Late elementary years, a vulnerable stage in life...

Kayleen Jones, Student Social Worker at IUPUI

Have you ever really thought about what it is like in child’s shoes on an everyday basis at school? A child from the ages of 6-12 can be a very vulnerable individual that will go through a lot of challenges while being in school. The time when children get into older elementary stage they start the “awkward” phase. This is when they feel like no one likes them such as friends, teachers, and family members. This period of their life is very important to receive love and encouragement from those around them. Children at this stage also see children from the other sex as “gross” or to have “cooties”. This is because they can relate better to the same sex so, they have all same sex friends. Also at this stage children start rebelling as a way to cope with feeling insecure and out of place. Even though we see rebelling as behavioral tendencies to get attention there might really be something wrong deep down. This is when they also begin to mock what their elders do and begin get values and morals from those around them. This stage of childhood is crucial to a child’s social development. The parents role in the child’s life is very important and they will begin to understand if and why a parent is not involved with their life. Children are our future and we need to help them develop into intelligent young adults to help them succeed in all that they will do.