Week 11 · Chapter

Chapter 11 — Middle Childhood: Physical and Cognitive Development

Child Development Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~35–45 minutes · Objective 7 (analyze development in middle childhood: concrete operational thought, information processing, intelligence and learning, self-esteem, friendship, bullying, and moral reasoning) · Read it first this week; the lecture, the slides, the tutorial, the quiz, and the workshop all build on it.

In plain language

This chapter is about the school years, from about 6 to 11, when children's bodies grow steadily and their thinking becomes more logical. A school-age child can reason about real things in front of them, which Piaget called the concrete operational stage (logical thinking about concrete objects and events). You will see how a child explains why poured water is still the same amount, how children sort and order things, and how they hold information in mind while they work. You will also meet two popular ideas about learning and intelligence and what the evidence says about each. Every age in this chapter is a typical range, never a deadline.

Why you already care about this

Picture a kitchen table on a rainy afternoon. A child of about 8 spreads a baseball-card collection across it and sorts the cards into piles by team. Then the child sweeps the piles together and sorts them again, this time lining the cards up by the year printed on each one. A younger sibling watches and asks, "Why are you doing it again?" The older child says, "Because now I want to see which ones are oldest."

That small moment holds most of this week. The child is grouping things by a shared feature, putting them in order, switching from one rule to another, and explaining the reason out loud. A preschooler handed the same cards would likely sort by color or pick favorites. Something has changed in how this child thinks, and this chapter gives you the words for it.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

describe physical growth, motor skills, and health in middle childhood in words, as ranges rather than deadlines;
explain conservation with reversibility and place a child's answer on Piaget's conservation-of-liquid task;
explain classification, class inclusion, and seriation, and work the counts in the class-inclusion task;
name the parts of information processing and tell working memory apart from long-term memory;
explain an IQ score as a standardized score, and present multiple intelligences and the learning-styles idea with what the evidence shows;
read record R6 of the running case with two theories and end in one plain sentence.

Carry this line with you: the reason is the evidence, not the answer alone.

Where we are

Already covered: Week 2 named Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory among the major theories. Week 3 taught you to keep what a child did apart from what it might mean. Week 6 opened Piaget's account with schemes and the sensorimotor stage. Week 9 taught the preoperational stage, when a child's answer follows how things look. Week 10 turned to social-emotional growth in early childhood.
This week: the physical and cognitive domains in middle childhood — growth and motor skills, Piaget's concrete operational stage, information processing, intelligence, the learning-styles evidence, and learning differences.
How they connect: the same Piaget tasks you met in Week 9 come back this week, and this time the typical answer changes; record R6 shows the change in the running case.
Where we're going next: Week 12 stays in middle childhood and turns to the social-emotional domain: self-esteem, friendship, bullying, and moral reasoning.

Two earlier ideas carry this week. From Week 9, a child in the preoperational stage, at about 2 to 7, tends to judge an amount by how it looks, so a taller glass seems to hold more. From Week 3, every observation record keeps the behavior in one column and the interpretation in another. You will use both on the running case, the illustrative, unnamed child whose eight records follow them from birth to 15.

1. Grow steadily: the body, motor skills, and health

Think about a neighborhood park in the late afternoon. A 6-year-old wobbles on a bike without training wheels while an adult jogs alongside. Near the swings, a 10-year-old jumps rope and counts out loud without missing a beat. Both children are growing, and the older one moves with a smoothness the younger one is still building.

Growth in middle childhood is slower and steadier than in infancy and early childhood. Children keep getting taller and stronger, but the dramatic changes of the first years give way to a gradual climb. That steady pace leaves room for skill.

Gross motor skills, which you met in Week 5, use the large muscles: in these years running, jumping, throwing, catching, and riding a bike grow smoother and better coordinated.
Fine motor skills use the small muscles, especially of the hands: handwriting, cutting with scissors, and tying shoelaces grow more precise.

Health in these years rests on everyday habits such as active play, sleep, and regular checkups. This course describes those habits in words and gives no rule for any one child; a question about one child's health belongs with that family's health professional.

