Preschool age in psychology. Developmental psychology - preschool age. Social development situation
Summary: Psychology of the child. Ages four to six. Child's independence. Child development indicators. Night sleep, how to put your baby to bed. Development of the child’s psyche, formation of individuality. Psychological foundations of raising a preschooler.
Ages from four to six are a period of relative calm. One way or another, the child came out of the crisis, became calmer, more obedient, more flexible. He develops, as doctors say, a primary affective attachment to loved ones, a need for friends appears, and interest in the world around him and people’s relationships sharply increases.
The baby also acquires a certain independence.
Ideally, he can eat on his own, walks and runs well, speaks easily, is trained in hygiene and neatness, sleep is stabilized, behavior is regulated, and he no longer needs constant and inseparable care. But this, of course, does not mean that all problems are solved. With the wrong tactics, it is easy, for example, to disrupt your appetite or sleep patterns.
Let us immediately note, as at previous age stages, the measure proper nutrition are indicators physical development child. So, in the third year the baby grows by about 10 cm and gains about 3 kg in weight. Subsequently, this rate slows down somewhat: to 5-7 cm and up to 2 kg every year. If the child maintains this pace, there should not be much concern.
Night sleep during this period, as before, should be at least 10 hours. And almost until school itself, a daytime nap is also recommended - an hour and a half.
There are known difficulties with falling asleep in the evening. Therefore, going to bed must be accompanied by a special ritual: hygiene measures, changing into night clothes, affectionate and tactful conversation, increased attention to the child’s words and behavior, an interesting fairy tale or instructive story, told calmly, soothingly, dimmed lights, relative silence.
The entire laying down procedure should be leisurely and pleasant for the child. This is especially true for children with a weak type of higher nervous activity.
The skills of neatness are usually already well learned by the child, but he continues for some time; sometimes waking up "wet". And in this case there is no place for unnecessary haste and nervousness. There is no point in waking up your child at night to go potty. Let everything go naturally.
To instill hygiene skills, use the child’s desire for self-affirmation and tendency to imitate. If adults themselves constantly comply with hygiene requirements, then the baby will eventually feel the need to wash his hands before eating: and of course, he is very “big” after all.
Already the youngest preschooler begins to realize his individuality, personal isolation, his “self”; his first concepts of good and evil begin to form. Of course, we cannot yet say that a preschooler has at least to some extent formed moral principles and moral assessments; nevertheless, he already knows perfectly well “what is good and what is bad,” he can already understand that it is necessary to obey and respect elders, that it is indecent to commit certain actions, he is able to experience feelings such as pride and shame.
The main stimulus for his activity is the assessment of his behavior by adults; he most often does good deeds in order to earn praise.
He is already capable, to some extent, of both empathy and sympathy. He can force himself (at least for a while) not to make noise if he is told; that mom is sick, that mom is in pain. He can already - subdued and serious - approach her to console her, to help her with his sympathy and love, with his kiss and tight hug.
At the same time, the first shoots of kindness and generosity appear in the child. And it is necessary not to suppress these sprouts in the bud. For example, your baby shares his favorite treat with you or someone else. And you hardly need to immediately give the candy or pear back to him. On the contrary, you need to let him taste the joy of your generosity and even self-sacrifice, if you want. This joy will further develop the grace-filled properties of his soul.
Already at preschool age, it is necessary to cultivate in the child the ability to take into account the needs and needs of others, especially yourself. He may already understand that you are busy, that you have no time now, that you have urgent matters, important work.
It is also necessary to teach him to get along with other children in the family, at a party, on the playground, teach him to wait his turn in games, give in when necessary, and share toys. All this is not achieved immediately, but it is quite accessible to every child. These skills of self-restraint and collectivism will help the child painlessly adapt to kindergarten conditions, and later to school.
An important factor in raising preschool children is their tendency to imitate their parents. Here is what A. S. Makarenko wrote about this: “Do not think that you raise a child only when you talk to him or teach him, or order him. You raise him at every moment of your life, even when you are not there.” At home, how you dress, how you talk to other people and about other people, how you are happy or sad, how you treat friends and enemies, how you laugh, read the newspaper - all this is of great importance for a child.
The child sees or feels the slightest changes in tone, all the turns of your thoughts reach him in invisible ways, you do not notice them. And if at home you are rude or boastful, or drunk, and even worse, if you insult your mother, you are already causing great harm to your children, you are already raising them badly...” Perhaps you can’t say it better.
For most children in normal conditions characterized by an optimistic perception of life. The world seems to them to be the best in the best possible way. We must always remember this, spare and protect the child’s easily vulnerable psyche. It is dangerous to sort out your relationships in the presence of children, to create scenes and scandals.
There is no point in telling different things in front of children. horror stories, talk about serious illnesses and death, because for some children such information can become a super-strong irritant, a kind of springboard for a nervous breakdown. It is necessary to gradually, extremely carefully and at an older age introduce a little person into the complex and contradictory adult world.
Preschool age is a period of intense and rich emotional life, wildly flourishing creative imagination, the period of discovery of the world in its pristine beauty and purity. This is how F. G. Lorca wrote about an early child: “... what a wonderful artist he is! A creator with a first-class poetic feeling. One has only to watch his first games, until he is spoiled by rationality, to see what stellar beauty spiritualizes them , what ideal simplicity and what mysterious relationships are revealed between simple things.
From a button, a spool of thread and the five fingers of his hand, a child builds a difficult world, intersected by unprecedented resonances that sing and collide excitingly among a bright joy that defies analysis. A child knows much more than we think... In his innocence he is wise and understands better than us the untold secret of the poetic essence.”
A child's curiosity at preschool age knows no bounds. He is interested in literally everything, he asks adults thousands of questions and to each one he demands an immediate answer that is understandable to him. When explaining, the child loves and asks for repetitions - they help him remember and better understand the explanation, so you should not get angry and cut off the baby when he asks the same question for the second, third and fourth time. Scientists call this age period the “stage of questions.” It is very important to give children truthful answers to questions that they can understand.
L.N. Tolstoy once wrote that one must write for children in the same way as for adults, that the most valuable and significant works of art for children are those that are equally interesting to adults. Such works contain deep life and artistic truth, but it is presented in such a way that everyone perceives it depending on life experience.
These are, for example, “Winnie the Pooh”, “The Scarlet Flower”, Tolstoy’s children’s stories, Andersen’s fairy tales and folk tales. In our answers to children, we must adhere to the same principle, especially when answering the most difficult questions.
Incorrect explanations, deliberately false versions, attempts to brush aside the child’s questions can lead to sad results. As a rule, if a child discovers this untruth, he stops turning to his parents with his worries and doubts. This, in turn, alienates parents and children and leads to a breakdown in contact between them. And without contact and trust, normal development of a child is impossible.
For the normal development of a child’s personality and all its components - intelligence, creativity, emotional and social sphere - it is necessary that from early childhood he feels a sense of security and perceives the care of adults for himself.
At the age of 5-6 years, children experience the well-known “peak of fears” in psychology, when the number of children’s fears, apprehensions and their intensity increases. By the age of 6, there is an awareness of the finitude of an individual life and the formation of a “fear of death.”
