such situations. GETTY IMAGES/ BLEND IMAGES Peer relationships, unlike adult-child relationships, involve partners who negotiate, compromise, share, and defend themselves as equals. Consequently, children learn social lessons from one another that grown-ups cannot teach. Adults sometimes command obedience, sometimes are playfully docile, but they are always much older and bigger, with the values and experiences of their own cohort, not the child's. Child culture includes the particular rules and behaviors that are passed down to younger children from slightly older ones; it includes not only fashions and gestures but also values and rituals. Jump-rope rhymes, insults, and superstitions are often part of the peer culture. Even nursery games echo child culture. One example is "Ring around the rosy/Pocketful of posy/Ashes, ashes/We all fall down." A popular interpretation is that it originated with children coping with the bubonic plague (the Black Death), which killed about one-third of the population of Europe in the middle of the fourteenth century (Kastenbaum, 2006). (Rosy may be short for rosary; posies may be the herbs people carried to ward off the plague.) However, that may not be the origin at all, since "Ring around the Rosy" was not published (and presumably not said) until 500 years later. Instead that rhyme may have been a nonsense saying that gave devout children a chance to hold hands and fall on each other in the nineteenth century, when dancing was forbidden for them. In any case, children enjoy rhymes, and adults try to figure out what they mean. Throughout the world, the child culture encourages independence from adults. Classmates pity those (especially boys) whose parents kiss them ("mama's boy"), tease those who please the teachers ("teacher's pet," "suck-up"), and despise those who betray children to adults ("tattletale," "grasser," "snitch," "rat"). Keeping secrets is always part of the culture of children, and parents always want to know about their children's lives (Gillis, 2008). A clash thus develops between the generations. In another example, many children refuse to wear the clothes their parents buy for them because they are too loose, too tight, too long, too short, or wrong in color, style, brand, or some other aspect that adults ignore. Such cohort differences may be multiplied if grandparents are involved, who may be shocked at what their grandchildren wear, say, or do. The culture of children is not always benign. For instance, because children seek to communicate with their peers, immigrant parents proudly note that their children speak a second language and that they depend on their children for translation. However, sometimes children's quickness to pick up their peers' language is less welcome. Parents of every group may be distressed when their children spout their peers' curses, accents, and slang. In seeking independence from parents, children find friends who defy authority (J. Snyder et al., 2005), sometimes harmlessly (passing a note during class), sometimes not (shoplifting, cigarette smoking). Pity the Teacher The culture of children encourages pranks, jokes, and the defiance of authorities at school. At the same time, as social cognition develops, many children secretly feel empathy for their teachers. CARTOONSTOCK.COM FRIENDSHIP AND SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE Children want to be liked; they learn faster and feel happier when they have friends. Indeed, if they had to choose between being friendless but popular (looked up to by many peers) or having close friends but being unpopular (ignored by most classmates), most would prefer having friends. This is particularly true for children younger than 10; in early adolescence, popularity may become the priority (LaFontana & Cillessen, 2010). Friendships become more intense and intimate as social cognition and effortful control advance. By the end of middle childhood, friends demand more of one another, including loyalty. It can be devastating when a friendship ends, partly because making new friends is difficult. Gender differences persist in activities (girls converse more, boys play active games), but both boys and girls want best friends. Having no close friend at age 11 predicts depression at age 13 (Brendgen et al., 2010). Most children learn how to be a good friend. For example, when fifth-graders were asked how they would react if other children teased their friend, almost all said they would ask their friend to do something fun with them and would reassure the friend that "things like that happen to everyone" (Rose & Asher, 2004). Older children tend to choose best friends whose interests, values, and backgrounds are similar to their own. By the end of middle childhood, close friendships are almost always between children of the same sex, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. This occurs not because children become more prejudiced over the course of middle childhood (they do not) but because they seek friends who understand and agree with them. Remember: Harmony, not conflict, is sought. Academic achievement is also valued in middle childhood. From ages 7 to 10, one longitudinal study found that higher-achieving children have more friends, as well as classmates who want to be their friends. They are not necessarily the most popular children, but their friends are themselves high achievers (Véronneau et al., 2010). POPULAR AND UNPOPULAR CHILDREN It seems universally true that children seek close friends, yet it is also true that culture and cohort affect which qualities are desirable. Academic achievement is less admired if a particular child is the only one who attains it. In North America, shy children are not popular, but a 1990 school survey in Shanghai found that shy children were respected and often well liked (X. Chen