Written Report

Espocia, Franz Eulo – Meaning of Late Childhood and Developmental Task

Today we will talk all about one of the stages that all children pass
through, the Late childhood. Late childhood is a stage of development extends
from the age of six years to the time the individuals become sexually mature, at
both its beginning and end. Late Childhood is marked by conditions that
profoundly affects a child’s personal and social adjustment. The beginning of
late childhood is marked by the child entrance into first grade- compulsory at six
years in America today. For most young children, this is a major change in the
pattern of their lives, even when they have a year or more of experience in some
preschool situation. While adjusting to the new demands and expectation of first
grade, most children are in state of disequilibrium; they are emotionally disturbed
and, as a result, difficult to live and work with. Entrance into first grade is a
milestone for many of the changes that take place in attitudes, values, and
behavior.

During the last year or two of childhood, marked physical changes take
place and these, also, are responsible for changes in attitudes, values, and
behavior as this period draws to a close and children prepare, physically and
psychologically, for adolescents. The physical changes that take place at the
close of childhood bring about a state of disequilibrium in which the accustomed
pattern of life is disturbed and there is a temporary upset until adjustments to the
changes can be made.

Although it is possible to mark off the beginning of late childhood fairly

accurately, one cannot be so precise about the time this period used comes to an
end because sexual maturity – the criterion used to divide childhood from
adolescence – come at varying ages.

This is because there are marked variation in the ages at which boys and
girls become sexually mature, as a result, some children have a longer-than
average late childhood, while for others it is shorter than average. For the
average American girls, late childhood extends from six to thirteen, a span of
seven years; for boys, it extends from six to fourteen, a span of eight years.

To achieve a place in the social group, older children must accomplish the
developmental task that society expects them to master at this time. Failure to do
so will result in immature patterns of behavior, which will militate against
acceptance in the peer group and inability to keep up with their age-mates who
have mastered these developmental tasks of late childhood. Box -1 enumerated
the developmental task given by Havighurst that should be mastered during the
late childhood. Parents, educators and psychologist apply various names to late
childhood and these names reflect the important characteristics of the period.
Box-2 are the different characteristics of late childhood:

Box-1 HAVIGHURST’S DEVELOPMENTAL TASK DURING THE LATE

CHILDHOOD

 Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games

 Building a wholesome attitude toward oneself as a growing organism
 Learning to get along with age-mates
 Beginning to develop appropriate masculine or feminine social roles
 Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating
 Developing concepts necessary for everyday living
 Developing a conscience, a sense of morality, and a scale of values
 Developing attitudes toward social group and institutions
 Achieving personal independence
Box-2 Characteristics of late childhood
Parents Educators psychologist

Troublesome age - the Elementary school age Gang age – the time
time when children are – it is the time when the when children’s major
no longer willing to do child is expected to concern is acceptance by
what they are told to do acquire the rudiments of their age-mates and
and when they are more knowledge that are membership in a gang. It
influenced by their peers considered essential for is also considered as the
than by their parents and successful adjustment to age of conformity.
other family members. adult life. It is also the
time when the child is play age - not because
Sloppy age - the time expected to learn certain more time is devoted to
when children tend to be essential skills, both play than at any other
careless and slovenly curricular and age which would be
about their appearance extracurricular. impossible after the child
and when their rooms are enters school but rather
so cluttered that is almost Critical Period in the because there is an
impossible to get into achievement drive – a overlapping of play
them. time when children form activities
the habit of being
Quarrelsome age – the achievers,
time when family fights underachievers or
are common and when overachievers. Once
the emotional climate of formed, habits of working
the home is far from below, above, or up to
pleasant for all family one’s capacity tend to
members. persist into adulthood.
 Ulila, Analie – Physical Development in Late Childhood
There are different aspect or areas of development that being change in
passing through every stages of development. Physical development in late
childhood, Late childhood is a period of slow and relatively uniform growth until
the changes of puberty begin, approximately two years before the child becomes
sexually mature, at which time growth speeds up markedly. There are important
physical changes that take place before the puberty growth spurt begins, such as
the height and weight of the child. Physical growth follows a predictable pattern,
although variation do occur. Body build affects both height and weight in late
childhood.