Misconception check. Students often think every child should be able to ride a bike or write neatly by a certain birthday. It is tempting, because school grades seem to set a schedule. The cure: children vary widely in when each skill comes together, and every skill is read as a typical range, never a deadline. Two children in the same class can learn to ride a bike years apart, and the one who learns later has not missed a deadline.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Think of a physical skill you learned in the school years, such as swimming or a sport. What helped it come together: practice, a coach, a friend, or something else?
(b) Why might steady growth in middle childhood make it easier to practice skills than the fast growth of the first two years? Explain in your own words.

2. Name the concrete operational stage: logic about real things

Piaget described 4 stages of cognitive development, and you have now met two: the sensorimotor stage in Week 6 and the preoperational stage in Week 9. This week brings the third.

Picture a child at a crowded after-school snack table. Two children have the same number of crackers, but one has broken theirs into pieces. A preschooler might shout that the broken pile is "more". A school-age child is more likely to say, "It's the same crackers, you broke them." The second child is reasoning about what happened, not only about how the pile looks.

The concrete operational stage is Piaget's third stage, at about 7 to 11, in which children reason logically about concrete things, the real objects and events in front of them, and can conserve, classify, and seriate.

"Concrete" is the key word. Children in this stage reason well about things they can see, touch, or picture from real experience. Reasoning about pure ideas and "what if" possibilities comes later, in the formal operational stage, which this course meets in Week 13.

The ages are approximate. The preoperational stage runs at about 2 to 7, a span of about 7 − 2 = 5 years. The concrete operational stage runs at about 7 to 11, a span of about 11 − 7 = 4 years. The stage names and their order are what you hold on to; the ages are rough signposts.

Misconception check — the timetable. Students often think a child switches into the concrete operational stage on a 7th birthday, as if a stage were a calendar. The cure: Piaget's ages are approximate, children reach the stage's reasoning at different times, and a child may reason one way on one task and another way on a different task. The stage is a model, not a timetable.

3. Reason with reversibility: conservation and record R6

Pour a glass of water into a different glass, and you know the amount has not changed. You did not memorize that. You can picture pouring it back, and that picture settles the question.

Conservation, which you met in Week 9, is the understanding that an amount stays the same when its appearance changes, as long as nothing is added or taken away.
Reversibility is mentally running an action backward, such as picturing poured water going back into its first glass.

Week 9 showed that a preoperational child tends to fail conservation tasks. This week the same task gets a different answer, and the reason the child gives is what tells you why.

Here is Dataset D's conservation-of-liquid task, the standard task, with its two typical responses.

Dataset D, conservation of liquid: the question asked and the typical earlier and later responses
What the child is asked	Typical response earlier	Typical response later
Same amount after pouring into a taller, thinner glass?	preoperational: says the tall glass has more	concrete operational: says it is the same and explains why

Worked example — reading record R6. The running case (Dataset A) is illustrative, constructed for this course, and describes no real child. Record R6 was written at 7 years, in an after-school program.

Record R6 of the running case (illustrative), with behavior and interpretation in separate columns
What the child did and said (behavior only)	What it might show (interpretation)
After water is poured from a short, wide glass into a tall, thin glass, says it is "the same, because you just poured it — you could pour it back"	conservation of liquid, explained with reversibility

Walk it in the course's order. What the child did: the child watches the pour and says the amount is "the same". What it shows: the reason, "you could pour it back", is reversibility, mentally running the pour backward to the first glass. Where it sits on Dataset D: the earlier, preoperational response says the tall glass has more; the later, concrete operational response says it is the same and explains why. R6 gives the later response, with a reason. R6, at 7 years, sits at the start of the concrete operational range, and the ages are approximate.

In words: saying the tall glass holds the same amount "because you could pour it back" shows conservation with reversibility, which Piaget placed in the concrete operational stage.

Misconception check — the memorized answer. Students often think a child conserves because someone taught them to say "it's the same". It is tempting, because "the same" is a short answer a child could repeat. The cure: conservation is reasoning about what happened, and the evidence is the reason the child gives. A child who says "the same" with no reason, or with "because my teacher said so", has not shown you conservation. R6's "you could pour it back" is the evidence.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) A cook pours soup from a wide pot into a tall pitcher to serve it. How would you explain to a 5-year-old why there is no more soup than before?
(b) Why does the course treat the child's reason, and not the answer alone, as the evidence of conservation?