et al., 1992). That is a cultural difference, but a cohort difference occurred over 12 years in Shanghai. As assertiveness became more valued in Chinese culture, a survey from the same schools found that shy children were less popular than their shy predecessors had been (X. Chen et al., 2005). A later third study found that, in rural China, shyness was still valued and predicted adult adjustment (X. Chen et al., 2009). Obviously, cohort and context matter. At least in the United States, over the years of middle childhood two types of popular children and three types of unpopular children become apparent (see Figure 8.2). Throughout childhood, children who are "kind, trustworthy, cooperative" are well liked. The second type of popular children emerges around fifth grade, when children who are "athletic, cool, dominant, arrogant, and...aggressive" are sometimes popular (Cillessen & Mayeux, 2004a, p. 147; Rodkin & Roisman, 2010). FIGURE 8.2 Popularity Most children are neither popular nor unpopular, and the arrogant popular type is not usually evident until the end of middle childhood. The relationship to bullying is shown as a dotted line because these types are not always involved in bullying—it depends on the school culture. As for the three types of unpopular children, some are neglected, but not actively rejected by peers. They are ignored, but not shunned. The neglected child does not enjoy school but is psychologically unharmed, especially if the child has a supportive family and outstanding talent (e.g., in music or the arts) (Sandstrom & Zakriski, 2004). The other two types of unpopular children may be psychologically harmed. Specifically, they are at increased risk of depression and uncontrolled anger over the years of middle childhood. One type is aggressive-rejected, disliked because they are antagonistic and confrontational; the other type is withdrawn-rejected, disliked because they are timid and anxious. Children of these two types have much in common, often misinterpreting social situations, lacking emotional regulation, and experiencing mistreatment at home. They may become bullies or victims, a topic discussed next. The Culture of Children

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Health and Sickness 1. Middle childhood is a time of steady growth and few serious illnesses, thanks to genes and medical advances. 2. Physical activity aids health and joy. However, current social and environmental conditions make informal neighborhood play scarce, school physical education less prevalent, and sports leagues less welcoming. 3. Childhood obesity and asthma are increasing worldwide. Although genes are part of the cause, public policies (e.g., food advertising, pollution standards) and family practices also have an impact. Cognition in Middle Childhood 4. According to Piaget, middle childhood is the time of concrete operational thought, when egocentrism diminishes and logical thinking begins. School-age children can understand classification and conservation. 5. Vygotsky stressed the social context of learning, including the specific lessons of school and learning from peers and adults. Culture affects not only what children learn but also how they learn. 6. An information-processing approach examines each step of the thinking process, focusing especially on brain processes, which continue to mature. Notable advances occur in reaction time, allowing faster and better coordination of many parts of the brain. 7. Memory begins with information that reaches the brain from the sense organs. Then selection processes allow some information to reach working memory. Finally, long-term memory stores images and ideas indefinitely. 8. Selective attention, a broader knowledge base, logical strategies for retrieval, and faster processing advance every aspect of memory and cognition. Control processes, including metacognition, are crucial. Language Advances 9. Language learning advances in many practical ways, including expansion of vocabulary and understanding of metaphors. 10. Children excel at pragmatics, often using one code with their friends and another in school. Many children become fluent in the school language while speaking their first language at home. Teaching 11. Nations and experts agree that primary education should be universal. Reading is assessed internationally with the PIRLS, math and science with the TIMSS. On both, children in East Asia excel. 12. The United States has many types of locally controlled primary schools. The Common Core has been adopted by almost all U.S. states, with the hope of raising national standards and improving accountability. 13. IQ tests are designed to quantify intellectual aptitude. Most such tests emphasize language and logic and predict school achievement. Critics contend that traditional IQ tests assess too narrowly because people have multiple types of intelligence. 14. Achievement tests measure accomplishment, often in specific academic areas. Aptitude and achievement are correlated, both for individuals and for nations. Children with Special Needs 15. Many children have special educational needs. Among the more common causes are attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in which children have problems with inattention, impulsiveness, and overactivity; bipolar disorder, characterized by marked mood swings; specific learning disorders; and autistim spectrum disorder. 16. All special needs are partly genetic, but family and school factors can make the problems better or worse. Treatments include medication, targeted education, and family training—all controversial. 17. In the United States, about 13 percent of school-age children receive special education services, with an individual education plan (IEP) and assignment to the least restrictive environment (LRE), usually the regular classroom.

