WEEK 4: A Growing Child

Chapter 6 continued in describing what happens to a child as they grow. This covered ages 2-6 and what developments happen during this time. Whereas before, babies were literally getting their feet underneath them, around the age of 2, they start exploring the world around them. They also make leaps and bounds in terms of cognitive ability. They can plan and remember things. My first memory is of me scraping my elbow on a wall in Mexico and crying until my mom consoled me. I was 2 or 3 years old at that time.
Young children begin having muscular coordination and fine motor skills as they get older.The table on page 132 says a lot, it starts at kicking and running at the age of 2 and tying their shoes and using scissors.
The sibling section of this chapter made me think of my brother and sister. Page 144 had a lot of information that was true about my family dynamic. As the oldest, I was the sounding board for them growing up. There was a sibling underworld in our family and we didn't even know it existed.

Chapter 7 covered ages 6-12 in what is called middle childhood. Here children are still growing physically as well as cognitively. The beginning of the chapter on page 157 states, "memory improves, attention sharpens, judgment becomes more mature, and problem solving progresses." The chapter goes into detail about what different things can happen to a growing body. Children can become overweight, get a medical disorder such as asthma or become diagnosed with a mental, emotional or physical disability.
Another section that interested is me is the moral development in children during this age. Morality in children is seen that they are innocent and completely honest. This is not the case when children are around the ages of 4-11. I was excited to learn about heteronomous and autonomous morality. That rules sink in around the age of 4 and kids follow them because they feel like they have to. Consequences have an impact to the action the child will take (heteronomous). Then around age 11, children begin to understand that their actions affect others (autonomous morality). I agreed with Kohlberg's theory and the 6 stages that are described on 168. Her idea, "children must overcome their egocentrism before they can make true moral judgements" means that kids have to understand others to truly understand their behavior.