Handedness appears, and fine and gross motor skills and strength improve. A time when a child's imagination soars; curious to understand the world around him and has a vocabulary of 2,600 words - understanding of at least 20,000. Physical developments include slowed growth and the improvement of strength and athletic skills in the middle childhood. Children are generally healthier at this stage than during any other developmental stage although respiratory illness is common. The world is no longer revolves around his immediate family and more social with other children his own age. He begins to form opinions and views based on a broad social spectrum. His thinking is more flexible and complex ideas are less of a challenge. By age twelve he is able to envision his future. The endocrine system is ready for hormone secretion, and hormone production will continue to influence our growth, which speeds up during puberty and comes to a stop around age sixteen for girls and eighteen for boys. .
During adolescence (11 – 20 years) physical growth is again rapid, and other changes are swift and extreme. Reproductive maturity takes place, as well as major health risks include behavioral issues such as eating disorders and drug abuse. Adolescence is a time of great change--of achieving autonomy, creating an independent self and experience emotional biological turbulence. The gateway to adulthood is in the horizon. A years of awakening--years of realization that he, and he alone, is in charge if his destiny but can also be confusing and scary. No matter the advancement, adolescence will always be about finding oneself, pimples and the opposite sex. Though today it is a less innocent time, one thing will always remain the same--hormones. Teens' hormones are raging out of control and their brains are changing. They think differently because they are different. .
As maturation continues, people reach their peak of physical and perceptual functioning - adulthood.