Good health and good nutrition are important factors in the child’s growth
and development. The better the health and nutrition, the larger children to be,
age for age, as compared with those whose nutrition and health are poor.
Children who were immunized against diseases during the early years of the life
grow larger than those who were not immunized. Emotional tension likewise
affects physical growth. Placid children grow faster than those who are
emotionally disturbed, though emotional disturbance has a greater effect on
weight than on height.

Bright children tend to be taller and heavier than those who are average or
below average in intelligence. Sex differences in physical growth, relatively slight
in early years, become more pronounced in late childhood. Because boys begin
their puberty growth spurt approximately a year later than girls. They tend to be
slightly shorter and lighter in weight than girls of the same age until they too
become sexually mature, girls also get their permanent teeth slightly than boys,
while boys head and faces grow larger than girls (Box – 3 illustrate the physical
development in late childhood).

BOX – 3 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATE CHILDHOOD

 Height – the annual increase in height in 2 to 3 inches. The average
eleven years old girls is 58 inches tall, and the average boys of the
same age is 57.5 inches tall.

Weight – weight increase is more variable than height increase, ranging

from 3 to 5 pounds annually. The average eleven years old girl weights
88.5 pounds and the average boy of the same age weight 85.5 pounds.

Body proportions – although the head is still proportionally too large

for the rest of the body, some of the facial disproportionate disappear as
the mouth and jaw become larger, the forehead broadens and flattens,
the lips fill out, the nose becomes larger and acquires more shape, the
trunks elongates and becomes slimmer, the neck becomes longer, the
chest broadens, the abdomen flattens and the hand and feet grow
longer, but at a slow rate.

Homeliness – the body disproportions, so pronounced during late

childhood, are primarily responsible for the increase in homeliness at
this time. In addition, careless grooming and a tendency to wear clothes
like those of peers, regardless of their becomingness, contribute to
homeliness.

Muscle -Fat ratio – during the late childhood, fat tissue develops more
rapidly, than the muscle tissue which has a marked growth spurt
beginning at puberty. Children of endomorphic builds have
conspicuously fatter than muscle tissue while the reverse is true of those
mesomorphic builds.
Teeth – by the onset of puberty, a child normally has twenty- eight of the
thirty –two permanent teeth. The last four, the wisdom teeth, erupt during
adolescence.
 As the child is physically developed, different skills acquire during the late
childhood years. Children during late childhood have a remarkably large
repertoire of skill that they learned during the preschool year. What skills older
children learn depends on their environment, partly on the opportunities given
them for learning, partly on their body build, and partly on what is in vogue
among their age-mates. It also marked by sex differences, girls as a rule,
surpass boys in skills involving finer muscles, such as painting, sewing weaving
and hammering, while boys are superior to girls in skills involving the grosser
muscles, such as throwing, a basketball kicking a soccer ball, long distance, and
doing board jumps. Socioeconomic status of the family likewise has a marked
influenced on the number and kind of skills children learn. The skill in late
childhood can be divided roughly into four categories: self-help skill, social skills,
school skills and play skills. (see box -4). Not all categories are equally important
throughout the years of late childhood. Play skills, for example, are more
important to children during the early part of late childhood than they are when
they approach puberty. Then interest in active play wanes and is replaced by
interest in amusements.

Box – 4 categories of late childhood skills

Self- help skills – independent of doing such skill like older children should
be able to eat, dress, bathe and groom themselves.

Social-help skills – skills in this category relate to helping others in

homes and play group.

School skills – skill developed in school like writing, drawing, clay

modeling, dancing, crayoning, sewing, cooking and working.

Play skills – skill learn through different activities in connection with play
like for example the older children learn such skill as throwing and
catching balls, riding bicycle, skating and swimming.
 There is also a speech improvement when the child experienced physical
changes, as children’s social horizon broaden, they discover that speech is an
essential tool for gaining acceptance in a group. This gives them a strong
incentive to speak better. They also discover that the simpler forms of
communication, such as crying and gesturing, are socially un acceptable. This
gives them an added incentive to improve their speech. Perhaps most important
of all, they discover that comprehension of what other say is essential to
communication. If they fail to understand what others are saying to them, they
not only cannot communicate but, even more serious, they are likely to say
something totally unrelated to what their peers are talking and, as a result, they
are not acceptable to the peer group.

