This document discusses parenting a school-age child between the ages of 6-12. It covers physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development during this stage. Physically, children's growth slows but is still significant, and nutrition and exercise are important. Cognitively, abstract thinking increases as does literacy and numeracy skills. Socioemotionally, peer relationships become more influential on self-esteem and identity as children strive for competence. The role of parents is to support development through involvement, emotional support, discipline, and encouraging learning.

1. Parenting in School-Age
Development
How to support your child physically, cognitively, and socio emotionally
By: Emory Hinkle

2. What is School-Age Development?
- A “school-age” child describes the ages from 6-
12 years
- Major milestones include starting school, more
complex language, and possibly the onset of
puberty
- Physical/cognitive growth are not as rapid as
earlier stages, but still significant
- Main focus of child’s life shifts to school/peers;
no longer parents as much
* For purposes of this presentation we will be discussing
neurotypical healthy children. Children with disabilities of any kind
may require different support and parenting strategies*

3. Physical Development
❏ Body growth
- slow and regular; height and weight widely vary
- growing pains common
- coordination levels and fine motor skills vary
- body image forms
❏ Nutrition
- need healthy foods to feel good and focus!
- overweight/obese kids at risk for physical, emotional, and social problems
- stress impacts nutrition negatively
❏ Play
- Play gets rougher (chasing, wrestling, rolling, etc)
- Games with ‘rules’ increase
- Pretend play decreases
❏ Puberty
-may begin to see secondary sex characteristics form (body hair, breasts for girls,
growth of testicles/penis for boys)
- may not see these until later years

4. Role of Parent(s) in Physical
Development
❏ Teach about body boundaries
- Respect and privacy of body
- “No means no”/consent
- Positive body image
❏ Teach Safety practices
-seatbelts
-swimming skills
-stranger danger
-fire safety
❏ Encourage
nutrition/exercise
- provide healthy
meals/snacks (see
My Plate diagram for
ideas)
- Have them get 1
hour of physical
activity daily
*Red is vital information

5. Cognitive Development
❏ Concepts/Skills that strengthen:
- Focusing and relating multiple parts of a problem
- Reversibility (thinking through steps and then reversing them)
- Classification and ordering of items
- Spatial reasoning
- Selective attention
- Long-term memory/memory strategies
- Literacy/Numeracy
❏ Limitations
- Abstract thinking
- Self-regulation (monitoring goals and
redirecting themselves)
❏ What does my child understand?
- Age 6-7:
- Numbers
- Day and night time
- Right/Left hands
- Complex shapes
- Tell time
- 3 step commands
- Reading age-appropriate
books
- Age 8-9:
- Counting backward
- Knows date
- Reads more
- Fractions
- Age 10-12:
- Can write stories
- Reads well
- Likes writing letters
❏ Starting School
- Language skills further develop
(more vocabulary)
- Pragmatics (ability to take turns,
use eye contact, space, tone of
voice, and expression
- reading/writing
- Following direction

6. Role of Parent(s)
❏ Provide challenging games and materials for them during their free time
- Puzzles
- Board games
- Simple card games (GoFish)
❏ Provide diverse age-appropriate books
❏ Allow kids to have their own space where they can
design/personalize it
❏ Monitor screen time and encourage learning apps/media (≤2
hrs/day)
❏ Support their school learning
- guiding homework/projects (linked to higher achievement in kids)
- Make sure their attendance is as consistent as possible
- Supplement their learning in the summer during school breaks with
workbooks/activities
*resources for educational games, books,
and apps on final slide
*Red is vital information

7. Social/Emotional Development
❏ Industry vs. Inferiority
- Theory that kids this age struggle between feeling capable and feeling inadequate
- They are striving to feel competent and have confidence in their skills; if not, they can feel inferior
❏ Emotion Understanding
- Emotion recognition: noticing emotions of self and others (using voice, word, and body cues) and labelling those emotions
- Emotion knowledge: understanding causes, impacts, functions, norms, and management of emotions (linked to academic success and stronger peer
relationships)
❏ Sense of Self
- Feeling of difference/comparison increases
- Self-concept, or traits we use to describe ourselves, becomes less physical-based, more psychological and “group-based” (race, grade,
language, etc).
- Self-resiliency, if well-developed, leads to greater academic achievement. They learn to adapt/overcome adversity.
- Self-esteem, or one’s evaluation of self-worth, increases at this age
❏ Peer Relationships
- Increase in number and influence; offer emotional support; value loyalty and proximity
- Normally same-sex
- 5 types of peer status: average, popular, neglected, controversial, and rejected (see video link)
❏ Bullying
- Physical, verbal, relational, and cyber forms
- Females tend to be victims of verbal/relational bullying
- Males tend to be victims of physical bullying
What are the 5 Categories of “Sociometric
Popularity”? - How Do We Study Popularity
Scientifically?

8. Role of Parent(s)
❏ Involvement
- Get involved in child’s learning/school (attend PTA meetings, volunteer in classroom, form
relationships with teacher/principal, etc.)
- Discuss what’s going on at school/what they are learning about
- Parent involvement has been shown to decrease behavioral problems and increase social skills
❏ Praise
- Praise effort over outcome; behavior over intelligence
- Linked to higher resilience in child
❏ Emotion Management
- Encourage open communication, especially about feelings
- Help them label their emotions, discuss them, and give them tools to cope with them (breathing,
counting, taking a break)
- Model the right way to deal with strong emotions in your own life
❏ Discipline
- Discuss and set firm boundaries/expectations on their behavior
- Follow through
- praise/reward good behavior (behaving=more privileges)
- Never use physical force or threats
*Red is vital information

9. Bottom Line
You’re doing great! No one can be the
“perfect parent”, so give yourself some
grace! Remember to take care of
yourself and not compare to other
families. You can do this!

10. Resources
● Nutrition:
- https://www.nutrition.gov/topics/nutrition-age/children/kids-corner
- MyPlate diagram (see earlier slide)
● Learning Games:
- Board games: https://www.weareteachers.com/best-board-games-for-elementary/
- Card games: https://wehavekids.com/parenting/Card-Games-For-Kid/
● Apps:
- Khan academy
- Prodigy
- Brainpop
- Epic!
● Books:
- https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/20-books-teach-diversity-elementary-middle-school-students/
- https://k-12readinglist.com
● Workbooks:
- SchoolZone
- Highlights
- BrainQuest

11. Reference
Cognitive Development: School-Age: VLS. Virtual Lab School. (n.d.). https://www.virtuallabschool.org/school-age/cognitive/lesson-2.
El Nokali, N. E., Bachman, H. J., & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2010). Parent involvement and children's academic and social development in elementary school.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2973328/.
Henderson, A. T. (1993, November 30). A New Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Achievement.ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED375968.
National Research Council (US) Panel to Review the Status of Basic Research on School-Age Children. (1984, January 1). Cognitive Development In School-Age Children: Conclusions And New
Directions. Development During Middle Childhood: The Years From Six to Twelve. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK216774/.
Parenting school-age children. (n.d.). https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/family-dynamics/Pages/Parenting-School-Age-Children.aspx.
School-age children development. (n.d.). https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/special-topic/school-age-children-development.
Stanford Children's Health. Stanford Children's Health - Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford. (n.d.). https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=the-growing-child-school-age-6-to-12-
years-90-P02278.
Stormshak, E. A., Bierman, K. L., McMahon, R. J., & Lengua, L. J. (2000, March). Parenting practices and child disruptive behavior problems in early elementary school. Conduct Problems Prevention
Research Group. Journal of clinical child psychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2764296/.