Free Example of Child Development Ages 6-11 Essay

The age between six and eleven is the most crucial age in child development. This age bracket is also referred to as school age. At this age, a child starts developing gradually both physically and emotionally. Physically, the child body structure is growing fast, and the child is becoming more active than before (McBride, Schoppe-Sullivan & Moon-Ho, 2005). Emotionally, the child starts to view things in reality in comparison to before when the child was viewing things like a dream. Therefore, an analysis of child development at the school age bracket is done.

As soon as the child is at school age, certain normal cognitive developments start to take place. In this case, the child begins to exhibits certain physical growth developments. First, the ability to use the arms and the legs by the child increases rapidly. In addition, the use of fingers and hands by the child gradually increases as well (McBride, Schoppe-Sullivan & Moon-Ho, 2005). As children grow, their thinking becomes concrete meaning that they are more logical, and they plan. These developments happen at the beginning of the age bracket. However, at the latter years towards eleven years old, the body starts to develop depicting that of an adult. In boys, their penis and testicles starts to grow. Additionally, boys’ chests start to broaden and pubic hair grows on their body (McBride, Schoppe-Sullivan & Moon-Ho, 2005). Girls start developing hips and breast. Moreover, armpit and pubic hair starts to grow (McBride, Schoppe-Sullivan & Moon-Ho, 2005).

Secondly, social and emotional is the other cognitive development that takes place in school age children. Socially, the child tends to distance him or herself from parents (McBride, Schoppe-Sullivan & Moon-Ho, 2005). In this case, the child is trying to understand the outside world as he or she is socially interacting with his or her peers. This is where children try to rely more on their friends rather than their parents (McBride, Schoppe-Sullivan & Moon-Ho, 2005). Emotionally, the child can easily get hurt. In this situation, the child wants to be treated as an adult even though he or she might behave like a child (McBride, Schoppe-Sullivan & Moon-Ho, 2005). In case the child gets hurt, he or she tends to throw tantrums and is not aware of how to deal with failure.

The most common congenital disease or defect that affects school age children is congenital heart disease (Amro, 2010). It is worth noting that children at this age have a high resistance to disease as compared to when they are preschoolers. However, congenital diseases are those diseases that emanate during birth. The causes of congenital heart disease can be because of genetics or environmental factors (Amro, 2010). Prevention of congenital heart disease can be done at prenatal level once it is detected (Amro, 2010). In some situations, congenital heart disease adapts to the body and treats itself.

When a school age child is diagnosed with the congenital heart disease, the first people to be affected are the parents. In this case, family members start to fear losing their young child to the disease (Amro, 2010). For this reason, they require counseling. In the latter years, the disease can be transmitted to another child during birth, because it is genetic (Amro, 2010). The society is supportive when a child is diagnosed with congenital heart disease. The defect is extremely expensive to cure, and in some cases it can be deadly (Amro, 2010). Therefore, the society tends to contribute money to those families that cannot afford treatment. Additionally, the government as part of the society takes the initiative of providing education to the families of how to take care of their school age children.

In child development at the age of six to seven years old, children face many self-esteem issues. Self-esteem can be described as the ability of a person to be able to do something due to the relationship or encouragement he or she is receiving from the other people (Barnard, 2004). When school age children are developing, they derive their self-esteem from their parents and friends in the school. For instance, if a school age child is not able to socialize with his or her peers, he or she will have low self-esteem and vice versa is true (Barnard, 2004). In addition, the way parents communicate to their school age children also determines a child’s self-esteem (Barnard, 2004). Therefore, parents should be extremely careful when they are communicating with their school age children.

Low self-esteem can lead to severe depression in a child leading to suicide. These abnormalities can be either long-term or short-term (Barnard, 2004). In order to avoid this, certain activities parents should follow to improve their children’s self-esteem. First, parents should always encourage their children and offer praise when they complete a task (Barnard, 2004). Secondly, parents should always show their children that they know something more than they do even if they make the final decisions (Barnard, 2004). Finally, parents should not ask questions that tend to prove their children wrong when they make a mistake. Instead, they should ask questions that will make their children to reason and come up with conclusions on their own (Barnard, 2004).

Conclusion

According to the above analysis, child development between the age of six and twelve years is a one complex area. At this age, the physical bodies of children continue to grow to emulate the body of an adult. Secondly, their thinking becomes more logical and preplanned. They begin to dissociate themselves with their parents as they rely more on their friends while discovering the world. It is also at this age that they have high resistance to diseases. However, despite their resistance, they are at risk of congenital heart disease. Finally, they face self-esteem issues but with their parents’ support they can get over the abnormalities.