Help in improving speech in late childhood comes from four sources. First,
parents from middle and upper socioeconomic groups may feel that speech is
especially important and thus motivate their children to speak better by correcting
faulty pronunciation and grammatical errors and by encouraging them to
participate in general family conversations. Second, Radio and television provide
good models for speech for older children, as they do for children during the
preschool years. They also encourage attentive listening on the part of the older
children and, as is true of younger children, this results in an improvement in the
ability to comprehend what others are saying. Third, after children learn to read,
they add to their vocabularies and become familiar with correct sentence
formation. And, fourth, after they start school, mispronounced words and wrong
meanings associated with words are usually quickly corrected by their teachers

In spite of the fact that all children are given similar opportunities to
improve their speech in school, there are marked variations in the improvement
made. The vocabulary building of the child tend to increase. Throughout late
childhood, children’s general vocabularies grow by leaps and bounds. From their
studies in school, their reading, their conversation with others, and their exposure
to radio and television, they build up vocabularies which they use in their speech
and writing. This is known as a “general vocabulary” because it is composed of
words in general use, not hose of such limited meanings that they can be used
only in a specific context.

It has been estimated that average first graders know between 20,00 and
24,000 words, or 5-6 percent of the words in a standard dictionary. By the time
they are in the sixth grade, most children know approximately 50,000 words. Not
only do older children learn many new words but they also learn new meanings
for old words. This further enlarges their vocabularies. Children from better-
educated families, as a rule, increase their vocabularies more than those from
families in which the parents have les education. Girls, age for age. Usually build
up larger vocabularies than boys.

The correct pronunciation of the word errors in pronunciation are less

common at this age than earlier. Anew world may be incorrectly pronounced by
the first time it is used, but after hearing the correct pronunciation once or twice,
children are generally able to pronounce it correctly. This, however, is less true of
children of the lower socioeconomic groups who hear more mispronunciations in
their homes than children from more favored home environments, and it is even
less true of children from bilingual homes. children tend to form a sentence; the
six years old child should have command of nearly every kind of sentence
structure. And gradually nine years old, the child begins to use shorter and more
compact sentences and there is also an improvement in comprehension, with
increased interest in group-belonging comes an increased in desire to
communicate with group members. Children soon learn that meaningful
communication cannot be achieved unless they understand the meaning of what
others are saying to them.

Upon with the social groups, the content of speech is mainly egocentric,
when older children talk about themselves, it is usually in the form of boasting.
They boast about anything related to themselves but generally less about their
material possessions. Although children may talk about anything, their favorite
topics of conversation, when with their peers, are their own experiences, their
homes and families, games, sports, movies television programs, their gang
activities, sex, sex organs and function, and the daring of a contemporary that led
to an accident. When the child is with an adult, it is the latter who usually
determines the topic of conversation. The chatterbox stage, characteristics of
early childhood, is gradually replaced by more control and selection of speech.
No longer do children talk just for the sake of talking, regardless of whether
others pay attention to what they say, as they did in early childhood. Instead,
they use speech as a form of communication, not as a form of verbal exercise.
the amount of talking are less and less talking as late childhood continues.

Diez, Mark Joey – Emotions and Emotional Expression in Late

Childhood and Social grouping and Social Behavior Development
The second aspect of development that is changed during late childhood
is the emotional development. Older children soon discover that expression of
emotions, especially of the unpleasant emotions is socially unacceptable to their
age-mates. They learn that their age-mates regard temper outbursts as babyish,
withdrawal reactions to fear as cowardly, and hurting other children acquire a
strong incentive to learn to control the outward expression of their emotions. At
home, however, there is not the same strong incentive to control the emotions.
As a result, children frequently express their emotions forcibly as they did when
they were younger. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that parents
criticize or punish them for “not acting their age”. Characteristically, emotional
expression in late childhood are pleasant ones. The child giggles or laughs,
squirms, twitches, or even rolls on the floor, and shows a release of pent-up
animal spirits. Even though these emotional expressions are immature by adult
standards. They indicate that the child is happy and making good adjustments.
There is common emotional pattern in late childhood stage, the common
emotional patterns of late childhood are similar to those of early childhood,
however, the common emotional pattern of late childhood differ in the kind of
situation that gives rise to them and, second, they differ in the form of emotional
expression. These changes are the result of broadened experience and learning
rather than of maturation. Older children are far more likely to become angry
when a person makes a derogatory comment about them than are younger
children who do not completely understand the meaning of the derogatory
comment. Similarly, young children’s curiosity is aroused by anything new and
different. Emotional Marked by sex differences: Boys at every age, express the
emotions that are regarded as sex appropriate, such as anger and curiosity more
overly than girls. Girls are likely to experience more fears, worries and feeling of
affection than boys. There are times during late childhood when children
experience frequent and intense emotions. Because these emotions tend to be
more unpleasant than pleasant, period of heightened emotionally become
periods of disequilibrium – times when children are out of focus and difficult to
live with

