Progressive growth and development of children maximize their future well-being. Ideally, this time numerous sequential changes occur within a child. These changes range from physical appearance, language use, thought advancement and emotional modification (Riley Children's Health, 2018). As a child continues to develop, the level of imagination and creativity is enhanced.
Formal schooling program and other developmental procedure play a significant role in ensuring that the children conform to the set standard. Moreover, the educators play a fundamental role in trying to boost the intellectual, emotional and social development of a child through the incorporation of alignment standards that consider the developmental feature and aptitude of a child. Thus, a child’s creativity and other essential skills should be supported and cultivated to assist in fostering continued developments of the child. This essay aims at discussing the development and cognitive development of a child who is 6-11 years of age.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Children development process is comprised of physical, social, cognitive and emotional phases of development, those occurrences differ from one child to another. In this regard, the behavioral changes unfold at different timelines. Thus, some children may reach at a certain developmental stage faster than others. In this perspective, genes play a significant role in influencing child development. Other preexisting birth conditions or events that occur during prenatal development are also potential factors that contribute to a delayed child developmental process. Moreover, unconducive environmental factors, as well as decreased learning capacity of a child, can delay the child’s development process.
Physical and biological development
Children who are between 6 and 11 years of age continue to build on as they show improvements in their gross motor skills. The gross motor skills range from growth in mental capabilities, use of language, and the nature of their self-control. In this stage, the children are able to know the differences between fantasy and reality. Their large scale body movement abilities such as walking are advanced. A child who is between 6 and 11 years old is likely to gain an average of approximately six to seven pounds every year and he or she requires to feed on zinc, calcium, iron and folate supplements to enhance appetite as well as to prepare the body for puberty stage of development. The child grows slightly more than two inches in every year (Riley Children's Health, 2018). The child is involved in complex physical activities such as playing tag, stake-boarding, and jogging. Additionally, the child is very fascinated by scenarios such as watching films and listening to funny stories (ScienceNetLinks. (n.d.)) . According to Riley Children's Health, (2018), children who are between 6 and 11 years old are considered very active as compared to the way they were back in their preschool years. The child utilizes friends to learn the approach of thinking in a more complex manner (Riley Children's Health, 2018). The child also is involved in the intensive use of his or her muscles where the main element that helps in controlling the hand muscles is the ability to concentrate. Through the concentration that the child gradually acquires, stacking numerous blocks, scribbling or drawing complex shapes becomes easy because the child is able to hold the crayons to draw reasonable pictures. The child is able to understand dangerous scenarios that are likely to occur to him or her if proper attention is not paid to the daily physical. For instance, the child maintains and recognizes that touching hot substances is inappropriate. Moreover, the child is able to acknowledge that cars that are driving along the streets can be dangerous to his or her life especially when the child pass along the road carelessly. Thus, the child becomes extra careful with his or her behavior to control careless accidents that might occur. A child who is between 6 and 11 years can do a combination of activities such as climbing, playing basketball, dancing performing somersaults as well as swinging (Riley Children's Health, 2018). The child is capable of extending the period of standing using one foot by at least 10 seconds. The drawing ability is enhanced because they can draw a person with all body parts as well as copy different shapes such as squares, rectangles, pentagons, diamonds, and circles. Between the age of 6 and 11, the child often becomes more frustrated especially when he or she needs to accomplish any physical action but instead they are unable to achieve. Idyllically, this is usually a period for children to be involved in more than just crafting activities. Other essential capabilities of this child include unbuttoning their clothes, handling large zippers and feeding themselves.
A child who is between 6 and 11 years old, show numerous biological changes in the body that are dependent on gender (Lawrence, Campbell & Skuse, 2015) . The changes are allied to the initial signs of puberty. For instance, for girls, breast start to develop as early as when the girl is 8 years old. However, puberty signs are averaged to start when girls are 10 years old. Breast development is the major change that is observable in girls between these ages. Biological changes can also be observed in boys at this age. For example, the key change in a boy-child is testicles enlargement as well as the thinning and reddening of the scrotum. The puberty signs for boys start when they are 11 years on average, but the signs can start as early as 9 years. The children undergo different growth and sexual development depending on their genetic composition.
Social development
One of the most significant parts of growth and development is the ability to possess interaction and socialization skills. Children show a crucial transition in social development which ranges from playing alone to making friends for enhanced interaction (Riley Children's Health, 2018). A child is attracted to his or her peers, and the interaction is enhanced among them. Through the enhanced child’s imagination as well as fantasy-play, gradual social development occurs. The child develops an interest in playing alone but the need to have friends become significantly essential. The main lessons that a child need to be taught at this social development stage are how to handle various forms of conflict and the approaches that can be used to solve problems without involving aggressive emotions.
