The issues of preschool psychology are important and significant in the development and upbringing of children. The fact is that the foundations of correct perception of the world are laid in childhood. They further help to form an individual picture of the world of the individual, contribute to the formation of self-awareness. Psychology includes many interconnected components that determine the degree of success in a child's development. Of course, all children cannot be the same.

The development of each of them proceeds in a different way. However, there are common components that Psychology studies and is based on the basic principles of education and development: to raise a person who is able to take responsibility. This is a critical task and should never be overlooked. Responsibility for your own actions and actions does not arise by itself, you need to put some effort into this.

This article will consider the features of the psychology of preschool children. The information will be useful for teachers who work with this group of children, as well as for parents.

Age limits

Child psychology is a truly amazing science. Preschool age is an interesting stage in the life of every person. The age limits of this period are quite large: from three to seven years. The peculiarities of the psychology of preschool age are largely determined by which group the child belongs to. Accordingly, the approach to education will be somewhat different.

The psychology of early preschool age includes concepts such as gender, the need to be noticed by adults. This group includes children from three to five years old. The psychology of older preschool age takes into account such important components as the formation of self-esteem and self-awareness. The age range for this period is five to seven years.

Leading activity

Each period of development is characterized by its own occupation, which at this moment is the most demanded and most important for the individual. The psychology of children of younger preschool age is such that they like to play with various objects. While it is more comfortable for them to interact only with toys: to build "houses" from cubes, to sculpt from plasticine, to assemble a mosaic or a pyramid. Communication with other children is sporadic and often ends in disputes.

At the age of five or six, the child begins to strongly need interaction with peers. If by this moment he still, for some reason, has not started attending the nursery educational institution, then its development may even begin to lag behind. The fact is that for successful socialization, a baby needs to be in a team of peers. Comparing oneself with others gives a powerful stimulus for the development of all attention, memory, thinking, imagination, speech.

The leading activity in five to six years is plot role-playing game... The child seeks to interact with peers. If you observe the children in the eldest and preparatory groups, you will notice that they break up into small islands. These small subgroups are usually grouped together by interest. When choosing one or another microcollective, personal sympathies play an important role. And if the psychology of younger preschool age is based on the need to be approved by an adult, then for older children the opportunity to show their individuality is of great importance. Disclosure of needs occurs in the process of interaction with peers.

The psychology of preschool age is such that they strive primarily for collective activity in order to be accepted by the group. They need to build individual connections, make new friends, and maintain relationships with peers.

Neoplasms

In each age period, a person faces a specific task that must be solved. In preschool childhood, there are several such neoplasms:

1. Ability to see the results of your work. The child learns to draw conclusions from his actions and actions. That is, the realization gradually comes that a very specific reaction will follow as a result of certain steps. A child already at the age of four is able to learn that if you indulge in kindergarten classes and interfere with others, you can displease the teacher.
2. Speech development is a powerful neoplasm throughout preschool childhood. First, the child learns to pronounce words correctly, then to build sentences. By the age of five or six, speech becomes correctly formed, competent, replete with complex sentences.
3. Communication with peers. In the preschool period of life, the child learns to interact with others. He begins to build his own opinion about a certain situation or person, personal sympathies appear.

Crisis period

The development of the child, as a rule, does not occur in progressive movements, but in leaps and bounds. According to the observations of parents and educators, yesterday the baby behaved in one way, and today he began to act differently. In fact, a readiness for change had ripened in him for a long time, but there was no confidence that new need can be manifested. The stage of a crisis in psychology is called a turning point, which changes the way of thinking, the ability to perceive the surrounding reality as a whole.

Parents should be extremely careful not to miss significant changes in the life of their son or daughter. Development psychology studies how to behave with a child in this difficult period for him. Preschool age is a special world of childhood, when a child needs to feel loved, protected from all troubles. At the age of five or six, both the boy and the girl live in their own world, which is very different from the world of an adult.

The crisis period always shows what parents should strive for in relations with their children, and helps to understand the interests of the child himself. At the age of three, the baby has a need to emotionally separate from mom and dad: he begins to feel like a person. There is a feeling of negativism, a desire to contradict adults in everything, to demonstrate independence in every possible way. "I myself" is a characteristic feature of three years, associated with the need to defend their individuality.

The second crisis of preschool childhood is associated with the development of self-awareness and preparation for school. It usually occurs at six to seven years of age. The child begins to realize that society puts forward certain requirements for him, and from now on he has to meet the expectations placed on him. He strives even more for independence, but it is now extremely important for him to be accepted in a social group. One of the most interesting stages of childhood is preschool age. Developmental psychology sets as its task the study of significant periods of personality formation.

Gender identification

At the age of three, the child knows whether he is a boy or a girl. In addition, the baby no doubt knows how to determine the gender of his classmates. First, the baby identifies with the parent of the same gender, tries to imitate him. Boys pay attention to their fathers, they want to be as strong and courageous. Girls identify with their mother, imitate her. At the age of five or six, the daughter may well begin to help in the kitchen, to participate in all the daily affairs of the family.

Typically, children in younger group easily interact with representatives of both their own sex and the opposite. But, reaching about five years, the child begins to communicate more with members of the same gender. The girl has a need to have a girlfriend, to play dolls with her, to share secrets, while she looks at the boys without much interest. At this stage of development, they are creatures from another planet for her.

Most preschoolers accept their gender unconditionally and are very happy with it. For example, boys may speak of girls with some disdain, considering them weak, but they are proud of their own strength. The psychology of children of younger preschool age is such that they are more focused on their inner world and prefer to build friendships based on gender.

The main need of the child

Every little person first of all wants to feel loved. It is important for a child to understand that he is fully accepted in the family as he really is, and not for some kind of merit. After all, otherwise he will begin to consider himself bad, unworthy of love and better attitude... When parents impose a certain model of behavior on their children, they, of course, do not think about how much they hurt. inner world baby, make you feel cheated, confused, unnecessary. The child's main need is love. And the parent's job is to help him feel totally accepted.