Heightened emotionally in late childhood may come from physical or

environmental causes or from both. When children are ill or tired, they are likely
to be irritable, fretful, and generally difficult, just before childhood ends, when
they sex organs begin to function, heightened emotionality is normally at its peak

Environmental causes of heightened emotionality are also common and

serious in late childhood. Because adjustments to new situation are always up-
setting for children, heightened emotionality is almost universal at the time when
children enter school. Any marked change in the pattern of the older child life as
when the home is broken by death or by divorce inevitably leads to heightened
emotionality. Generally, however, late childhood is a period of relative emotional
calm which lasts until the puberty growth spurt begins. There are several reasons
for this first, the roles older children are expected to play well defined and
children know how to play them, second, games and sports provide a ready
outlet for pent-up emotional energy, and finally, because of improvement in their
skills, older children are less frustrated in their attempts to accomplish various
task than they were when they were younger. As children learn to curb the
external expressions of their emotions, they discover that, in doing so, they
become nervous, tense, and ready to fly off the handle in a temper outburst at
the slightest provocation. They are said to be in a “bad mood” or in a “bad
humor”.

Because the pent-up emotional state is unpleasant for children, they

discover, more often by trial and error than by guidance, that they can clear their
systems of this pent-up emotional energy – emotional Catharsis – once
discovered, becomes a new way for older children to handle their emotional
expressions to conform to social expectations. While many forms of catharsis
may work, older children discover, more though trial and error than through
guidance, that some work better than others and some are more socially
approved than others. While crying, for example, may release pent-up emotional
energy, it is usually having as its side effect a depressed feeling which seems to
sap the individual’s energy. In addition, children discover that crying is
considered babyish.

Some children who have close, intimate friends, discover before childhood
comes to an end that it helps greatly to discuss with their friends the situations
that give rise to unpleasant emotions – their frustration, fears, jealousies, and
griefs. By so doing they get a new perspective on their emotional problems, with
the result that the situations that gave rise to their emotions either eliminated or
minimized. They have discovered, in this way, the value of mental catharsis
which, when combined with physical catharsis, enables them to learn express
their emotions in socially approved ways and with minimum physical or emotional
stress.

The third areas of development during late childhood is the social

development. Late childhood is often referred to as the “gang age” because it is
characterized by interest in peer activities, an increasingly strong desire to be
accepted member of gang and discontent when children are not with their
friends. Older children are no longer satisfied to play at home or with siblings or
to play with family members. Even one or two friends are not enough for older
children. They want to be with the gang because only them there will be a
sufficient number of individuals to play the games and sport they now enjoy and
to give excitement to their play. In gang there are some characteristics (see box
-5) that being followed.

BOX – 5 CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN’S GANG

 Children gangs are play groups.

 To belong to a gang, a child must be invited.
 Members of a gang are of the same sex.
 At first gang consist of three or four members, but this number
increases s children grow older and become interested in sports.
 Boy games more often engage in socially unacceptable behavior
than girl’s gangs.
 Popular gangs’ activities include games and sports, going to the
movies, and getting together to talk or eat.
 The gang has central meeting place, usually away from the
watchful eyes of adults.
 Most gangs have insignia of belonging, the members may wear
similar clothes, for example.
 The gang leader represents the gang’s ideal and is superior in most
respects to the other members.