These, in general, are the main features of the psychology of preschool children.
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1. Three-year crisis: seven stars of symptoms……………………………………………………….4
2. Social situation of personality development in the preschool period………….13
3. Leading activity of a preschooler……………………………………17
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….20
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….21
Introduction
Childhood, as a sociocultural phenomenon, is of a specific historical nature and has its own history of development. The nature and content of individual periods of childhood are influenced by the specific socio-economic and ethnocultural characteristics of the society where the child grows up, and, first of all, by the system of public education. Within successively changing types of children's activities, the child appropriates historically developed human abilities. Modern science has abundant evidence that the psychological new formations that develop in childhood are of enduring importance for the development of abilities and the formation of personality.
Preschool age is a stage mental development children, covering the period from 3 to 6-7 years, is characterized by the fact that the leading activity is play, which is very important for the formation of the child’s personality. Within its framework, three periods are distinguished:
1) junior preschool age- from 3 to 4 years;
2) average preschool age - from 4 to 5 years;
3) senior preschool age - from 5 to 7 years.
During preschool age, a child discovers, with the help of an adult, the world of human relationships, different types activities.
The purpose of the study is the psychology of preschool children.
The object of the study is a preschool child.
The subject of the study is the human psyche, the psyche of a preschool child.
1. Three-year crisis: seven stars of symptoms
The first symptom that characterizes the onset crisis - the emergence negativism. We must clearly imagine what we are talking about here. When talking about children's negativism, it must be distinguished from ordinary disobedience. With negativism, all the child’s behavior runs counter to what adults offer him. If a child does not want to do something because it is unpleasant for him (for example, he is playing, but he is forced to go to bed, but he does not want to sleep), this will not be negativism. The child wants to do what he is drawn to, what he has aspirations for, but he is forbidden; if he does do this, it will not be negativism. This will be a negative reaction to the adult's demand, a reaction that is motivated by the child's strong desire.
Negativism refers to such manifestations in a child’s behavior when he does not want to do something just because one of the adults suggested it, i.e. This is a reaction not to the content of the action, but to the adults’ proposal itself. Negativism includes, as a distinguishing feature from ordinary disobedience, what the child does not do because he was asked to do so. The child is playing in the yard, and he doesn’t want to go into the room. He is called to sleep, but he does not obey, despite the fact that his mother asks him to do so. And if she had asked for something else, he would have done what pleased him. With a negativity reaction, the child does not do something precisely because he is asked to do it. There is a kind of shift in motivations here.
Let me give you a typical example of behavior, which I will take from observations in our clinic. A girl in her 4th year of life, with a prolonged crisis of three years and pronounced negativism, wants to be taken to a conference where children are discussed. The girl is even planning to go there. I'm inviting a girl. But since I call her, she won't come for anything. She resists with all her might. “Well, then go to your place.” She doesn't go. “Well, come here” - she doesn’t come here either. When she is left alone, she begins to cry. She's upset that she wasn't accepted. Thus, negativism forces the child to act contrary to his affective desire. The girl would like to go, but because she was asked to do it, she will never do it.
With a sharp form of negativism, it comes to the point that you can get the opposite answer to any proposal made in an authoritative tone. A number of authors have beautifully described similar experiments. For example, an adult, approaching a child, says in an authoritative tone: “This dress is black,” and receives the answer: “No, it is white.” And when they say: “It’s white,” the child replies: “No, it’s black.” The desire to contradict, the desire to do the opposite of what one is told is negativism in the proper sense of the word.
A negative reaction differs from ordinary disobedience in two significant ways. Firstly, here the social attitude, the attitude towards another person, comes to the fore. In this case, the reaction to a certain action of the child was not motivated by the content of the situation itself: whether or not the child wants to do what he is asked to do. Negativism is an act of a social nature: it is primarily addressed to the person, and not to the content of what the child is asked for. And the second significant point is the child’s new attitude towards his own affect. The child does not act directly under the influence of passion, but acts contrary to his tendency. Regarding the attitude to affect, let me remind you of early childhood before the crisis of three years. What is most characteristic of early childhood, from the point of view of all research, is the complete unity of affect and activity. The child is completely in the grip of affect, completely inside the situation. In preschool age, a motive also appears in relation to other people, which directly follows from the affect associated with other situations. If the child’s refusal, the motivation for the refusal lies in the situation, if he does not do it because he does not want to do it or wants to do something else, then this will not be negativism. Negativism is a reaction, a tendency where the motive is outside the given situation.
The second symptom of the three-year crisis is stubbornness. If negativism must be distinguished from ordinary stubbornness, then stubbornness must be distinguished from perseverance. For example, a child wants something and persistently strives to get it done. This is not stubbornness; this occurs even before the crisis of three years. For example, a child wants to have a thing, but cannot immediately get it. He insists on having this thing given to him. This is not stubbornness. Stubbornness is a child’s reaction when he insists on something not because he really wants it, but because he demanded it. He insists on his demand. Let's say a child is called from the yard into the house; he refuses, they give him arguments that convince him, but because he has already refused, he does not go. The motive behind stubbornness is that the child is bound by his original decision. Only this will be stubbornness.
Two things distinguish stubbornness from ordinary persistence. The first point is common with negativism and has to do with motivation. If a child insists on what he now wants, this will not be stubbornness. For example, he loves to sled and therefore will strive to be outside all day.
And the second point. If negativism is characterized by a social tendency, i.e. a child does something opposite to what adults tell him, then here, with stubbornness, a tendency towards himself is characteristic. It cannot be said that a child freely moves from one affect to another, no, he does this only because he said so, he sticks to it. We have a different relationship of motivations to the child’s own personality than before the crisis.
The third point is usually called the German word “Trotz”. The symptom is considered so central to age that the entire critical age is called trotz alter, in Russian - the age of obstinacy.
Obstinacy differs from negativism in that it is impersonal. Negativism is always directed against the adult who is now encouraging the child to take one action or another. And obstinacy is, rather, directed against the norms of upbringing established for the child, against the way of life; it is expressed in a kind of childish discontent, causing “come on!”, with which the child responds to everything that is offered to him and what is done. Here, an obstinate attitude is reflected not in relation to a person, but in relation to the entire way of life that developed before the age of 3, in relation to the norms that are proposed, to the toys that were previously of interest. Obstinacy differs from stubbornness in that it is directed outward, in relation to the external, and is caused by the desire to insist on one’s own desire.
It is quite understandable why, in a family authoritarian bourgeois upbringing, obstinacy appears as the main symptom of the crisis of three years. Before that, the child was caressed, obedient, he was led by the hand, and suddenly he becomes an obstinate creature who is dissatisfied with everything. This is the opposite of a silky, smooth, soft child, this is something that constantly resists what is done to it.
Obstinacy differs from the child’s usual lack of compliance in that it is biased. The child rebels, his dissatisfaction, causing “come on!” tendentious in the sense that it is actually imbued with a hidden rebellion against what the child has dealt with before.
