Puberty stage is the onset of your child’s development when he reaches the age of ten. At this time, a deep understanding and care is what your child would like to have from a parent and other people close to him. Children at this age develop in different rates and in different ways and guiding them is the most important thing for us to do.

Physical and Sexual Development
Girls

• Your little girl will no longer be your little princess since she’s now going to be a teen soon. Girls will grow buds of breasts, her hips will take shape and menstruation at this age begins (in some). When her period begins a ten year old child would be more excited to grow up like most of her friends. She becomes more confident and conscious about her physical appearance.

Boys

• Physical changes such as getting taller and increase in weight and body muscles are now apparent and showing in their body.

Boys at this age can be very competitive and have the drive to be involved in physical games like that of sports such as swimming, basketball and others.

Social Development

• At this age of your child their world is becoming more complex because this is the beginning of their puberty. Your ten year old child may have a best friend, which is more essential in your child’s development, whom they share their activities. This is at the same time where their relationship at school becomes more complicated, competitive and changeable.
• A ten year old girl tends to be possessive with her friends and can be very demanding and jealous. They don’t want their friends to be talking to someone else because they feel jealous about them. Young girls begin to spend the night with each other by sharing secrets and being best friends.
• For the nine year old boys, their friendship is mostly based on mutual interest than being close with each other or sharing personal feelings. Those interests include basket ball, video games, game cards, arcade games and toys. Boys at this age may have a few best friends and casual relationships with other boys on a team. They are rarely fascinated by girls but they just enjoy either taunting or frightening them. Your ten year old child possesses the ability to sense the emotion of others by reading facial and body language. Acceptance by their peers is a critical step in the development of the ten year old child.
• Emotional attachments towards ones family especially to parents are very strong. They love to spend time with their family doing activities and outings. They may have frequent quarrels with their siblings but get along well with the older sibling than the younger one. They easily get hurt when criticized, teased or deprived by an older sibling.

• When it comes to eating, a ten year old kid has a great appetite and more liking than disliking of food. Still he has very poor table manners so he needs timely guidance and follow-up by a parent. Constant reminder is a must for them so that it will become their regular habit in time.They love to cook and experiment in the kitchen.
• Ten year olds’ are usually careless in their clothing wherein they simply drop their clothes on the floor or leave them in chairs. They don’t like chores, getting lazy on bathing, combing hair and brushing teeth. They don’t care if their clothes are dirty or clean. They need to be reminded always by the parent.

Disciplining a Ten Year Old

• At this age a ten year old child usually respects his parent’s authority. As much as possible, he follows rules to avoid being reprimanded or being punished by people of authority but then if the command from a parent is obviously unfair, then a ten year old child may also become extremely angry and tend to resent and at the same time would feel very hurt.
• The best discipline for a child at this age is talk to them and plan things on why they should be restricted to things that do not adhere to their parent’s rules. Ten year olds’ need to be taught to verbalize their feelings so that a better understanding between a parent and a child is made. Children at this age need to talk to their parents or teachers in order to zero down their problem solving capacity in reality.

The Fifth Grade Ten Year Old

• Improved library skills and knows the usage of books if they are for fun and for information.
• Able to write paragraph with good quality and structure.
• Masters mathematical problems such as adding and subtracting decimals, fractions and comparing them, multiplication of whole numbers, understand and can solve simple number sentence in algebra.
• Has a good science thinking skills, analysis and experiments in basic natural and physical science. Knows how to use maps and globes.

Nutrition at Ten

• Proper nutrition at this age is an overall important task to be followed by the parent of a ten year old. Eating three meals a day and two nutritional snacks is needed by a child who’s approaching into the puberty stage. Parents should choose diet that is moderate in sugar and salt, those that are packed with enough calcium and iron to meet their growing body’s requirements. Parents should provide nutrition that is low in fat, low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Balance the food with plenty of grain products, vegetables and fruits.
• To avoid eating problem, a parent should avoid discussing unwanted behavior but change it into a positive and pleasant topic to avoid losing the child’s appetite.
• By being a supportive parent to your child, you as a parent will easily understand your child’s special needs by simply knowing what they want, and who they are in their specific age of development. In this sense we will only not understand but even enjoy being with them every moment.

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