Preschool psychology studies the inner world and emotional needs of a child. If they are not taken into account, the little person experiences a state of frustration, which in no way can have a positive effect on the overall development of the personality.

Building self-esteem

Why is it so important to develop an adequate self-perception in a baby from early childhood? Self-esteem largely determines how he will relate to himself in the future. It will show whether the child will allow others to treat his own personality with disdain, or will still force them to respect his choice. Self-esteem is formed over a period of three to five years. It is at this time that a small person begins to receive an assessment of his actions from an adult. If the actions are characterized as positive and the child as a whole is praised by the educators, then he will feel comfortable in society. Otherwise, a constant feeling of guilt will become his constant companion. Parents should not scold their child too much. Try to avoid unfair criticism, be more delicate.

The psychology of preschool age is such that the child takes everything much more seriously than it really is. He cannot yet form an independent image of himself without the participation of an adult. For this, he lacks life experience, basic self-confidence. When we praise a child, it is deposited in his subconscious that he, as a person, is worth something and is valuable in himself. In the case of frequent criticism (especially unfair), our child only closes in and stops trusting the world around him. In other words, self-esteem is made up of how adults relate to a child. Make it clear to the baby that you always stay by his side. A son or daughter should know that there are no insoluble situations. Use your own example to show that everything has its advantages.

Development of cognitive processes

Preschool psychology is an amazing and rewarding science. She is able to prompt parents in time to the correct way out of the current situation, to give reasons for support and additional joy. Sometimes adults find it difficult to deal with a disturbing problem on their own. And then pedagogy comes to the rescue. Psychology of preschool age is focused precisely on the development of children, including any psychological difficulties.

Cognitive processes are necessarily involved in the formation of the personality. The development of attention, memory, thinking, imagination, speech is impossible without systematic lessons with the child. How much time should you devote to this? In fact, only fifteen to twenty minutes a day is enough for a preschooler. Development cognitive processes it is better in the form of a game. Then the child will be able to relax as much as possible and learn much more.

Development of creativity

Each person is talented in something. AND Small child, who is only four years old, is no exception. Parents should be the first to notice the abilities of their child, in order to develop talents from an early age, and not hide them. Unfortunately, one can often observe the following picture: real natural inclinations are destroyed in the bud, opportunities are closed. And parents do all this unconsciously, putting a whole bunch of restrictions in front of the child. In this case, is it any wonder that children grow up lacking initiative, passive and lazy?

A small child learns everything by playing. He does not yet know how to take everything in life seriously. The development of creative abilities should begin with a conscious intention to bring more vivid colors and impressions into the child's life. It is better to enroll a four-year-old kid in several thematic hobby groups. In the course of classes, you should definitely observe him and draw the appropriate conclusions: what turns out better, what is worse, what the soul is in, what natural inclinations are there.

In order for the abilities to really develop, you need to free your consciousness from all kinds of fears. Parents sometimes fear a possible failure even more than the children themselves, which is why the desire to move forward disappears. Do not be afraid to experiment, spend money on new experiences. The acquisition of useful skills is paramount. Let your little one really feel significant and valuable.

Adults often ask such an important question: how to develop in a child a full-fledged member of society with high moral values? What to pay special attention to? Where to get additional support? What should be considered when raising a baby?

1. Teach him to respect himself. There are so many people in today's society who can shake our self-esteem! Do not take away from your own child the opportunity to value yourself. Never humiliate - neither in private, much less in public. The kid should not feel vulnerability, feel shame in front of society. Otherwise, you will only help him to form
2. Develop personality in it. A person cannot be happy if she fulfills other people's goals in life, does not solve her own problems. Allow the child to have his own reference point, do not hinder the development of an individual opinion on any issue. Time will pass, and you will see the results of such upbringing: the baby will become more self-confident.
3. Harmonious personality development. A truly happy person is interested in everything, not just work. He has many hobbies in his arsenal, the inner world is distinguished by unprecedented wealth. Such an individual is always open to new impressions, receives the knowledge he needs with pleasure. He will never humiliate another, will not hurt others. A harmonious person strives to live in peace with his own emotions and respects the feelings of other people. It is to this ideal that one should strive when raising a child.

Thus, developmental psychology deals with the issues of the formation of self-awareness, overcoming crises, and studying the characteristics of behavior. Preschool age is an important stage in the all-round development of personality. It was during this period that the little person takes the basic lessons of society, learns to effectively interact with others. Parents and teachers should in every possible way support the child in all his endeavors, contribute to the formation of a stable interest in various useful activities, develop creative thinking, the ability to see the situation from several sides at once.

Hello dear visitors of our blog! The topic of our next article: "Features of the psychology of preschool children." Let's talk about the peculiarities of a child's development from the age of three. How his perception of the surrounding reality changes. Find out what parents of a growing baby should pay attention to. Find out the details by reading the full article!

Features of the psychology of preschool children

Preschool age is determined by psychologists from three to seven years. At the age of three, the child experiences the first age crisis. Seven years is also a period of crisis. That is, preschool age is the period of a child's life from the first to the second crisis of life.

A three-year-old baby already feels like a person. For the first time, he begins to understand that he is a person, a full-fledged member of the family. He learns to perform family responsibilities helping adults. Tries to make decisions on his own. This is the age of the greatest perception of the surrounding reality. The development of the child is very fast. During these five years of preschool age, he needs to have time to reorganize from play to educational activities.

Parents' help is to provide the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities.

Main activity in before school age- It's a game. At three or four years old, the child masters the role-playing game, but so far at the level of imitation. He takes toys and replays situations that he saw in life or in cartoons. If this does not happen at this age, the task of the parent is to teach how to play.

