Middle Childhood and Adolescence

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The middle years of childhood are marked by major advances in reasoning, in memory and in the comprehension of many domains, including social relationships (Blewitt & Broderick, 2006). At this stage the child now has mental structures that enable them to think logically about concrete real life situations, categories and principles. They use more generalizations, categories and principles. However, they are not yet able to reason about abstract concepts nor do they have the ability for formal logic. The middle childhood child begins to use concepts of time, space and number.

Cognitive developments contribute importantly to children's social success during middle childhood (Blewitt & Broderick, 2006). If a child is cognitively impaired, they will have difficulty learning about social interactions, such as keeping friends and acquiring a theory of mind. Because cognitive development fosters objective points-of-view, a child in this stage is able to learn of others' viewpoints through socialization. Further, empathy that a child develops helps to promote friendships.

Moral development is an aspect of cognitive development where a child aquires values, beliefs and thinking abilities that develop proper attitudes and behaviors. During his research with children and story and game playing, Piaget concluded that moral behavior develops between the ages of four and twelve, in three stages, changing from unquestioning acceptance of the rules handed down by parents or older children to a recognition that rules are made by people and can be changed by mutual agreement (Hunt, 1993).

Focusing on children's relationships with their peers has become a major clinical objective, given what we now understand about their importance (Blewitt & Broderick, 2006). Peer groups that children belong to play a large part in their personality and prospective unhealthy development. Peer rejection can be just as detrimental to a child's health as ...