Middle Childhood Development Theory Introduction

This topic center provides a review of theories of child development for children aged 8-11. For information on parenting and child development of infants aged 0 to 2, please visit our Infant Parenting and Child Development topic center. For information on parenting and child development of preschool children (early childhood aged 3 to 7, please visit our Early Childhood Parenting and Child Development topic center. For information on parenting adolescents (ages 12-24), please visit our Child Development Theory: Adolescence topic center.

This document describes children's physical, mental, emotional, moral, and sexual development during the middle childhood years occurring between approximately ages 8 and 11. It is part of our Child Development and Parenting series exploring what we know about how children grow and what they need from parents in order to develop healthfully from birth through adolescence. Other documents in this series include our Overview of Child Development, Infant Child Development and Parenting and Early Childhood Development and Pa...