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Printed Page 310 8.4.2 What Children Value ANSWER TO OBSERVATION QUIZ (from page 308) They are both Latino, but that is not it. They are also both deaf. Although any child in any school could become a bully, those who are disabled in some way are more likely to be victims. Many lines of research have shown that children develop their own morality, guided by peers, parents, and culture (Turiel, 2006). Some prosocial values are evident long before middle childhood. Among these are caring for close family members, cooperating with other children, and not hurting anyone intentionally (Eisenberg et al., 2006). As children become more aware of themselves and others in middle childhood, they realize that one person's values may conflict with another's. Concrete operational cognition, which gives children the ability to use logic about what they see, propels them to think and act ethically (Turiel, 2006), to recognize immorality in their peers (Abrams et al., 2008) and, later, in their parents, themselves, and their culture. RESPONSE FOR Parents of an Accused Bully (from page 308) The future is ominous if the charges are true. Your child's denial is a sign that there is a problem. (An innocent child would be worried about the misperception instead of categorically denying that any problem exists.) You might ask the teacher what the school is doing about bullying. Family counseling might help. Because bullies often have friends who egg them on, you may need to monitor your child's friendships and perhaps befriend the victim. Talk matters over with your child. Ignoring the situation might lead to heartache later on. When child culture conflicts with adult morality, children often align themselves with peers. A child might lie to a teacher in order to protect a friend, for instance. On a broader level, one study found that 98 percent of a group of children believed that no child should be excluded from a sports team because of gender or race, even when adult society was less tolerant. Some of the same children, however, justified excluding another child from a friendship circle for such reasons (Killen et al., 2002). The conflict between the morality of children and that of adults is evident in the value that children place on education. Adults usually prize school, but children may encourage one another to play hooky, cheat on tests, or, later, to drop out. If a child sees another child cheating, he or she is unlikely to tell the teacher—for moral reasons! Three common values among 6- to 11-year-olds are the following: Protect your friends. Don't tell adults what is happening. Don't be too different from your peers. These three values can explain both apparent boredom and overt defiance, as well as standards of dress that mystify adults (such as jeans so loose that they fall off or so tight that they impede digestion—both styles worn by my children, who grew up in different cohorts). Given what is known about middle childhood, it is no surprise that children do not echo adult morality. This discrepancy broadens as puberty begins, when some boys wear their pants so low that their underwear shows, and some girls wear transparent blouses that show their bras—to the horror of their grandparents. Fortunately, peers help one another develop morals. You have already seen this in the discussion of bullies. The best way to stop a bully is for bystanders to take action, defending the victim and isolating the bully. This is exactly what occurs when the whole-school approach is effective: The adults do not lecture (that can backfire), but everyone—children, parents, and school staff alike—works together to stop bullying. Since bullies lack empathy, they need peers to teach them that their actions are not appreciated (many bullies believe their actions are admired). During middle childhood, morality can be scaffolded just as cognitive skills are, with mentors—peers or adults—structuring moral dilemmas to advance moral understanding (Nucci & Turiel, 2009; Turner & Berkowitz, 2005). Developing Moral Values Many adults wonder how best to instill moral values in children. The first thought is to punish immoral behavior, the authoritarian approach explained in Chapter 6. Unfortunately, that stops overt behavior but not covert actions. Children may become sneaky, which is not at all what the adults intended. Ideally, children internalize standards, doing the right thing even when being caught is unlikely. On that Kohlberg has a point: It would be good if children could think of the moral way to behave, using their cognitive advances to internalize standards. By middle childhood, children should avoid stealing because they believe it is wrong, not because they will be punished for doing so. How do they learn that? Parents and other adults sometimes lecture children, sometimes hope children will follow the adults' examples, and sometimes discuss issues, expressing opinions but also listening to their children. What works? A detailed examination of the effect of conversation on morality began with an update of one of Piaget's moral issues: whether retribution (hurting the transgressor) or restitution (restoring what was lost) is best when someone does something wrong. Piaget believed that restitution was the more advanced punishment; he also found that between ages 8 and 10, children progress from retribution to restitution (Piaget, 1932). Following Piaget's hypothesis, researchers asked 133 9-year-olds a question: Late one afternoon there was a boy who was playing with a ball on his own in the garden. His dad saw him playing with it and asked him not to play with it so near the house because it might break a window. The boy didn't really listen to his dad, and carried on playing near the house. Then suddenly, the ball bounced up high and broke the window in the boy's room. His dad heard the noise and came to see what had happened. The father wonders what would be the fairest way to punish the boy. He thinks of two punishments. The first is to say: "Now, you didn't do as I asked. You will have to pay for the window to be mended, and I am going to take the money from your pocket money." The second is to say: "Now, you didn't do as I asked. As a punishment you have to go