There remains a fourth symptom, which the Germans call Eigensinn, or self-will, self-will. It lies in the child’s tendency towards independence. This didn't happen before. Now the child wants to do everything himself.
Of the symptoms of the analyzed crisis, three more are indicated, but they are of secondary importance. The first is a protest-riot. Everything in the child’s behavior begins to have a protesting character in a number of individual manifestations, which could not have happened before. The child’s entire behavior takes on the features of protest, as if the child is at war with those around him, in constant conflict with them. Frequent quarrels between children and parents are common. Associated with this is the symptom of devaluation. For example, in a good family a child begins to swear. S. Buhler figuratively described the horror of the family when the mother heard from the child that she was a fool, which he could not say before.
One of the characteristic features of senior preschool age, as already noted, is the intensive development of abstract thinking, the ability to generalize, classify, understand the categories of time and space, and search for answers to the questions: “Where did everything come from?”, “Why do people live?”
At this age, experience is formed interpersonal relationships, based on the child’s ability to accept and play roles, anticipate and plan the actions of another, understand his feelings and intentions. Relationships with people become more flexible, versatile and at the same time purposeful. The following are formed: a system of values (value orientations), a sense of home, kinship, an understanding of the importance of family for procreation.
Until the age of 5, boys can solemnly declare to their mother their desire to marry her when they grow up, and girls can marry their father. From 5 to 8 years old, they “get married” or “get married” mainly to peers, thus reproducing in a play situation the form of adult relationships.
In general, children of senior preschool age are characterized by sociability and the need for friendship. Noticeable dominance in the group kindergarten communication with peers of the same sex, acceptance among whom is essential for self-affirmation and adequate self-esteem.
6-year-old children have already developed an understanding that in addition to good, kind and sympathetic parents, there are also bad ones. The bad ones are not only those who treat the child unfairly, but also those who quarrel and cannot find agreement among themselves. We find reflection in the typical age-related fears of devils as violators of social rules and established foundations, and at the same time as representatives of the other world.
Obedient children who have experienced the age-specific feeling of guilt when violating rules and regulations in relation to authority figures that are significant to them are more susceptible to the fear of devils.
At the age of 5, transient obsessive repetitions of “indecent” words are characteristic; at the age of 6, children are overcome by anxiety and doubts about their future: “What if I won’t be beautiful?”, “What if no one will marry me?”, in a 7-year-old, there is suspiciousness: “Won’t we be late?”, “Are we going?”, “Will you buy it?”
Age-related manifestations of obsession, anxiety and suspiciousness themselves go away in children if parents are cheerful, calm, self-confident, and also if they take into account the individual and gender characteristics of their child.
Punishment for inappropriate language should be avoided by patiently explaining its inappropriateness and at the same time providing additional opportunities to relieve nervous tension in the game. Establishing friendly relations with children of the opposite sex also helps, and this cannot be done without the help of parents.
Children's anxious expectations are dispelled by calm analysis, authoritative explanation and persuasion. With regard to suspiciousness, the best thing is not to reinforce it, to switch the child’s attention, to run with him, to play, to cause physical fatigue, and to constantly express firm confidence in the certainty of the events taking place.
As already mentioned, the parent of the same sex enjoys exceptional authority among older preschoolers. He is imitated in everything, including habits, behavior and style of relationship with a parent of the opposite sex, who is still loved. In a similar way, a model of family relationships is established.
Note that emotionally warm relationships with both parents are possible only in the absence of conflict between adults, since at this age children, especially girls, are very sensitive to relationships in the family (as well as to the attitude of other people significant to them).
The authority of the parent of the same sex is reduced due to behavior that is emotionally unacceptable for the child and the inability to stabilize the situation in the family. Then, in the imaginary game “Family,” children, especially girls, are less likely to choose the role of a parent of the same sex; there is no desire to do everything like “dad” or “mom.” They try to be only themselves or choose the role of a parent of the other sex, which in both cases is atypical in older preschool age.
If in force various reasons In childhood, there are problems, friction, and conflicts in relationships with a parent of the same sex, then this contributes to the emergence of problems, friction, and conflicts in raising one’s own children. So, if a girl experienced the authoritarian influence of her mother in childhood, then, having become a mother herself, she will be emphatically strict and principled with the child in some way, which will cause him to have a reaction of protest or neurotic disorders.
A boy who was not the Son of the Father in childhood, deprived of his positive influence, may not become the Father of the Son and pass on to him his adequate experience of gender-role behavior and protection from everyday dangers and fears.
In addition, parental divorce in children of older preschool age has a greater adverse effect on boys than on girls. The lack of influence of the father in the family or his absence can most complicate in boys the formation of gender-appropriate communication skills with peers, cause self-doubt, a feeling of powerlessness and doom in the face of, albeit imaginary, danger that fills the consciousness.
So, a 6-year-old boy from a single-parent family (his father left after a divorce) was terrified of the Serpent Gorynych. “He breathes - that’s all,” - this is how he explained his fear. By "everything" he meant death. No one knows when the Serpent Gorynych may arrive, rising from the depths of his subconscious, but it is clear that he can suddenly capture the imagination of a boy defenseless in front of him and paralyze his will to resist.
The presence of a constant imaginary threat indicates a lack of psychological defense, not formed due to the lack of adequate influence from the father.
The boy does not have a defender who could kill the Serpent Gorynych, and from whom he could take an example, like the fabulous Ilya of Muromets.
Or let us cite the case of a 5-year-old boy who was afraid of “everything in the world”, was helpless and at the same time declared: “I am like a man.” He owed his infantility to his anxious and overprotective mother, who wanted to have a girl and did not take into account his desire for independence in the first years of his life. The boy was drawn to his father and strived to be like him in everything. But the father was removed from upbringing by an overbearing mother, who blocked all his attempts to exert any influence on her son.
The inability to identify with the role of a squeezed and unauthoritative father in the presence of a restless and overprotective mother is a family situation that contributes to the destruction of activity and self-confidence in boys.
One day we noticed a confused, shy and timid 7-year-old boy who could not draw a whole family, despite our request. He drew either himself or his father separately, not realizing that both his mother and his father should be in the picture. elder sister. He also could not choose the role of father or mother in the game and become himself in it. The impossibility of identification with the father and his low authority were caused by the fact that the father constantly came home drunk and immediately went to bed. He was one of the men who “lived behind the closet” - inconspicuous, quiet, disconnected from family problems and not involved in raising children.
The boy could not be himself, since his domineering mother, having suffered defeat with his father leaving her influence, tried to take revenge in the fight for her son, who, according to her, was in every way like her despised husband and was just as harmful , lazy, stubborn. It must be said that the son was unwanted, and this constantly affected the mother’s attitude towards him, who was strict towards the emotionally sensitive boy, endlessly reprimanding and punishing him. In addition, she overprotected her son, kept him under constant control and stopped any manifestations of independence.
It is not surprising that he soon became “harmful” in his mother’s mind, because he was trying to somehow express himself, and to her this reminded her of his father’s previous activity. This is precisely what frightened the mother, who does not tolerate any disagreement, seeking to impose her will and subjugate everyone. She's like The Snow Queen, sat on the throne of principles, commanding, pointing, emotionally unavailable and cold, not understanding the spiritual needs of her son and treating him like a servant. The husband started drinking at one time as a sign of protest, defending himself from his wife with “alcoholic non-existence.”
