Middle Childhood and Late Childhood
Growth patterns
Growth is slow and steady; height and weight increase; girls may begin the growth spurt earlier. Permanent teeth appear; motor skills become coordinated and sport-specific. Brain maturation supports attention, planning and inhibition.
Cognitive development
Piaget's concrete operational stage, about 7 to 11 years, brings conservation, classification, seriation, reversibility and decentration. Thinking is logical about concrete objects but not abstract hypotheses. Language becomes more complex and social; reading and writing expand.
Moral development
Piaget described a shift from heteronomous morality, where rules are fixed by authority, to autonomous morality, where intentions matter. Kohlberg's preconventional level includes punishment and obedience and self-interest; the conventional level includes good boy or nice girl and law and order. Peer interaction and perspective-taking promote moral reasoning.
Peers and school adjustment
Peer groups form; friendship is based on trust and reciprocity; bullying awareness grows. School adjustment involves rules, achievement motivation and teacher relationships. Erikson's task is industry versus inferiority.
Worked example
A child says breaking five cups accidentally is worse than breaking one cup on purpose. Reasoning: the child judges by outcome, not intention, which reflects heteronomous morality or preconventional reasoning. A child who says the intentional act is worse shows autonomous morality. The reasoning hinges on intention, not the amount of damage.
Traps
Do not say concrete operational children can solve abstract algebra; they cannot. Do not treat peer influence as always negative. Do not confuse industry versus inferiority with initiative versus guilt.