In middle childhood (between 6 and 12 years old), a child’s environment and sources of direct influence begin shifting beyond family and caregivers to include school settings. This contributes to language development. Logical, organized thought processes also begin emerging. In this chapter, we’ll focus first on theoretical contributions in cognitive development, then we’ll discuss cognitive and language development, and lastly we’ll apply our understanding of cognitive development to the context of school and educational settings.

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

1. Identify the stages of cognitive development in middle childhood.
2. Compare and contrast key theories related to understanding cognitive development in middle childhood.
3. Examine how biological and social factors influence the school experience.
4. Analyze the impact of environmental influences on cognitive and language development.

Key Terms

Throughout this chapter, you will be introduced to important key terms that will help deepen your understanding of middle childhood cognitive development:

• Bandwidth tax: the cognitive load or mental effort required to manage multiple tasks or information streams simultaneously
• Classification: the process of grouping items, data, or information into categories or classes based on their characteristics, properties, or attributes
• Concrete operational stage: a stage of cognitive development described by Jean Piaget that typically occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 and is characterized by the development of logical thinking and the ability to perform mental operations on concrete objects or events
• Conservation: the ability to understand that an object or quantity remains the same despite changes in its appearance, shape, or arrangement
• Emotional regulation: the ability to acknowledge an emotion and be able to handle emotional reactions and behaviors in useful ways
• Executive function: a set of cognitive processes that are responsible for controlling and regulating behavior, thoughts, and emotions
• Inductive reasoning: reasoning in which conclusions are drawn from specific observations or evidence rather than from general principles or assumptions
• Learning disorder: a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the way an individual processes information, learns new skills, and communicates with others and is characterized by difficulties in one or more areas of academic, social, or occupational functioning
• Neurodivergence: the natural variation in neurological and cognitive functioning among individuals that are not necessarily deficits or abnormalities
• Reversibility: the ability to understand that things can be changed back to their original state
• Seriation: the cognitive ability to arrange objects or concepts in a particular order or sequence
• Social learning theory: a psychological theory that suggests that people learn through observation, imitation, and modeling the behavior of others in social settings and that the consequences of these behaviors (such as rewards and punishments) influence whether or not the behavior is repeated in the future
• Sociocultural theory: a psychological and educational theory that emphasizes the role of social and cultural factors in shaping individual development and learning
• Transitivity: the ability to understand and logically deduce relationships between items in a series or set
• Zone of proximal development: the difference between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with assistance from a more knowledgeable other

Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives

“Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives” by Kelly Hoke and Terese Jones is licensed under CC BY 4.0.