4. Sort, include, and order: classification, class inclusion, and seriation

Go back to the kitchen table. The child sorts the baseball cards by team, then switches and sorts them by year. Two different mental moves are at work, and a third hides inside them.

Classification is grouping things by a feature they share, such as sorting cards by team.
Class inclusion is understanding that a smaller group is part of a larger group, so the larger group must hold at least as many members.
Seriation is arranging things in order along one dimension, such as lining the cards up from oldest to newest year.

Sorting by team is classification. Lining the cards up by year is seriation. And knowing that the cards from one team are still part of the whole collection, so the collection is always the bigger group, is class inclusion.

Dataset D tests class inclusion with a short question. The child is shown 7 dogs and 3 cats and asked, "Are there more dogs or more animals?"

Dataset D, class inclusion: the question asked and the typical earlier and later responses
What the child is asked	Typical response earlier	Typical response later
Shown 7 dogs and 3 cats, "Are there more dogs or more animals?"	preoperational: "more dogs"	concrete operational: "more animals"

Worked example — the counts in the class-inclusion task. Work it step by step.

Total the animals: 7 dogs + 3 cats = 10 animals.
Compare the smaller group with the larger group: the dogs are a smaller group inside the larger group of animals, so there are 10 − 7 = 3 more animals than dogs.
Work the shares: 7 of 10 animals are dogs, which is 70 percent; 3 of 10 are cats, which is 30 percent.
Compare the shares: the gap is 70 − 30 = 40 percentage points. A share of a total is a percentage; a difference between two percentages is in percentage points.

Now read the two typical responses against the counts. A preoperational child compares dogs with cats, sees 7 against 3, and says "more dogs". A concrete operational child compares the dogs with all 10 animals and says "more animals". The younger child is answering a different question from the one asked.

In words: the larger group, 10 animals, always holds the smaller group, 7 dogs, so "more animals" is the answer that shows class inclusion.

One limitation keeps you honest. R6 carries no class-inclusion task, so the record cannot tell you how this child answers it. A record shows only what was observed.

In practice (your tools). In a free spreadsheet, type "dogs" in cell A2, "cats" in A3, and "animals" in A4. Type 7 in B2 and 3 in B3. In B4, type =B2+B3 to total the animals. In C2, type =B2/$B$4*100 and fill it down to C3; column C then holds each share as a percentage. Write the result out in words beside the table, the way the worked example does.

Misconception check. Students often think the preoperational child "can't count", because "more dogs" sounds like a counting mistake. It is tempting, because 7 is plainly less than 10. The cure: the child can count; what the child does not yet hold in mind is that the dogs belong to the larger group of animals at the same time. Class inclusion is about the relation between groups, not counting.

5. Process information: attention, working memory, speed, and executive function

Picture a family board game on a weekend evening. A 9-year-old has to remember which cards are already played, plan two moves ahead, wait for a turn without grabbing the dice, and change strategy when someone draws a card that reverses the direction of play. That is a lot of mental work at once.

Piaget's theory describes change as stages. A second approach, called information processing, describes the mind's work in parts and explains growth as gradual improvement in each part.

Information processing is an account of thinking that describes the mind's work in parts, such as attention, working memory, processing speed, and executive function, and describes their growth as gradual improvement.
Attention is focusing the mind on what matters for a task while tuning out the rest; school-age children grow better at choosing what to attend to and keeping their focus.
Working memory is the small mental workspace that holds a few pieces of information in mind for a few seconds while a person uses them.
Processing speed is how quickly the mind takes in information and carries out a mental task; it rises across middle childhood.
Executive function is the set of skills that steer thinking and behavior toward a goal: planning, inhibiting (holding back an automatic response), and switching (shifting between rules or tasks).

Worked example — finding the parts in the board game. Match each move the 9-year-old makes to a part.

