The Expert: The School-Age Child

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Age (years): 6

Motor: Has better gross motor coordination; rides bicycle. Throws ball well. Begins to get permanent teeth.

Cognition: Has longer attention span. Is less distracted by additional information when problem solving. Remembers and repeats three digits.

Socialization: Enjoys active games. Is competitive. Identifies with sex peers in groups. Transforms egocentric reality to more complex and relative reality view.

Communication: Has expressive vocabulary of 2,600 words, receptive of 20,000 to 24,000 words. Has many well-formed sentences of a complex nature.

Age (years): 8

Motor: Has eyes of almost mature size. Has almost mature lungs and digestive and circulatory systems.

Cognition: Plans future actions. Solves problems with only minimal physical input.

Socialization: Enjoys games, sports, hobbies. Discovers that he or she may be the object of someone else's perspective.

Communication: Spends lots of time talking. Has good comprehension.

Age (years): 10

Motor: Has longer arms, larger hands. Has better manipulative skills. Has nearly mature-size brain. Has more permanent teeth.

Cognition: Knows left and right of others. Understands conservation. Knows differences and similarities. Reads spontaneously.

Socialization: Enjoys an audience. Learns that others have different perspectives. Has allegiance to gang, but also strong need for adult support.

Communication: Talks a lot. Verbalizes ideas and problems readily. Communicates thought.

Age (years): 12

Motor: Experiences "rest" before adolescent growth (girls usually taller and heavier, may have entered puberty). Begins rapid muscle growth with puberty.

Cognition: Engages in abstract thought.

Socialization: Has different interests than those of the opposite sex.

Communication: Has 50,000-word receptive vocabulary. Constructs adultlike definitions.