Psychology of a senior preschool child

At the age of five or six, role-playing games are no longer imitative. The kid himself comes up with the plot of the game, the names of the heroes. These can be both life stories (shopping in a store, a trip on the train), and fantastic ones. In the game, the child learns to interact with people, socialization takes place. The child tries himself in the role of an adult, learns to make decisions at the level of the game. Therefore, it is very important not to miss this period.

If at a younger preschool age a little man most often plays himself, then at the age of five or six years the kid chooses peers with whom he would like to interact. Children gather in small groups of two or three and play.

At this age, the child begins to be interested in drawing, modeling, listening to fairy tales. He is not interested in studying, although elements of educational activity in the form of a game can be introduced from the age of four. It is important to support the child in all his endeavors. Try all kinds of activities: applique, modeling, drawing, and design. The kid is interested in trying everything. And this is important to support. This is a future interest in learning, which is the key to successful schooling.

How the psychology of young preschool children is changing

Thinking at this age is visual-figurative. This is important for parents to know. The kid cannot remember from words, it is important for him to see the picture, examine the object by touch. Visualization and fantasy are limited by the knowledge of the child. He cannot imagine what he has never seen. Therefore, it is important to give new sensations, new emotions. What can parents do for the full development of preschoolers?

• Trips to other cities (countries)
• Visiting a museum, exhibitions
• Going to the theater
• It is important not only to watch the performance, but to discuss with the child what he learned new, what was interesting to him.

At this age, memory develops intensively. The kid remembers everything: from advertising on TV, ending with random phrases said by his parents.

Memory development in preschool age plays a huge role. Several recommendations for developing memory in a playful way.

1. In the evening before going to bed, the parent reads a fairy tale. In the morning he discusses with the child who the main character was, where he went, what he did. You can ask leading questions, but it is important that he himself remember.

2. Place three or four toys on the table. For half a minute, let the baby remember the location of the toys. Then cover them with a handkerchief and swap the two toys. Open the scarf and ask the child to name what has changed.

3. After watching any cartoon, discuss. What was happening in it. What were the names of the main characters.

4. In the evening, remember with the baby what happened during the day consistently (provided that the parent was present and knows how the day went).

We examined the issues of the peculiarities of the psychology of preschool children. We also recommend reading the article "Features of the psychology of preschool children." We will tell you how to deal with the problem of helplessness and develop the child's ability to make decisions on their own. Details in the article!

We bring to your attention excerpts from the book “ Developmental psychology: Textbook. manual for stud. higher. study. establishments"Darvish OV / Ed. V.E. A piece. - M .: Publishing house VLADOS-PRESS, 2003.

Considering the process of a child's development, developmental psychology characterizes different age periods and, therefore, operates with such concepts as “age” and “childhood”. Age, or age period, has its own structure and dynamics. “Each age represents a qualitatively special stage mental development and is characterized by a multitude of changes that together make up the uniqueness of the structure of the child's personality at this stage of his development ”(HP Vygotsky). In psychology, there are two ideas about age: physical and psychological age. Physical age characterizes the time of a child's life in years, months and days that have passed since his birth, and psychological age indicates the level reached by this time psychological development. Psychological age may not match the chronological age of the child. The age period with its own characteristics of the development of mental functions and personality of the child, the characteristics of his relationship with others and the main activity for him has certain boundaries. But these chronological boundaries can shift, and one child will enter new age earlier, another later. The boundaries of adolescence associated with children's puberty are shifting especially strongly.

Preschool childhood- a large segment of a child's life. This age is a direct continuation of early age in terms of general sensitivity, carried out by the irrepressibility of the ontogenetic potential for development. This is the period of mastering the social space of human relations through communication with close adults, as well as through play and real relationships with peers.

Living conditions. At this time, they are rapidly expanding: the framework of the family expands to the limits of the street, city, country. The child discovers the world of human relations, different types activities and social functions. He has a strong desire to engage in adult life, to actively participate in it, which, of course, is not yet available to him. He strives for independence. From this contradiction, role-playing is born - independent activity children, simulating the life of adults.

Social development situation

The child's place in the system of relations changes (it is no longer the center of his family), the ability to identify with people, images of the heroes of works of art develops. There is an assimilation of norms of behavior, as well as different forms communication. The child begins to realize that he is an individuality, acquires an interest in the bodily structure of a person.

Leading activities in preschool age

Иrpa. It has a significant impact on the development of the child. In the game, children learn to fully communicate with each other.

In the process of plot and role-playing creative play children take on the roles of adults and in a generalized form, in play conditions reproduce the activities of adults and the relationship between them. A child, choosing and performing a certain role, has an appropriate image - a mother, a doctor, a driver, a pirate - and models of his actions. But, although life in play proceeds in the form of representations, it is emotionally saturated and becomes for the child his real life.

Play contributes to the formation of not only communication with peers, but also the child's voluntary behavior. The mechanism for controlling one's behavior is formed precisely in the game, and then manifests itself in other types of activity.

The child's motivational-need sphere develops in the game. There are new motives of activity and associated tselr. Qualitative changes are taking place in the child's psyche.

Preschooler learns and visual activity... As V.S. Mukhina, the specificity of drawing as a special type of activity is precisely the visual, symbolic activity.

Central neoplasms: a new internal position; subordination of motives, self-esteem and awareness of their place in the system of social relations.

Thinking

Thinking in preschool age is characterized by the transition from visual-effective to visual-figurative and at the end of the period - to verbal thinking. The main type of thinking, however, is visual-figurative, which corresponds to representational intelligence (thinking in representations) in the terminology of Jean Piaget.

The preschooler thinks figuratively, but has not yet acquired the adult logic of reasoning. Solves mental problems in the presentation, thinking becomes out-of-situational.

The prerequisites for such qualities of the mind as independence, flexibility and inquisitiveness are formed.

