Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Mid-Term Essay - (McKeithan's Class)

Mid-Term Essay

1. Describe the importance of games in middle childhood. Identify ways that games help children with all domains of development (physical, cognitive, social/emotional), as well as what developmental milestones are required for different types of games.

Games are important in middle childhood. Playing games with rules dominate children’s
activities during the school year. Playing games allows children to: (1)develop peer
relationships. They learn to compete, cooperate and negotiate. They innately want to win;
they follow preset rules and use strategies and learn from each other. (2) learn to regulate
social behavior. They learn to be patient, to take turns. To respect others and handle
his/her behavior correctly when they lose—they learn ‘how’ to lose and accept loss, and
maintain relationships. (3) develop physical, cognitive and socio-emotional skills. (4)
understand fairness, honesty and morality (as well as unethical behaviors).
Piaget believed that games are like a mini society that teaches children real life skills.
Children decide rules together when they play games. They innovate as they go, and
follow rules, which in the future will be rules of school and society. It allows them to
learn how to navigate.

Games help children with all domains of development, in example physical development.
Hop Scotch games help children learn how to hop on one foot while keeping body
balanced. Jumping rope helps children develop motor skills. Dribbling a basketball helps
eye hand coordination. Many board games help cognitive development. Chutes and
Ladders teaches counting, and up-down spatial concepts; Candy Land teaches colors.
Some games teach letters and shapes. Games help social and emotional development.
Children interact with each other, build relationships, build self-esteem and learn to
manage loss and frustration.

Different types of games require milestone development. For example, basketball not
only requires ball handling, running, jumping, etc., but also requires eye-hand
coordination in order to shoot the ball in the hoop. Monopoly requires not only
recognizing pictures on the board, but also reading words, and math skills. These are all
milestone developments.

2. Discuss the role of gender in middle childhood. What social differences do we see as children grow, and what can we do to reduce the impact of gender stereotypes?

Gender stereotypes play a different role in society and are embedded in a child’s mind
early on. Men are instrumental. They are independent, aggressive and powerful. They
have traditionally been bread winners. They deal with the wider world and wield
authority. They are doctors, scientists. On the other hand, women are expressive. They
are sensitive, nurturing. They are caretakers, nurses, teachers. Men are strong, women are
weak, dependent and subordinate. Parents, teachers, etc. treat boys and girls differently.
Boys are encouraged to play rough, and not to cry easily, girls are encouraged to play
gently, and speak in mild tones.

As children grow (1) boys like report talk which is providing information. Males hold
center stage when public speaking, story telling, joking. Girls like rapport talk and
conversation. It establishes connection, negotiation and relationship; (2) Boys like to play
with boys in large groups. Boy’s games have a winner and loser. Boys boast of their skill
and argue who is the best at what. Girls tend to play in small groups. The center of the
girl’s world is often a best friend. They sit and talk, concerned more about being liked by
others and building intimacy relationship; (3) Boys and girls are all aggressive. Their
aggression is expressed differently. Boys are more physically aggressive. Girls are more
verbal aggressive. They use relational aggression. They spread rumors to try to make
others dislike a certain child; (4) Boys are more likely to hide their negative emotions
such as sadness. Girls more easily can express their emotions such as sadness,
disappointment, shame and guilt; (5) Girls are better at regulating and controlling their
emotion and behavior. Boys show low cooperation and low self-regulation, thereby
showing behavior such as teasing others, over reaction to frustration; (6) Girls engage in
more pro social behavior than boys.

In order to reduce the impact of gender stereotypes, we should start at home and
school to not put boys and girls into different categories. We should treat boys and girls
the same way and talk to them the same way. We should encourage them to play the
same way. We should focus on the individual as a person, not as boys or girls. Gender
neutral. We should rear our children to be competent individuals.

3. Describe the three parenting styles identified by Diana Baumrind. What are the characteristics of each, as well as expected outcomes?

The three main parenting styles are: authoritarian, authoritative and permissive.
In authoritarian parenting style, parents don’t show much warmth or nurturing and exert
high levels of control. Parents make decisions, children do what parents ask them to do.
Children are discouraged from questions or challenging. Children of authoritarian parents
tend to achieve well academically. Yet they were more apprehensive about doing things.
They did not fair well socially. They exhibited more hostility and aggression in stressful
situations.

Authoritative parents are warm and nurturing, exert a high level of control, and
boundaries. Have reasonable expectations. Child is given some room to make decisions
and choose. Children of authoritative parents were found to be most competent
academically and socially.

Permissive parents are warm but exert little control and have few expectations, no
boundaries. Children do what they want. Children of permissive parent exhibit less self-
control, less self-reliance, do poorer academically, less skilled in social situations.

4. Compare and contrast Piaget’s cognitive development theory with Erikson’s psycho-social theory in middle childhood. What are the stages of middle childhood? How do the stages of each theory differ from each other? How are they similar

The Piaget’s cognitive development theory in middle childhood includes concrete
operational thoughts. Concrete operational thought are made up of operations. Mental
actions allow children to do mentally what they have physically done before. It is a
reversible mental action on real, concrete objects. Concrete operations allow the child to
coordinate several characteristics rather than focus on a single property of an object.
For example the comparison of a piece of clay rolled into a round shape versus the same
clay rolled into a bigger stick shape. The concrete operation thought focus on the way
children reason about properties of objects, the ability to classify or divide things into
different sets or subsets and to consider their interrelationships. An example is the family
tree. Another is understanding relations between classes including seriation, which is the
ordering of stimuli along a quantitative dimension. For example placing sticks in order
according to their length. And transitivity, which involves the ability to logically combine

relations to understand certain conclusions. For example: A>B and B >C, so A>C.

Erikson’s Psycho-social theory in middle child hood is industry versus inferiority. At this

stage children become interested in how things are made and how they work. When

children are encouraged in their efforts to make, build, and work, their sense of industry

increases. However, if parents who see their children’s efforts at making things as chaotic

or as mischief or making a mess, children will develop a sense of inferiority. In this way,

permissiveness and encouragement lead to better outcomes.

Altogether Piaget’s cognitive development theory has four stages; concrete

operational thought is the third stage. Altogether Erikson’s psycho-social theory has eight

stages; Industry versus inferiority is the fourth stage.

Erikson’s theory refers to psychosocial. The motivation for human behavior is social

and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people. Developmental changes throughout

the human life span is comprised of eight stages. Each developmental task confronts the

individual with a crisis that must be resolved. The more successfully an individual

resolves the crises the healthier development will be. His theory emphasizes the

importance of a child’s unconscious thoughts. Erikson was a follower of Freud.

Piaget’s theory emphasizes a child’s conscious thoughts and the ways children

understand the world, though assimilation and accommodation. He believed we go

through four stages in our understanding of the world.. It is the different way of

understanding that makes each stage more advanced than the previous.

Both theories are about childhood development. Both believed in the importance of

nurture. The environment has a big influence on how children will develop and who they

will ultimately become. Parents, peers, school, society have a huge influence. If a child is

raised in a healthy nurturing environment he/she will have a good disposition toward the

world, and likely become a better person. Both theories believed in the importance of

experience. Children learn and develop by doing, through experience. Piaget’s and

Erikson’s stages all emphasize discontinuity. Development is gradual and discontinuous.

Each stage is qualitatively different than the previous. The later stage derives from the

previous and is more advanced. Both emphasized the importance of cognition. With

cognitive development, children understand the world better; they grow more mature,

more competent in all different areas.

No comments:

Post a Comment