Childhood Is a Fascinating Time for Children,

¶ … childhood is a fascinating time for children, and the adults around them who watch them grow. It is a time of exploration, self construction, and improved understanding. Middle childhood is between the ages of 6 and 8, with some reports extending that age range to as much as 11 years old (CDC 2012). This is the period of the child who is featured in this observation and empirical analysis. She and her two parents live in a suburban neighborhood that can be seen as middle class. She is about six and a half, and has just entered elementary schooling in the context of first grade. As she closes in on her first year of real school, it is clear how the social environment of that school has impacted her overall development.

The observation was carried out in three stages. First, I met her and her mother at a local park, where the young girl was observed playing with friends and other local neighborhood children. This was a good way to begin the observation, because it was in no way awkward, as she was busy with her playtime as I sat close to her mother. It was also a good introduction because I was introduced as a family friend, making the child a little more at ease with my presence. This first session lasted about twenty minutes. The next session was at her school, at her aftercare program. Her mother gave me permission to pick her up from the program, and so I went a little early to observe her spending time with her classmates and friends from school. This was an interesting glimpse at her life outside of the family, because she did not even notice my presence for most of the observation. This gave me an in-depth look at her social interactions with her peers. The third and final observation was conducted at her home, while she was watching one of her favorite shows. Here, I got to see her interact most with her family.

Description of Current Development

Middle childhood sees a number of major physical developments. Children of this age range commonly experience growth spurts, where their height and weight increase (Magna Systems 2008). The child in question has seen some growth, yet she is too close to the beginning of the period to have seen substantial weight or height gain. This was something that she had noticed, based on her experience with her peers. She was always complaining about she was the smallest and stating that when she grows up she will not have to be last in line anymore. Middle childhood is also a time where children see a mastery of their fine and gross motor skills. Fine motor skill improvement is facilitated through games and other types of play, as well as school activities like learning to write. The child did show a mastery of her fine motor skills, as seen on the playground at her afterschool care. She was playing with a bouncy ball that the children were tossing back and forth to each other. She continuously caught it, and even caught it with one hand on several occasions, showing her physical development from earlier stages of childhood. Moreover, when she was at home, she was practicing spelling her name, which she could do very well. However, the writing was not as clear as one would expect from an older child.

The child also showed interesting signs of cognitive development as well. She was very interested in exploring and explaining certain aspects of her environment, both to her classmates and to her younger brother at home. She felt the need to come up with answers for everything, which showed that she clearly was using abstract reasoning to help increase her problem solving abilities. The explanations she came up with were interesting, as she was using information from her limited knowledge bank to explain completely unrelated things. For example, she was explaining to a classmate at her aftercare program at school that the sky was blue because the stars are all different colors, and the ones closest to the earth must be blue to give the sky that reflection. Although untrue, her understanding of the different types of stars and how they have an impact on the environment around them was quite impressive. She was essentially using abstract thinking to come up with problem solving strategies, this was an element she was incredibly proud of, as most of the kids around her believed her -- especially her younger brother.

The fact that she could spell her name was impressive, as she has been practicing for months. Yet, these syntax skills still need clear development, as she had trouble writing her younger brother's name and my name as well. It seems as if she really only know the letters she had been previously exposed to that were linked to her own image and self-concept. Other letters and phonetic combinations were much harder to grasp. Still, she definitely showed impressive language abilities. Not only was her pronunciation of difficult words pretty good, she was also already using complex grammatical structures in her language. She was also a huge talker. She used loads of impressive vocabulary words, although many were not used in the correct context. It seems as though she was repeating words she had heard in adult conversations. Although she may not have known the exact meaning of the words themselves, her repetition of them is a clear link to many developmental philosophies which posit that language is learned through imitation and repetition before acquisition. She seemed proud of the words that none of her peers knew, and made sure to inform them of the definition if one of them asked, even though many of those definitions were wrong or a little off.

From a sociological perspective, many aspects of her development were in tune with the commonly held theories of development. Essentially, children in this age range begin to "understand more about his or her place in the world" through using social reinforcements (CDC 2012). This is what I had observed. There were many instances when she used her own cues of social referencing to answer questions or explain parts of her environment. When discussing the issue of the blue sky to her classmates, it is clear that she was in many ways invoking what she had heard through other social environments, just slightly out of context. Moreover, her self-concept was being derived from an understanding of the social world around her. She knew she was smaller than many of the other girls her age, and was a little insecure about it. She would over exaggerate how tall her mom and dad were as to show that she has more growing to do.