There are attempts to explain phenomena and processes. Children's questions are indicators of the development of curiosity.

On the mental development preschool child is constantly influenced by game situation and actions. The experience of play and real relationships of a child in a plot-role-playing game forms the basis of a special property of thinking that allows you to take the point of view of other people, anticipate their future behavior and, depending on this, build your own behavior.

Speech

By the age of seven, the language becomes a means of communication and thinking of the child, as well as the subject of conscious study, since in preparation for school, learning to read and write begins. According to psychologists, the child's language becomes really native.

The sound side of speech is developing. Younger preschoolers begin to realize the peculiarities of their pronunciation. By the end of preschool age, the process of phonemic development is completed.

The vocabulary of the child is growing rapidly.

Is developing grammatical structure speech. Children learn subtle patterns of morphological order (word structure) and syntactic (phrase construction).

The child learns the grammatical forms of the language and actively increases the vocabulary, which allows him to switch to contextual speech at the end of preschool age. He can retell a story or a fairy tale read, describe a picture, convey his impressions of what he saw.

Features of speech development in preschool age:

Speech breaks away from a specific situation, loses situational awareness, turning into a universal means of communication; coherent forms of speech appear, its expressiveness increases;

The child comprehends the laws of the native language in the process of acting with the word;

The child learns to express his thoughts coherently, logically, reasoning turns into a way of solving intellectual problems, and speech becomes an instrument of thinking and a means of cognition, intellectualization of cognitive processes;

Speech turns into a special activity that has its own forms: listening, conversation, reasoning and stories;

Speech becomes a special type of voluntary activity, a conscious attitude towards it is formed.

Perception

Perception in preschool age loses its originally affective character: perceptual and emotional processes are differentiated. Perception becomes meaningful, purposeful, analyzing. It highlights arbitrary actions - observation, examination, search. Speech exerts a significant influence on the development of perception at this time - the child begins to actively use the names of qualities, attributes, the state of various objects and the relationship between them.

At preschool age, perception is characterized by the following:

Perception turns into a special cognitive activity;

Visual perception is becoming one of the leading;

Perceiving objects and actions with them, the child more accurately estimates color, shape, size (mastering sensory standards);

The ability to determine the direction in space, the mutual arrangement of objects, the sequence of events is being improved.

Attention

In preschool age, there is a universal means of attention - speech. The child organizes his attention on the upcoming activity, formulating verbally.

In this age:

Concentration, volume and stability of attention significantly increase;

Elements of arbitrariness are formed in the management of attention based on the development of speech, cognitive interests;

Attention becomes mediated;

Attention is associated with the child's interests in the activity; elements of post-spontaneous attention appear.

Memory

Preschool childhood is the age most favorable for the development of memory. As L.S. Vygotsky, memory becomes the dominant function and passes big way in the process of its formation. The child memorizes the most diverse material with ease.

Younger preschoolers have involuntary memory. The child does not set himself the goal of remembering or remembering something and does not possess special methods of memorization. The child quickly memorizes poems, fairy tales, stories, dialogues from films, empathizes with their heroes, which expands the scope of the child's cognitive activity. The child gradually learns to repeat, comprehend, connect material for memorization purposes, and use connections when remembering.

In the middle preschool age (between 4 and 5 years), voluntary memory begins to form.

Memory, more and more uniting with speech and thinking, acquires an intellectual character, elements of verbal-logical memory are formed.

The memory of a preschooler, despite its apparent external imperfection, actually becomes the leading function.

Imagination

Imagination is formed in play, civic and constructive types of activity and, being a special activity, turns into fantasy. The child masters the techniques and means of creating images, while there is no need for a visual support for their creation.

Towards the end of preschool age, the child's imagination becomes manipulated.

The actions of the imagination are formed:

Concept in the form of a visual model;

The image of an imaginary object;

The way of dealing with the object.

Emotional sphere

For preschool childhood, a generally calm emotionality is characteristic, the absence of strong affective outbursts and conflicts for minor reasons.

The child learns social forms of expression of feelings.

The role of emotions in the child's activity changes, and emotional anticipation is formed.

Feelings become more conscious, generalized, reasonable, arbitrary, non-situational. Higher feelings are formed - moral, intellectual, aesthetic.

Emotional processes become more balanced.

Development of the motivational sphere

The most important personality mechanism that is formed in preschool age is the subordination of motives. It appears at the beginning of preschool age and then gradually develops. It is with these changes in the child's motivational sphere that the beginning of the formation of his personality is associated.

Already at a younger preschool age, a child can relatively easily make a decision in the situation of choosing one object from several, not react to an attractive object. This becomes possible thanks to stronger motives that play the role of “restraints.” The strongest motive for a preschooler is encouragement, receiving a reward. The weaker one is punishment (in dealing with children, this is primarily an exclusion from the game), even weaker is the child's own promise. To demand promises from children is not only useless, but also harmful, since they are not fulfilled, and a number of unfulfilled assurances and oaths reinforce such personality traits as non-obligation and carelessness. The weakest turns out to be a direct prohibition of some actions of the child, not reinforced by other additional motives, although adults often pin great hopes on the prohibition.

The image of another person (adult, other children) helps the preschooler to regulate his behavior.

First, the child needs someone to be near, to control his behavior, and when left alone, he behaves more freely, impulsively. Then, as the plan of ideas develops, it begins to hold back under imaginary control.

In preschool age, the child is included in new systems of relationships, new types of activity. There are, accordingly, new motives associated with the emerging self-esteem, pride, motives for achieving success, competition, rivalry; motives associated with the acquired moral norms, and some others. Interest in the content of the activity and motivation for achievement are especially important.

During this period, the child's individual motivational system begins to take shape. Motives acquire relative stability. Among them, the dominant motives are distinguished - prevailing in the emerging motivational hierarchy.

