Middle Childhood Parenting Introduction

This document is about parenting elementary-school-aged children. It provides information and advice on caring for children during their middle-childhood years, between ages 8 and 11 years, approximately. It is part of our larger series on Child Development and Parenting. In this series, we have divided childhood into four broad periods: Infancy, Early Childhood, Middle Childhood, and Adolescence. We have created separate articles concerning parenting and child development for each of these periods, based on the idea that effective parenting technique follows from an appreciation of children's development; what they are capable of and what they continue to struggle with at specific moments in their lives.

We encourage you to read through our Middle Childhood Child Development document if you have not already done so. That document discusses important physical, cognitive, emotional, social and moral developmental milestones and achievements that most children are likely to be dealing with at this age, or will have recently dealt with. These milestones and achievements paint a vivid picture of children's general strengths and limitations at this moment of life, and how they are likely to understand and relate to their world. ...