Cognitive Development Children in Middle Childhood

The second domain that describes children in middle childhood is cognitive development. Unlike physical characteristics, cognitive development emphasizes on mental development of children. Cognitive development is subdivided into information processing and language (Santrock, 2008). A crucial change in the cognition of children is happens at approximately 6 years old (Eccles, 1999). In this stage, memory, thinking and metacognition are the mutations in information processing (Santrock, 2008). During early adolescence, long-term memory increases with age is mean that they increase their knowledge and increase application of strategies (National Research Council & Schraw as cited in Life-span Development, 2008, p.326). They able to remember and elaborate information, they also have ability to apply their knowledge to focus on certain subject.

Thinking is one of the changes in information processing. Children are being able to think critically, deeply, and think different dimension of the task during middle and late childhood (Eccles, 1999). Besides that, metacognition define as one’s knowledge appertaining everything related to them (Flavell, 1979). By age 5 or 6, children already understand that easier to learn familiar things compare to unfamiliar things (Lyon & Flavell as cited in Life-span Development, 2008, p.330). Children with metacognitive skill handle over actively the cognitive process managed in learning.

Language development is the sub-characteristic of the cognitive development. Vocabulary, grammar, reading and bilingualism are including in language development (Santrock, 2008). A child’s vocabulary is expanding as they begin to know definition and categorize each part of vocabulary. Children become more analytical and logical to understand comparative and subjective in grammar (Santrock, 2008). They start to know synonyms and antonyms as they build relationships in words. Children also improve in pragmatic which manage the