What are the Stages of Development? Youngsters ages 7-9

Basically, stages of development are the stages in which children learn and grow Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially (PIES). A great way to remember these 4 categories is by spelling out the first letter of each word. Breaking down the way children learn and grow in these four categories can help parents understand what is going on. American Family Martial Arts teaches age specific karate classes -probably at a location near you.

Seven to nine-year olds are what most people consider “the golden age.” They are proficient in their vocabulary and problem-solving skills, yet they are not at the age where they want complete independence from adults. The problem we discovered at American Family Martial Arts is they still lack core skills, and although they are highly intelligent, they struggle to keep up with students ages 10 and up. The solution we found is to provide them with their own karate program that targets their stage of development in a manner that adapts to their adventurous attitude and youthful nature while at the same time building skills that set them up for success. With that said a structured program introducing core skill-based training in Martial Arts has proven to be very successful.

Parents are familiar with babies stages of development, what age they should turn over, sit up, crawl, walk and so on. But it seems once they enter school, there is nothing that tells us if they are normal, delayed or accelerated.

When they enter the 2nd grade, generally at the age of 7, that actually starts a whole new Stage of Development. This is where they are starting to write in cursive, so their technical skills are being developed. They are now reading to learn new facts instead of reading to learn how to read, so their concentration skills are now at a much higher level. This carries through for ages 8-9 years old or 3rd and 4th grade.

These stages of development are why American Family Martial Arts classes are divided into age specific classes.

At our dojo (training hall), we use the following divisions:

3-4 year olds: Tiny Tigers
5-6 year olds: Little Ninjas
7-9 year olds: Core
10-14 year olds: Extreme
15+ year olds: Traditional classes

There is overlap in all these groups. Sometimes 14 year olds are ready for traditional class. And sometimes 7 year old students are still in Little Ninjas. And sometime they have a birthday in the middle of a testing cycle and we wait til the next one!

And one of the great things at American Family Martial Arts, students have 4 different karate class time schedules to choose from. And your karate kid can switch days or times whenever they need to. Plus they can train at either our Baton Rouge karate location or our Prairieville martial arts location.

Why do we do this? 6-year olds are learning double-digit subtraction while 10-year olds are being introduced to Algebra. What we found is younger children drop out because the karate curriculum is too hard, and older kids in the same karate class or dojo (training hall) drop out because they lose interest since they are not being properly challenged. You’ll notice 1^st graders aren’t in the same classroom with 10^th graders for more reasons than just academic skills.

Emotionally this Core program age group (7-9) at American Family Martial Arts is wonderfully stable and love challenges. However, they are just learning how to tap into their emotions. They will hold back if under challenged and are not aware of their ability to push beyond their comfort zone. Ages 7-9 also show excessive fear when put on the spot with something they are not familiar with. American Family Martial Arts works on courage through board breaking. Not only do the kids have fun, they learn it make take more than one try to accomplish a goal. Or they may need to practice more!

Let American Family Martial Arts teach your child the age appropriate way!

What are stages of development for ages 7-9?