During middle childhood, children are able to excel in many aspects of development that they might not have achieved before. Children from around the age of seven are able to excel in their learning and cognitive development, such as reading and enjoying going to school to learn something new. They like being able to put their new knowledge into practice by practicing it until they get it perfect. At this age, middle school-aged children are able to direct their attention to a particular situation or goal and ignore everything else; this is also called selective attention, “the ability to concentrate on some stimuli while ignoring others”. (Berger, 2011, p.305) Another aspect of middle school age children is that they are able to control their actions or thoughts and think about consequences before taking any action. This can also be seen in the case of middle school-aged children, who have made great progress in controlling their emotions. A very important development for a middle-aged child is the ability to use social comparison and compare people with them. During this period children look to their peers to compare and form friendships with children similar to them. It is also important that the child and his parents have a good parent-child relationship during this period. These are all the developments that a child should be able to achieve when they reach middle school age and demonstrate that they are on the right path to be able to surpass their education and function in society. While it is ideal for any child to be able to grasp these goals, children like Ryan struggle to master these skills and begin to fall behind. Ryan is a young male, who is eight years old and attends middle school. He......middle of paper......ReferencesBerger, K. (2011). The developing person: Across the lifespan (8th ed.). New York, New York: Worth Publishers. Huckman, A. (2011, November-December). Find out the facts about ADHD. Pediatrics for parents, 27 (11-12), 4+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA290735825&v=2.1&u=txshracd2557&it=r&p=HRCA&sw=w&asid=76489fa3ae0696f37abf8ec9e68d7c41Korrick, S.K., Epstein, S.A., & Bellinger, JN (2013, January ). Pre- and postnatal risk factors for ADHD in a nonclinical pediatric population. Journal of Attention Disorders. Retrieved from http://jad.sagepub.com/content/17/1/47.full.pdf+htmlLevine, L.J., Whalen, C.K., & Lench, H.C. (2013, February). Exasperating or exceptional? Parents' interpretations of their children's ADHD behavior. Journal of Attention Disorders. Retrieved from http://jad.sagepub.com/content/17/2/141.full.pdf+html