CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

Middle Childhood and Adolescence

Middle childhood and adolescence

Changes that occur during middle childhood and adolescence

The age of adolescence is the golden period of our lives. This is the age of experimentation and learning. The social circle comprises of friends with different behaviors. The family is the support system. Family is used to provide me support and guidance. Family follows principles and values thoroughly (Kouyoumdjian, 2010).

Piaget and Vygotsky's cognitive theories

Piaget and Vygotsky are both advised to be constructivists. Constructivism is an approach to intelligence. Piaget believed that understanding came from know-how and action. Vygotsky thought just the converse, that is, one can only evolve when one has come to a higher level of intelligence, therefore understanding motored development. Both Piaget and Vygotsky believed that the natural environment influenced understanding (Kouyoumdjian, 2010).

Vygotsky however had a different opinion. He believed that intelligence was gained by learning from others. Vygotsky accepted that young kids obtain this information from more capable peers or adults. This social learning requires great involvement from the teacher when beginning to learn the task; and as the child learns, the aid is lessened to the point where there is minimal aid and the individual is fully competent at the task at hand(Mitterer, 2010).

Intelligence and mental retardation

Intelligence is the ability that allows us to gather information from within and the world around us, in order to issue the response more suited to the demands that we face daily life. The intelligence quotient or IQ, is the result of a psychometric test which, when correlated with other elements of a psychological examination, seeks to provide a quantitative standard related to the abstract intelligence (Mitterer, 2010).

Mental retardation is a slow and incomplete acquisition of cognitive skills during human development, which ultimately leads to substantial limitations in the current development. It is characterized by intellectual functioning significantly below average, in two or more of the following adaptive skill areas: communication, personal care, home living, social skills, community use, self-government health and safety, functional academic skills, leisure and work.

Impact on child development by different family structures

Family is based on the marriage and a small kinship group whose members are united and living together in housekeeping, emotional bond, and mutual obligations to each other. The family plays a critical role in child development on which it will influence sometimes positive, sometimes negative. The ideal is not reached due to parental separation, ...