In a conversation with the boy, we discovered not only age-related fears, but also many fears coming from previous age, including punishment from the mother, darkness, loneliness and confined space. The fear of loneliness was most pronounced, and this is understandable. He has no friend or protector in his family; he is an emotional orphan with living parents.
Unjustified severity, cruelty of the father in relations with children, physical punishment, ignoring spiritual needs and self-esteem also lead to fears.
As we have seen, forced or conscious substitution of the male role in the family by a mother who is domineering in nature not only does not contribute to the development of self-confidence in boys, but also leads to the emergence of lack of independence, dependence, and helplessness, which are fertile ground for the proliferation of fears, inhibiting activity and interfering with self-affirmation .
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1. Psychology of preschool age: subject and objectives.
Psychology is the science of the soul. The soul is in principle observable and immeasurable. It is very difficult to understand the soul of a child. Child psychology is a science that studies the characteristics mental life child and patterns of mental development in childhood. The subject of child psychology is individual human development, or ontogenesis, which always occurs in a certain historical and cultural situation, at a certain stage of phylogenesis (historical and cultural development.) All children go through certain stages in their development, or stages, which are characterized by specific features of their mental life. The study of the patterns of mental development of a child is the main subject of child psychology. Its main task is to describe and explain the features of the child’s mental life at each age stage. Therefore, child psychology is an integral part of developmental psychology, that is, a science that studies age-related patterns of human mental development. But if developmental psychology covers all stages of life, including maturity and old age, then children’s psychology deals only with early ages(from 0 to 7 years), when development occurs most quickly and intensively. What determines this development? The main question that arises here is the question of the relative role of the natural properties of the organism and the human conditions of raising a child.
2. Principles of studying the child’s psyche
The specificity of the methods of child psychology is determined by the specificity of its object. This is the development of the child’s psyche from birth to seven years, which during this period is most vulnerable and susceptible to external adverse influences. Rough interference from adults can slow down or distort the course of a child’s mental development. Therefore, the main principle of the study of child psychology is the principle of humanism and pedagogical optimism, which consists in the requirement not to harm. A psychologist should feel a special responsibility and take his time; the main thing is to understand true reasons behavior of the child, highlight psychological characteristics and patterns, while showing tact, sensitivity, careful attitude to the baby.
The principle of effectiveness and scientificity implies the study of psychological development, its mechanisms and patterns in the terms of child psychology, and not from the point of view of other sciences. Before starting to study this world of the child, it is necessary to master special psychological knowledge, concepts, and to assimilate the basic ideas of psychological science .
The principle of determinism proceeds from the fact that the formation of mental functions and properties, as well as the characteristics of their manifestation, are associated with both external and internal causes. These reasons are determined by the living conditions, the upbringing of the child, the characteristics of his social environment, the nature of the child’s communication with adults and peers, the specifics of his activities and activity. Initially, there are no “good” or “difficult” children; there is only a variety of reasons that influence the subsequent appearance of one or another trait inherent in this particular child. The researcher's task is to understand the cause of a psychological fact, and therefore explain it.
The principle of development of the psyche, consciousness in activity shows that activity acts as a condition for the manifestation and development of the child’s psyche. Therefore, to study it mental characteristics you need to organize appropriate activities, for example, creative imagination can be captured in drawing or writing a fairy tale.
The principle of the unity of consciousness and activity (developed by S.L. Rubinstein) means the mutual influence of consciousness and activity. On the one hand, consciousness is formed in activity and, as it were, “guides” it. On the other hand, the complication of activity, the development of new types of activity enriches and changes consciousness. Therefore, consciousness can be studied indirectly, through studying the child’s activities. Thus, the motives of behavior become clear from the analysis of actions.
The principle of an age-related individual and personal approach implies that the general laws of mental development manifest themselves in each child individually, including natural and special features. Each child masters speech, learns to walk, and operate with objects, but the path of his development is individual.
The principle of complexity, systematicity and systematicity suggests that a single study does not provide a complete picture of the child’s mental development. It is necessary to analyze not isolated facts, but to compare them, to trace all aspects of the development of the child’s psyche in the aggregate.
3. Research methods for preschool psychology
Method - this is a general strategy, a general way of obtaining facts, which is determined by the task and subject of the study, as well as the theoretical concepts of the researcher. Observation is the main method when working with children (especially preschool age), since tests, experiments, and surveys are difficult to study children's behavior. It is necessary to begin observation by setting a goal, drawing up an observation program, and developing an action plan. The purpose of observation is to determine why it is being carried out and what results can be expected as a result.
In order to obtain reliable results, monitoring must be carried out regularly. This is due to the fact that children grow very quickly and the changes that occur in the child’s behavior and psyche are also fleeting. For example, a baby's behavior changes before our eyes, so by missing one month, the researcher is deprived of the opportunity to obtain valuable data about his development during this period.
How younger child, the smaller the interval between observations should be. During the period from birth to 2-3 months, the child should be monitored daily; at the age of 2-3 months to 1 year - weekly; from 1 year to 3 years - monthly; from 3 to 6-7 years - once every six months; at primary school age - once a year, etc.
The observation method when working with children is more effective than others, on the one hand, because they behave more directly and do not play social roles characteristic of adults. On the other hand, children (especially preschoolers) do not have sufficiently stable attention and can often be distracted from the task at hand. Therefore, whenever possible, covert observation should be carried out so that the children do not see the observer.
The survey can be oral or written. When using this method, the following difficulties may arise. Children understand the question asked to them in their own way, that is, they put a different meaning into it than an adult. This happens because the system of concepts in children is significantly different from the one used by adults. This phenomenon is also observed in adolescents. Therefore, before getting an answer to the question asked, you need to make sure that the child understands it correctly by explaining and discussing inaccuracies, and only after that interpret the answers received.
An experiment is one of the most reliable methods of obtaining information about the behavior and psychology of a child. The essence of the experiment is that in the process of research, mental processes of interest to the researcher are evoked in the child and conditions are created that are necessary and sufficient for the manifestation of these processes.
A child, entering an experimental play situation, behaves directly, responding emotionally to the proposed situations, and does not play any social roles. This makes it possible to obtain its true reactions to the influencing stimuli. The results are most reliable if the experiment is carried out in the form of a game. At the same time, it is important that the child’s immediate interests and needs are expressed in the game, otherwise he will not be able to fully demonstrate his intellectual abilities and necessary psychological qualities. In addition, when participating in an experiment, a child acts momentarily and spontaneously, so throughout the entire experiment it is necessary to maintain his interest in the event.
Cross-sections are another research method in developmental psychology. They are divided into transverse and longitudinal (longitudinal).
The essence of the method cross sections is that in a group of children (class, several classes, children of different ages, but studying in the same program) using certain techniques, some parameter is studied (for example, intellectual level). The advantage of this method is that in a short time it is possible to obtain statistical data on age-related differences in mental processes, to establish how age, gender or other factor influences the main trends of mental development. The disadvantage of the method is that when studying children of different ages, it is impossible to obtain information about the development process itself, its nature and driving forces.
