KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

• Concrete operations

• Conservation

• Classification

• Seriation

• Theory of mind

• Pre-riddle

• Cognitive congruency principle

• Learning style

• Auditory learning style

• Visual learning style

• Kinaesthetic learning style

• Moral development

• Concrete-experience learning style

• Abstract–conceptual learning style

• Reflective–observation learning style

• Active-experience learning style

• Deep learning

• Surface learning

• Heteronomous morality

• Autonomous morality

• Immanent justice

• Egocentrism

• Realism

• Justice concept

• Autonomous reality

Introduction

In The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery reminds us that there are other ways of looking at and understanding the world apart from through adult eyes. During the primary school years, children make significant strides in terms of their cognitive development. This chapter describes the nature of some of the changes that occur in the way children think about and understand their world in middle childhood. The Family Life-cycle: 16 looks at counselling children in families.

Theoretical foundations

Jean Piaget has made a significant contribution to our understanding of children's cognitive development during middle childhood. From Table 16.1 it can be seen that Piaget places the primary school child largely within the concrete operations period. In the sensori-motor period, the child accomplishes a number of significant cognitive skills, including the achievement of object permanence and the imitation of actions.