to your room and stay there for the rest of the evening." Which of these punishments do you think is the fairest? [Leman & Björnberg, 2010, p. 962] The 9-year-olds were split equally, half choosing retribution (go to his room) and half choosing restitution (pay for the window). Then the researchers paired 48 of them with a child who answered the other way, and each pair was asked to talk together to try to reach agreement. Six pairs were boy-boy, six were boy-girl with the boy favoring restitution, six were boy-girl with the girl favoring restitution, and six were girl-girl. As a control, the rest of the children were not paired and did not discuss the dilemma. The conversations typically took only five minutes, and the retribution side was more often chosen—which Piaget would consider a moral backslide. However, when the children were queried again, two weeks and then eight weeks later, their responses changed toward more advanced, restitution thinking (see Figure 8.3). This occurred even for the children who had not been paired to discuss the problem, but it was particularly true for the children who had engaged in conversation. FIGURE 8.3 Benefits of Time and Talking The graph on the left shows that most children, immediately after their initial punitive response, became even more likely to seek punishment rather than to repair damage. However, after some time and reflection, they affirmed the response Piaget would consider more mature. The graph on the right indicates that children who had talked about the broken window example moved toward restorative justice even in examples they had not heard before, which was not true for those who had not talked about the first story. Source: Leman & Björnberg, 2010. In this study, the boy-boy pairs used a discussion style that some adults would consider immature, if not immoral. They had many more hostile interruptions ("That's crazy," "You're stupid") than did the other pairs. However, those interruptions did not impede advancement of thought. Instead, such seeming hostility might have been the boys' conventional way of interacting, expected by their partners and not taken as mean. The main conclusion from this study was that children's "conversation on a topic may stimulate a process of individual reflection that triggers developmental advances" (Leman & Björnberg, 2010, p. 969). Parents and teachers take note: Raising moral issues, and letting children talk about them, may advance morality—not immediately, but soon. What Children Value

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Printed Page 313 8.4.3 The Morality of Child Labor Now consider the tire-changing boy from the opening story of this chapter. Child labor is deemed immoral by the United Nations, but that international body has found it hard to educate children about their rights or to convince nations to enforce child labor standards (Print et al., 2008). Some child labor is clearly hazardous, such as working in mines with cancer-causing pollutants or becoming sex workers with no opportunity for escape. Even for these occupations, nations do not always protect children as they should (Diallo et al., 2010). Protecting His Brain? No. That lump on his head makes it easier to balance the heavy rocks this boy carries to the stone crusher in Gauhati, India. Such child labor not only "interferes with education" but also is directly "hazardous" to the head—and is thus forbidden by the United Nations on two counts. AP PHOTO/ANUPAM NATH Apparently, work done by children is judged as immoral in some places and at some times yet moral in others. A shocking U.S. example comes from the early twentieth century, when moral crusaders took children from their impoverished urban families and sent them to farm families as child labor. The thought was that hard work and fresh air would help them become upright, moral adults—unlike their parents. The phrase "put up for adoption" came from the practice of making them stand up on railroad platforms at towns in the Midwest, where farmers could choose which child to adopt. No questions were asked or background checks performed: It was assumed that the children would be better off on the Midwestern farms than in the East Coast cities (Kahan, 2006). Thankfully, that practice stopped by about 1917, but obviously the morality of child labor varies from culture to culture and cohort to cohort. Even today, some children have extensive chores to do around the house, while others have none. Parents on both sides contend that the others are cruel, or at least misguided. To decide whether that young tire-changer should be helping his father would require finding out whether his life situation satisfies the five needs that are thought to be universal during middle childhood. Are his material needs met, is he learning in school, does he have friends, is he proud of himself, is his work keeping his family harmonious and stable? If the answer to these questions is yes, then my student Tiffany's understandable shock, or the father's acceptance of child labor, may reflect their respective cultures, not the boy's welfare. The moral lesson of this chapter, then, is that the psychosocial development of children must be carefully assessed, child by child. As you have seen, self-esteem is a positive attribute that may become destructive if it is too high; married-couple families are usually good for children but not always; friends protect victims, but sometimes they encourage bullies. As with all of development, individual children, families, and cultures vary, and that must be taken into account before conclusions are drawn. During middle childhood, children are intensely concerned about moral issues. Kohlberg believed that cognition and morality advance together, as children gradually become less self-centered and more concerned about universal principles. Children learn from the morality and customs of their peers and may choose loyalty to friends over cultural or familial values. Ongoing conversation and discussion seems to be the best way for children to internalize a moral perspective. The Morality of Child Labor