When using the method longitudinal (longitudinal) sections The development of a group of the same children is traced over a long period of time. This method allows us to establish qualitative changes in the development of mental processes and the child’s personality and identify the causes of these changes, as well as study development trends and minor changes that cannot be covered by cross-sections. The disadvantage of the method is that the results obtained are based on studying the behavior of a small group of children, so it seems incorrect to extend such data to a large number of children.
Testing allows us to identify the level of intellectual abilities and personal qualities of a child. It is necessary to maintain children's interest in this method in ways that are attractive to them, for example, encouragement or some kind of reward. When testing children, the same tests are used as for adults, but adapted for each age, for example children's version Cattell test, Wechsler test, etc.
A conversation is the process of obtaining information about a child through direct communication with him: the child is asked targeted questions and expected answers to them. This method is empirical. An important condition for the effectiveness of a conversation is a favorable atmosphere, goodwill, and tact. Questions must be prepared in advance and the answers recorded, if possible without attracting the attention of the subject.
Questioning is a method of obtaining information about a person based on his answers to pre-prepared questions. Questionnaires can be oral, written, individual or group.
Analysis of the products of activity is a method of studying a person through the analysis of the products of his activity: drawings, blueprints, musical works, essays, textbooks, personal diaries, etc. Thanks to this method, you can obtain information about inner world the child, his attitude to the surrounding reality and people, about the peculiarities of his perception and other aspects of the psyche. This method is based on the principle unity of consciousness and activity, according to which the child’s psyche is not only formed, but also manifests itself in activity. By drawing or creating something, a child provides researchers with the opportunity to reveal aspects of his psyche that would be difficult to find out using other methods. Based on the drawings, you can study cognitive processes (sensations, imagination, perception, thinking), creative abilities, personal manifestations, and children’s attitude towards people around them.
4. Psychological characteristics of preschool age
Thinking. The assimilation of standards, changes in the types and content of the child’s activities lead to a change in the nature of the child’s thinking. By the end of preschool age, there is a transition from egocentrism (centration) to decentration, which also leads to the perception of the surrounding world from a position of objectivity.
The child’s thinking is formed during the pedagogical process. The uniqueness of a child’s development lies in his active mastery of the methods and means of practical and cognitive activity having a social origin. According to A.V. Zaporozhets, mastery of such methods plays a significant role in the formation of not only complex types abstract, verbal and logical thinking, but also visual and figurative thinking, characteristic of preschool children.
Thus, thinking in its development goes through the following stages: 1) improvement of visual and effective thinking on the basis of the developing imagination; 2) improvement of visual-figurative thinking based on voluntary and indirect memory; 3) the beginning of the active formation of verbal-logical thinking through the use of speech as a means of setting and solving intellectual problems.
In his research A.V. Zaporozhets, N.N. Poddyakov, L.A. Wenger et al. confirmed that the transition from visual-effective to visual-figurative thinking occurs due to a change in the nature of orientation-research activity. Orientation based on trial and error is replaced by purposeful motor, then visual and, finally, mental orientation.
Let us consider the process of development of thinking in more detail. The emergence of role-playing games, especially those using rules, contributes to the development visually figurative thinking. Its formation and improvement depend on the child’s imagination. First, the child mechanically replaces some objects with others, giving the substitute objects functions that are not characteristic of them, then the objects are replaced with their images and the need to perform practical actions with them disappears.
Verbal-logical thinking begins its development when the child knows how to operate with words and understands the logic of reasoning. The ability to reason is revealed in middle preschool age, but is very clearly manifested in the phenomenon of egocentric speech described by J. Piaget. Despite the fact that the child can reason, there is illogicality in his conclusions, he gets confused when comparing size and quantity.
The development of this type of thinking takes place in two stages:
1) first, the child learns the meaning of words related to objects and actions and learns to use them;
2) the child learns a system of concepts denoting relationships and learns the rules of logical reasoning.
During development logical thinking, the process of forming an internal plan of action is underway. N.N. Poddyakov, studying this process, identified six stages of development:
1) first, the child manipulates objects with his hands, solves problems in a visual and effective way;
2) continuing to manipulate objects, the child begins to use speech, but so far only to name objects, although he can already verbally express the result of the practical action performed;
3) the child begins to mentally operate with images. There is a differentiation in the internal plan of the final and intermediate goals of the action, that is, he builds a plan of action in his mind and begins to reason out loud when executing it;
4) the problem is solved by the child according to a pre-compiled, thoughtful and internally presented plan;
5) the child first thinks through a plan for solving the problem, mentally imagines this process, and only then begins to carry it out. The purpose of this practical action is to reinforce the answer found in the mind;
6) the problem is solved only internally with the issuance of a ready-made verbal solution, without subsequent reinforcement by actions.
N.N. Poddyakov made the following conclusion: in children, the stages and achievements passed in improving mental actions do not disappear, but are replaced by new, more perfect ones. If necessary, they can again get involved in solving a problem situation, that is, visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking will begin to work. It follows that in preschoolers, the intellect already functions according to the principle of systematicity.
In preschool age they begin to develop concepts. At 3-4 years old, a child uses words, sometimes not fully understanding their meaning, but over time, semantic awareness of these words occurs. J. Piaget called the period of misunderstanding the meaning of words a stage of the child’s speech and mental development. The development of concepts goes in parallel with the development of thinking and speech.
Attention. At this age, it is involuntary and is caused by externally attractive objects, events and people. Interest comes to the fore. A child fixes attention on something or someone only during the period of time in which he retains direct interest in the person, object or event. The formation of voluntary attention is accompanied by the appearance of egocentric speech.
At the initial stage of the transition of attention from involuntary to voluntary, means of controlling the child’s attention and reasoning out loud are of great importance.
Attention during the transition from younger to older preschool age develops as follows. Younger preschoolers look at pictures that interest them and can study a certain type activity for 6-8 seconds, and for older preschoolers - 12-20 seconds. At preschool age, different degrees of attention stability are already observed in different children. This may be due to the type of nervous activity, physical condition and living conditions. It has been observed that nervous and sick children are more likely to be distracted than calm and healthy children.
Memory. The development of memory goes from involuntary and immediate to voluntary and indirect memorization and recollection. This fact was confirmed by Z.M. Istomina, who analyzed the process of formation of voluntary and indirect memorization in preschool children.
Basically, in all children of early preschool age, involuntary, visual-emotional memory predominates; only in linguistically or musically gifted children does auditory memory prevail.
The transition from involuntary memory to voluntary memory is divided into two stages: 1) the formation of the necessary motivation, i.e. the desire to remember or remember something; 2) the emergence and improvement of the necessary mnemonic actions and operations.
Various memory processes develop unevenly with age. Thus, voluntary reproduction occurs earlier than voluntary memorization and involuntarily precedes it in development. The development of memory processes also depends on the child’s interest and motivation for a particular activity.