Keeps track of which cards are already played during the turn: working memory.
Ignores the television in the next room to watch the board: attention.
Thinks two moves ahead before playing a card: executive function, planning.
Waits for a turn instead of grabbing the dice: executive function, inhibiting.
Changes strategy when the direction of play reverses: executive function, switching.

In words: one evening of play draws on attention, working memory, and all three parts of executive function, and each of these grows across middle childhood.

Misconception check — two kinds of memory. Students often think working memory is the same as long-term memory, since both are called "memory". It is tempting, because both hold information. The cure: working memory holds a few pieces of information for a few seconds while you use them, such as the cards played this turn; long-term memory stores knowledge for days or years, such as the rules of the game learned last summer. A child can know the rules well and still lose track of the cards played.

6. Think about thinking: metacognition and the learning-styles evidence

Picture a 10-year-old at a library homework table with a list of spelling words. The child takes a practice test, notices that the words with silent letters are the ones still wrong, and decides to spend the next ten minutes on those. The child is watching their own learning and steering it.

Metacognition is thinking about one's own thinking, such as noticing which words one still misspells and choosing how to study them.

Metacognition grows across middle childhood. Younger children often believe they know a list after one read-through; school-age children get better at testing themselves and noticing what they have not learned yet.

Now a popular idea that sounds like metacognition but is not supported. The learning-styles idea holds that each student has a preferred style, such as "visual" or "auditory", and that teaching matched to that style improves learning.

Learning styles is the popular claim that teaching matched to a student's preferred style, such as visual or auditory, improves learning; a review of the evidence found no adequate support for it.

Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, and Bjork (2008), "Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence", published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, reviewed the research. They found no adequate evidence that matching instruction to a learner's preferred style improves learning. This course states the learning-styles idea as unsupported, because that is what the evidence shows.

A student can still prefer pictures or prefer listening. The unsupported part is the claim that teaching matched to that preference makes the student learn more. The spelling learner in the library improves by testing and adjusting, which is metacognition, not by finding a style.

Misconception check — the style myth. Students often think learning styles is an established finding, because the idea is everywhere in schools and quizzes online. It is tempting, because most people do have preferences. The cure: Pashler and colleagues reviewed the evidence and found no adequate support for matching teaching to a preferred style. A preference is real; the payoff from matching is not supported.

Pause and think. Choose one option and answer it in two or three sentences:

(a) Think of a time you noticed you did not understand something and changed how you studied it. What did you notice, and what did you change?
(b) A friend says, "I'm a visual learner, so I can't learn from podcasts." Using this section, how would you reply kindly and accurately?

7. Measure intelligence fairly: IQ scores and multiple intelligences

Picture a family reading a school report at a kitchen counter. One line gives a number from an intelligence test, and a parent asks, "Does that number say how smart my child will always be?" This section helps you answer that kind of question carefully.

Intelligence testing began with Binet's early tests in France, named here in words. Modern tests report a standardized score.

An IQ score is a standardized score that compares a person's performance on an intelligence test with the performance of others of the same age.

The key word is "compares". An IQ score places one child's test performance among children of the same age; it does not measure a fixed amount stored inside the child, and it says nothing about the child's worth.

Gardner's Frames of Mind (1983) proposed a different picture. Instead of one general ability, Gardner described several distinct kinds of intelligence.

Multiple intelligences is Howard Gardner's theory, in Frames of Mind, that people have several distinct kinds of intelligence rather than one general ability; it is widely discussed in schools but has limited empirical support.

The theory is popular with teachers because it honors many kinds of talent. The documented criticism is that it has limited empirical support: research has not shown that the separate intelligences can be measured as distinct abilities in the way the theory proposes. This course presents the theory with that criticism attached. One caveat applies to both ideas in this section: a test score or a theory of talent describes groups and tasks, never the whole of a child.

Misconception check — the fixed number. Students often think an IQ score is fixed for life or measures a child's worth. It is tempting, because a single number feels permanent. The cure: an IQ score is a standardized comparison of test performance with others of the same age, at the time of testing. It is not a verdict on a child, and it is never a measure of worth.

Misconception check — the settled theory. Students also often think multiple intelligences is a settled scientific result, because it appears in so many classrooms. The cure: the theory is widely discussed, but it has limited empirical support, and the course teaches it with that criticism.

