Abstract
Human beings go through various developmental stages before they attain the old age whereby the elderly are expected to mentor the youth by ensuring that they equip them with the necessary information that would facilitate the attainment of their wishes and aspirations in life. Several theorists, including Sigmund Freud and Eric Erickson discussed extensively a number of stages that people go through in the course of development.
Information processing theory is just one of the theories that explain the way a child develops. According to the theory, a child has to develop sufficient organs that enable him or her to receive, think, remember, and modify information, as well as being in a position to develop cognitive processes that facilitate normal growth. This paper identifies various needs and accomplishments of youngsters and their implications for teachers and other practitioners.
Middle Childhood
A child is expected to develop a number of sensory and perceptual potentials just after birth since they are needed in performing a number of functions. An infant relies heavily on senses because he or she has lesser attention spans, ineffective memory capacity, and is unknowledgeable meaning they rarely compare pieces of information. At the middle childhood stage, which is between six and ten years, Bergen and Fromberg (2009) suggest that a child is supposed to engage with his or her peers through play, as they also try to interact with the real world. In this case, a child takes a lot of time trying to master new things in the environment, such as societal values and principles, new ways of doing things in school, and acquainting him or herself with the culture.
School going children try their best to read new words and others struggle to write the words. Additionally, many children start applying certain rules in life, such as in sports, plays, and most of the things they do in life. At age four to five, a child rarely follows a certain procedure in dealing with others since he or she is compulsive and highly appetitive. On the other hand, a child of age six to ten is careful in dealing with siblings since he or she tends to care for them. Children who can access technology try to play sophisticated computer games instead of interacting with the simple toys.
Before the age of eight, a child demonstrates the features of the early childhood stage, something that makes McDevit (2009) to clarify all children in this stage as young children. In the study book used in class, age six is identified as the cutoff between middle childhood and early childhood. This is important for teachers since the age has always been used in categorizing students and designing a curriculum for them. Age 8 is important for girls since a number of them start their adolescence when they undergo puberty.
At the same age, children are likely to develop intimate relationships with members of the opposite sex. A child who fails to establish a strong relationship at the age is likely to develop serious problems at adulthood stage since he or she would have failed to explain the ego appropriately. Similarly, children at the middle childhood tend to develop the spirit of competition since they compare their results and performance in life. This is critical for teachers because they are supposed to guide each child in the most appropriate way to avoid ego confusion.
For instance, one child might be worried because he or she is performing dismally in class while the friends are doing extremely well. The teacher and other academic professionals should intervene to encourage the child to work hard and not to lose hope at this early age. If, for instance, the child fails to perform well in academics, he or she is likely to keep off from competition preferring instead to go for the less challenging tasks.
In other words, the child develops the tendency of setting low targets in life that might perhaps interfere with his or her life forever. At the middle childhood stage, children are expected to internalize social rules since they are considered very active and if left uncontrolled, they might cause injuries to themselves or their friends (Keenan, & Evans, 2009). Teachers are advised to employ sufficient and stricter disciplinary measures to ensure each child complies with the social rules and regulations.
Therefore, a teacher has a great role to play as far as the life of the child is concerned at this middle childhood stage. Children believe they know everything at this stage and they should not be interfered with when doing something, but the teacher has to bolster their reasoning. The role of the teacher is to observe the actions of the child, learn their skills and knowledge, and establish their weaknesses before moving ahead to improve their performance. Based on this, each teacher has to identify the instructional skills that fit the knowledge base of each child instead of making a mistake of mixing students with various capabilities.
References
Bergen, D., & Fromberg, A. (2009). Play and social interaction in middle childhood. Sage publications, 2(1), 1-30.
Keenan, T., & Evans, S. (2009). An introduction to child development. Los Angeles: Sage.
McDevit, T. (2009). Child development and education. 5th ed. Saddle River: Pearson Publishing.