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TRANSCRIPT
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Three Ages Project
Elizabeth Wilson
4/11/19
Dr. Cosby
EDUC 245-50
I, Elizabeth Wilson, have neither given nor received help on this work, nor am I aware of any
infraction of the Honor Code.
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Abstract
For this interview and analysis, I was interested in searching further for a better
understanding of child and human development. I interviewed 3 individuals, ages 4, 9, and 17, in
order to gain a better understanding of their development. I interviewed them in search of their
physical, cognitive, and social-emotional developments, in hopes to find how they are
progressing and growing. I carried this out by asking them a series of questions relating to each
of these domains of development and recording their responses on paper, so as to allow for
further examination and development of their answers later on. Each of the interviews were set in
my home, meaning it was a relatively comfortable environment for my participants, as they have
been to my house many times before. When conducting this research I was expecting to find that
the answers differed, but overlapped in a few ways. With this research I later examined and
analyzed it to find any relations it had with the theories and theorists that I have been studying
for the past few months. The results provided many relationships and ideas that I was hoping to
find, along with a few surprises along the way.
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Introduction
For the early childhood stage of development I interviewed a member of a family that is
great friends with my family, and who at times in the past I have babysat. Her name is Abigail
and she is 5 years old and is in kindergarten this year. Abigail came over to my house and we sat
at the dining room table, which is a fairly comfortable environment for her, as her and her family
come over a lot, so it was a good setting for the interview. I selected Abigail, because I have
known her since she was born and she has always been very comfortable and outgoing with me,
so I knew she would provide me with reliable and an abundance of information for me to
examine.
Next, for the middle childhood stage, I used my best friends little sister, Samantha.
Samantha is 9 years old and is in the 4th grade. Samantha also came over to my house and we sat
at the dining room table. Samantha is also pretty comfortable with this setting as she comes over
with my best friend quite a bit. I picked Samantha, as she is a very energetic and outgoing
individual who loves to talk, so I knew answering a few questions for me would be fun and easy
for her. Another reason I selected Samantha is because she is very athletic compared to my other
participants, so I want to see if this compares or contrasts in any way.
Then, for the adolescence stage, I interviewed my 17 year old brother Mark. I knew Mark
would be a good participant for this process, as he is my brother, meaning he is relaxed with me
and hopefully will not hold anything back from his responses with me. He is also a very direct or
opinionated person, as he knows what he likes and dislikes, what he wants and doesn’t want, and
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he is a determined person. I knew his answers would be detailed and straight to the point with a
lot of discussion behind them, which would provide me a lot to look at. The interview took place
at my dining room table as well, which was perfect for this interview as it was both of our house,
making the setting very comfortable and stress-free. I was hoping his vocal personality would
give me answers that may be different than how the other two participants answered.
I chose each of these participants, because of my already close and friendly relationships
with them, which I felt would enhance the detail and quality of their responses. I also felt that
each of these participants portrayed certain, unique characteristics that would play a role in their
answers that I could also look at when examining their replies. I recorded their responses during
the interview onto a sheet of paper that I could refer back to later on. When I finished I also
made sure that I wrote down factors in their lives that I knew of that could have possibly affected
their answers that I could also refer to later. My main goal in this research was to see how the
different stages of development overlap and differ and how these distinct personalities of the
individuals play a role in the differences and similarities in the responses. I also wanted to look at
one specific area in each developmental stage, in order to see how these things are involved on
their lives. For early childhood development I decided to look at the interests of children at this
age and how they are thinking about their future. Then, for middle childhood I wanted to look at
how children are planning for their future or thinking about doing with their future. I was also
curious if children of this age were beginning to think about their future at all. Lastly, I wanted to
see how our history effects the development of children, as the older they get, the more they
learn about the past of our country and that can effect how they see things in the world, thus
effecting how they grow and develop in a variety of ways. I expect to find a variety of
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similarities and differences between the stages of development and to find how individuals may
change in a variety of ways as they progress and grow.
