During the ages of 6-8 years, I developed rapidly within all areas of development, especially within the social—emotional, cognitive and physical domains. I gained more confidence during my interactions with others and developed stronger friendships with peers (US Department of Health and Human Services 2015). This was mainly due to my new found interest in playing basketball. At the age of 6, I joined a basketball team and made more friends within that. This allowed me to pay more attention to friendships and teamwork as well as assisted me in the ongoing development of my gross motor skills (US Department of Health and Human Services 2015). Additionally, this involvement gave me the confidence to assert more independence within my family and school environment.
At the age of 7, I joined the local guides organisation, which furthered my social–emotional skills and assisted me to have more focus on the world around me. Additionally, this involvement gave me the opportunity to learn more efficient ways to describe experiences and talk about feelings and thoughts (US Department of Health and Human Services 2015). During the middle childhood stage of development within my life, at the age of around 7, I began to enter into what Developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget describes as the concrete operational stage. Piaget states that during the Middle childhood period of development, children’s thoughts become more logical, organised and flexible. I was developing the cognitive ability to sort, count, add and subtract numbers as well as categorise and organise concrete objects (Berk 2012). Montessori further reinstates my current stage of development as she describes it as ‘the construction of intelligence’ and the time in which children develop reasoning with logic and imagination (The University Of Queensland 2011). Montessori states that during this stage, children develop an intense thirst for knowledge and an interest in knowing about the world and his/her place within it (The University Of Queensland 2011). During the middle childhood stage, my language development was rapidly growing through years 6-11. I was beginning to develop a metalinguistic awareness due to my large involvement with reading and my schooling (Berninger 2015). Furthermore, my language skills were continuing to grow as I had a more flexible and precise understanding of word meanings (Berninger 2015). |
Within the year I turned 8, my grandmother passed away of cancer which caused me a large amount of emotional trauma and stress, which largely effected all aspects of my development. During the year I was 8 years of age, until about half way through the year, I was constantly upset and angry, I had a form of depression and I stopped engaging socially within school. I still attended out of school activities such as basketball due to my parents persisting that i continue to play, although I stopped trying and lacked energy and engagement. This lack of interest within every aspect of my life set back my development and concentration which negatively effected my next year of schooling. Despite my grief my parents assisted me in getting through this time in my life as they continually offered me positive reinforcement and supported me in discussing my feelings (The University Of Queensland 2011).
During ages 9 – 11, My physical development was positively effected as my height and weight slowly increased and the execution of my gross motor movements and coordination were improving. My language development improved as I was now able to think about and use words more precisely and grasp double meanings of words (Berk 2012). Furthermore, I was continuing to master complex grammatical constructions, such as infinitive phrases and passive voice and my narratives increased in organisation, expressiveness and detail (Berk 2012). My spatial reasoning was improving as I had developed a more sophisticated ability to read maps, draw and include an overall understanding of scale and view of space (Berk 2012).
During ages 9 – 11, My physical development was positively effected as my height and weight slowly increased and the execution of my gross motor movements and coordination were improving. My language development improved as I was now able to think about and use words more precisely and grasp double meanings of words (Berk 2012). Furthermore, I was continuing to master complex grammatical constructions, such as infinitive phrases and passive voice and my narratives increased in organisation, expressiveness and detail (Berk 2012). My spatial reasoning was improving as I had developed a more sophisticated ability to read maps, draw and include an overall understanding of scale and view of space (Berk 2012).