Memory productivity in children play activity much higher than outside the game. At the age of 5-6 years, the first perceptual actions aimed at conscious memorization and recollection are noted. These include simple repetition. By the age of 6-7 years, the process of voluntary memorization is almost complete.
As the child grows up, the speed of extracting information from long-term memory and transferring it to RAM, as well as the volume and duration of RAM. The child’s ability to assess the capabilities of his memory changes, the strategies for memorizing and reproducing material that he uses become more diverse and flexible. For example, four year old child out of 12 presented pictures, he can recognize all 12, but reproduce only two or three; a ten-year-old child, having recognized all the pictures, is able to reproduce eight.
Many children of primary and middle preschool age have well-developed immediate and mechanical memory. Children easily remember and reproduce what they see and hear, provided that it arouses their interest. Thanks to the development of these types of memory, the child quickly improves his speech, learns to use household items, and orients himself well in space.
At this age, eidetic memory develops. This is one of the types of visual memory that helps to clearly, accurately and in detail, without much difficulty, restore in memory visual images of what was seen.
Imagination. At the end of early childhood, when the child first demonstrates the ability to replace some objects with others, the initial stage of imagination development begins. Then it gets its development in games. How developed a child’s imagination is can be judged not only by the roles he plays during play, but also by his crafts and drawings.
O.M. Dyachenko showed that imagination in its development goes through the same stages as other mental processes: involuntary (passive) is replaced by voluntary (active), direct - indirect. Sensory standards become the main tool for mastering the imagination.
In the first half preschool childhood predominates in the child reproductive imagination. It consists in the mechanical reproduction of received impressions in the form of images. These can be impressions from watching a TV show, reading a story, a fairy tale, or directly perceiving reality. The images usually reproduce those events that made an emotional impression on the child.
In older preschool age, reproductive imagination turns into imagination, which creatively transforms reality. Thinking is already involved in this process. This type of imagination is used and improved in role-playing games.
The functions of the imagination are as follows: cognitive-intellectual, affective-protective. Cognitive-intellectual imagination is formed by separating the image from the object and designating the image using words. Role affective-defensive function is that it protects the growing, vulnerable, weakly protected soul of the child from experiences and traumas. The defensive reaction of this function is expressed in the fact that through an imaginary situation, tension can be discharged or a conflict can be resolved, which is difficult to achieve in real life. It develops as a result of the child’s awareness of his “I”, psychological separation of himself from others and from the actions he commits.
The development of imagination goes through the following stages.
1. “Objectification” of the image with actions. The child can control, change, clarify and improve his images, that is, regulate his imagination, but is not able to plan and mentally draw up a program of upcoming actions in advance.
2. Children's affective imagination in preschool age develops as follows: initially, the child's negative emotional experiences are symbolically expressed in the characters of fairy tales he has heard or seen; then he begins to build imaginary situations that remove threats from his “I” (for example, fantasy stories about himself as allegedly possessing especially pronounced positive qualities).
3. The emergence of substitute actions, which, when implemented, can relieve the emotional tension that has arisen. By the age of 6-7, children can imagine and live in an imaginary world.
Speech. In preschool childhood, the process of language acquisition is completed. It is developing in the following directions.
1. Sound speech is developing. The child begins to become aware of the peculiarities of his pronunciation, and his phonemic hearing develops.
2. Growing lexicon. It is different for different children. It depends on their living conditions and on how and how much his loved ones communicate with him. By the end of preschool age, all parts of speech are present in the child’s vocabulary: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, numerals and connecting words. The German psychologist W. Stern (1871-1938), speaking about the richness of the vocabulary, gives the following figures: at three years old, a child actively uses 1000-1100 words, at six years old - 2500-3000 words.
3. The grammatical structure of speech develops. The child learns the laws of the morphological and syntactic structure of the language. He understands the meaning of words and can construct phrases correctly. At the age of 3-5 years, a child correctly grasps the meaning of words, but sometimes applies them incorrectly. Children gain the ability to use the laws of grammar native language, create statements, for example: “Mints cause a draft in the mouth”, “The bald man has a barefoot head”, “Look how it’s raining” (from the book by K.I. Chukovsky “From Two to Five”).
4. Awareness of the verbal composition of speech appears. During pronunciation, the language is oriented towards the semantic and sound aspects, and this indicates that the child is not yet aware of the speech. But over time, the development of linguistic sense and the mental work associated with it occurs.
If at first the child treats the sentence as a single semantic whole, a verbal complex that denotes a real situation, then during the learning process and from the moment he begins reading books, he becomes aware of the verbal composition of speech. Training accelerates this process, and therefore, by the end of preschool age, the child already begins to isolate words in sentences.
During development, speech performs various functions: communicative, planning, symbolic, expressive.
Communicative function - one of the main functions of speech. In early childhood, speech is a means of communication for a child mainly with close people. It arises out of necessity, in relation to a specific situation in which both an adult and a child are included. During this period, communication plays a situational role.
Situational speech is clear to the interlocutor, but incomprehensible to a stranger, because during communication the implied noun is dropped and pronouns are used (he, she, they), an abundance of adverbs and verbal patterns is noted. Under the influence of others, the child begins to rebuild situational speech into a more understandable one.
Among older preschoolers, the following tendency can be observed: the child first names a pronoun, and then, seeing that he is not understood, pronounces a noun. For example: “She, the girl, went. He, the ball, rolled.” The child gives more detailed answers to questions.
The child’s range of interests grows, communication expands, friends appear, and all this leads to situational speech being replaced by contextual speech. There are more than detailed description situations. As the child improves, he begins to use this type of speech more often, but situational speech is still present.
In older preschool age, explanatory speech appears. This is due to the fact that the child, when communicating with peers, begins to explain the content of the upcoming game, the structure of the machine, and much more. This requires consistency of presentation, indication of the main connections and relationships in the situation.
Planning the speech function develops because speech turns into a means of planning and regulating practical behavior. It merges with thinking. Many words appear in the child’s speech that seem to be addressed to no one. These may be exclamations that reflect his attitude to the action. For example, “Knock-knock... scored. Vova scored!”
When a child turns to himself in the process of activity, they speak of egocentric speech. He pronounces what he is doing, as well as the actions that precede and guide the procedure being performed. These statements are ahead of practical actions and are figurative. By the end of preschool age, egocentric speech disappears. If a child does not communicate with anyone during the game, then, as a rule, he does the work in silence, but this does not mean that egocentric speech has disappeared. It simply turns into inner speech, and its planning function continues. Consequently, egocentric speech is an intermediate stage between the child’s external and internal speech.
Iconic The child’s speech function develops in play, drawing and other productive activities, where the child learns to use sign objects as substitutes for missing objects. The sign function of speech is the key to entering the world of human socio-psychological space, a means for people to understand each other.
Expressive function is the most ancient function of speech, reflecting its emotional side. A child’s speech is permeated with emotions when he fails at something or is denied something. The emotional spontaneity of children's speech is adequately perceived by surrounding adults. For a well-reflexive child, such speech can become a means of influencing an adult. However, the “childishness” specifically demonstrated by a child is not accepted by many adults, so he has to make an effort on himself and control himself, to be natural and not demonstrative.