As the child associate with their gang members, there is a good effect
likewise there is also bad effects in gang belongingness. Such as, the children
learn to be loyal to the group and being independent of adults. (See more in
figure 1.1) while on the other hand, group belonging is not without some
unfavorable effects on children, four of which are very common and serious
enough to be considered detrimental to the socialization process. First, gang
belonging often results in friction with parents and a rejection of parental
standards. In addition to being more influenced by gang members than by
parents, many older children spend more of their time with their gangs than with
their families and, in so doing, they fail to carry their load of home work or family
responsibilities. When parents, object to this, parent-child friction develops and,
with it, a weakening of the emotional tie between them. Second, common
unfavorable effects of gang belonging are the development of antagonism
between the sexes. While children’s gang, as was pointed out earlier, are usually
made up of members of the same sex, some children may prefer a member of
the opposite sex as a friend and may find some of the play activities of the
opposite sex more enjoyable than the play activities considered appropriate for
the individual sex. Some boys prefer friendship of girls but, fearing unfavorable
attitudes on the part of their fellow gang members, they do not want to be seen
playing with girls. The third common unfavorable effect is the tendency of older
children to develop prejudices against those who are different. At first, prejudices
do not take the form of discrimination and refusal to associate with children who
are different but tends rather to show preference is based on social differences
and later, a children approach puberty, on religious and socioeconomic
differences. And the fourth one is on the way older children treat non-gang
members. Once older children have formed a gang, they are often cruel to those
whom they do not regard as their friends. Much of the secrecy that surrounds
gangs is designed to keep children the members do not wants as friends. The
tendency to be cruel and callous toward all who are not gang males generally
reaches a peak around the eleventh year.

Learns to be
loyal to the
group
 Learns to be Learns to
indepen-dent comfort to
group
standards

Learns to be Learns to play

coopera-tive games and
sports

Gang
belongingness
Learns to take
Learns socially
part of those
acceptable
who are mistreat
behaviors

Learns to Learn to be a
compete with good sport
others Learn to accept
and carry out
responsibi-lity

Figure 1.1 some ways in which gang belonging leads to improved

socialization in late childhood

Companions in late childhood, as its true of early childhood, may be

associates, playmates, or friends. Older children, unlike younger, are rarely
satisfied with associates. To fill their social needs, companions must play the role
of playmate. While other children may have a closer relationship with some of the
gang members than with others, they regard them all as “friends” though they fill
the role of playmates.

Boys tend to have more extensive peer relationships than girls. They
prefer to play with groups rather than with one or two other boys. By contrast,
girls’ social relationships are more intensive in the sense that they play more with
one or two girls than with a group. Many factors influence older children’s choice
of friends, as a rule they choose they perceive a similar to themselves and those
who meet their needs. Because physical attractiveness affects first impressions,
children tend to select as playmates and friends those who are attractive looking.
Personality choice traits are important in the choice of companions, whether they
play the role of playmates or friends. Older children value cheerfulness,
friendliness, cooperatives, kindness, honesty, generosity even temperedness,
and good sportsmanship in their playmates as well as in their friends. As
childhood draws to close, children show a preference for companions with similar
socioeconomic, racial and religious. This is especially true in the case of friends.
But how do they really treat their companion? Unfavorable treatment of other
children is not limited to those who are not members of a gang. within every gang
there is a great deal fighting among its members. Often children in a gang are not
on speaking terms with some of their playmates or friends. Many of these
quarrels are made up and friendly relationship are reestablished, others are not.
Forming a leadership in late childhood. Children who are chosen by their peers
for leadership roles in childhood closely approximate the group ideal. They are
not only liked by the majority of the members of their gangs but they have many
of the qualities most admired by group members. Because much of the time
older children spend with their age-mates is spent in playing games and sports,
children whose skills in these areas are superior to those of the gang members
have a very good chance of being chosen as the leaders, however, skills alone
are not enough. Children who play leadership roles must also have personality
traits admired by the gang, such as good sportsmanship. Leader in late
childhood use authoritarian and despotic techniques. When leadership role does
not meet the need of the group members there is a shift to the leader, if on the
other hand, the leader meets the need of the group members, there is a
persistent to the leader.

