Physical Development During Middle School 2qq4s

Physical Development During Middle School • Children Ages 10 to 12 • Move from elementary to middle school • Fifth, sixth, and seventh grade • Often called preadolescents or preteens

Physical Development During Middle School • • • •

May show early signs of puberty Growth can be uneven Girls develop ahead of boys Can be a time of uncertainty or growing self-confidence

Physical Development During Middle School • Rate is roughly 2-3 inches in height and 5 lbs per year • As girls approach 8-9 years, the rate of growth increases relative to boys • Girls begin to develop additional fat cells relative to muscle cells • Girls’ growth rate is faster than boys’ until roughly 13 year—possibly linked with puberty

Motor Skills Development • Muscle strength and reaction time improve • May now participate in activities that require complex skills • Fine-motor skills are improved enough to complete complicated projects

Gross Motor Development • During middle childhood, running, jumping, hopping, and ball skills become more refined. • Motor skills improve in the capacities of flexibility, balance, agility, and force. • Steady improvements also occur in reaction time—11-year-olds can respond almost twice as quickly to a stimulus as 5-year-olds.

Fine Motor Development • Fine motor development also improves steadily over the school years. • Gains are especially evident in writing and drawing. • Writing tends to be large at first, and legibility gradually increases. • Drawings show gains in organization, detail, and representation of depth. • School-age children not only depict objects in considerable detail, they also relate them to one another as part of an organized whole.

Individual and Group Differences in Motor Development • Parents who encourage physical exercise tend to have youngsters who enjoy it more and who are also more skilled. • Family income affects children’s opportunities to develop a variety of physical abilities. • Girls remain ahead in the fine motor area and skills which depend on balance and agility.

Individual and Group Differences in Motor Development

• School-age boys’ genetic advantage in muscle mass is not great enough to for their superiority in many gross motor skills; thus, environment plays a large role in motor development. • Greater emphasis on skill training for girls along with increased attention to their athletic achievements in schools and communities is likely to increase their involvement.

Growth and Maturation of the Brain • The rapid decline in processing time over middle childhood is thought to be due to – myelination – synaptic pruning

• Growth spurts during middle childhood: – – – –

Frontal, Temporal, Occipital Parietal, (Pribram, 1990)

Growth and Maturation of the Brain • Brain growth spurts roughly correspond to Piaget’s observed sequence of cognitive development • By the end of middle childhood the mass of the brain closely matches that of the adult brain • The later in childhood a neurological trauma occurs, the more challenging the recovery and the re-localization of the functions in the brain due to a decrease in plasticity

PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The Context of Schoo •provide regularly scheduled opportunities for exercise and play • ensure that all children have access to physical activity that s healthy bodies i.e. a sense of self-worth as physically active and capable beings and the cognitive and social skills necessary for getting along well with others.

Physical Education: The Context of School • The average school-age child gets only 20 minutes of physical education a week. • The growing fitness movement among adults has not filtered down to children. • Emphasizing informal games and individual exercise—pursuits that are most likely to last into later years. • Physically fit children become more active adults who reap many benefits.