Finally, from an emotional perspective, the child was also showing signs of developing further from her previous childhood stage. Essentially, children of this period "show more independence from parents and family" (CDC 2012). This was seen in the case of her playing both at the park and at her aftercare program. She was clearly not shy, and wanted to stay longer at both locations -- showing a clear independence and desire to explore the world outside of her family home. Moreover, she showed clear signs of pride when she knew things that the other kids didn't, or when she came up with explanations that they seemed to believe.

Eriksson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

These developmental characteristics can be seen through the context of Erik Eriksson's theory of psychosocial development, where the child of this age learns and emulates the adults around them. The child in question is in the beginning stages of Industry vs. Inferiority, which typically occurs between 6-11 years of age. The stage is "the psychological conflict of middle childhood, which is resolved positively when experiences lead children to develop a sense of competence at useful skills and tasks" (Karpowitz 2012 p 1). During this time period, there is a danger of feeling inferior, meaning the child feels inept at the tasks they are trying to conduct, therefore decreasing overall confidence and can result in a state of pessimism. I observed this while watching the child's behaviors primarily in front of her peers. She would show great effort to convince others of her explanations. The pride she felt and exhibited upon convincing others of her arguments is a sign that she is leaning towards expressing industry, rather than inferiority.

The child is also showing signs of a developing self-concept. This is essentially a movement from George Herbert Mead's I-self to me-self, "that resembles the attitudes of significant others" (Karpowitz 2012 p 1). Essentially, the child is no longer isolated from his or her environment, but rather each child uses elements of his or her environment to begin to construct a more complicated notion of the self (Harmon & Jones 2005). According to the research, "Children begin to emphasize their capabilities and talents rather than things that they simply do to define themselves" (WolfWikis 2012). What they excel at begins to take shape as how they define themselves. This results in a more complicated and unique self understanding and conception. Children of this age range spend their efforts "organizing their observations of behaviors and internal states into general dispositions"( Karpowitz 2012 p 1). Descriptions of themselves are in terms of psychological states rather than isolated behaviors that do not reflect what they are feeling underneath those behaviors. This essentially lays a foundational structure for more stable cognitive development. A lot of this stage is spent comparing their own identity to that of the social world around them. They begin to judge their outside appearance, actions, and abilities based on what they see their peers doing around them (Karpowitz 2012). They begin to take social cues and messages from others as to how they are supposed to behave and approach particular tasks. This includes the strong influence of the parent as in previous stages, but also incorporates growing demands for peer influences that will only continue to grow in future developmental stages. One of the major tell-tale signs of this concept in the current observation was the child's adaption of unknown words to try to fit them into her own contexts. She used many words out of context, but seemed to almost create their own meaning that flowed within her own concept of what language was supposed to sound like based on prior exposure in particular contexts.

Additionally, this is a period where the child's self-esteem is going through a series of changes. The extremely high self-esteem of younger childhood stages begins to reinstate itself at much more realistic measures (WolfWikis 2012). What is known as the hierarchically structured self-esteem begins this restructuring process using social markers as guides. Thus, "classrooms, playgrounds, and peer groups are key contexts in which children learn to evaluate their own competence" (Karpowitz 2012 p 1). In many cases, self-esteem drops during the first few years of school, as children are confronted with new measures for abilities they may have thought that they mastered through watching a greater expanse of peer groups (Harmon & Jones 2005). The greatest sense of this was seen within the child's insecurities about her height and size. While before she had no care about it, she is beginning to see herself as "little" while she wants to be a "big girl." This is based on a decreased self-esteem as she encounters girls that are taller or larger than she is. Self-conscious emotions also begin to develop at this stage. There is a greater sense of personal responsibility which then helps regulate over behaviors and actions (WolfWikis 2012). Pride and guilt become automated, meaning that they do not need to be in the presence of adults or their caretakers to feel such emotions. Thus, "Pride motivates children to take on further challenges, and guilt prompts them the make amends and strive for self-improvement as well," (Karpowitz 2012 p 2). The child's pride was obvious when she got more excited and loud the more her classmates and friends believed her explanations for things. She would get much more excited and try to explain even more abstract things, like she knew everything.

