FHS 1500-001

Baylee Warner
20 April 2018
Observation 3

12-years-old
“George”
Middle School
A school with numerous children grades 7-9.

Biological Development
During my observation of a kid in middle childhood, my observee, George, was a very
skinny child which is contrary to a lot of children in North America. According to Cynthia
Ogden et al. “Childhood obesity is increasing worldwide, having more than doubled since 1980
in all three nations of North America” (qtd. in Berger 247). Unlike many of George’s peers he
was skinny, in fact more skinny than most. Which also demonstrates how kids in middle
childhood have more variety in how they look than children of younger age groups.
I also noticed that George had very good control over his bladder, unlike many children
who are in early childhood. Kathleen Berger explained why George has better control of his
body than younger kids. “Self-care is easy [for those in middle childhood]: from brushing their
new teeth to dressing themselves, from making their own lunch to walking with friends to
school” (244). George demonstrated such good control over his bladder because self-care, which
includes bladder control, is easier for those in middle childhood.
Throughout the observation it was also noticeable that George was not as great at
physical sports compared to his peers. Even though he is not the best it is still good for him to get
exercise. Susan Carlson et al. wrote, “...school exercise may actually improve academic
achievement” (qtd. in Berger 246). Amika Singh et al. continued about the possibilities on how
exercise can help a child improve in school. “[D]irect benefits of increased blood flow and
increased release of neurotransmitters, as well as the indirect results of better mood and thus
better ability to concentrate” (qtd. in Berger 246). In other words, kids improve in school from
physical activity because there is more blood flow through their brain, and their mood improves
helping them focus during class time.

Cognitive Development
While observing George, he would classify who he thought was cool and who he thought
was not in his grade through a numbered system. This process of numbering things logically is
called seriation that kids in middle childhood learn to develop.“[S]eriation, the understanding
that things can be arranged in a logical series” (Berger 253). George would also arrange people
in different groups from the cool groups to the uncool groups and many different kinds
inbetween. Kathleen Berger described this as children in middle childhood being able to classify
things. “Classification...The logical principle that things can be organized into groups...according
to some characteristic they have in common” (253). So when George is organizing people in
different groups in his school he is showing that he understands the concept of classification.
I also noticed while observing George that he was still very egocentric and only cared
what happened to him and did not care if others got hurt for his benefit. This behavior is really
strange for those in middle childhood. Berger described, “The... [middle childhood] child, no
longer limited by egocentrism and static reasoning performs logical operations” (253). Those in
middle child usually are able to think about how others feel if they were to do something, but
George does not seem to be able to perform that quite yet. He still is limited by his egocentrism.
Another observable activity that George did was that he would frequently write in his
journal. Since his intelligence has grown since he was younger he is able to write longer, and
more comprehensive documents. Crone and Westenberg explained why that is, “[d]uring middle
childhood, various parts of the brain connect to enable reading, writing, logic, and social
decisions” (qtd. in Berger 255).

Psychosocial Development
Throughout my observation I noticed that George was trying to figure out who he is and
what he likes to do. He would try out several different things and would decide if he liked them
or not. Berger wrote, “[a]s children mature, they develop their self-concepts, which are their
ideas about themselves-including their intelligence, personality, abilities, gender, and ethnic
background” (285). While children are in middle childhood they experiment with different things
to decide who they are and what they want to become which is exactly the behavior George
displayed. At one point George was trying to become the best dressed in his class. Chaplin and
John wrote, “[a]ttributes that adults might find superficial become important to children, which
makes self-esteem more fragile and more dependent on externals” (qtd. in Berger 286). So when
George was trying to look nice to his other classmates, he was trying to make his self-esteem
higher.
During the observation I also noticed that George was more concerned about being
popular than having friends. For this age group that is strange. LaFontana and Cillessen
explained, “if they [middle childhood kids] had to choose between being friendless but popular
(looked up to by many peers) or having close friends but being unpopular (ignored by most
classmates), most would prefer having friends” (qtd. in Berger 305). So when George prefers to
be more popular than have good friends, he is the opposite of most in his age group. Since
George is more worried about being popular he is neglectful and just plain mean to his one best
friend that he does have and eventually George’s friend leaves him and finds a new friend to
hang out with.

Reference List
Berger, K. S. (2014). ​Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.)​. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.