Middle & Late Childhood Development: Physical, Cognitive & Socioemotional Changes

Middle & Late Childhood Development: Physical, Cognitive & Socioemotional Changes.

Previously, an infant’s development was discussed, and it was found that they develop in a cephalocaudal pattern, with their heads developing faster than the rest of the body. As they are unable to communicate using words, crying is their main mode of communication. Then, early childhood development was discussed, where young children develop rapidly, and the roles of the educator and parent are vital during this period. Thus, middle and late childhood is the next stage of development.

Middle and late childhood is defined as when a child is between the ages of 6 and 11, where they learn about their bodies and have better movement, with brain development helping them to have flexible and reasoning thought, with peers taking over parents as their influences (Lally, Valentine-French, & Lang, 2020). They are more complicated in their thinking and have shown signs of independence, and though parents seem to take a lesser role in their level of influence over their children, it shall be clear that their role is still equally important.

In this article, the following areas of development will be addressed: Physical, cognitive, and socioemotional.

Physical development of 6 to 11-year-olds

Firstly, physical development will be discussed.

Physical growth is slow, albeit consistent, where a child grows 2 to 3 inches per year while muscle strength and mass slowly increase, with the more prominent changes being higher body height, but seemingly smaller waist and head sizes (Santrock, 2019). The child’s head or waist does not grow smaller, but it may seem smaller because the rest of the body grows rapidly in comparison. This rate of height growth is similar to early childhood, as during early childhood, they grow 2½ inches in height every year.

The prefrontal cortex in the brain develops, which involves attention, reasoning, and cognitive control, while motor skills are smoother and coordinated, and thus they need more physical activities, with boys better at gross motor and girls better at fine motor tasks (Santrock, 2019). Motor skill activities will advance during this stage, as children learn more about the capabilities of their bodies. During this stage, typically, boys participate more in ball games while girls are involved in craft activities. It may also seem likely that during this stage, fights occur more often and injuries are greater.

Cognitive development of 6 to 11-year-olds

Secondly, cognitive development will be assessed.

When children are between 7 and 11, they can do concrete operations, which are mental actions, while long-term memory is boosted, and they develop critical and creative thinking, and also, children are more logical and analytical when they use language (Santrock, 2019). Hence, they are capable of being independent and have their own ways of thinking. Previously, children needed concrete materials to understand concepts. For example, if you ask a 4-year-old to imagine an elephant sitting on a bridge, it may be too difficult. However, a 10-year-old has no issues with using his imagination. Hence, during early childhood, children need concrete learning materials, whereas during middle to late childhood, they can understand concepts through abstract materials like worksheets.

Socioemotional development of 6 to 11-year-olds

Thirdly, socioemotional development is analysed.

Children during this age start to have social comparison as they learn more about themselves, when they improve in taking perspectives to develop both self-concept and self-esteem, whereas self-concept is about domain understanding of themselves, and self-esteem is an overall understanding, and according to Erikson, children at this stage are in the industry versus inferiority stage (Santrock, 2019). Both self-concept and self-esteem may seem to be the same entity, but they are very different in how a child understands himself or herself. Self-concept is when a child knows that he is good at a certain task, such as crafts, but may need more guidance in another task, like cookery. Self-esteem is a more global perception of self, and having poor self-concept could lead to poor self-esteem. The child who is bad at cookery may have self-doubt and start to believe that, therefore, he is bad at everything. Adults need to be present to nurture children.

The Industry vs Inferiority stage is about the individual developing self-confidence in their skills or feeling inferior when they discover that they are not, usually when they start to compare themselves with peers, and adult support is crucial in helping them gain confidence in specific skills (McLeod, 2025). At this stage, children may seem fragile in their confidence, but that is because internally they are always comparing themselves to others. Not only are children constantly juggling between self-concept and self-esteem, but the amount of influence that peers have is so great that they could be affected easily, especially when the need for comparison is there. A child who is not good at cookery will compare himself with others and fall into inferiority if he is not well-supported by nurturing adults.

Therefore, parents are never out of their job in taking care of their children, even when they reach middle or late childhood. Though their influence is lesser compared to their children’s peers, their roles as nurturing parents never truly stop.

 

References

Lally, M., Valentine-French, S., & Lang, D. (2020). Middle and Late Childhood. In D. Lang, Parenting and Family Diversity Issues. Iowa State University Digital Press. doi:https://doi.org/10.31274/isudp.8

McLeod, S. (15 October, 2025). Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. SimplyPsychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/erik-erikson.html

Santrock, J. W. (2019). Life-Span Development: Seventeenth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

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