Nonetheless, a child who is 6 to 11 years old is involved in intensive interaction with the peers and the adults (Wen, Clegg & Legare, 2017) . Cooperating and sharing become of the key thing that the child upheaves. The child begins copying most of the activities that are performed by adults while experiencing occasional temper tantrums. Additionally, the child can start becoming jealous of other siblings especially when they have valuable things than him or her.
At the age of 8 to 11, the child indicates interest in mixing and playing with the children of the opposite gender (Riley Children's Health, 2018). Therefore, the child shows interest in joining various groups such as boy scouts or girl scouts. The child also becomes interested in a boy-girl relationship but refuses to admit it. The need to respect the parents starts to be appreciated by the child. To enhance the social ability of children at this stage, setting and providing essential limits, expectations, and guidelines on how to socialize would enhance the children’s consequences. The children should also be taught how to share their feelings with the parents without hiding anything. The parents or guardians require to take a central role in watching his or her child as he or she plays to identify the techniques that the child apply in solving different problems. Thus, by so doing, the parents can know which techniques to apply to enhance a child's social skills.
Cognitive development
The actual modification of the brain structure occurs to children who are between 6 and 11 years old. In this phase, the child improves his or her mental skills by involving in activities that boost mental functions via creative thinking (Lewis, Reeve, Kelly & Johnson, 2017) . For instance, sorting different shapes and matching different pictures enable the child to learn and solve problems quickly. The child begins to understand different container volumes and identify the containers that hold the most. Other cognitive skills that develop in a child between the age of 6 and 11 include labeling values of different coins, identifying the alphabets, understanding how to divide something in half, identifying the words that sound alike and responding correctly to various questions especially when asked to point out the pictures of common items.
At age 6 to 11, a child participates in imaginary games. Ideally, the child begins to mention various colors and fully understand the concept of numbers. Thus, the child can comfortably count them without any challenge. The adults can nurture this skill by encouraging the child to count loudly and perform some calculations that entail the numbers. Gradually, as the child knows how to count, the concept of time becomes easy to understand, and he or she can tell time (Riley Children's Health, 2018). The child is capable of explaining the use of various objects, repeating at least three numbers backward as well as differentiating between daytime and nighttime.
Moreover, the child's language development is improved through reading, answering questions when asked and through the overall speaking. In this regard, the child is capable of understanding numerous commands especially the ones with three separate instructions. Learning languages is more than just vocabulary because the children must be able to combine words in different sentences. Thus, the child becomes interested in reading books and other informative materials that would boost his or her language. Ideally, a child learns languages at distinct rates. The number of words in the sentences is usually equal to the age of the children. For example, those who are 2 years old, they speak two words in a sentence, age 3 speak three words in a sentence and so on to age 6. Thus, a child is 6 or more years old is capable of speaking fluently by uttering more words as per his or her knowledge and requirements.
Other complex activities that the child is involved in include understanding fractions, dates, mentioning the name of days of the week and moths as well as writing letters. Thus, a child who is between 6 and 11 years old is viewed to show a remarkable cognitive development associated skills and indicates potential in replacing his or her ancient magical thinking and pre-logical thinking with a new aspect of concrete logical thinking (Riley Children's Health, 2018). The children in this age need to be directed on how to sequence their activities and put things to facilitate their responsibilities. The major factors that may influence language development in children and effective cognitive development include age, genetic issues and gender of the children. Thus, the adults should guide these children in utilizing the approaches that should be used in overcoming childhood challenges. Encouraging language development is best achieved by talking and listening to a child. Children can also invent their strategies for memorizing and recalling information that is on demand.
Conclusion
A Child who is between 6 and 11 years old experiences different changes during the development phases. The complete change of the brain structure occurs in this period where the children acquire adequate concrete logical thinking. Moreover, the puberty stage is a relevant form of development that occurs in children of these ages. Thus, the children should be provided with adequate support during this period as they undergo through critical biological changes. Implementations of logical tactics that support a child development assist in boosting the child ’s intellectual, physical, emotional and social development. Thus, creativity and imagination of the children should be well cultivated and supported to foster their continued development in the future years as they prepare to venture in adulthood.
References
Lawrence, K., Campbell, R., & Skuse, D. (2015). Age, gender, and puberty influence the development of facial emotion recognition. Frontiers in psychology , 6 , 761.
Lewis, F. C., Reeve, R. A., Kelly, S. P., & Johnson, K. A. (2017). Evidence of substantial development of inhibitory control and sustained attention between 6 and 8 years of age on an unpredictable Go/No-Go task. Journal of experimental child psychology , 157 , 66-80.
Riley Children's Health. (2018). Development . Retrieved from Growth & Development: 6-11 Years: https://www.rileychildrens.org/health-info/growth-development-6-11-years
Wen, N. J., Clegg, J. M., & Legare, C. H. (2017). Smart Conformists: Children and Adolescents Associate Conformity With Intelligence Across Cultures. Child development .
ScienceNetLinks. (n.d.). Growth Stages 2: Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence . Retrieved from http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/growth-stages-2-middle-childhood-and-early-adolescence/