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Printed Page 266 7.4.2 In the United States How Many Fingers? It looks as if teacher Alvin Yardley and fourth-grader Matthew are fully engaged in figuring out a math problem. However, U.S. fourth-graders score far below those in East Asia. Some critics blame the teachers, some the students, others the schools, and still others the culture. AP PHOTO/JAE C. HONG Although some national tests find improvements, when U.S. children are compared with children in other nations, not much has changed in reading or math scores in the past two decades. A particular concern is that a child's achievement seems more influenced by income and ethnicity in the United States than in other nations. Although many educators and political leaders have attempted to overcome disparities linked to a child's background, the gap between fourth-grade European Americans and their Latino and African American peers is as wide as it was 15 years ago. Furthermore, the gap between lowand high-income U.S. students is widening, as is the gap between American Indians and other groups (Maxwell, 2012; National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). NATIONAL STANDARDS These international comparisons and ethnic disparities led President Bush to pass the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), a federal law promoting high standards for public schools, with frequent testing to measure achievement. Low-scoring schools could be forced to close, with teachers reassigned or dismissed. Most parents and teachers agree with the goals of NCLB (accountability and achievement), but many disagree with the strategies. Strong conflicting opinions are expressed by politicians, educators, and scholars, such as those expressed in a single issue of Science magazine (Hanushek, 2009; Koretz, 2009). To prevent massive school closings, half the states have been granted waivers from some aspects of NCLB. Many states developed tests that allowed most of their schools to progress (and thus get federal funds). State tests typically assess students as more proficient than does a particular federally sponsored test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which most educators believe is a more valid assessment (Applegate et al., 2009). Doubts about state assessments led the governors of all 50 states to develop a Common Core of high standards, finalized in 2010, with a dozen or more specific expectations in each subject for every grade (Table 7-4 provides a sample). As of 2012, 46 states had adopted this Common Core. CHOOSING SCHOOLS An underlying issue is the role of community control and parental choice in education. This is probably the major difference between the United States, where choice and variability are evident everywhere, and other nations, where matters regarding public education—including curriculum, funding, teacher training, and so on—are set by the central governments. In most nations, every child attends his or her local school, which is similar in resources and standards to schools elsewhere in the nation. In the United States, because local jurisdictions provide most of the funds and guidelines, wealthy communities have a very different hidden curriculum than do poorer communities. Differences are also apparent between the states, and even between one school and another in the same region. Most children attend their local public school, but that school is affected by the child's parents, who communicate with their child's teacher, become active in parent-teacher associations, move to a particular school zone, and lobby for funds, often secured via public votes on bond issues. Almost one-third of parents do not send their child to the zoned public school. Instead, an increasing number choose a public charter school, a private school, a religious school, or home schooling. Charter schools are public schools, funded and licensed by states or local districts. Typically, they also have private money and sponsors. They are exempt from some regulations, especially those negotiated by unions, and they have some control over admissions and expulsions. For that reason, they often are more ethnically segregated and enroll fewer children with special needs. On average in charter schools, teachers are younger and work longer hours, and school size is smaller than traditional public schools. Some charter schools are remarkably successful; others are not (Peyser, 2011). A major criticism is that not every child who enters a charter school stays to graduate—one scholar says "the dropout rate for African American males is shocking" (Miron, quoted in Zehr, 2011, p. 1). Overall, children and teachers leave charter schools more often than they leave regular public schools, a disturbing statistic. However, since teachers and parents actively choose charter schools, they may be more selective by nature and thus more willing to leave if their expectations are not met. OBSERVATION QUIZ This is a charter school in New Jersey. What three signs are visible here that few typical public schools share? (see answer, page 269) Chance or Design? These third-graders are using dice to play a game that may teach them multiplication. AP PHOTO/MIKE DERER Private schools are funded by tuition, endowments, and church sponsors. Traditionally in the United States, most private schools were parochial schools, organized by the Catholic Church, that included religion in the curriculum. Tuition was relatively low since many teachers were nuns who earned little pay. In the past decades, many parochial schools have closed, but more independent private schools have opened. Some U.S. jurisdictions issue vouchers, money that parents can use to pay some or all of the tuition at a private school, including a church-sponsored one. This practice is controversial, not only because it decreases public school support but also because public funds go to religious institutions, which is contrary to the U.S. principle of separation of church and state. Advocates say that vouchers increase competition and improve all schools, public and private. Critics say it weakens public schools and is costly to taxpayers. Home schooling occurs when parents avoid both public and private schools by educating their children at home. This solution is becoming more common, but only about 1 child in 35 (more Whites than Blacks, more girls than boys, more preadolescent) is home-schooled (Snyder & Dillow, 2012). A prerequisite is an adult at home (usually the mother in a two-parent family) who is willing to teach the children. Authorities set standards for what a child must learn, but home-schooling families decide specifics of curriculum, schedules, and discipline. The major problem with home schooling is not academic (some mothers are demanding teachers and some home-schooled children score high on achievement tests) but social, since children miss the interaction of the classroom. To compensate, many home-schooling parents plan activities with other home-schooling families. This practice reflects local culture: Home schooling is more common in some parts of the United States than others (higher rates in the south and the northwest than in the northeast or midwest), which affects how readily parents can find other home-schooled children. ESPECIALLY FOR Parents Suppose you and your school-age children move to a new community that is 50 miles from the nearest location that offers instruction in your faith or value system. Your neighbor says, "Don't worry, they don't have to make any moral decisions until they are teenagers." Is your neighbor correct? (see response, page 270) MORE RESEARCH NEEDED On many educational issues, research clashes with parental emotions. Parents choose schools based on other parents' opinions, which may not be valid. Furthermore, small class size and nightly homework are more attractive to parents than beneficial to children. Consider class size. Parents sometimes opt for private schools because fewer children are in each class. Yet nations whose children score high on international tests sometimes have large student/teacher ratios (Korea's average is 28 to 1) and sometimes small (Finland's is 14 to 1, the same as for public schools in the United States—where small classes for children with special needs reduce the average ratio). These facts do not prove that class size is irrelevant (there are many differences between Asian and U.S. schools and cultures), but they do raise the question. In another example, fourth-graders with no homework averaged higher achievement scores than those with homework (Snyder & Dillow, 2010). Again, do not jump to conclusions too quickly: Perhaps weaker students are assigned more homework. Who should decide what children should learn and how? Every developmental theory can lead to suggestions for teaching and learning (Farrar & Al-Qatawneh, 2010), but none endorse one curriculum or method to the exclusion of all others. Parents, politicians, and developmental experts all agree that children should be taught, that some children learn much more than others, and that some teachers are more skilled than others, but adults certainly do not agree on curriculum—hidden or overt. ANSWER TO OBSERVATION QUIZ (from page 267) Carpets and rugs, students lying down to do schoolwork, clipboards, and dice—all are highly unusual for traditional schools. More quantitative and qualitative research is needed to determine what works best. A 19-member panel of experts seeking the best math curricula for the United States examined 16,000 studies but "found a serious lack of studies with adequate scale and design for us to reach conclusions" (Faulkner, quoted in Mervis, 2008, p. 1605). Similarly, a review of home schooling, charter schools, and vouchers complains of "the difficulty of interpreting the research literature on this topic, most of which is biased and far from approaching balanced social science" (Boyd, 2007, p. 7). Every educational issue would benefit from large-scale, controlled studies. There are no simple answers. Apparently "high-performing schools are the result of a hundred 1 percent solutions. Not only is there no silver bullet, but there is not even a secret sauce. The key to success is an unflagging attention to detail" (Peyser, 2011, p. 8). Although critics seek the one magic bullet that would improve education for all children, and many adults believe they have found it, researchers have yet to prove that any particular method of teaching reading, or training teachers, or designing curriculum, is a dramatic improvement for every child. From a developmental perspective, all educators need to understand that age, motivation, and culture vary in ways that affect learning. Evidence from children in schools, not from laboratories, is needed. In the United States

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Printed Page 290 8.2 Families and Children No one doubts that genes affect personality as well as ability, that peers are vital, and that schools and cultures influence what, and how much, children learn as well as how they feel about themselves. It has been suggested that these three—genes, peers, and communities—have so much influence that parenting has little impact unless it is grossly abusive (Harris, 1998, 2002; McLeod et al., 2007). This suggestion arose from research on the effect of the environment on child development. Families and Children

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Printed Page 269 7.4.3 Measuring the Mind Trial and Understanding This youngster completes one of the five performance tests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). If her score is high, is that because of superior innate intelligence? ["Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale" and "WAIS" are trademarks, in the U.S. and/or other countries, of Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s).] PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSICA BAYNE/WECHSLER ADULT INTELLIGENCE SCALE, FOURTH EDITION (WAIS-IV). COPYRIGHT © 2008 NCS PEARSON, INC. REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED An underlying question is: Who should be taught in which way? Some children are ahead of others even before they enter school. Such early advantages typically increase with age. Differential sensitivity and individual capacity mean that strategies, pacing, and curriculum details need to be tailored to the particular nature of the child (Kegel et al., 2011). One example is that reading scores rise with early phonic instruction for low-scoring children, but not for high-scoring ones (Sonnenschein et al., 2009). Another example is special education (discussed soon), which