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Middle Childhood

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Hetherington (2006) explains that middle childhood, from 6 to 12 years of age, is frequently recognized as the ‘forgotten years’ of development because most research is focussed on early childhood development or adolescent growth.

Throughout middle childhood the opportunity for growth of the social, emotional, physical and cognitive centres is vastly anticipated. Over the course of this time, the brain is performing synaptic refinement and this constantly becoming more efficient although this is greatly dependent upon the environment the child is in. Within this discovery, the pathway is created for the optimisation of experiences that are necessary for the child to give themselves strong building blocks to adulthood.

It is pivotal for nurses to have a clear comprehension of human development and behaviour, because each person is a creation of a number of various influential factors. In this essay, normal growth and development in middle childhood will be discussed using examples from influential developmental theorists.

According to experts, the life span perspective of human development involves three key developmental domains (Hernandez, 2008). These are the physical domain, the cognitive domain, and the social domain. The physical domain deals with the physical changes that a person goes through. For example, height, shape changes, weight fluctuations, and puberty can all be described as changes that happen in the physical domain. Thinking, the decision making process and memory can also be identified as cognitive domain. The social domain deals with social life, which includes changes in variables that are associated with a person’s relationship with others (Hernandez, 2008).
A solid relationship between child and mother (or primary care giver) is the cornerstone to every child’s development. This may not form an obvious part of the theories

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