Also noted was that as the socioeconomic status of the children rose, the frequency of these misconceptions decreased. In a United States sample of 8-15 year-olds, more than 80% of overweight boys and 70% of overweight girls misperceived their weight as normal. Visit this link from the CDC to learn more about childhood overweight and obesity.Īn added concern is that the children themselves are not accurately identifying if they are overweight. Overall, being overweight as a child increases the risk for cognitive decline as one ages. Children who are overweight show less inhibitory control than normal-weight children, which may make it more difficult for them to avoid unhealthy foods. Another important executive functioning skill is controlling impulses and delaying gratification. This can make the brain more vulnerable to harmful substances that can impair its functioning. (2013) found that large amounts of processed sugars and saturated fat weakened the blood-brain barrier, especially in the hippocampus. Children who ate more saturated fats performed worse on relational memory tasks while eating a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids promoted relational memory skills. īeing overweight has also been linked to impaired brain functioning, which includes deficits in executive functioning, working memory, mental flexibility, and decision making.
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Excess weight and obesity in children are associated with a variety of medical and cognitive conditions including high blood pressure, insulin resistance, inflammation, depression, and lower academic achievement. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), children’s whose BMI is at or above the 85th percentile for their age are considered overweight, while children who are at or above the 95th percentile are considered obese. The current measurement for determining excess weight is the Body Mass Index (BMI) which expresses the relationship of height to weight. The decreased participation in school physical education and youth sports is just one of many factors that has led to an increase in children being overweight or obese. Dan Siegel describe adolescent brain development. Paying attention is also improved as the prefrontal cortex matures. Children in middle to late childhood are also better able to plan, coordinate activity using both left and right hemispheres of the brain, and to control emotional outbursts. Then between 10 and 12 years of age, the frontal lobes become more developed and improvements in logic, planning, and memory are evident. Between ages 6 and 8, significant improvements in fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination are noted. Two major brain growth spurts occur during middle/late childhood. These improvements in motor skills are related to brain growth and experience during this developmental period. In gross motor skills (involving large muscles) boys typically outperform girls, while with fine motor skills (small muscles) girls outperform the boys. Children of this age tend to sharpen their abilities to perform both gross motor skills, such as riding a bike, and fine motor skills, such as cutting their fingernails. The mean age for the beginning of the growth spurt for girls is nine, while for boys it is eleven. The beginning of the growth spurt, which occurs prior to puberty, begins two years earlier for females than males. They also tend to slim down and gain muscle strength and lung capacity making it possible to engage in strenuous physical activity for long periods of time. Typically, a child will gain about 5-7 pounds a year and grow about 2-3 inches per year. Rates of growth generally slow during these years. Peer acceptance also influences children’s perception of self and may have consequences for emotional development beyond these years. Peers start to take center-stage, often prompting changes in the parent-child relationship. School becomes a big part of middle and late childhood, and it expands their world beyond the boundaries of their own family.
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Changes in the brain during this age enable not only physical development, but contributes to greater reasoning and flexibility of thought. Children gain greater control over the movement of their bodies, mastering many gross and fine motor skills that eluded the younger child. Middle and late childhood spans the ages between early childhood and adolescence, approximately ages 6 to 11 years. Martha Lally Suzanne Valentine-French and Diana Lang