may be needed when a child's ability seems greater than achievement. But how should cognitive ability be assessed? APTITUDE, ACHIEVEMENT, AND IQ In theory, aptitude is the potential to master a specific skill or to learn a certain body of knowledge. Intellectual aptitude is often measured by IQ (intelligence quotient) tests. Originally, an IQ score was literally a quotient: Mental age (the age of a typical child who had reached the tested child's intellectual level) was divided by chronological age (the tested child's actual age), and the result of that division (the quotient) was multiplied by 100. If mental age was the same as chronological age, the quotient would be 1, and the child's IQ would be 100, exactly average. The current method of calculating IQ is more complicated, but an IQ of 100 is still considered average. In theory, achievement is learning that has occurred, not learning potential (aptitude). Achievement tests compare scores to norms established for each grade. For example, children of any age whose reading is typical of the average third-grader are said to be at the third-grade level in reading achievement. In 1904, a Frenchman named Alfred Binet developed IQ tests because he saw that children who did not achieve in school were beaten, shamed, and excluded. He wondered if their aptitude rendered them unable to achieve at grade level. IQ tests protected those children. Binet's tests were revised and published as the Stanford-Binet IQ tests, now in their fifth edition, used in more than 1,000 published studies in 2012. RESPONSE FOR Parents (from page 268) No. In fact, these are prime years for moral education. You might travel those 50 miles once or twice a week or recruit other parents to organize a local program. Don't skip moral instruction. Discuss and demonstrate your moral and religious values, and help your children meet other children who share those values. The words in theory precede the definitions of aptitude and achievement because, although potential and accomplishment are supposed to be distinct, IQ and achievement scores are strongly correlated for individuals, for groups of children, and for nations (Lynn & Mikk, 2007). Binet assumed that some children did not achieve much because of their low IQ, but perhaps low achievement was a cause (not just a result) of low IQ. Or some third factor (malnutrition?) could decrease both IQ and achievement. Moreover, people once thought that aptitude was a fixed characteristic, present at birth—but this is not the case. Children with a low IQ can become above average, or even gifted, like my nephew David (discussed in Chapter 1). Indeed, the average IQ scores of entire nations have risen substantially—a phenomenon called the Flynn effect, named after the researcher who first described this increase in nation after nation. At first Flynn's conclusion was doubted, but the data have convinced the skeptics. The rise in intelligence may be one result of worldwide improvements in education and nutrition (Flynn, 1999, 2007). Social scientists agree that the IQ score is only a snapshot, a static view of a dynamic, developing brain. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES Beyond the fact that IQ scores change, a fundamental question is whether any single test can measure the complexities of cognitive development. This criticism has been targeted particularly at IQ tests, because the underlying assumption is that there is one general thing called intelligence (often referred to as g, for general intelligence). Children may instead inherit a set of abilities, some high and some low, rather than general intellectual ability (e.g., Q. Zhu et al., 2010). Two leading developmentalists (Sternberg and Gardner) are among those who believe that humans have multiple intelligences, not just one (Furnham, 2012). Robert Sternberg (1996) described three distinct types of intelligence: academic, measured by IQ and achievement tests; creative, evidenced by imaginative endeavors; and practical, seen in everyday problem solving. Howard Gardner (1983) originally described seven intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic (movement), interpersonal (social understanding), and intrapersonal (self-understanding)—each associated with a region of the brain. He has since added two more: naturalistic (understanding nature, as in biology or farming) and existential (thinking about life and death) (Gardner, 1999, 2006; Gardner & Moran, 2006). Although every normal (not severely brain-damaged) person has some of all nine intelligences, Gardner believes each individual has highs and lows. For example, someone might be gifted spatially but not linguistically (a visual artist who cannot describe her work) or might have interpersonal but not naturalistic intelligence (an astute clinical psychologist whose houseplants die). Gardner's theory has been influential in education, especially the education of children (e.g., Armstrong, 2009; Rettig, 2005), when teachers allow children to demonstrate knowledge in their own ways—illustrating history with a drawing rather than an essay, for instance. Some children may learn by listening, others by looking, others by doing—an idea that led to research on learning styles. ESPECIALLY FOR Teachers What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Gardner's idea of multiple intelligences to guide your classroom curriculum? (see response, page 273) Similarly, Sternberg believes that matching instruction to a person's analytic, creative, or practical ability advances his or her comprehension. However, these applications may not be supported by scientific research (Almeida et al., 2010; Pashler et al., 2008). Debate continues about whether intelligence is general or multiple, whether learning styles are relevant to achievement, and what the educational implications of test scores might be (Furnham, 2012). CULTURAL VARIATIONS One final criticism of IQ testing arises from two aspects of the life-span perspective: multicultural and multicontextual understanding. Every test reflects the culture of the people who create, administer, and take it. On achievement tests, a child may score low because of the school, the teacher, the family, or the culture, not because of ability. Indeed, one reason IQ tests