Early to Middle Childhoos Development

Early to middle childhood development is defined as principles, facts, and concepts that describe, explain, and account for involved processed in a child's change from immature to a mature status and function (Katz, 1996, p. 137). The three main categories that development is divided into are: physical, cognitive, and social and emotional development (Berk, 2000). Changes in the body from how children grow, move, and perceive their environment is physical development. Memory, problem solving, and language that children use to acquire knowledge are the mental processes of cognitive development. How children understand their feelings and handle relationships with other is addressed through emotional and social development. This paper will summarize physical changes, cognitive changes, and major milestones with social and emotional changes from early childhood to middle childhood and a comparison of males vs. females.

Physical developments slightly differ between males and females. Around age 2, boys are more aggressive physically and girls are more relational aggressive. Boys are less verbal than girls. Around age 3, boys start to develop abdominal muscle and stomach starts to tighten and at this stage girls add fat. The increase of height occurs quicker with girls than it does with boys. The average from the age of 2 to 7 will have slower growth spurts than earlier years. The rate of growth averages from 2 ½ inches and 7 pounds per year for this age group (Rella, 1999-2012).

Rapid physical growth comes with puberty from age 6 to 11 and is considered middle childhood stage of development. Between these ages gender is a concrete attribute to a child's mind. The child establishes more eating habits at this time, the voice starts to mature, and there is an increase for more sleep time. Theses years are spent gaining physical strength and academic competence. Children are more into sports and forming friendships during this period of development. Because testosterone levels escalate more boys tend to be more athletic and win more competitions (Dalcour, 1999-2012). Same-sex friendships generally tend to form at this age. The identification with either feminine or masculine attributes is stronger.

The brain and nervous system in a child's early and middle childhood is dramatic. The better the brain and nervous system are developed, the more complex cognitive and behavioral abilities the child will have. The brain has a cerebral hemisphere with two halves the right and left (Cliff notes, 2011). The left hemisphere holds all the writing, language, math and logic skills while the right hemisphere holds creativity, musical, fantasy and artistic skills. The two hemispheres have separate functions but almost always coordinate and work together. The left hemisphere develops more from age 2 to 6 in early childhood while the right hemisphere is more developed from age 7 to 11 in middle childhood. Children acquire language skills early and quickly because the left hemisphere predominates longer and earlier (Cliff notes, 2011).

Boys and girls have key fundamental brain differences that contribute to cognitive learning differences. Statistics show that boy brains develop a lot slower than girl brains. Early maturity takes place in the myelination of the brain. This is the process of nerves of the brain being coated and is the final step of children's brains moving into adulthood. Girl brain nerves coat earlier than boys (Foster, 1999-2012). Girls can receive their complex verbal skills about a year earlier than boys. As girls acquire their verbal skills earlier it gives them an advantage in school to the underdeveloped brain of boys. Boys often struggle with oral and written language. The Council for exceptional Children wrote an article stating that "boys tend to be right-brain dominant and girls tend to be left-brain dominant." The statement is stating that boys excel more in science and math while girls are extremely smarter in reading and writing (Foster, 1999-2012).

In early childhood the nervous system undergoes changes, also. The cells called the neurons that make up a child's nerves, form prenatally. The cells surrounding the neurons called the glial cells insulate, nourish, and remove waste from the neurons. The glial cells rapidly develop during toddlerhood, infancy, and early childhood