Life Span Development II School Age and Adolescence

Life Span Development II: School age and Adolescence 3 (2+1)

Lesson 10 : Emotional development during late childhood

Emotional dominance- beginning of heightened emotionality

Generally late childhood is period of relative emotional calm which lasts until the puberty, growth spurt begins. The reasons for this are

• Well defined roles
• Games and sports and
• Improvement of skills to accomplish various tasks.

Children are expected to play very well defined roles and know how to play them. Games and sports provide a ready outlet for pent-up emotional energy this may come from physical or environmental causes from both.

But there are times when children experience frequent and intense emotions. This heightened emotionality becomes disequilibrium – when the children are out of focus and difficult to live with. Some common factors leading to heightened emotionality are

1. Physical factors: When children are ill or tired, they are likely to be irritable, fretful and generally difficult. Just before childhood ends, when the sex organs begins to function, high tended emotionality generally peak.

2. Environmental factors: adjustment to new situations like school, any changes in the family system like death of a family member or divorce inevitably leads heightened emotionality during late childhood.