Interviews
Child development includes the scientific study of “patterns of growth, change, and
stability” which take place from the time of conception through adolescence. It is important to
note that child development is different for every person in a variation of ways, but it is
predictable. Child development is then split into three different areas of development which are
physical, cognitive, and social-emotional, which we will be looking at extensively throughout the
this research (Levine & Munsch, 2017).
First, we will begin by looking at physical development in each stage of development.
Physical development includes the basic concepts you think of when you hear the words physical
development such as the biological changes taking place in the body and brain like the changes
in size and strength. However, it is also important to note that it includes much more than that
such as, the incorporation of sensory and motor skills or activities, and the overall development
of fine and gross motor skills (Charlesworth, 2007). To examine this aspect of development in
my participants I asked questions that helped me develop a better understanding of their size in
relation to peers, how they stay physically fit to ensure their healthy growth, and how their gross
motor skills are developing.
When examining the physical development in all of my participants, I asked them in
some form what their favorite outside activity was or gave them two options to choose from.
Then, after asking this question, I tried to dig deeper, by asking questions such as why or how
much they take part in the activity, in order to get a better understanding of how much physical
activity they are getting and what sorts of exercise they like best.
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Gross motor skills involve the large muscle groups in the body and develop as a result of
myelination. Myelination is the coating of neurons with a fatty substance known, as myelin, and
this ensures the efficiency of the neurons to do their job. Myelination occurs the most during
early and middle childhood, as the brain develops and this leads to an increased development of
gross motor skills, as well as fine motor skills (Levine & Munsch, 2017). Since this development
is so important and prominent during early childhood, I asked Abigail what her favorite outside
activity was and she responded with bike riding. She also filled me in that she is learning to ride
her bike without training wheels and her mother later showed me a video of this. With this I was
able to conclude that she would be able to ride a two wheeled bike probably in the next couple of
weeks. This showed me that her gross motor skills are developing well and improving, as a few
months ago while babysitting Abigail, she was still completely relying on training wheels.
Abigail is becoming more independent when riding a bike, showing that her gross motor skills
are developing well and rapidly. I also asked Abigail if she prefers dancing or running and she
said running. In this case, Abigail is showing that her gross motor skills are developing well and
rapidly, once again, as she is proving her large muscle groups can support this activity well. I
even took Abigail outside and she showed me how fast she could run. I observed that she had
good balance and coordination while running across the yard, showing her development in gross
motor skills.
During middle childhood, this myelination and development of gross motor skills
continues, but it slows a little in comparison to early childhood. This development of gross motor
skills can allow the child to begin playing sports, as they now have the proper coordination or
have almost reached complete coordination of their body. The development of these gross motor
skills also allow children to be able to control their “flexibility, balance, reflexes,” and their
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strength improves (Levine & Munsch, 2017). When children finally develop these physical
characteristics they may begin playing on team sports. When asking Samantha what her favorite
sport was she responded soccer and began telling me about her soccer team and even told me the
story of making her first goal. With Samantha playing on a soccer team, we see that her gross
motor skills are very developed and that she is likely close to being as coordinated as an adult,
which usually happens around age 10 or so.
By adolescence myelination increases and the gross motor skills are pretty much
completely developed (Levine & Munsch, 2017). When, asking Mark if he likes swimming or
biking better, he responds with swimming. He has the complete coordination and ability to swim
without any issues or struggles of still learning and mastering it, as a result of not having fully
developed the gross motor skills. Mark’s gross motor skills allow him to participate in activities
that require large muscle groups and coordination.
While looking at physical development I also chose to examine the growth in terms of
size of the participants to see if they were receiving the proper nutrition to meet the size
milestones that will result in a healthy development. I did this by asking Samantha and Mark
about their height in comparison to their peers of the same age, such as at school or on their
sports team. Both responded that they were relatively the same height as their peers, yet there
were some exceptions. During middle childhood it is usual for some children of the same age to
“vary greatly in stature, weight, and sexual development.” It is also important to note that for a
majority of children, their height and weight will “begin to advance less rapidly than during prior
developmental phases,” however they still experience steady growth (Levine & Munsch, 2017).