The preschooler begins to assimilate the ethical norms accepted in society. He learns to evaluate actions from the point of view of moral norms, to subordinate his behavior to these norms.

Initially, the child evaluates only other people's actions - other children or literary characters, not being able to evaluate their own. Perceiving, for example, a fairy tale, junior preschooler does not understand the reasons for his attitude towards different characters, globally evaluates them as good or bad.

Gradually, emotional attitudes and ethical assessments begin to differentiate.

Development of self-awareness

Self-awareness is formed by the end of preschool age due to intensive intellectual and personal development, it is usually considered the central neoplasm of preschool childhood.

Arises critical attitude to the assessment of an adult and a peer. Peer assessment helps the child assess himself.

Self-esteem appears in the second half of the period on the basis of an initial purely emotional self-esteem (“I'm good.) And a rational assessment of someone else's behavior.

The child judges moral qualities mainly by his own behavior, which either agrees with the norms adopted in the family and the collective of peers, or does not fit into the system of these relations. Therefore, his self-esteem almost always coincides with the external assessment, first of all - the assessment of close adults.

By the end of preschool age, the correct differentiated self-esteem, self-criticism develops.

The ability to motivate self-esteem develops.

There is an awareness of oneself in time, personal consciousness.

The preschooler is aware of his physical capabilities, skills, moral qualities, experiences and some mental processes.

Assimilation of norms involves:

a) the child gradually begins to understand and comprehend their meaning;

b) the child develops behavioral habits in the practice of communicating with other people;

c) the child is imbued with a certain emotional attitude to these standards.

Seven Years Crisis

Regardless of when the child started school, at 6 or 7 years old, at some point in his development he goes through a crisis. This fracture may begin at age 7, and may have shifted by age 6 or 8. It is important how the child experiences the system of relationships in which he is included - either they are stable, or drastically changing. The perception of one's place in the system of relations has changed, which means that the social situation of development is changing, and the child is on the border of a new age period.

The crisis of seven years is the period of birth of the child's social “I” (LI Bozhovich). It is associated with the emergence of a new systemic neoplasm - “internal position., Which expresses a new level of self-awareness and reflection of the child.

Both the environment and the child's attitude to the environment are changing. The level of requests to oneself, to one's own success, position increases, self-respect appears. There is an active formation of self-esteem.

A change in self-awareness leads to a reassessment of values, to a restructuring of needs and motives. What was significant before becomes secondary. A generalized attitude towards oneself and others appears. There is a crisis of the personality "I" (subordination of motives). Everything that is related to learning activity (first of all, grades) turns out to be valuable, what is related to the game is less important.

There is a change in the main experiences:

The very fact of experiences is revealed;

There is a meaningful orientation in their own experiences;

Experiences take on meaning.

Thus, the crisis of seven years represents internal changes in the child with relatively minor external changes and social relationships between the personality of the child and the people around him.

The child's transition to the next age stage is largely due to the child's psychological readiness for school. The components of psychological readiness for school are:

Intellectual readiness (OR, more broadly, - the readiness of the cognitive sphere);

Personal (including motivational);

Socio-psychological readiness;

Readiness of the emotional-volitional sphere

Literature

1. Bozhovich L.I. Personality and its formation in childhood... - M., 1968.

2. Vygotsky l. C. Questions of child psychology. -SPb., 1999.

3. Galiguzova L.N., Smirnova E.O. The stages of communication: from one to six. - M., 1996.

4. Davydov V.V. Developmental learning theory. Ch. 111. Problems of mental development of children. - M., 1996.

5. Ilyin EL .. Motivation and motives. - SPb., 2000.

6. Kulagina I.Yu., Kolyutsky V.N. Developmental psychology: The complete life cycle of human development: Textbook. manual for stud. higher. study. institutions. - M., 2001.

7. Mukhina V.S. Developmental psychology: the phenomenon of development, childhood, adolescence: Textbook for students. universities. - 5th EDITION, stereotype. - M., 2000.

8. Sapogova EE. Psychology of human development: Textbook. - M., 2001.

9. Slobodchikov V.I., Isaev E.I. Foundations of psychological anthropology. Psychology of human development: Development of subjective reality in ontogenesis: Textbook. manual for universities. - M., 2000.

11, Elkonind, B. Child psychology. - M., 1994.

12. Elkonin D.B. Psychology of the game. - M., 1978.

The manual sets out the main theoretical views of the leading domestic and foreign scientists in the field of child psychology, gives an idea of ​​the age norm and the main trends in the development of a child at different age stages.

Every parent raising a child of 3-6 years old should know the psychological characteristics of preschool children. At this time, cognitive processes are rapidly developing, the main personal characteristics of the future full-fledged member of society, its moral-ethical and emotional-volitional sphere are laid. In order for a child to grow up as a healthy and harmonious person, it will be necessary to create favorable conditions for his development.

Characteristics of the age stage

In preschool age, the baby quickly develops both physically and mentally. He has already learned to recognize the signals coming from the outside world, the stage of their analysis and synthesis is coming. There is an accumulation of knowledge, skills and abilities, their improvement.

This age covers the period from 3 to 7 years. It starts with the separation of oneself from the parents and ends with the development of self-awareness. It is divided into 3 stages:

• junior preschool age (3-4 years);
• middle preschool age (4-5 years old);
• senior preschool age (5-7 years).

Each period has its own characteristic psychological characteristics of development. At the age of 3-4 years, the baby begins to actively assert himself. He seeks to do everything independently and in his own way, praises himself, his actions and demands the same from adults. Often, reactions such as disobedience, stubbornness, negativism are manifested - all these are signs of a crisis for 3 years.

The psychological development of preschoolers aged 3-4 years includes the transition from a visual-active type of thinking to a visual-figurative one, the period of active speech formation ends, the vocabulary contains more than 1000 words. Attention and memory are involuntary.

