Respond to Emily:
After reading Chapter 1: Introduction to Lifespan Development I believe that middle and late childhood play an important role in mental growth and maturity. During the start of middle and late childhood children are growing and learning that they are able to achieve small tasks on their own, this results in the children realizing they do not need to grasp on their parent/guardian as much. Children will spend majority of their day at school away from their caregivers, it gives them a taste of some sort of freedom of being able to make decisions for themselves. Some decisions that help children feel independent is choosing who they want to make friends with, making the decision they want to ask the teacher for help on homework, and having parents stand back and wait instead of stepping in when they see their child is struggling with little tasks.  As the years go on into puberty they are able to identify differences between right and wrong, although they will make mistakes the children will learn from those mistake and gain maturity from those actions. In middle school and high school is the time where teens are realizing their interests and dislikes. Teens do not turn to their parents when they are going through a tough situation such as struggling to find themselves, instead they surround themselves by different friend groups and make the decision to see where they feel most like themselves. Even in late childhood some teens might need to start to realize how to real world works by getting a job, helping their parents pay bills, and driving. These children have to grow a sense of maturity at a young age and might need to miss out on making mistakes to grow. Even though all periods of development play an important role in humans lives middle and late childhood help children/teens realize a sense of independence and maturity to help them in the next developments.
LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
A Psychological Perspective Second Edition
By Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French
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Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective
Second Edition
By Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French (Published 2019)
This Open Education Resource (OER) textbook was funded by a grant from the