Samantha is also at the age right before a growth spurt is likely to occur, as girls usually
experience their growth spurt at the age of 10, meaning some of her peers may have experienced
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an earlier spurt or other factors played a role (Tanner). This makes sense as to why Samantha
was about the same height as a majority of her peers, yet she still differed from some. This also
shows that Samantha is likely receiving the proper nutrition, as she is growing at the rate she
should be.
The growth spurt for males usually takes place at the age of about 12, now putting them
into the stage of adolescence development (Levine & Munsch, 2017). Mark stated that he was
about the same height as his peers, and this follows the idea that Mark and his peers have
experienced their growth spurt, but may be different in size due to other factors.
Next, I looked at the cognitive development of my participants. Cognitive development
includes the changes in how a child thinks, understands, and reasons about the world in which
they are living in order to gain a better understanding. Cognitive development is not just about
how much or how we build up the knowledge we acquire, but also how we use this knowledge.
Some characteristics of cognitive development include language, reason, and problem solving
(Levine & Munsch, 2017). In order to receive a good understanding of this development in the
individuals I interviewed, I asked questions in relation to how they learn or like to learn and what
they enjoy learning about, as well as, how well they’re doing in school learning about the things
they do and do not enjoy.
To gain a better understanding of Abigail’s cognitive development I asked her two
questions about learning at school and home. I first asked her what her favorite way to learn was
and she eagerly shouted, “circle time” in response. During circle time, all of the students in her
class take a seat on the carpet while they review things such as the alphabet, numbers, months,
sight words, and sometimes even a song, she informed me. They have this interactive learning on
the carpet with their teacher every day, reviewing these basic concepts. This relates to the
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memory during early and middle child, as repetition and rehearsal play a huge role in developing
memory. This is part of the working memory and is an encoding strategy in order to expand the
knowledge base in early childhood. The fact that Abigail enjoys learning this way and she is
successfully learning this way is important and a good sign for her development. My next
question was if she knows her alphabet and numbers and she said that she did. She also
explained that she learned them this year in kindergarten during circle time. This shows once
again that her memory is being strengthened and developing as it should, as she is able to start
remember basic concepts. At age 5, Abigail is in the preoperational stage of development
according to Piaget. In this stage, Abigail is not yet developed enough to have organized, formal,
and logical mental processes. A lot of her cognitive thought includes symbolic function and
intuitive thought. She is not yet able to understand complex concepts, but she is able to master
things such as the alphabet and numbers (Levine & Munsch, 2017).
Then, during middle childhood, Samantha is now in Piaget’s concrete operational stage.
Now, Samantha is able to think logically. I asked Samantha what her favorite subject in school is
and what kind of grades she makes. Samantha told me she loves math and this makes sense. She
is now able is now able to take multiple aspects of a situation into account when thinking about
something and figuring it out, which is known as decentering. Samantha is also gaining the
ability to use reversibility, which is when the stimulus can be reversed, but the outcome is still
the same, allowing her to understand math problems (Levine & Munsch, 2017) . For example,
when she told me math was her favorite, I gave her two math problems to do for me. I asked her
what 10 plus 4 was and then what 4 plus 10 was and she said 14 for both. Samantha is also
making A’s and B’s in all of her classes, showing that her logical thinking is developing and
allowing her to do well in school
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Lastly, I question Mark, by asking him what his favorite subject. History was his
response, and he especially loves learning about the era involving World War II. When I asked
him why history was his favorite he responded that he finds it the most fascinating and that he
grew up with family always talking to him about history, and especially the WWII era, as that
was their favorite and they even had stories of family members from that time. I can even vouch
for this remark, as we grew up in the same family, so I know history is very much talked about
and introduced at a young age. History is likely his favorite as he is able to think abstractly about
the topics of history and apply them to different things. Another reason is a result of the
environment he grew up in. His family introduced history at a young age and quite frequently,
meaning much of his social and interactions and environment were filled with history
Furthermore, I placed two glasses of different size on the table and placed the same amount of
water in each, or in other words, I performed the conservation test. I then asked Mark which
glass had more water, and even though the appearance may look like the taller and slimmer glass
has more, Mark knew that they each had the same amount due to his abstract thought. Mark, has
developed the concept of conservation, due to his abstract thought, where as younger children
cannot distinguish that quantity is not related to the appearance and arrangement of things
(Levine & Munsch, 2017).