In older preschoolers, stable attachments to adults are formed; for psychological health, the baby needs parental love, attention and understanding. Are being activated Creative skills, the arbitrariness of attention and memory appears, emotional reactions become more stable, volitional and moral components of the personality develop. Conscience and a sense of duty are formed, the norms and rules of behavior in society, the concepts of good and evil, friendship and love are firmly mastered. Children of this age love funny Games, they are amused by absurdities and stories.

Psychological features children of older preschool age are characterized by the fact that at this stage of development, broad cognitive interests come to the fore. This is the age of little "why" who want to understand how the world works. Salient feature this age period - curiosity, a keen desire to understand the surrounding reality. It is very important to support her so that in the future she is transformed into an interest in learning and a love of knowledge.

The role of play and mental neoplasms

The development of mental processes in preschool age is in its infancy. The child actively learns the world and asks a lot of questions. Cognitive processes develop - memory, attention, thinking, speech, the emotional-volitional sphere, as well as creative abilities. Knowing the peculiarities of the mental development of preschool children, parents build harmonious relationships with them and bring up a healthy personality.

The leading activity of preschoolers is play, the development of norms of behavior in society and the world of human relations. The child seeks to separate from adults, forms his own situation, where he is the master of the situation. But in reality, he cannot take a full part in the life of adults due to a number of physical and mental limitations. A role-playing game in which a number of conditions are observed is a symbolic form that helps to assert itself:

• the child imitates the actions of adults;
• comes up with a situation where real things are replaced by toys;
• the symbolic nature of what is happening;
• the process includes a number of rules and restrictions.

All this ensures the psychological health of the preschooler, his mental and emotional development. Through play, he learns to interact with others, learns the world, and due to obedience to the rules, the arbitrariness of behavior develops.

The psychological characteristics of preschool age include a number of neoplasms characteristic of this stage of development:

• shaping visual-figurative thinking, anticipation of the future result of the activity;
• the development of the arbitrariness of mental processes (memory, attention), the ability to pause reactions to assess the situation and predict;
• expanding the range of motives;
• the formation and development of self-esteem and self-awareness;
• active speech function;
• v moral development conscious acceptance of norms of behavior in society is carried out;
• psychological readiness for school (intellectual and personal).

In most cases, upon reaching the age of 7, the child has these neoplasms in one quality or another.

Mental development difficulties

The psychology of preschool age is such that rapid growth and development lead to the emergence of a number of contradictions that affect the behavior and emotional manifestations of a preschooler. Abundance of external impressions and new opportunities, increased physical activity The growing need for communication with peers is the main driving force behind the development of a preschool child.

The mental development of a child in preschool age can be difficult due to a number of problems:

• emotional and personal problems (bad mood, aggression, anxiety, fears, etc.);
• delayed development of cognitive processes (impaired attention, difficulty memorizing, insufficient understanding, limited vocabulary);
• behavioral problems (deceit, impudence, arrogance);
• neurological problems of various specificities (sleep disorder, fatigue, enuresis);
• communication problems (detachment from other children, resentment, excessive isolation).

Preschool psychology claims that despite the complication of experiences, the psyche of preschoolers is quite flexible and adaptive, capable of coping with a number of errors in upbringing and negative factors. Diagnostics of the mental development of children will help to understand such difficulties.

Diagnostic examination of preschoolers by a psychologist

In order to study the characteristics of the development of preschoolers, various methods are used. Mostly these are tests that allow you to determine the personality traits of a child, the level of his mental development, as well as psychological readiness for school. The development of approaches to examination, methods, rules of conduct, interpretation of results is involved in the psychology of preschool children.

By the age of 5-6, the child already perceives information well by ear, can retell what he has heard, explain the answer to a question. Is developing logical thinking, operations of analysis and synthesis, generalization, classification. Since the arbitrariness of behavior at this age is still being formed, the psychodiagnostics of children should include tasks affecting both the voluntary and involuntary levels of cognitive processes.

Methods for preschoolers are mainly aimed at determining the formation of the prerequisites for educational activity, the level of personal and cognitive development preschooler, the characteristics of his motivational-need-sphere.

Methods of psychodiagnostics of preschool children are not limited to special tasks and tests. Observation of children while playing with peers or alone has the optimal psychodiagnostic results. As a rule, this process reflects the peculiarities of the relationship with parents, the degree of conflict and aggressiveness of the child, the ability to obey the rules and norms. Projective, picture tests are great for young children. All experiences and problems, emotional state and degree of self-confidence are displayed on a sheet of paper.

An important condition for obtaining reliable results is the establishment of psychological contact between the preschooler and the psychologist. Only in this case, developmental diagnostics will be justified. If a child is coerced or intimidated, the test results can be severely skewed. If necessary, it will be recommended to attend correctional and developmental classes with a psychologist, speech therapist, defectologist or other specialist.

Socio-psychological characteristics of the relationship and interaction between a preschooler and an adult, primarily a parent, have a direct impact on the formation of a child's self-esteem. V early age it is based mainly on the attitude of the parents towards him, with whom the baby identifies himself and whom he imitates. If adults do not support the child's activity and spontaneity, he may develop inadequate self-esteem, usually underestimated.

Shy preschool children give parents a lot of anxiety. After all, such a child is difficult to give to Kindergarten or for developmental activities, left under the supervision of another adult. He is withdrawn, does not play with his peers on the court, he is embarrassed to express himself, often cries and worries. Preschoolers with high self-esteem are better oriented in children's games and relationships, feel confident in a team, active and proactive. But if self-esteem is too high, it can lead to arrogance and arrogance.

Psychologist's advice to parents on the formation of adequate self-esteem of a preschooler include the following recommendations:

• involve the child in everyday affairs, entrust him with simple duties, performing which, he will feel his significance and usefulness;
• for shy children, it is important to create a situation of success, to praise and support all endeavors;
• all educational influences (both praise and punishment) must be adequate to the age and actions of the preschooler;
• encourage activity and initiative;
• to compare the child only with himself (what he was yesterday and what he has become at the moment);
• to form an adequate attitude to failures, to sort out mistakes together and draw conclusions;
• accept the baby as he is, with all his advantages and disadvantages.