8. Support learning differences, and read R6 with two lenses

Every classroom holds children who learn in different ways and at different rates. Some children have a learning disability (a difficulty learning a specific skill, such as reading, that is not explained by a lack of teaching or effort). Picture a parent and a teacher meeting at a school to talk about how a child is reading; the people who identify a learning disability are qualified professionals using careful assessment.

A learning disability is a difficulty in learning a specific skill, such as reading, writing, or math, that is not explained by a lack of teaching or effort; it is identified by qualified professionals.
Special education is instruction and services designed for a child with a disability so the child can learn at school; in the United States it is governed by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

This course names the federal law in words and keys no figure about it. It also draws a firm line: you never assess, screen, or label a real child. An observer who notices that a child reads slowly has noticed a behavior, not a disability.

Misconception check. Students often think they can spot a learning disability by watching a child for one afternoon. It is tempting, because a struggle can look plain from the outside. The cure: a single observation describes a behavior at one moment; identifying a disability belongs to qualified professionals, and this course never labels a child.

Worked example — reading R6 with two theories. Put the week together on record R6 and walk the course's order.

What the child did: after water is poured from a short, wide glass into a tall, thin glass, the child says it is "the same, because you just poured it — you could pour it back".
What it shows: conservation of liquid, with the reason "you could pour it back" showing reversibility.
Which theory explains it: Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory. R6's reason shows reversibility, the logic Piaget placed in the concrete operational stage.
What a second theory adds: the information-processing view adds that the child holds the before-and-after glasses in working memory and holds back the pull of the taller water level, and it describes the change as gradual growth in these abilities, not a sudden new stage.

The reading in one plain sentence: saying the tall glass holds the same amount "because you could pour it back" shows conservation with reversibility, which Piaget placed in the concrete operational stage, at about 7 to 11, and an information-processing view adds that the child is holding both glasses in working memory.

The same two lenses fit the baseball cards at the kitchen table, too: Piaget sees classification and seriation, and information processing sees a child switching rules. The comparison shows something worth keeping: Piaget versus information processing is stage change versus gradual growth, and the two lenses describe the same answer without either one being the one right theory.

Key terms

Concrete operational stage — Piaget's third stage, at about 7 to 11, in which children reason logically about concrete things, the real objects and events in front of them, and can conserve, classify, and seriate. (first used: 2. Name the concrete operational stage: logic about real things)
Reversibility — Mentally running an action backward, such as picturing poured water going back into its first glass; it is the reason a concrete operational child gives for conserving. (first used: 3. Reason with reversibility: conservation and record R6)
Classification — Grouping things by a feature they share, such as sorting a card collection by team or by color. (first used: 4. Sort, include, and order: classification, class inclusion, and seriation)
Class inclusion — Understanding that a smaller group is part of a larger group, so the larger group must hold at least as many members; in the standard task, a child shown 7 dogs and 3 cats says there are more animals than dogs. (first used: 4. Sort, include, and order: classification, class inclusion, and seriation)
Seriation — Arranging things in order along one dimension, such as lining up sticks from shortest to longest or cards from oldest to newest year. (first used: 4. Sort, include, and order: classification, class inclusion, and seriation)
Information processing — An account of thinking that describes the mind's work in parts, such as attention, working memory, processing speed, and executive function, and describes their growth as gradual improvement. (first used: 5. Process information: attention, working memory, speed, and executive function)
Attention — Focusing the mind on what matters for a task while tuning out the rest; school-age children grow better at choosing what to attend to and keeping their focus. (first used: 5. Process information: attention, working memory, speed, and executive function)
Working memory — The small mental workspace that holds a few pieces of information in mind for a few seconds while a person uses them; it is different from long-term memory, which stores knowledge for days or years. (first used: 5. Process information: attention, working memory, speed, and executive function)
Processing speed — How quickly the mind takes in information and carries out a mental task; it rises across middle childhood. (first used: 5. Process information: attention, working memory, speed, and executive function)
Executive function — The set of skills that steer thinking and behavior toward a goal: planning, inhibiting (holding back an automatic response), and switching (shifting between rules or tasks). (first used: 5. Process information: attention, working memory, speed, and executive function)
Metacognition — Thinking about one's own thinking, such as noticing which words one still misspells and choosing how to study them. (first used: 6. Think about thinking: metacognition and the learning-styles evidence)
Learning styles — The popular claim that teaching matched to a student's preferred style, such as visual or auditory, improves learning; a review of the evidence by Pashler and colleagues found no adequate support for it. (first used: 6. Think about thinking: metacognition and the learning-styles evidence)
IQ score — A standardized score that compares a person's performance on an intelligence test with the performance of others of the same age; it is not fixed and does not measure a person's worth. (first used: 7. Measure intelligence fairly: IQ scores and multiple intelligences)
Multiple intelligences — Howard Gardner's theory, in Frames of Mind, that people have several distinct kinds of intelligence rather than one general ability; it is widely discussed in schools but has limited empirical support. (first used: 7. Measure intelligence fairly: IQ scores and multiple intelligences)
Learning disability — A difficulty in learning a specific skill, such as reading, writing, or math, that is not explained by a lack of teaching or effort; it is identified by qualified professionals, never by an observer's single look. (first used: 8. Support learning differences, and read R6 with two lenses)
Special education — Instruction and services designed for a child with a disability so the child can learn at school; in the United States it is governed by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (first used: 8. Support learning differences, and read R6 with two lenses)