Lastly, is social-emotional development which includes how we connect to other people
and express or show and understand emotions. This involves our own emotions as well as other
individuals emotions. Social-emotional development can effect how a person makes friends and
how successful they are at making friends. When I asked questions involving this area of
development, I asked questions about how they felt about certain things in their lives or about
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friendships (Levine & Munsch, 2017). This allowed me to form a better understanding of how
they are growing with their emotions and social aspects of their lives.
During early childhood, children will begin to form a sense of what is right and what is
wrong. Throughout early childhood, the child will change and develop socially, as well as begin
to form their personality, which will continue throughout the rest of their development (Levine &
Munsch, 2017). To gain a better understanding of Abigail’s stance in social-emotional
development, I asked her two questions. The first one involved me asking her how she feels
when I say the word dessert. To this, Abigail responded that it made her feel happy and good. I
then, furthered this by asking her what her favorite dessert was and she replied ice cream, but
then continued to name a few others after that, which she really enjoys too, but not as much as
ice cream she ensured me. This was the sort of response that I was expecting, as she seemed to
show no sign of guilt or embarrassment for having so many favorite unhealthy foods. I then
continued by asking my next question, which was the same format, except with vegetables.
Abigail responded to this question by explaining that she only liked certain vegetables. So then I
went on and asked what her favorite vegetable was and she said carrots, but the conversation
pretty much stopped there. Abigail did not have much to say about vegetables in comparison to
desserts, and showed no sign guilt either. This shows that Abigail is still developing her concept
of right and wrong and what is good or not good, as she did not seem to feel embarrassed or
ashamed of the conversation she was making about food in form of nutrition and health.
Middle childhood consists of a more quickened pace of development. Children in middle
childhood are able to create more and better relationships and you begin to see more of their
personality develop during this stage (Levine & Munsch, 2017). In order to understand
Samantha’s social-emotional development I began by asking her what her favorite show was.
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Samantha told me it was Mako Mermaids, which is one I have never heard of before, so I asked
her to tell me a little about it. According to Samantha the show is about three mermaids that live
in the water of the mermaids, but a stray man falls in and receives special powers, because the
three mermaids were not present to guard from outsiders. Their job is to find him and take his
powers back, so that they can redeem themselves and go back to their home. The fact that
Samantha watches this show makes a lot of sense, as she is know at the age where she
understands and participates in redeeming herself for her poor actions. Samantha understands
that she must behave and follow the rules of her parents, as this effects their relationship. Next, I
asked Samantha how easily she makes friends. Samantha said that she makes friends fairly
easily, so I followed this up by asking how she makes friends. She said that she makes many of
her friends, because they like a lot of the same things so they hang out and become friends. This
shows that Samantha is developing the ability to form relationships and that her personality is
still in the process of developing, as it is likely that many of the same interests her and her
friends have may be, because they feel like they have to enjoy the same things in order to be
accepted.
During adolescence the individual advances even more socially and their personality
becomes more apparent (Levine & Munsch, 2017). In order to study this with Mark, I asked him
how he makes friends and he gave me a variety of ways. He said that he makes most of his
friends through playing sports and by working with people at school which leads to conversation
and eventually a friendship. This makes a lot of sense, as his environment, such as school and
sports teams are influencing who he associates with and forms relationships with. I also asked
him how he would describe his personality and he said open, outgoing, and laid back. This shows
that he is developing a strong sense of identity, as this is how he describes himself. A lot of
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adolescence during this stage also struggle with self-esteem, and when answering this question
their was some hesitation, leading me to notice that this is likely something he is struggling with.
I wanted to know for sure, but I did not and to pressure him and make him feel uneasy if this was
the case.