Overall, the emotional understanding of the child is increased dramatically. During this period, children begin to show an incredibly variety of emotions, that go far beyond the more simplistic emotions they had experienced in the past. Therefore, "children begin to explain emotion by referring to internal states such as happy and sad rather than external states such as smiles and tears" (WolfWikis 2012). There begins to be the more complicated understanding that an individual can experiences several emotions simultaneously. Children during this age range begin to experience and express signs of empathy, or feeling emotions for others around them, rather than just themselves. Their increased cognitive development and social awareness strengthens their empathy towards others around them. Through their relationships with others, and their understanding of those individuals' emotions, a sense of moral judgment begins to develop, where the child begins to learn the morals and values of the shared culture through social awareness. The improvements in their emotional self-understanding help set a structure for future cognitive development. The child in question here showed clear signs of empathy towards her peers. During her time witnessed at the park, the child showed concern for her hurt friend. She herself knew what it felt like to fall and get hurt, and therefore she understood the emotions that her friend was feeling at the time. Her concern for those emotions correlates with Eriksson's concept of increased emotional understanding.

Emotional self-regulation is another feature of this developmental stage. At the age of six, most children begin to handle their emotional responses in much more complicated manners. Self-esteem and peer approval begin to build the child's sense of self and understanding. During this period, "children prefer to find verbal ways of dealing with the situation and begin to have concern for other individuals" (WolfWikis 2012). There is also the use of strategized coping mechanisms, like problem-centered coping where action helps alleviate the problem and emotion-centered coping-dealing with an unchangeable situation. During the observation, the child never once threw a tantrum. She would get annoyed, especially at her peers, but would not let her frustrations aggravate her enough to start a crying fit. Rather, she would respond with words, especially asking why someone would say or do that. This shows advancement with coping mechanisms as she would try to change and rationalize situations.

Lev Vygotsky's Social Development Theory

Also known as constructivism, this theory aims to explore the developmental period of this stage through psycho-social relationships. The current structure of the empirical observations presented here is linked to Vygotsky's child-in-context concept. Observing the child in actual everyday events is the most basic type of scientific observation. This is how the structure of the observation was created, as I observed her in her natural environments. What can be seen through such observation is a clear internalization of culture. Here, the research states that "the etiology of learning is social interaction: a concept is first presented to a child socially (interpsychologically) either by parent, peer, or teacher, later to appear inside the child through a process of internalization" (Bunce 2011 p 1). Learning is presented culturally through external forces before being adapted by the child's own cognitive schemas. Essentially, "Cognitive processes are the result of social and cultural interactions" (Bunce 2011 p 1). The child in question showed an internalization of culture through what she was found of. The show she watched a lot of the popular Disney series Hannah Montana. As media serves as an institute of culture, the songs she sang and the characters she liked were all help internalizing the culture she is in.

Children learn through a variety of social contexts. There is the famous psychology of play which is associated with this theoretical foundation. Since playing is pleasurable to children, it is clear that pleasure is a primary driver in terms of facilitating development. Vygotsky is quoted as to having said "play is not the predominant feature of childhood but it is a leading factor in development" Newman & Holzman 1993 p 90).

"through play children learn social norms" (Newman & Holzman 1993 p 91). Symbolic representation tends to revolve more around free play, where children are allowed to either mimic the context of reality, or suspend it entirely. The child here showed a lot of symbolic play, where she was essentially emulating the adult world around her. Her and her friends at aftercare spent a while each pretending to be a teacher, who got to teach them interesting facts. She took her role very seriously as a teacher, and this shows how play can essentially be a tool for practicing societal roles. Play in terms of games brings the child into a rule-governed world, which is structured by the regulations of the game (Newman & Holzman 1993). This is important in teaching children the need to live within the guidelines of already distinguished rules and regulations. Her and her classmates would play handball during aftercare, showing how they were learning regulations and rules through the enjoyment of play. Children often learn through the zone of proximal development (ZPD). This is essentially "the distance between the actual development levels as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Bunce 2011 p 2). Elements of this concept could be seen in just how far she had to go with using particular vocabulary words in the right context. She had been exposed to them through over hearing adult conversations, and so began the process of adding them into her vocabulary. Yet her stage of development showed a greater ZPD, where she had not yet learned to use them properly without adult intervention. She would ask her mother several times the meaning of the same words, but then go to repeat them in the wrong context outside of her mother's guidance. This also plays into another important concept from Vygotsky, language development. Essentially, for Vygotsky, language is the combination of socio-cultural forces and cognitive development. Thus, "language is both a result of historical forces that have given it shape, and a tool of thought that shapes the thought itself" (Llyod & Fernyhough 1999 p 422). Mastering language means that the child is beginning to show signs of appreciating and replicating his or her historical context. We, as speakers, are both a product and maker of history. As the child continues to develop stronger grammatical and linguistic abilities, that child is becoming more empowered within a modern context.