Discuss psychological factors which impact on learning during middle childhood.

The first factor to consider is the physical aspect. Not all children are born the same, some are born with
physical impairments or other health issues. Considering physical disabilities, children suffering from
visual, auditory or other disabilities will have much difficulty developing abilities such as reading and
spelling. Internal impairments such as glandular abnormality, thyroid and pituitary, will cause much
changes in the behaviour of the child. Also the learning process is affected by ill health retards of physical
and motor development and malnutrition. All these different issues will affect the children in their
learning and have different learning pace.
It must be understood that the psychological factors can affect the child at the earliest before he/she
reaches middle childhood.
Regarding Piagets theory of cognitive development, the middle childhood stage is the concrete
operational stage. This particular stage refers to the time when the child starts to think internally, not
requiring to have a concrete factor to be able to understand and find the solution to problems. But if the
early stages are affected, this beginning of logical thoughts can came much later. The sensorimotor and
preoperational stages are the pillars for the next stage the child will be incapable to have logical thinking
if he/she did have the proper development of those earlier stages.
As for Vygotskys theory, the major player for the childs development is the world around him/her, the
society. The social and cultural aspects of the childs environment will affect him/her to a great extent.
The child will create bonds with people around; on one side this will depend on his/her own social skills
which he/she will have to develop, and on the other side, will depend on the people themselves, if they
will encourage him/her or not. This will affect the moral of the child and subsequently the learning
process.
This is also described in Ericksons theory of identity development. At the stage of middle childhood, the
child will be at the school age and bonding with more people; the parents will not be the only authority
the child has. He/she will try to keep up with his/her peers. The feelings of inferiority or if the child does
not feel well around other people will affect his/her self-esteem which will in turn affects the
competencies of the child. There will be difficulty connecting with people, including teachers, and hence
altering the learning process.
On the other hand, language is of crucial importance. It is a very powerful tool that will help the child
develop his/her knowledge through experiences; the child ability to think about the world around,
developing word and vocabulary. The cognitive development will take a greater turn with a richer and
deeper language, shaping the individual thoughts. The culture from which the child comes from will
develop the cognitive skills; parents passing down the culture which will broaden the knowledge of the
child, building up as from the younger age, thus scaffolding aspects, from which the teachers can work
on.
There are many factors which affects the child in his/her learning process and the teachers must be able to
recognise the weakness of the child which will bring a more fluid teaching and learning.

References
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/learning/7-important-factors-that-may-affect-the-learningprocess/6064/

http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html