Practical Advice for Parents to Promote Healthy Physical Development Let both boys and girls choose from a variety of activities, not just the ones that are usually boy or girl activities. Help children to balance busy and quiet activity time. Regular dental and eye check-ups are important at this stage. Mental Development Children can begin to think about their own behavior and see what may happen because of their actions. Children begin to read and write early in middle childhood and can do it well by the later stages.
Children learn best through 'hands-on' activity.
Children usually can't sit longer than 20 minutes for any activity, but their attention span gets better with age. Children start many projects as they explore new things, but rarely finish them. Children can talk through problems and solve them. Children begin to see themselves as 'workers'. Practical Advice for Parents to Promote Healthy Mental Development Be patient with the more challenging, rebellious behaviors children show as they learn to think for themselves.