Психологические особенности детей старшего дошкольного возраста

1.1. Психологическая характеристика возрастных особенностей детей дошкольного возраста

Старший дошкольный возраст – последний из периодов дошкольного возраста, когда в психике ребенка появляются новые образования. Это произвольность психических процессов – внимания, памяти, восприятия и др. – и вытекающая отсюда способность управлять своим поведением, а также изменения в представлениях о себе, в самосознании и в самооценках. Появление произвольности – решающее изменение в деятельности ребенка, когда целью последней становится не изменение внешних, окружающих его предметов, а овладение собственным поведением.

Дети шестого года жизни отличаются еще большими физическими и психическими возможностями, чем дети средней группы. Они овладевают главными движениями. Физически ребенок стал еще крепче. Физическое развитие по-прежнему связано с умственным. Оно становится необходимым условием, фоном, на котором успешно происходит разностороннее развитие ребенка. Умственное, эстетическое, нравственное, т.е. сугубо социальное, развитие набирает высокий темп.

На этом жизненном этапе продолжается совершенствование всех сторон речи ребенка. Он правильно произносит все звуки родного языка, отчетливо и ясно воспроизводит слова, имеет необходимый для свободного общения словарный запас, правильно пользуется многими грамматическими формами и категориями, содержательней, выразительней и точнее становится его высказывания.

Развивается общение как вид деятельности. К старшему дошкольному возрасту появляется внеситуативно-личностная форма общения, которую отличают потребности во взаимопонимании и сопереживании и личностные мотивы общения. Общение со сверстником приобретает черты внеситуативности, общение становится внеситуативно-деловым; складываются устойчивые избирательные предпочтения.

Развитие личности в старшем дошкольном возрасте характеризуется освоением новых знаний, появлением новых качеств, потребностей. Иначе говоря, формируются все стороны личности ребенка: интеллектуальная, нравственная, эмоциональная и волевая действенно – практическая. Советские психологи Л.С. Выготский и А.В. Запорожец неоднократно подчеркивали, что в старшем дошкольном возрасте ребенок переходит от ситуативного поведения к деятельности, подчиненной социальным нормам и требованиям, и очень эмоционально относится к последним. В этот период вместо познавательного типа общения ребенка со взрослым на первый план выступает личностный, в центре которого лежит интерес к человеческим взаимоотношениям. Старший дошкольник в основном верно осознает, что нравится и что не нравится в его поведении взрослым, вполне адекватно оценивает качество своих поступков и отдельные черты своей личности. К концу дошкольного возраста у детей формируется самооценка. Ее содержанием выступает состояние практических умений и моральных качеств ребенка, выражающихся в подчинении нормам поведениям, установленным в данном коллективе. В целом самооценка дошкольника очень высока, что помогает ему осваивать новые виды деятельности, без сомнений и страха включаться в занятия учебного типа при подготовке к школе и т. д.[20]

У детей этого возраста уже можно наблюдать проявления подлинной заботы о близких людях, поступки, которые направлены на то, чтобы оградить их от беспокойства, огорчения. Ребенок овладевает умением до известной степени сдерживать бурные, резкие выражения чувств, 5 – 6-летний дошкольник может сдержать слезы, скрыть страх и т.д. Он усваивает «язык» чувств – принятые в обществе формы выражения тончайших оттенков переживаний при помощи взглядов, мимики, жестов, поз, движений, интонаций.

Конструирование, рисование, лепка – это наиболее свойственные дошкольнику занятия. Но в этом возрасте формируются и элементы трудовой деятельности, основной психологический смысл которой состоит в следующем: ребенок должен понимать, что он делает нужное, полезное для других дело трудиться. Приобретенные к пяти годам навыки самообслуживания, опыт труда в природе, изготовления поделок позволяют детям больше участвовать в делах взрослых. Старшие дошкольники могут переходить от выполнения отдельных поручений к выполнению постоянных обязанностей: убирать свой игровой уголок, поливать цветы, чистить свою одежду и обувь. Вместе с выполнением таких заданий к ребенку придут и первое познание радости собственного труда – дела, сделанного для общего блага.

Еще одна деятельность, элементы которой усваиваются в дошкольном детстве, — это учебная деятельность. Основная особенность ее состоит в том, что, занимаясь ею, ребенок изменяется сам, приобретая новые знания и навык и. В учебной деятельности главное – это получение новых знаний.

Пятилетний возраст характеризуется расцветом фантазии. Особенно ярко воображение ребенка проявляется в игре, где он действует увлеченно. Вместе с тем вообразить что-то намеренно, подключая волю детям этого возраста нелегко.  

Ведущим видом деятельности выступает сюжетно – ролевая игра. Именно в ней ребенок берет на себя роль взрослого, выполняя его социальные, общественные функции. Старший ребенок – дошкольник уже может сначала отобрать все предметы, необходимые ему для игры в доктора, а только затем начинать игру, не хватаясь уже в процессе ее то за одну, то за другую вещь. Наряду с сюжетно – ролевой игрой – ведущей деятельностью в дошкольном детстве – к концу дошкольного возраста у детей появляются игры с правилами: прятки, салочки, круговая лапта и др. Умение подчиниться правилу формируется в процессе ролевой игры, где любая роль содержит в себе скрытые правила. К концу дошкольного возраста у ребенка в игре формируются те качества (новообразования), которые становятся основой формирования учебной деятельности в младшем школьном возрасте.