Cadajas, Marisol - Play Interest and Activities in Late Childhood

 Play is regarded as so important to children’s physical and psychological
development that all children, regardless of the socioeconomic status of their
families, are given time and opportunities to play and encouragement to do so.
During the late childhood, both boys and girls, are keenly aware of the sex
appropriateness of differences types of play, and they shun play activities that
they know are regarded as inappropriate for their sex, regardless of personal
preference. Some children like collective play, making things just for the fun of it,
with little thoughts given to their eventual use, is a popular form of play among
older children. Construction with woods and tools appeal to boys, while girls
prefer finer types of construction, such as, sewing, drawing and jewelry making.
Some older children like exploring in the city environments, collecting toys and
books, games and sports such as basketball and football and amusements like
reading comic book and comic strips, in line through or marked by sex
differences. As their world depends with their entrance into school, so do children
interest. And with this broadening of interest comes an understanding of people
and things which formerly had little or no meaning. Children now enter what
Piaget has called the “stage of concrete operations” in thinking, a time when the
vague and nebulous concepts of early childhood become specific and concrete.
Children associates new meaning with old concepts on the basis of what they
learn after starting school. In addition, they derive new meanings from the mass
media, especially movies, radio, and television. In building up social concepts, for
example, they associate cultural stereotypes with people of different racial,
religious, sex, or socioeconomic groups – stereotypes which, for the most part,
they have learned from the mass media. As children read textbooks in school
and consult encyclopedias and other sources of information, they not only learn
new meanings for old concepts but they also correct faulty meanings associated
with old concepts. Their own experiences likewise give meaning for their
concepts. Children’s own experience with illness, for example, color their
concepts of illness. In the development of concepts, emotional weightings are
added as well as new meanings. Sometimes these emotional weightings are new
and sometimes they are reinforcements of former emotional weightings. From
their religious teachings at home or Sunday school, for example, children may
associate pleasant emotional weightings with death. Later, as they watch movies
or television shows involving death or see pictures of dead people in magazines
or newspapers, they may develop quite different concepts and different weighting
to these concepts as they are colored by these vicarious experiences.

During late childhood there will be also a personality changes in a child, as

children’s social horizon broaden when they enter school, new factors begin to
influence the development of their personalities. As a result, they must frequently
revise their self-concepts. There are factors affecting their self-concepts such as
physical condition, body build, sex, and intelligence.

Monteros, Melijun – Moral Attitudes and Behavior Development in

late childhood and Cognitive Development
 The fourth areas that change during late childhood is the moral attitudes
and behaviors. When early comes to an end, children moral concepts are no
longer as narrow and specific as they were earlier. Instead, older children
gradually generalize their moral concepts so that they refer
Liver
to any situation rather than to specific situations. In addition, older
children discover that the social group attaches different degrees of seriousness
to different acts. This knowledge is then incorporated in their moral concepts.
Between the ages of five and twelve, as Piaget has explained, children concepts
of justice change. Their rigid and inflexible notions of right and wrong. Learned
from parents, become modified and they begin to take into account the specific
circumstances surrounding a moral violation. Thus, according to Piaget, moral
relativism replaces moral inflexibility. For example, to a five year-year-old dying is
always bad, while an older child realizes that in some situation a lie is justified
and therefore, not necessarily bad. Kohlberg has elaborated on Piaget theory
and has labeled late childhood the second level of moral development, the level
of conventional morality. As the child is morally develop, there concept tend to
changes such as the meaning of digestive process and of the location of the
bodily organs. See figure 1.2

Brain

Hart
Heart

Where
food goes
 “Stun nick”
Course of
food

Age: 8 years, 7 months age: 9 years, 11 months

Figure 1.2 some examples of the older child’s concepts of the digestive
process and of the location of different bodily organs

The child also develops moral codes, Moral codes developed from
generalized moral concepts. In late childhood, as is true of the early adolescent
years, moral codes are greatly influenced by the moral standards of the groups
with which older children are identified. This does not, of course, mean that they
abandon family moral codes in favor of the code of the gang with which they are
identified. As children reach the end of childhood, their moral codes gradually
approach those of the adults with whom they are associated and their behavior
conforms more closely to the standards set up by these adults. Children with high
IQs are reported to be more mature than those lower intellectual levels. And girls
tend to form more moral judgement than boys. Disciplining children make a
change in the moral aspects, Discipline plays an important role in the
development of a moral code. In spite of the child’s need for discipline, it
becomes a serious problem with older children. Continuing use of the disciplinary
techniques that proved to be effective when the child was younger is likely to
lead to strong resentments on the part of the older child. These are the essential
for discipline for older children: aid as building moral codes, rewards, punishment
and consistency. The kind of discipline used also plays an important role in the
development of conscience – one of the important developmental tasks of late
childhood. The term conscience means a conditioned anxiety response to certain
kinds of situations and actions which has been built up by associating certain
acts with punishment. It is an “internalized policeman” which motives children to
do what they know is right and thus avoid punishments. Guilt is a special kind of
negative self-evaluation that occurs when an individual acknowledges that his
behavior is at variance with a given moral value to which he feels obligated to
conform. Shame by contrast is an unpleasant emotional reaction of an individual
to an actual or presumed negative judgment of himself by others, resulting in
self-depreciation. During late childhood common misdemeanor occurs may be in
the home or school. In home, older children fight with their siblings and being
rude to adult family members, while on the school, some child is stealing,
cheating and lying (see more on box -6). Like those of younger children, some of
the misdemeanors off older children are due to ignorance of what is expected of
them or to a misunderstanding of the rules. Some are the result of children
testing of authority and their attempts to assert their independence. Most
however, are the result of children conformity to gang misbehavior. The
misdemeanors of the late childhood are dependent upon the rule’s children
break. As children grow older, they tend to violate more rules both at home and
in school than they did when they were younger. As childhood draws to a close,
misdemeanors generally become fewer. this may be due in part to greater
maturity, both physical and psychological.