Finally, we have our areas of interest. For early childhood I sought to examine the
interests of young children and how susceptible there interests were to change. For this portion I
asked my series of two questions twice, with a little time in between to see if the answers
changed. First, I asked what Abigail wants to be when she is older and she said a teacher. This I
believe, because the few times that I have babysat Abigail, she has asked me to play teacher with
her. Then, I asked her what her favorite animal was and she said a dog and began to tell me all
about her dog that she has at home. Then, after about 10 minutes I asked these same two
questions. She repeated her answer of wanting to be a teacher, but changed her answer to a lion
for her favorite animal. This shows during early childhood, responses to questions may change,
as memory is still developing, as well as the individuals personality, so they are still searching
for their identity and exploring the world.
Then, for middle childhood, I was in search of how children at this age are thinking about
and preparing for their future. The first question that I asked Samantha was if she plans on going
to college and she replied that she wants to go to college. I followed this up by asking where she
thinks she might want to go to college and she said that she did not really know, but thought she
would want to stay near home by her family. I next asked what career she wanted in the future
and she said that she wanted to be a doctor and explained that she thought it would be fun. From
this I concluded that children at this age start thinking about their futures, but don’t quite have a
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plan or may not have the complete reasoning behind it, as they have not completely developed
their personality, and all of their abstract thinking.
Lastly, for adolescence I was interested in history on the individual. I wanted to know
what certain aspects of history do children of this age find important and why. To look at this I
asked Mark who is favorite president is and what his favorite time period in history is. This
ended up working out perfectly in my opinion, as he already has such an interest in history, so he
was willing to give great detail. Mark said that Franklin D. Roosevelt was his favorite president.
When I asked him why, his response sort of fed over into what his favorite time period was, so I
sort of got a two in one response. The era of Franklin D. Roosevelts presidency or rather, the
World War II period, was Mark’s favorite time period to study, making learning about the
policies he instituted, the actions he took, and the problems he faced extremely interesting to
learn about for Mark. Thus, he explained this was his favorite time period, because it is what he
grew up listening to his family talk about. He also explained that he found it important as it is
still very recent and if it weren’t for World War II, our world today could be very different, so he
believes it is important to be knowledgeable of it. This shows that as children progress and
develop their abstract thinking abilities allow them to look at things in the world differently and
draw their own personal conclusion or opinion about it. This also relates to the personality and
the identity that the child holds and expresses, as different personalities and identities see things
about history and the world in different lights.
Discussion
Throughout this whole process I have noticed many similarities and differences between
my participants responses. One similarity I found between all three participants was their interest
and involvement in physical activities, although they were each interested in a variety of forms
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of physical activity the overall enthusiasm of these activities was still there. Another similarity
they all shared was their development of their gross motor skills and their confidence in them, as
they were all eager to tell me about their accomplishments on sports teams, and in Abigail’s case,
on the playground. When examining Abigail and Samantha, I found that even from a young age
they are beginning to think about their future before they even need to have a set goal and plan. I
also found that Abigail and Samantha have similar personalities. Both of them showed a great
interest in school and were both extremely talkative and outgoing when it came to responding to
the questions. Mark, on the other hand was willing to talk to me, but you could tell he was
holding back in some instances and this could be a result of the adolescence stage and the
feelings of insecurities that it brings with it. I also noticed similarities between Samantha and
Mark in regards to friendships. They both expressed that they feel they make friends pretty easily
and tend to form stronger relationships which seems like the reasonable answer as they are at the
ages where they are beginning to understand the social and emotional concepts of friendships,
even though they will still likely struggle with it in some cases.
When exploring the answers of my participants I have found that they relate to a lot of
theories and theorists. Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist that thinks the social world and
culture of a child are more important in cognitive development. Vygotsky believed that the
teacher or parent must figure out what the child already knows and work within that range in
order to help them learn. The adult should be providing guidance when needed, which is called
scaffolding (Levine & Munsch, 2017). This is seen being used in Abigail’s development at
school, as the teacher is interactive with her and her peers during circle time by having them
carry out most of circle and helping when it is needed by asking questions to prompt a better
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understanding. This is helping Abigail’s cognitive development as she is learning her alphabet
and numbers through her own practice and receiving help when needed.