Parents should not forget that, along with age-related psychological characteristics, an individual personal development of a preschooler takes place with his unique qualities. Heredity, features of temperament, style of upbringing, family atmosphere are factors that have a direct impact on the formation and development of a preschooler's personality. Respect, acceptance and support from the family will help the little person grow up confident, active and purposeful.

V developmental psychology preschool age is described as one of the most important stages of personality development. It was during this period that the child's perception of himself and his capabilities, attitude towards the world and stereotypes of communication are laid in the child. Psychology of preschool age helps parents to understand the peculiarities of development and the reasons for the behavior of the baby.

Preschool in modern psychology is considered to be the age from 4 to 7 years. The beginning of this period is preceded by a crisis three years... This is a rather difficult period in the life of parents, since the child shows extreme negativism and strong stubbornness.

It is this crisis that means that the child differentiates, separates from the mother and manifests itself as a separate person with his own opinions and desires. In order for him to successfully pass this stage, parents should in no case humiliate or break the preschooler. It is necessary to show him that he is heard, and he has the right to his experiences, but it is the adults' right to decide.

Having passed this crisis, the child enters a new level of relations with adults. If earlier he was the “navel of the earth”, a mother’s continuation, now he is becoming a separate person and a full member of the family. He must follow family rules, and he has the first duties (to clean up toys).

The boundaries of the family are revealed, and the child discovers the world... At this time, he usually begins to attend kindergarten, where he learns to interact with peers, as well as other adults. This is the first social role.

The desire for independence is an important characteristic of preschool age. The child strives to be an adult, but cannot yet be. This is what gives rise to the role-playing game as an opportunity to "play as an independent adult."

A preschooler tries to imitate his elders in everything, from intonation to gestures and behavior. At this age, the child, like a mirror, reflects his parents. For them, this is a great opportunity to look at themselves from the outside and think about what they are teaching their children.

Play as a way of development

Preschool psychology defines play as a leading activity in the development of children of this age. What does "leading business" mean? This means that it is this activity that has the main influence on the development of the child's personality and all his mental processes.

In the process of playing, the child learns to control his behavior according to the chosen role. This is how his arbitrary behavior is formed. But do not think that the game for the kid is just a fantasy, a pretense. No. For him, the game is an emotionally intense and absolutely real activity, where he can become anyone: a doctor, a salesman, a teacher, a knight or a princess.

Joint play helps children develop communication skills, and also contributes to the emergence of social motives (achievement of success, leadership).

In progress role-playing game the following neoplasms appear in a preschooler:

• subordination of motives, that is, the ability to subordinate their personal desires to the rules of the game;
• learning to communicate with other children. He masters the skills of interacting with peers, gaining both positive communication experience (friendship, common toys) and negative (resentment, quarrels);
• assimilation of the word "SHOULD", and the understanding that it is much stronger than the word "WANT".

Cognitive processes of a preschooler

All mental processes are rapidly developing in preschoolers. Distinctive feature of all cognitive processes in preschool age is the acquisition of arbitrariness.

At a younger preschool age (3-4 years), perception is closely related to the child's emotions, and the more positive feelings and vivid impressions a child experiences when exposed to a stimulus, the more accurate the perception will be. But already at an older age (5-7 years), perception becomes not just a reaction to a stimulus, but a tool for learning about the world around us. Visual perception is especially developed among preschoolers.

Attention and memory retain their involuntary character, but by the end of the period their arbitrariness develops. By the age of 5, the stability of attention and its volume increase. Moreover, it was found that the stability of attention is associated with the character of the child. In calm children, it is 2 times higher than in emotional ones.

The most important mental function that affects the development of a preschooler is memory. A child is able to memorize a lot of various information, but only when he is interested, and this happens during the game. No special memorization techniques will work.

The development of a preschooler's thinking goes through several stages. At the beginning, the child has developed visual-active thinking, then - by the middle of preschool age - it turns into visual-figurative thinking, and at the end verbal-logical thinking begins to form.

These psychological characteristics of the development of preschool children, and in particular, the peculiarities of thinking, must be taken into account when communicating with a child. For example, a child 4-5 years old asks when mom will return home. You answer that she will come home after work. And after a couple of minutes, the child asks the same question. No, he is not joking with you and he heard your answer well. It was just because of the specifics of the child's thinking that he did not understand it.

The words "after", "then" refer to the category of time (past, present, future), and this refers to verbal-logical thinking. And the child operates with visual-effective. Therefore, so that the child understands you, list after what actions and events the mother will appear at home. For example: "we will take a walk with you now, then we will eat, watch a cartoon, it will become dark outside the window, and then mom will come."

At preschool age, the centers responsible for speech functions mature in the child's psyche, and the process of mastering native speech is completed. The little man's vocabulary increases significantly. At the age of six, a child's active vocabulary contains 2500-3000 words. This is three times more than that of a three-year-old baby.

However, these indicators are completely dependent on the environment in which children grow up. Preschoolers have a large vocabulary if their parents talk a lot with them and read fairy tales and stories with them (this is how they become familiar with literary speech).

This period is characterized by the so-called word creation of children - the ability to form bizarre forms of words or use words in an unusual meaning.

The leading needs of the preschooler

The psychology of preschool children often contains contradictions. For example, at this age they have two new needs:

• communication with other children;
• the need to be busy important activity for society.

But the child cannot fulfill the second need in society. How can he resolve this contradiction? This is what leads to the emergence of a role-playing game, which makes it possible for a preschooler to play the roles of adults who are engaged in socially important activities.