Because of differences in abilities and experiences, the interest of older

children varies more than those of younger children. Although each child will
develop certain individual interest, every child in a particular culture develops
other interests that are almost universally found among children of that culture.
Some common interest in late childhood are Appearance, Clothes, Names and
nicknames, Religion, Human body, health, Sex, School, Future vocation and
Status symbols. What are the effects of interest to a certain child? First, they
influence the form and intensity of aspirations, a girl, for example, who is
interested in matters of health or in the functioning of the human body, may
aspire to be a nurse or a doctor when she grows up, while a boy who has a
strong interest in sports may want to become a professional athlete or an athletic
coach. Second, interest can do serve as a strong motivating force. Children who
are interested in being as autonomous as their age-mates will strive hard to be
mature in their behavior in the hopes of winning the autonomy they crave. Third,
achievements are always influenced by the kind and intensity of the individual
interests. The child who is interested in mathematics, for example, will work hard
to get good grades in that subject, while the child who lacks interest in math will
likely become an underachiever in this area. And fourth, the Interest can
establish in childhood often become lifetime interests. This is because interest
lead to satisfaction. Children are likely to repeat activities to their interests and
thus these interests become habitual and may persist throughout life. Interest in
painting or music in adulthood, for example, usually originated during childhood.

Box – 6 Common misdemeanors of late childhood

 Common misdemeanors of late childhood
Home misdemeanors:
Fighting with siblings.
Breaking possessions of other family members.
Being rude to adult family members
Dawdling over routine activities.
Neglecting home responsibilities
Lying
Being sneaky
Pilfering things belonging to other family members.
Spilling things intentionally.
School misdemeanors:
Stealing
Cheating
Lying
Using vulgar and obscene language
Destroying school properly and materials
Being truant
Annoying other children by teasing them, bullying them, and creating a
disturbance
Reading comic books or chewing gum during school hours
Fighting with classmates
The use of drugs, especially marijuana on the school grounds.

Sex role typing. Which began shortly after birth, now continues with new
agencies playing important roles in the typing process. Among the new forces
that play significant roles in the sex typing process, teachers and school subjects
are important because of the prestige children attach to the teacher role. The
different mass media likewise play important roles in sex role typing of children.
As Nolan et. al have explained “children are covertly taught in television that boys
are more significant person than girls”. Unquestionably the most important force
in sex-role typing during the late childhood years comes from peer pressures. By
the time children enter school, they have been sex-role typing according to the
standard – traditional or egalitarian – accepted in their homes. Sex antagonism –
is an outgrowth of sex-role typing. When boys are encouraged to believe that
they superior to girls, it leads to derogatory attitude toward members of the
female sex. Sex-role typing influence in important ways both the behavior and
self- evaluation of children. In appearance, clothing and even in mannerisms,
children try to create the impression of sex-appropriateness. By the time reach
second grade they are well aware of what is regarded as a sex appropriate
appearance.

Even as preschoolers, children discover that certain forms of play- games

and sports as well as amusements in the form of books, comic, and sports as
well as amusements in the form of book, comic, and television programs- are
considered more appropriate for boys than for girls. While girls continue,
throughout childhood, to play some of the games, read some of the comic and
books and watch some of the television programs that are considered
appropriate for boys, boys, rarely engage in any form of play that is labeled “girls
play”.