Then, when examining Samantha and Mark, I look to Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages.
Erikson’s stages are formed on the idea that a central conflict can be resolved through the social
world and their identity development. During middle childhood the individual is in the stage of
industry versus inferiority, in which the child will learn of the tasks of society or develop a sense
or feeling of being inadequate, due to things such as social norms or feelings of fitting in (Levine
& Munsch, 2017). Samantha fit this stage as she was very confident and proud of herself for her
grades of A’s and B’s in school, as well as the way she talked about her friends. She told me she
had quite a few friends which she seemed pleased about and these factors of grades and friends
could be based on what she has seen her peers advance in and she wants to be like them. Mark
also fit into Erikson’s stages, more specifically the identity versus role confusion stage. During
this stage, the individual will either form their identity out of previous life experiences or they
will acquire a sense of confusion when it comes to identity. Mark displayed himself as a great
example of this as he was able to describe his personality in detail to me and in a positive light.
He portrayed him as being confident and proud in the way he defined himself, showing he is
displaying a strong sense of identity and finding his place in the world. However, the possible
low self-esteem that I worry about could effect this and put him in a state of confusion.
Furthermore, we have Jean Piaget who created cognitive stages of development. Piaget
believed that children’s thinking changes qualitatively while they move through development.
Piaget states that we are always searching and trying to make sense of the experiences that we
have so that we can adapt and gain better understandings in order to survive (Levine & Munsch,
2017). Mark fits well into his stages and is in the formal operations stage as he can think
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logically and abstractly to understand and survive. This is really seen in our discussion about his
interest in history, as he explains that the world would be very different today if World War II
never took place or occurred differently, showing that he is able to think abstractly and form
hypothesis’s about the world which is also known as hypothetic-deductive reasoning.
Recommendations
Overall, I do not have many recommendations or feel that I need to make many. Through
this process it seems that each of the participants are where they should be developmentally for
their age and stage. One thing that I would suggest for Abigail though, is that she try more
vegetables and attempt to be more open to trying new healthier foods, as her response to the
dessert question had me a little concerned that she was maybe eating too many sweets which
could affect her development negatively. For Samantha, I recommend that she expand her
options and try talking to peers that may not have the same interest and if things go well she
should try to make friends with these children. This could open up many more areas of life for
her to explore by learning about other interests, rather than just focusing on her own. I suggest
she branch out and meet new people and maybe she will find new interests along the way.
Lastly, for Mark, I suggest taking this interest of history further than just learning about it from
school and family, and maybe incorporate it into his future somehow, whether it be just his own
research or taking some college courses. I feel his interest in this would be helpful in his
remaining areas of development in order to enhance his cognitive abilities. His love for this topic
could help him in a variety of ways, and I feel his knowledge and passion for history could be
beneficial to others if decided to take a path in that direction. I also recommend that Mark start
viewing himself a little higher by having confidence in who he is, as it seems he may be lacking
a little in his self-esteem.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, I found that all three of my interviewees seem to be in the proper place for
their age and development. I was surprised to find that they are all developing so well, as I
expected there would be at least one instance where something was out of place, as development
takes place differently for everyone and everyone has their own individual experience with
development. Overall, I am very pleased with all of the information that I have gathered and I am
eager to hopefully be able to ask them some of these same questions in the future to see how they
have changed over the course of the rest of their development.
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Works Cited Page
Charlesworth, L., Wood, J., & Viggiani, P. (2007) Middle Childhood.
https://us.corwin.com/sites /default /files/upm-binaries/16297_Chapter_5.pdf.
Levine, L. E., & Munsch, J. (2017). Child Development : An Active Learning Approach. Los
Angeles, CA: SAGE.
Tanner, J. M. Growth and Maturation During Adolescence.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1753-4887.1981.tb06734.x.