An important need for a baby at this age is the need for acceptance and unconditional love. It is important for him to feel that he is special for his parents, and he is loved simply because he is. Parental acceptance and love creates a solid foundation for healthy self-esteem. Growing up, the child will not "curry favor" in order to earn love.

Unconditional love does not mean no punishment for wrongdoing. But parents need to separate personality and deeds and punish the child precisely for misconduct, and not for the fact that he is “bad”. It is necessary to explain to him that he is good and is loved, but the parents must punish him for the offense.

Personal development

According to preschool psychology, in the period from 4 to 7 years, the foundation of the personality is laid: self-esteem, subordination of motives, the assimilation of moral norms and rules, as well as the ability to evaluate and control one's behavior.

The preschooler learns to name emotions and recognize their manifestations in themselves and others. It is very important during this period to teach him a healthy attitude towards negative emotions and how to express them correctly. To do this, adults themselves must have a well-developed emotional intelligence.

At this age, the child shows emotions such as empathy and care. "Social" emotions develop: a sense of pride and joy for a good deed, a sense of shame for a bad one.

Self-esteem and self-awareness

At this stage of development, the child develops the ability to evaluate his own actions and the actions of others. And that's when self-esteem and self-image are formed.

Self-concept is based on the self-concept. Although it would be more correct to say: "You are a concept", since at first the preschooler's self-image is formed from how his parents evaluate him. Therefore, parents should be careful in assessing their child, more often pay attention to his dignity and abilities, so that he grows up as a self-confident person.

Moral development and the hierarchy of motives

The preschooler actively learns the norms of behavior and morality and begins to think in moral categories: bad - good, good - evil, honest - dishonest. Parents play a significant role in the moral development of a little person, and it is they who pass on their values ​​to children.

An important new formation of this age is the subordination of personal motives to public ones. In early preschool age, children have personal motives, one of which is to elicit the approval of a significant adult. In senior school age, there is a subordination of motives: personal motives give way to social motives (to do a good deed, or to submit to the wishes of the group).

Knowledge of the norms and rules of behavior, as well as the ability to evaluate their actions in older preschool age, lead to the fact that the child learns to control his actions and manage his behavior.

Gender

The awareness of oneself as a being of a certain sex is already present in three-year-olds... And at first, children can copy the behavior of a parent of the same gender - girls put on jewelry like mothers, and boys have business conversations on a toy phone. Growing up, they will already try to behave accordingly: the daughter will ask to help in the kitchen, the boy will ask to fix the car with his grandfather.

It is interesting that preschoolers tend to be friends only with peers of the same sex: girls with girls, and boys with boys. In this case, disparaging statements towards the opposite sex are possible.

There is no end and edge to the creative flight of a child. Imagination takes the baby far, far away. He is interested in drawing, sculpting, gluing, and much more. Encourage these activities. This is how his imagination develops, his talents and self-confidence are revealed.

Why are you greedy and brawlers

Preschool age is the age of a thousand and one questions. The kid actively learns the world, and he is interested in knowing everything: what the sun is made of, and why the bag rustles. While these questions are sometimes inappropriate, always take the time to answer them. This broadens your baby's horizons and strengthens your relationship.

On the playground, you can often see little "greedy" who do not want to share toys with other children. Mothers who do not want conflicts urge their children to give the toy to play. But is it right? For preschool children, selfishness is still characteristic, and it is important for them to “have” their toys. Plus, there's nothing wrong with having a sense of ownership of your toys. Imagine if a person came up to you and asked you to play your phone. You would refuse, and others would call you greedy.

This is how a child feels when asked to give his toy to another. Better explain to your child that the toy belongs to him, and if he wants (I emphasize: if he wants), he can give it to someone to play, but that child will definitely return it. If the baby does not want to give, it is his right to dispose of his toy.

There are also children who strive to hit, push or call names. Firmly, but without anger, stop the child. Usually, at the age of 4, the toddler begins to test the boundaries of other people. In other words: "How can I interact with others?" And if undesirable behavior is not stopped, then it will continue to manifest itself.

How can you help your child develop?

There is a concept of "zone of proximal development". He was introduced into psychology by the famous Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky. The zone of actual development is called the child's skills, which he performs independently, without the help of adults.

Also, in preschool age, a child actively develops many mental functions, and with the assistance of an adult, he can learn a lot. Only you need to do not FOR him, but TOGETHER with him. What a preschooler can do with the help of an adult, a little later he will be able to do it himself. This is called the zone of proximal development. If you want to teach your child something, do it with him first. In addition, this is how we develop his self-confidence.

We are always in a hurry somewhere, and it seems to us easier and faster to do something for the child. But then we expect that he himself will be able to put away toys, cut out of paper and put clothes in a closet.

Children are capital, in which you need to invest time and attention, and they will pleasantly surprise you.

The end of preschool age is also marked by a crisis. This period is not easy for both parents and the child himself. He can be stubborn, argue, refuse to follow your instructions, make claims and even be cunning.

The psychology of the preschooler sees the reason for this behavior in the new social role that the child is mastering. He is included in a new system of relationships, where he has his own responsibilities, which may seem difficult to the baby.

The most important characteristic of this crisis is that the child is now not as comprehensible as it used to be. His experiences are now stored inside and are not always visible on the surface. The reason for this is the loss of childlike spontaneity and the desire to imitate an adult. But only these imitations in the form of grimacing and antics are not cute and funny, but cause irritation.

• Be patient. A newly minted student can be touchy and quick-tempered. This is due to his self-esteem. In school, learning involves some competition for who is better and more successful. This creates inner tension.
• For the same reason, the child needs your support and faith in his strength. Express them to him more often.
• And of course, spend time with the whole family. A sense of family unity will instill in him the confidence that he is always loved, no matter what happens.

Alena is a permanent expert of the PupsFull portal. She writes articles on psychology, parenting and learning, and child play.

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