Summary

Middle childhood brings slower, steadier growth and smoother, more precise motor skills, read as ranges.
Piaget's concrete operational stage, at about 7 to 11, is logical thinking about concrete things.
Conservation shows in the child's reason; reversibility is picturing the action run backward.
Classification groups, class inclusion relates a part to its whole, and seriation orders.
Information processing describes attention, working memory, processing speed, and executive function growing gradually.
Working memory holds information for seconds while you use it; long-term memory stores it for years.
Metacognition is thinking about your own thinking; learning styles is an idea the evidence does not support.
An IQ score compares test performance with others of the same age; it is not fixed and measures no one's worth.
Multiple intelligences is widely discussed but has limited empirical support.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

At an illustrative farmers' market, a vendor shows a child a basket with 5 apples and 4 pears and asks, "Are there more apples or more fruit?" Total the fruit, find how many more pieces of fruit there are than apples, and say which answer shows class inclusion.
At an illustrative art table, a helper rolls a ball of clay into a long snake. A child says, "It's the same clay, because you could squish it back into a ball." Name the concept and the reason the child uses.
A camp counselor (illustrative) notices three things during a card game: a 10-year-old (1) remembers the rules learned at camp two summers ago, (2) keeps the last three cards played in mind during a turn, and (3) holds back from shouting out a teammate's hand. Name the part of the mind each note shows.
A classmate writes, "Since I'm an auditory learner, my teacher should read everything aloud to me, or I won't learn as much." Name the misconception and rewrite the sentence so it matches the evidence.

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

Total the fruit: 5 apples + 4 pears = 9 pieces of fruit. Compare the smaller group with the larger group: 9 − 5 = 4 more pieces of fruit than apples. "More fruit" shows class inclusion, because the apples are part of the fruit at the same time; "more apples" compares apples with pears instead of with the whole basket.
The concept is conservation: the amount of clay stays the same when only its shape changes. The reason, "you could squish it back into a ball", is reversibility, picturing the action run backward. The reason is the evidence, not the answer alone.
Note (1) is long-term memory, knowledge stored for years. Note (2) is working memory, a few pieces of information held for seconds while the child uses them. Note (3) is executive function, the inhibiting part, holding back an automatic response. The trap is calling note (1) working memory because it is "remembering".
The sentence treats learning styles as an established finding. Pashler and colleagues reviewed the evidence and found no adequate support for matching teaching to a preferred style. A fixed sentence: "I prefer listening, but matching lessons to that preference has not been shown to help me learn more, so testing myself on what I miss is a better plan."

Next up in this module: the Readings & Resources page, the lecture tutorial, the practice set, the quiz, and the discussion — and next week, Erikson's industry vs. inferiority model gives these same school-age children's self-esteem and friendships their frame.

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