5. History of the emergence of preschool psychology
child psychology longitudinal section
Child psychology as an independent, fundamental science has close and mutual connections with other disciplines. On the one hand, it is based on philosophy, cultural studies, developmental psychology and general psychology and provides empirical material for them, on the other hand, it is the scientific foundation for educational psychology, pedagogy and practical psychology.
Child psychology as a science about the mental development of a child originated at the end of the 19th century. This began with the book of the German Darwinist scientist W. Preyer “The Soul of a Child” (St. Petersburg, 1891). In it, Preyer described the results of daily observations of his daughter’s development, paying attention to the development of sensory organs, motor skills, will, reason and language. Preyer's merit lies in the fact that he studied how a child develops in the most early years life, and introduced it into child psychology objective observation method, developed by analogy with the methods of natural sciences. He was the first to make the transition from an introspective study of the child’s psyche to an objective one.
The objective conditions for the development of child psychology that emerged at the end of the 19th century include, first of all, the rapid development of industry and, accordingly, a qualitatively new level of social life. This entailed the need to reconsider approaches to raising and educating children. Parents and teachers stopped counting physical punishment effective method education - more democratic families and teachers appeared. The task of understanding the child has become one of the priorities. In addition, scientists have come to the conclusion that only through studying the psychology of a child is the path to understanding what the psychology of an adult is.
Like any field of knowledge, child psychology began with the collection and accumulation of information. Scientists simply described the manifestations and further development of mental processes. The accumulated knowledge required systematization and analysis, namely:
* searching for relationships between individual mental processes;
* understanding the internal logic of holistic mental development;
* determining the sequence of development stages;
* research into the causes and ways of transition from one stage to another.
In child psychology, knowledge of related sciences began to be used: genetic psychology, studying the emergence of individual mental functions in adults and children in history and ontogenesis, and educational psychology. Increasing attention has been paid to the psychology of learning. The outstanding Russian teacher, founder of scientific pedagogy in Russia K.D. made his contribution to the development of child psychology. Ushinsky (1824-1870). In his work “Man as a Subject of Education,” he wrote, addressing teachers: “Study the laws of those mental phenomena that you want to control, and act in accordance with these laws and the circumstances to which you want to apply them.”
Literature
Abramenkova V.V. Social psychology of childhood: Development of child relationships in the children's subculture. - M., 2000
Aries F. Ages of life // Philosophy and methodology of history. -M., 1997
Galperin P.Ya., Zaporozhets A.V., Karpova S.N. Current problems of developmental psychology. -M., 1978
Zagvyazinsky V.I., Atakhanov R. Methodology and methods of psychological and pedagogical research. -M., 2001
Kon I.S. Child and society (Historical and ethnographic perspective). -M., 1988
Kudryavtsev V.T. The meaning of human childhood and the mental development of the child. -M., 1997
Mead M. Culture and the world of childhood. -M., 1988
Mikhailenko M., Korotkova N., Grigorovich L. To the portrait of a modern preschooler // Preschool education. - 1993. - No. 1. - p. 27-36
Rybinsky E.M. The phenomenon of childhood in modern Russia//Pedagogy. -1996. - No. 6. - p. 14-18
Elkonin D.B. Introduction to child psychology // Selected articles. psychol. works. -M., 1989. - p. 26-59
Elkonin D.B. On the problem of periodization of mental development in childhood // Selected psychological works. -M., 1989. - p. 60-77
Elkonin D.B. Problems of psychodiagnostics // Selected psychological works. -M., 1989. - p. 281-305
Erickson E. Childhood and society. -SPb., 1996
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Development of the child’s psyche in preschool age (3 years - 6-7 years)
The child goes beyond the boundaries of his family circle and established relationships with the world of adults. The center of the social situation is the adult as the bearer of a social function (adult - mother, doctor, etc.). At the same time, the child is not able to really participate in the lives of adults. This contradiction is resolved in the game, as in a leading activity. This is the only activity that allows you to simulate the life of adults and act in it.
2. Game as a leading activity of preschool age. Other child activities
Play is the leading activity of a preschool child. The subject of gaming activity is an adult as a bearer of certain social functions, entering into certain relationships with other people, using certain rules in his activities. The main change in behavior is that the child’s desires fade into the background, and strict adherence to the rules of the game comes to the fore.
Structure of a role-playing game: Each game has its own playing conditions- children, dolls, other toys and objects participating in it.
The plot is the sphere of reality that is reflected in the game. At first, the child is limited to the family and therefore his games are connected mainly with family and everyday problems. Then, as he masters new areas of life, he begins to use more complex plots - industrial, military, etc.
In addition, the game with the same plot gradually becomes more stable and longer. If at 3-4 years old a child can devote only 10-15 minutes to it, and then he needs to switch to something else, then at 4-5 years old one game can already last 40-50 minutes. Older preschoolers are able to play the same thing for several hours in a row, and some games last for several days.
Role (main, secondary);
Toys, play material;
Play actions (those moments in the activities and relationships of adults that are reproduced by the child)
Younger preschoolers imitate object-based activities - cutting bread, grating carrots, washing dishes. They are absorbed in the process of performing actions and sometimes forget about the result - why and for whom they did it.
For middle preschoolers, the main thing is the relationships between people; they perform play actions not for the sake of the actions themselves, but for the sake of the relationships behind them. Therefore, a 5-year-old child will never forget to place the “sliced” bread in front of the dolls and will never confuse the sequence of actions - first lunch, then washing the dishes, and not vice versa.
For older preschoolers, it is important to obey the rules arising from the role, and the correctness of these rules is strictly controlled by them. Game actions gradually lose their original meaning. Actual objective actions are reduced and generalized, and sometimes completely replaced by speech (“Well, I washed their hands. Let’s sit down at the table!”).
There are 2 main phases or stages in the development of the game. The first stage (3-5 years) is characterized by the reproduction of the logic of people’s real actions; The content of the game is objective actions. At the second stage (5-7 years), real relationships between people are modeled, and the content of the game becomes social relations, the social meaning of an adult’s activity.
The role of play in the development of a child’s psyche.
1) In the game, the child learns to fully communicate with peers.
2) Learn to subordinate your impulsive desires to the rules of the game. A subordination of motives appears - “I want” begins to be subordinated to “impossible” or “must”.
3) In the game, all mental processes intensively develop, the first moral feelings are formed (what is bad and what is good).
4) New motives and needs are formed (competitive, gaming motives, the need for independence).
5) New types of productive activities arise in the game (drawing, modeling, appliqué)
3. Development of mental functions in preschool age
1) Perception in preschool age becomes more perfect, meaningful, purposeful, and analytical. It highlights voluntary actions - observation, examination, search. Children know the primary colors and their shades, and can describe an object by shape and size. They learn a system of sensory standards (round like an apple).
2) Memory. Preschool childhood is the most favorable (sensitive) age for memory development. In younger preschoolers, memory is involuntary. The child does not set a goal to remember or remember something and does not have special methods of memorization. Events that are interesting to him, if they evoke an emotional response, are easily (involuntarily) remembered. In middle preschool age (between 4 and 5 years), voluntary memory begins to form. Conscious, purposeful memorization and recall appear only sporadically. Usually they are included in other types of activities, since they are needed both in play, and when running errands for adults, and during classes - preparing children for school.