are still used is that achievement tests do not necessarily reflect aptitude. Some experts try to use aptitude tests that are culture-free, such as by asking children to identify shapes, draw people, repeat stories, hop on one foot, name their classmates, sort objects, and much more. However, even with such tests, culture is relevant. One group reports that Sudanese children averaged 40 points lower when IQ testing required them to write with pencils, which they had not done before (Wicherts et al., 2010). Beyond such specifics, though, most tests assume that scores are characteristic of an individual. Consequently, the IQ tests considered most accurate (the WISC [Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children] and the Stanford-Binet) rely on one professional testing one child. The professional has been trained to encourage without giving answers, and the report includes any specifics (e.g., that this particular child was not feeling well) that might affect the score. Yet remember that children reflect the hidden curricula. In some cultures, individuals are taught to consider themselves part of a group, and the intellectually gifted are particularly adept at working with others. In such cultures, a child's intellect might be more evident in social interaction, not in isolation. In Africa, for instance, testing an isolated child's IQ might not indicate potential (Nsamenang, 2004). Furthermore, if children have been taught to be quiet and respectful, they might not readily answer questions posed by an unfamiliar professional. Then their IQ would not reflect their potential. They might mistakenly be assigned to special education, a topic we explain next. Children worldwide attend school, but curricula, teaching methods, settings, and much else differ from one nation to another. International tests of achievement usually find children in East Asian nations scoring far above U.S. children and above children in many other nations. Attempts to improve the achievement of U.S. children, such as the No Child Left Behind Act or the Common Core standards, have not yet succeeded. School choice and local funding characterize U.S. education; different families opt for public, private, parochial, charter, or home schooling. IQ tests are designed to measure aptitude and other tests measure achievement, but both are affected by culture and by assumptions about intelligence. Measuring the Mind

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Printed Page 243 7.1 Health and Sickness Genetic and environmental factors safeguard middle childhood (about ages 6 to 11), the period after early childhood and before adolescence. One explanation comes from the evolutionary perspective: Genes protect children who have already survived the hazards of birth and early childhood, so they can live long enough to reproduce (Konner, 2010). This evolutionary explanation may not be accurate, but for whatever reason, fewer fatal diseases or accidents occur from ages 6 to 11 than at any other period of life (see Figure 7.1). FIGURE 7.1 Death at an Early Age? Almost Never! Schoolchildren are remarkably hardy, as measured in many ways. These charts show that death rates for 6- to 11-year-olds are lower than those for children younger than 6 or older than 11 and are about 100 times lower than those for adults. Source: Hoyert and Xu, 2012. Health and Sickness

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Printed Page 244 7.1.1 Slower Growth, Greater Strength Unlike infants or adolescents, school-age children's growth is slow and steady. Self-care is easy: from brushing their new teeth to dressing themselves, from making their own lunch to walking with friends to school. Once at school, brain maturation soon allows most of them to sit at their desks or tables and learn without breaking their pencils, tearing their papers, or elbowing their classmates. Muscles, including the heart and lungs, become strong. With each passing year, children run faster and exercise longer (Malina et al., 2004). As long as their entire community is not starving, school-age children get enough food, continuing to grow 2 inches (5 centimeters) or more each year. Slower Growth, Greater Strength

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Printed Page 252 7.2 Cognition in Middle Childhood Learning is rapid in childhood. Some children, by age 11, beat their elders at chess, play music that adults pay to hear, publish poems, solve complex math problems in their heads. Others survive on the streets or fight in civil wars, learning lessons that no child should know. In fact, during these years children can learn almost anything. Adults need to decide how and what to teach. Theories and practices differ, as you will see. Cognition in Middle Childhood

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Printed Page 284 8.1 The Nature of the Child As explained in the previous chapter, steady growth, brain maturation, and intellectual advances make middle childhood a time when children gain independence and autonomy (see At About This Time). They acquire an "increasing ability to regulate themselves, to take responsibility, and to exercise self-control" (Huston & Ripke, 2006, p. 9)—all strengths that make this a period of positive growth. One result is that school-age children can care for themselves. They not only feed themselves but also make their dinner, not only dress themselves but also pack their suitcases, not only walk to school but also organize games with friends. They venture outdoors alone. Boys are especially likely to put some distance between themselves and their home, engaging in activities without their parents' awareness or approval (Munroe & Romney, 2006). This budding independence fosters growth. The Nature of the Child HighlightAdd Note

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Printed Page 304 8.3 The Peer Group Peers become increasingly important in middle childhood. Younger children learn from their friends, but egocentrism buffers them from rejection. By age 8, however, children are painfully aware of their classmates' opinions, judgments, and accomplishments. Social comparison, already explained at the beginning of this chapter, is one consequence of concrete operational thought. The Peer Group