Emotionally, An 8-year-old may show more complex emotions and interactions. Most are able to mask their true thoughts or emotions to spare someone’s feelings.  Children’s ability to think may also be affected by their emotions at this age. They may have difficulty focusing when they're worried or may struggle to think about their options when feeling angry.

Socially, children are often closely attached to parental figures. Many children enjoy being part of groups. They enjoy their friendships with a few close friends, often of the same gender and based on common interests and proximity. Their interests, talents, friends, and relationships with family members help them establish a clear self-identity. Children are learning to see things from another child’s point of view. Children are often cooperative and enjoy responsibility. Children are starting to develop their values and a clearer sense of right and wrong. 

Cognitively, between 8-9 many children find it easier to remember and pay attention, often being able to focus on a task for an hour or more. They learn to plan ahead and to reflect on their actions. They can express their ideas and give reasons. They are rapidly expanding their vocabularies, use and understand complex sentences and children often begin to exhibit verbal humour. 

Children acquire an athletic appearance and their motor skills improve. Both the girls and boys have similar physical appearances until they reach puberty. The girls are often smaller than boys in height. Motor skills also increase. They love to run, climb, catch throw etc. The physical changes vary from each child according to the nutritional and medical attention a child receives.

Cognitively: A continuation of brain development from early childhood can be seen. The maturation of the central nervous system is important for the development of much more complex behavioural and cognitive skills. It is the most important period of brain development I guess. The growth of the frontal lobes is responsible for planning, reasoning, social judgment, and ethical decision making etc. So any kind of disruptions or damages caused by the external environment can cause severe repercussions. Hence the rate of development of this part of the brain during this stage plays an important role in the cognitive development of the child. 

Socially: Parents starts to give responsibilities like going to a shop or fetching them something, which eventually inculcates responsibility and leadership skills in them. They start trying to be much more independent and self-helping. The environment in which the child grows is a variable affecting this growth.

Emotionally: They need affirmations and acceptance for their abilities and achievements. So the children who are getting regular acceptance and guidance are often confident about their skills and abilities, while the others who receive very less acceptance and support may tend to slip down into inferiority and self-doubt.

As your adolescent begins to struggle for independence and control, many changes may happen. The following are some of the issues that may be involved with your adolescent during these years:
1-Wants independence from parents
2-Peer influence and acceptance becomes very important
3-Romantic and sexual relationships become important
4-May be in love
5-Has long-term commitment in relationship

Socially :Children in this age rely more on friendships. Rebellious behavior is sometimes common during the teen years.
They learn to take decisions and starts thinking about socio-political & ecomomic matters. Seeks trust and acceptance from peer ,questions authority figures,tends to reject solutions offered by parents.

 
Cognitively :While 13-year-olds have fairly good problem solving skills , they also have difficulty thinking about the future.
They communicate similarly to adults. 
Developing skills in the use of logic, finding justice and equality to be important issues are other milestones.

Emotionally: The onset of puberty is enhanced by immense hormonal activities. The first appearance of many behavioral variations in an adult is often found at this age. Controlling one’s own emotion becomes a great challenge during this age. Anger management issues and constant emotional breakdowns for minor issues are common . As a result of immense hormonal activities, children tend to develop sexual feelings for the opposite sex or the same sex. Children also become aware and conscious of their own bodies , leading to confidence issues. Children become capable of processing emotions in a more advanced manner . Children attain a false sense of pride or independence during this age, where they believe that they are right and are independent to carry out everything efficiently. 

Socially: As they have left the phase of childhood, adolescents tend to face many changes in their social life. Their social equations begin to change. Girls and boys who might have been great friends during primary school might not retain that friendship at this phase. They tend to establish friendship with people of the same sex. A deeper level of friendship and understanding among children are established at this age, leading to lifelong relationships.  Due to the rapid change of thoughts and emotions, children tend to find themselves in a position where they are not understood or accepted by their parents. They find acceptance and connections among peer groups. This situations leads to the dominance of peer influence over parental relationships.  The parents who were the idols or heroes during childhood are now being replaced by friends. Peer influence is high at this age, leading to several unwanted practices which arise from the urge to explore.  Familial relationships tend to take a backseat during this phase of life.  Children also start developing their own personality and character around this age.

Cognitively: Rational thinking is developed at this age. Children tend to investigate or explore the rationale or logic behind everything in their environment. They longer accept things told by others, rather begins to question and find credibility for acceptance. A very simple example is the concept of religion. During early childhood and late childhood, children would have accepted religious norms and practices as part of their family. At this age, they begin to question the institution of religion and raise questions on the practices. The ideologies and principles of a child were highly similar to those of his or her parents till late childhood. During adolescence, children develop their own belief systems, ideologies, principles and moral beliefs which might not be similar to that of their parent’s. This leads to a conflict between two generations. Children have the most exploratory mind at this phase. They develop passions and ambitions more concretely at this age and work towards it. 