3) Thinking and perception are so closely connected that they speak of visual-figurative thinking, which is most characteristic of preschool age. Despite this peculiar childish logic, preschoolers can reason correctly and solve quite complex problems. Correct answers can be obtained from them under certain conditions. First of all, the child needs to have time to remember the task itself. In addition, he must imagine the conditions of the task, and for this he must understand them. Therefore, it is important to formulate the task in such a way that it is understandable to children. The best way achieve the right decision- organize the child’s actions so that he draws appropriate conclusions based on his own experience. A.V. Zaporozhets asked preschoolers about physical phenomena little known to them, in particular, why some objects float and others sink. Having received more or less fantastic answers, he suggested that they throw various things into the water (a small nail that seemed light, a large wooden block, etc.). Beforehand, the children guessed whether the object would float or not. After enough large quantity trials, having checked their initial assumptions, the children began to reason consistently and logically. They developed the ability for the simplest forms of induction and deduction.
4) Speech. In preschool childhood, the long and complex process of speech acquisition is largely completed. By the age of 7, the child’s language truly becomes native. The sound side of speech develops. Younger preschoolers begin to realize the peculiarities of their pronunciation. The vocabulary of speech is growing rapidly. As at the previous age stage, there are great individual differences here: some children have a larger vocabulary, others have less, which depends on their living conditions, on how and how much close adults communicate with them. Let us present the average data according to V. Stern. At 1.5 years old, a child actively uses about 100 words, at 3 years old - 1000-1100, at 6 years old - 2500-3000 words. The grammatical structure of speech develops. Children learn morphological (word structure) and syntactic (phrase structure) patterns. A 3-5 year old child correctly grasps the meaning of “adult” words, although sometimes he uses them incorrectly. Words created by the child himself according to the laws of the grammar of his native language are always recognizable, sometimes very successful and certainly original. This children's ability to form words independently is often called word creation. K.I. Chukovsky, in his wonderful book “From Two to Five,” collected many examples of children’s word creation (Mint cakes create a draft in the mouth; The bald man’s head is barefoot; Look how it’s raining; I’d rather go for a walk without being eaten; Mom is angry, but quickly calms down ; crawler - worm; mazeline - vaseline; mocres - compress).
4. Personality characteristics of a preschooler
Emotional sphere. Preschool childhood is characterized by generally calm emotionality, the absence of strong affective outbursts and conflicts over minor issues. But this does not at all mean a decrease in the richness of the child’s emotional life. A preschooler's day is so filled with emotions that by the evening he can become tired and reach complete exhaustion.
The structure of the emotional processes themselves also changes during this period. In early childhood, they included autonomic and motor reactions (when experiencing an insult, the child cried, threw himself on the sofa, covering his face with his hands, or moved chaotically, shouting incoherent words, his breathing was uneven, his pulse was rapid; in anger he blushed, screamed, clenched his fists, could break something that came to hand, hit, etc.). These reactions persist in preschoolers, although the external expression of emotion becomes more restrained in some children. The child begins to be happy and sad not only about what he does in this moment, but also about what he still has to do.
Everything that a preschooler is involved in - playing, drawing, modeling, designing, preparing for school, helping mom with household chores, etc. - must have a strong emotional connotation, otherwise the activity will not take place or will quickly collapse. A child, due to his age, is simply not able to do what is not interesting to him.
Motivational sphere. The most important personal mechanism formed during this period is considered to be the subordination of motives. It appears at the beginning of preschool age and then develops consistently. If several desires arose simultaneously, the child found himself in an almost insoluble situation of choice.
The preschooler's motives acquire different strength and significance. Already in early preschool age, a child can relatively easily make a decision in a situation of choice. Soon he can suppress his immediate impulses, for example, not to respond to an attractive object. This becomes possible thanks to stronger motives that act as “limiters.”
Interestingly, the most powerful motive for a preschooler is encouragement and receiving a reward. A weaker one is punishment, an even weaker one is the child’s own promise. Demanding promises from children is not only useless, but also harmful, since they are not fulfilled, and a series of unfulfilled assurances and oaths reinforces such personality traits as lack of commitment and carelessness. The weakest is a direct prohibition of some actions of the child, not reinforced by other, additional motives, although adults often place great hopes on the prohibition.
The preschooler begins to assimilate the ethical standards accepted in society. He learns to evaluate actions from the point of view of moral norms, to subordinate his behavior to these norms, and he develops ethical experiences. Initially, the child evaluates only the actions of other people - other children or literary heroes, not being able to evaluate their own. In middle preschool age, the child evaluates the actions of the hero regardless of how he treats him, and can justify his assessment based on the relationships of the characters in the fairy tale. In the second half of preschool childhood, the child acquires the ability to evaluate his own behavior and tries to act in accordance with the moral standards that he learns.
Self-awareness is formed by the end of preschool age thanks to intensive intellectual and personal development, it is usually considered a central neoplasm of preschool childhood.
Self-esteem appears in the second half of the period on the basis of an initial purely emotional self-esteem (“I am good”) and a rational assessment of other people’s behavior. The child first acquires the ability to evaluate the actions of other children, and then his own actions. moral qualities and skills. By the age of 7, most self-esteem of skills becomes more adequate.
Another line of development of self-awareness is awareness of one’s experiences. At the end of preschool age, he orients himself in his emotional states and can express them with words: “I’m happy,” “I’m upset,” “I’m angry.”
This period is characterized by gender identification; the child recognizes himself as a boy or a girl. Children acquire ideas about appropriate styles of behavior. Most boys try to be strong, brave, courageous, and not cry from pain or resentment; many girls are neat, efficient in everyday life and soft or flirtatiously capricious in communication.
Awareness of oneself in time begins. At 6-7 years old, a child remembers himself in the past, is aware of himself in the present and imagines himself in the future: “when I was little,” “when I grow up big.”
5. Crisis of 6-7 years, the problem of the child’s readiness for school
Based on the emergence of personal consciousness, the crisis of 7 years appears.
Main features:
1) loss of spontaneity (between desire and action, the experience of what meaning this action will have for the child is inserted);
2) mannerisms (the child pretends to be something, hides something);
3) the “bitter candy” symptom - the child feels bad, but he tries not to show it.
Psychological readiness for school is a complex education that involves quite high level development of motivational, intellectual spheres and the sphere of arbitrariness. Usually, two aspects of psychological readiness are distinguished - personal (motivational) and intellectual readiness for school.
Intellectual readiness includes: - orientation in the environment; - stock of knowledge; - development of thought processes (the ability to generalize, compare, classify objects); - development different types memory (figurative, auditory, mechanical, etc.); - development of voluntary attention;
Motivational readiness for school includes:
Internal motivation (i.e. the child wants to go to school because it is interesting and he wants to know a lot), and not because he will have a new backpack or his parents promised to buy a bicycle (external motivation).
