The main behavioral and cognitive differences between boys and girls (middle childhood)

There have always been many stereotypes about the behavior and the way of thinking of boys and girls, now I want to go deeper than general knowledge and investigate about these facts.

There has always been the idea that boys generate more problems that girls, this has been proved in the recent year through studies, those studies state that boy are more likely to create problems, the studies were conducted on a large amount of children so the reports of their behavior was given by the caregivers. These results reflect the average of a large amount of children.

At the age of two and three the boys begin to show a higher rate of behavioral problems, they show the "externalizing behaviors" which in most of the cases are destructiveness and aggressiveness. The girls on the other hand tend to internalize whatever they are feeling, this is called "internalizing problems" an examples is anxiety, however the girls appear to be better at following the rules or care-giving behavior.

There are different situations that can lead to the development of behavior problems, some of them are; having no siblings, having three or four siblings, being in not so good social groups, and also living in metropolitan areas can increase the risk for behavior problems for both boys and girls.

At the age of four and five the boys, presented problems of hyperactivity, emotional problems and peer problems, moreover some of them presented extreme symptoms that indicated clinical disorders. Girls of these ages show some emotional problems, however they got higher scores, than boys, in measures of "competence", such as being kind or helpful.

As my personal conclusion, I believe that the idea that boys tend to generate more problems that girls is correct, however, there are some situations that can lead to both boys and girls develop behavior problems, so we need to pay special attention to the children to identify if these situations are happening to them, because by doing this we could take measures against the problems.


Resources: Theconversation.com

Gross motor skill and fine motor skills

In the early childhood the children go through the development of many different areas. The gross and fine motor skills are, in my opinion, the most important of them.

First, the gross motor skills develop faster than the fine skills so I will write about them first, so this skills are abilities that are acquired in the toddler and early childhood stages. This is the process know as child's motor development. When they reach a certain age, may vary, they are able to walk, run, walk up stair, give little jumps, and many other things. The first element that is develop is the posture, it's a gradual process that starts when the child tries to erect their heads, then it follow when they erect their head while prone and so on until they are able to support on a chair by themselves. With these actions they star to learn about balance.

The action of walking needs a coordination of some things as the balance, the strength to stand upright and put a foot after the other. Al thought this might look simple to us, it is a difficult challenge since they are still trying to master these skills, however, most of the child are able to perform this action around their first birthday. An interesting fact that I found is that in some cases when children have vision problems this may delay the process of walking, even if they have no direct relation to the motor skills , this could be a major setback on the normal development of the child. 

Is in the middle of their firs and the second year is when the parents have to be more careful, this is because the children will start to move around the house, they will start to be more active, a direct result of that will be the increase of the dangerous areas that the children can reach. In this case is responsibility of the parent to create a secure environment for the child. Is in their second year when they begin to be able  to walk backwards, in circles and they, sometimes, star to run. Is in this moment when they become more likely to get injured, because they start to go to places that could be out of their houses, for example the street and yard, parents need to be much more careful in this stage and keep and an eye on the children at all time.

In the early childhood the movements are basically the same, yet they are smoother and more coordinated, this leads to the wide area of movement also the increase on the speed of their actions, having the child practice a sport will increase the coordination the this posses. Is in this stage that children start to control their body movements in a more sophisticated way.

The fine motor skills, is the coordination that occurs between small muscles, as fingers, and the eyes, this also receives the name of manual dexterity,  the level of manual dexterity that a human posses can be directly related to the level of control over the neural system. The fine motors skills are also a sequence of movements to produce a efficient action to master a specific task.

The fine motor skills orders are given from the primary motor cortex, what is interesting about this information is that there is a specific area of the brain that is assigned to the regulation of the fine motor skill, this just give us an idea that these skills are very complex and that a lot of practice is needed in order to master them. 

With the fine motor skills there are many situations that can lead to problems in the development, among these situations are the illnesses, injuries, strokes, congenital illnesses, and others. If a child suffer from any of these problem, they might have problems to develop the fine motor skills.

Resources: Wikipedia

Attention deficit disorder (ADD)

Attention deficit disorder or ADD,  is a situation that happens in almost every school in the country, the scenarios might be different but many Salvadorian children suffer from this disorder. We as teachers need to know how to act when we face these situations.

To begin i would like to explain that  attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) is characterized primarily by the symptoms   of inattention, easy distractibility, disorganization, procrastination and forgetfulness. When any of these symptoms are present in any children in our class, we have to take some measures to deal with the situation  without making the child feel bad or ashamed about himself. 

An interesting fact is that the symptoms of ADD are more present in children than in adults, this because, as adults is possible to make some cognitive correction by themselves. Now that we know these facts, we have to focus our attention not only in the children but also in the parents, because only working together with them we can create the best strategies to help the children to correct this dis

order. Although we can establish some strategies along side with the parents we should consult a specialist to give an opinion about the situation, and we should act based on that opinion.

There are different sub types of the ADHD which are characterized for having few or none hyperactivity symptoms, these are some of the symptoms that children, with ADHD, usually suffer from; Trouble keeping attention focused during play or tasks, excessive distractibility, procrastination, inability to begin an activity, and many others. Across the world there are five times more boys diagnosed with ADHD than girls, this may be due to boys being the stereotypical ADHD case, the situation is that both boys and girls have attention disorders, however, boys are more likely to be overactive and difficult to manage.

