Late childhood: meaning, characteristics and hazards

Jammu University 2 year B.Ed. Semester I, Paper 102 Slide

1. Late Childhood: Meaning, Characteristics and hazards Jammu University 2 Year B.Ed. Paper 102 Sem : I Unit: II

2. Late Childhood 6 years-sexual maturity Parents: troublesome age, fights with siblings especially with elder sisters, quarrelsome age Educators: elementary school age, critical period –habit of being achievers , under achievers or over achievers, working above or below their capabilities Psychologists: gang age, age of conformity, creative age, play age

3. Developmental tasks Physical developmental Height: increase annual 2-3 inches Weight: more variable than height Body proportions: mouth and jaw becomes larger, forehead flattens, nose becomes larger, chest broadens and abdomen flattens, arms and legs elongate, Teeth: at onset of puberty 28-32 permanent teeth

4. Skills of late childhood Acquisition of skills is dependent on environment, opportunities, body build, in trend in peers, socio-economic class Sex difference: in play skills also in level of perfection Girls surpass boys in fine motor skills- painting, sewing, weaving Boys surpass girls in gross muscle: throwing a basket ball, kicking football, board jumps

5. Upper SES – fewer skills, 4 types of skills: self help skills, social help skills, school skills, and play skills Handedness left handed children become ambidextrous by late childhood Speech improvement: etiquette vocabulary, colour vocabulary, number vocabulary, money vocabulary, time vocabulary, slang word, content of speech: egocentric to socialized speech, boasting

6. Emotions and emotional expressions in late childhood: outbursts and babyish, withdrawal reactions to fear as cowards, jealousy as poor sportsmanship, outbursts of temper, anxiety, fear Discontented when not with friends, interested in peer activity, Fun gangs, members are popular, rarely have members of both sexes, same age same interest, and same abilities

7. Companions Boys have more extensive peer relationship than girls, larger group for boys, some are just playmates some are friends, prefer attractive looking playmates, companions from own school, grade locality, sex, personality traits, treatment of companions, girls are more stable in friendship than boys, SES,

8. Play interests and activities in late childhood: Popularity and belongingness to gang, sex appropriate play games, bright students are more solitary in play, avoid strenuous physical play, type of neighborhood, in general less active partly due to increased school work, household chores

9. Constructive play: wood work, assembling and tools for boys, fine type of construction sewing drawing painting clay modeling and jewelry making for girls, Explore new unknown places –boys, Understanding: new meaning to old concepts, new meaning from mass media, associate cultural stereo types to people with different race, religion, sex, socioeconomic groups. Life, death, life after death, bodily functions, space, numbers, causality, money, time, self, sex roles, social roles, beauty

10. Hazards Physical Illness Obesity Sex-inappropriate body build: girls with masculine body build and boys with girlish physique Accidents: scars, cautious behavior, Physical disabilities: aftereffects of accidents, more in boys, seriousness, treatment by others , Awkwardness: compare with age mates, inferior to playmates,

11. Psychological Speech hazards: small vocabulary; errors e.g. mispronunciations and grammatical mistakes, speech defects; school language; egocentric speech, critical and deregulatory comments and boasting antagonizing peers Emotional hazards: inappropriate emotional outbursts or expressions Social hazards: 1. Children rejected or neglected by their peers are deprived of opportunities to learn, 2. Voluntary isolates, 3. Geographically or socially mobile children, 4. Group prejudice because of race or religion, 5. Followers who want to be leaders become resentful and disgruntled .

12. Play hazards: who lack social acceptance are deprived of opportunities to learn Conceptual hazards: who have idealized self concept are dissatisfied with themselves and the way others treat them Moral hazards: 1 . Morality of gang different from adult morality, 2. Failure to develop conscience as an inner control over behavior, 3. Inconsistence discipline, 4. Physical punishment which serves as model of aggressiveness, 5.finding peer approval of misbehavior so satisfying that this becomes habitual, 6. Intolerance of wrong doing of others

13. Hazards associated with interests: uninterested in things age mates regard important and developing unfavourable attitudes towards interests that would be valuable to them-health or school Hazards in sex role typing: failure to learn sex elements of the sex roles their age mates regard as appropriate, and unwillingness to play approved sex roles Family relationship hazards: weakens family ties and leads to a habitual unfavourable pattern of adjustment to people and problems which is carried outside the home Hazards in personality development: development of unfavourable self concept, self rejection, carry over of egocentrism false sense of importance