                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:
www.cdc.gov
www.verywellfamily.com
www.advocatesforyouth.org
www.kidshealth.org

For a 8 year old kid, physical development is more about refinement of skills, coordination, and muscle control rather than huge changes. They begin to look like "big kids," but puberty is still a couple of years away for most of them.Children with natural athletic potential may show their abilities at this age as their physical skills become more precise. This is the age at which children decide whether they are athletic or not and choose to participate in or avoid sports.

An 8-year-old may show more sophisticated and complex emotions and interactions.Most are able to mask their true thoughts or emotions to spare someone’s feelings. For example, a child who doesn’t like a present may still smile and thank the gift giver.This is also the time when your child may be developing a more sophisticated sense of themselves in the world.Their interests, talents, friends, and relationships with family members help them establish a clear self-identity. It's also the beginning of desiring privacy and flip-flopping between self confidence  and self-doubt.

This is the phase of social development where many children love being a part of social groups. In general, 8-year-old children enjoy school and will count on and value relationships with a few close friends and classmates, and may gravitate primarily toward friendships with peers of the same gender. It is the age when they begin to understand how someone else feels in a given situation and will be more capable of placing themselves in another person’s shoes.

Eight-year-olds usually make great gains in their cognitive development. Most of them begin to have an understanding of money, both literally and conceptually. For example, while counting money can be a difficult skill to learn, kids often begin to understand that it takes money to buy items. The child’s ability to think will also be affected by their emotions at this age. They may have difficulty focusing when they're worried or may struggle to think about their options when feeling angry.

 Emotionally:

Psychosocially, they may experience an increase in independence and responsibilities. Same gender friendships are especially prevalent during this period. Friends also help each other to develop self‐esteem and a sense of competency in the social world. As boys and girls progress through middle childhood, their peer relationships take on greater importance.  Peer relationships may also cause the development of concerns and worries over popularity based on social status and conformity. 

As with same‐age peers, friendships in middle childhood are mostly based on similarities.Intolerance for those children who are not similar leads to prejudice, or negative perceptions about other groups of people. While peers and friends may reinforce prejudicial stereotypes, many children eventually become less rigid in their attitudes toward children from other backgrounds.They might also experience peer pressure as a result of peer friendships and relationships. 

Cognitively, the development occurring between ages 7 and 11 is termed as the concrete operational stage.  children cannot think both logically and abstractly. They think concretely—in tangible, definite and uni‐directional terms—based on real and concrete experiences rather than on abstractions. They can engage in classification ( group according to a particular feature) and serial ordering ( logical progression). Children also demonstrate conservation - the ability to see how physical properties remain constant as appearance and form change. Egocentrism slowly fades away and the children understand that people might have different opinions and feelings. There is a development of some brain structures such as the frontal lobe. This area is responsible for planning, reasoning, social judgement and ethical decision making. 

Children at the age of eight start attaining more accurate physical skills. The children will be curious to participate in all the physical activities, start enjoying running, swimming and the other physical fun tasks. The children will start performing their everyday motor skills themselves without much of parents’ efforts. The children will start getting their permanent teeth. Learning to play musical instruments which improves their small muscle movements and control.

 

The children start to start to understand their environment and start learning difficult skills. The right age for the children to practice what they learn, ex: money. The problem-solving capabilities increases and start developing long term memories. The children may tend to show a lot of emotions that at times makes them unfocused on few things when they are worried or angry that affects their cognitive development in the future when left unaddressed. The children will start understanding their role at their home, school and in the world as they ask a lot of questions on the same and improving the ability to perceive things the see.

 

The age where the children will start asking for a me time when things start going different than they would have thought. 

The children tend to show a lot of emotions but also have the ability to understand the reason for such emotions when attended and the conversations are made easy. The children will like to talk a lot with their family members, friends and people in their community to gain emotional strength. The children will start exploring their interests, talents that helps them establish their self-identity sometimes boosts self confidence at the same time self-doubt.

 

The children like to socialize with people around them like family members, friends, Community people. When there are limited conversations happening, the children start feeling worried, angry, unloved and that completely affects everything they do. Socializing gives them emotional comfort. Bullying sometimes gets started at this age and the children has to be taught about how to handle situations. The self confidence improves a lot and the children develop their thinking on what is right and wrong based on what they see around them and what role they play in it.