In most of the cases pf ADHD teachers and parents make wrong assumptions of their behavior and provide negative feedback, this might lead to school failures or withdrawal from the school. This also could lead to the children creating a bad self-image based on the feedback he receives, on some cases the children notices that he acts and behaves differently from his classmates, from those situations the children could face problems in society in the future. When people internalizes bad things that are say to them, they create a low self esteem. This situations could lead to more dangerous situations in which the children suffers from other psychological problems.

If well is truth the there are some drugs treatment available for the problem in the market, it would not be possible for most of Salvadorian children who suffer from this problem to afford the medication. Nevertheless, strategies that both parents and teachers can execute to help the children to overcome the difficult problem that faces.

"The energy to do anything, the focus to accomplish nothing."

Today we had an interesting experience in the class, an expert gave us a class about the ADHD, since almost everything from above was mentioned by her I will not repeat it, what I found most interesting about the class were the ways in which the ADHD can be treated, also what were the symptoms and the way they were usually misunderstood, by the parents, with a bad attitude from the children toward the study or a bad behavior in class, when these things happen the children are usually scolded by their behavior and this lead to mental scars that can last for a lifetime. 

Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder_predominantly_inattentive

A case of study

Today I want to share an interesting experience that I had last week with an assignment, this is a video about the development of children in different ages, and make an analysis using different theories.
Here is the video link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irKCtv2u0sU


Despite the fact that I did not have many resources to use while doing the assignment, I really felt that I had learned many new things about children, moreover, I felt really motivated to work with them after I had this experience. I was able to see directly the differences that they have when they are in their most comfortable environment. I also noticed the main differences in the development of physical and cognitive areas in the different times of their lives.

Something that really changed on my way of seeing things is that the children experience many changes while attending school, as a result we, as teachers, need to know how to deal with the different situations that can arise. We need to know the stages in which different children are in order to create measures and strategies in order to guide the children in the best way possible, is only in this way that we truly can help the children to learn, and at the same time we as teachers will also learn something new.

Development of the children

Today I want to introduce to the stage of development of the children.
 
I want to think about the different theories that exist about the development of the children, I want to focus on tree experts that have different theories about these stages of development.

First, I want to talk about Jean Piaget that discontinued  the way of thinking that had as base the idea that the development of children was something continuous or lineal, he stated that the process could be divided in four stages, which were connected one with other through the genetic, the four stages are:

The sensory motor period; In this period the children use the senses to discover the surroundings, it stars with reflexes but it develops in the combination of motor and sensory skills. After some time they start to use some cognitive skills as memory and though. They use the imitation process to increase their behavior patrons. Something important to Piaget was the regularity in which these characteristics appear , the sequence, rather than the age in which they appear. 

The preoperative period; in this period some of the actions that were made in the previous period are being internalized, however, some of these actions cannot be categorized as operations because  there is not enough information.

The concrete operations period; is the moment in which children have the ability to understand that, even if an object is separated in different pieces it would have the same volume when its reassembly, also in this period the children learn that even if different objects are taken apart they still conserve they original shape if they are put back together, this receives the name of reversibility.

Formal operations period; in this period is when begins the development of the abstract thinking in children, these means to be able to think about different scenarios besides the reality, its after this stage that this skill is completely developed.

Next I want to talk about Lev Vygotski, he is the creator of the Zone of proximal development or ZPD, this is the theory about the gap between, what a children can do unguided, what he can do when he is guided by an adult and what the child cannot do. Also this theory claims that the language and thinking process go hand by hand, that they develop one with the other, also that when a child experience different cultural experiences there is a possibility for development to happen.


At the end, the theory that I like the most, is the theory of Eric Erickson which states that the development of children is through 8 stages that represent crisis which persons will have to face in life. Basic trust against against distrust, is the first stage in which children experience the physic trust, the environment plays an important role in this area, also this will be the base for future relations. Autonomy against shame and doubt, starts with the development of the motor skill and follows by the child experiencing his own will to complete actions, even though constant failure may lead to the shame, the result will be the first act of autonomy in the life. initiative against guilt, In this stage the children have developed imagination and activity, this means the behavior is more energetic, this behavior also leads to some extent to act in ways they might feel guilt for later. Laborious against inferiority, in this stage the child is eager to interact with others without forcing others to interact, but instead through planning, experimenting and sharing, the child might feel inferior if it is attacked by others who make fun of him because his race, economic situation or anything else they can find. This theory has other four important points but those are for later parts of the life, no including the childhood, so we will discuss that later on.

I personally agreed with this theory because I believe that only by experiencing the real world feelings and situations, as are described before, the children can truly understand what is around them and what they should be prepared to in the future, I believe that the different stages described are the best way to represent the children development as they grow up.


Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_development

Beginning

My name is Luis Amaya, I am a second year student in Don Bosco university.

I am beginning with my first practicum classes which, I hope will be very useful for my future, also I hold many expectations from the class since we will be teaching in a real environment to real learners. This is an experience that can provide a lot of benefits, also can increase the confidence that we need as future teachers. although there are many unknown thing that could happen, I really wish to learn all that I can from the teacher and partners.