Even before they have completed first grade, most children learn to aspire
to what the social group regards as sex-appropriate. Boys, for example, are
expected to aspire higher academically and vocationally than girls. This means
that they learn to expect higher grades in school than girls, to go further in their
educational careers than girls, and to have wider selection of more prestigious
vocations to choose form than girls. As Bacon and Lerner have pointed out “Girls
develop strong vocational role stereotypes at an early age. By the second grade,
girls perceived that certain vocation are only appropriate for males and others are
only appropriate for females.

During late childhood, there will be a change in family relationship, the

deterioration in family relationships, which began during the latter part of the
babyhood and continues through early childhood, becomes increasingly
detrimental to children’s development as late childhood progresses. It also
responsible for much off the feelings of insecurity and the unhappiness that
children experience. Many conditions are responsible for deterioration in family
relationships in the closing years of childhood. Below are the list of common
condition contributing to deterioration in family relationships in late childhood:
attitude toward parenthood, stepparents, parental occupation and sibling friction.
But thinking what are the effect of family relationship in late childhood? First,
Children’s work in school and their attitudes toward school are greatly influenced
by their relationships with family members, wholesome happy family relationship
leads to motivation to achieve while unwholesome relationships cause emotional
tension which usually has detrimental effects on a child’s abilities to concentrate
and to learn. Second, Family relationships affect social adjustments outside the
home. When family relationships are favorable, children’s social adjustments to
people outside the home are better than when family relationships are stressful.
Thirds, role-playing in the home sets the pattern for role-playing outside the
home. The reason for this is that the roles children learn to play in the home and
the kind of relationships they have with their siblings form the basis for their
relationships with peers, outside the home. This, in turns, influences children’s
patterns of behavior toward their peers. Fourth , the type of child-training method
used in the home influences the role-playing of older children. When authoritarian
child-training methods are employed in the home, children learn to be followers-
often discontented followers as they are in their relationships with their parents.
Democratic child-training methods, on the other hand, encourage the
development of leadership ability.

Fifth, Home training is responsible for sex-role typing. and lastly, children’s
aspiration and achievements in different areas of their lives are greatly influenced
by their parents’ attitudes. Whether children will be creative will be creative or
conformist in their behavior is greatly influenced by their home training. And in no
area of development do family relationships play more important role than in
children’s developing personalities.

Sabandal Sheila - Hazards

 Lastly, every stage of development that child goes through, they face a
hazard either physical or psychological hazard. Some of the common hazards of
late childhood are carry overs from earlier years, though they often take new
forms. Other are new, arising from changes in the child’s life pattern after
entering school. As a result of new medical techniques for diagnosing, preventing
and treating illness, mortality during the late childhood occurs much less
frequently than in the past. However, accidents still cause death among older
children. These are the major physical hazards: illness, obesity, sex-
inappropriate body build, accidents, physical disabilities, awkwardness and
homeliness. On the other hand, the psychological hazards of late childhood are
mainly the ones that affect children’s social adjustment, around which the major
developmental tasks of this period are centered. These are the psychological
hazards that late childhood is facing off: speech hazards, emotional hazards,
social hazards, hazards associated with interest, play hazards, hazards in sex-
role typing and many more. Having a psychological hazard have different aspect
to a certain child, like children who are less well accepted by their peers than
they would like to be, may, and often do, become dissatisfied with themselves
and envy those who are more popular.

Because of psychological damage persistent lack of social acceptance,

clinicians and educators are now trying to find ways to help children who are
experiencing such difficulties, however, making unacceptable children more
acceptable to their age-mates is difficult for three reasons. First: children may
have acquired the reputation of being a “bully” a “crybaby” or “tattler” and this
reputation is likely to cling. Second: by the time children reach first grade the
pattern of behavior that make them popular with their age-mates are so much a
part of their personalities that changing them is difficult and rarely satisfactory.
And Third: the way children treat other children will determine their reaction to
these children. Late childhood can and should be a happy period in the life span.
While it cannot be a completely carefree time, since the child is expected to
assume added responsibilities in school at home, success in handling these
responsibilities, especially those which significant people consider important, will
add to, instead of detract from, happiness. Many factors contribute to the
happiness of older children. Some of these were also important factors in early
childhood, though now they affect children differently because they want to
spend increasingly more time with their age-mates. Late childhood is a little
complex for every child talking about this will help us to think what strategies
were going to do as we face children like this.

References:

Child development, psychology; Elizabeth Hurlock