На шестом году жизни у ребенка появляется способность ставить цели, касающиеся его самого, его собственного поведения. Это новое изменение в деятельности и ее целях называется произвольностью психических процессов и имеет решающее значение и для успешности последующего школьного обучения, и для всего дальнейшего психического развития. Ведь подчинение школьным правилам как раз и требует произвольности поведения. Это означает умение ребенка действовать в соответствии с каким – либо образцом (или правилом) и контроль им своего поведения. Именно в игре, при выполнении какой-либо роли ребенок, с одной стороны, следует образцу, а с другой – контролирует свое поведение. Взрослея, малыш учится организовывать сам себя. Поведение его как бы освобождается от игровой ситуации. Игры с правилами более содержательные у старших дошкольников. К шести – семи годам меняется отношение детей к нарушению правила. Дети все более строго относятся к точному следованию правилам игры. Они настаивают на ее продолжении, даже если она успела надоесть всем участникам. И находят в этой рутинной игре какое-то удовольствие.

В старшем дошкольном возрасте ребенок по-прежнему смотрит на мир широко открытыми глазами. Все чаще и чаще, все смелее и смелее он бросает свой взор на открывшуюся перспективу познания большого мира. Детям все интересно, их все манит и привлекает. Старший дошкольник с одинаковым рвением пытается освоить и то, что поддается осмыслению на данном возрастном этапе, и то, что пока он не в состоянии глубоко и правильно осознать. Именно у детей 5-6 лет наблюдается пик познавательных вопросов. Их познавательные потребности можно выразить девизом: «Хочу все знать!»

Однако имеющиеся у ребенка возможности переработки, упорядочивания информации еще не позволяют ему полноценно справиться с потоком поступающих сведений о большом мире. Несоответствие между познавательными потребностями ребенка и его возможностями переработать информацию может привести к перегрузке сознания различными разрозненными сведениями и фактами, многие из которых дети этого возраста не в состоянии осмыслить и понять. Познавательные интересы возникают в играх, в общении со взрослыми, сверстниками, но лишь в учении, где усвоение знаний становится основной целью и результатом деятельности, формируются и окончательно складываются познавательные интересы. Для того чтобы удовлетворить свои стремления, желания и потребности, в арсенале пятилетнего ребенка имеются различные способы познания. К ним относятся: действия и собственный практический опыт; слово, т.е. объяснения, рассказы взрослых. Большое значение для познавательного развития ребенка старшего возраста имеет осознанное знакомство с различными источниками информации (книга, телевизор, компьютер и т.п.), привитие первичных умений пользоваться некоторыми из них.

При переходе к старшему дошкольному возрасту отмечается особенно интенсивное развитие словесной памяти. Дети запоминают словесный материал почти так же хорошо, как наглядный. Работа со словесным материалом играет большую роль при обучении в школе, поэтому в старшем дошкольном возрасте следует обратить внимание и на развитие словесной памяти.

Уровень развития мыслительных операций ребенка старшего дошкольного возраста (анализ, сравнение, обобщение, классификация и т.п.) помогает ему более осознанно и глубоко воспринимать и постигать имеющиеся и поступающие сведения о нашем мире и разбираться в нем.

К концу дошкольного возраста у ребенка начинает развиваться понятийное, или логическое, мышление. Ребенок начинает интересовать не только те явления, которые он видел непосредственно перед собой, а обобщенные свойства предметов окружающей действительности. Детей интересуют причины и следствия в отношениях предметов, проявляется интерес к «технологии» их изготовления. Ребенок уже способен оторваться от непосредственно увиденного, вскрыть причинно-следственные связи между явлениями, проанализировать, обобщить новый материал и сделать вполне логические выводы. Постепенно расширяя представления детей об окружающем. Для развития познавательных интересов большое значение имеет собственное участие ребенка в самых различных видах деятельности.

В дошкольном возрасте значительные изменения происходят во всех сферах психического развития ребенка. Как ни в каком другом возрасте, ребенок осваивает широкий круг деятельности – игровую, трудовую, продуктивные, бытовую, общение, формируется как их техническая сторона, так и мотивационно-целевая. Главным итогом развития всех видов деятельности выступает овладение моделированием как центральной умственной способностью (Л. А. Венгер) и формирование произвольного поведения (А. Н. Леонтьев, Д. Б. Эльконин).[128]

К концу дошкольного возраста ребенок может уже довольно долго выполнять какую-либо деятельность, пока она ему интересна, не требует никаких внутренних усилий, основываясь только на непроизвольном внимании. Произвольность и опосредованность внимания в дошкольном возрасте достигается с помощью игр.

К шести годам жизни у ребенка достаточно сформирован механизм сопоставления воспринимаемой действительности и слова педагога, в результате чего понижается способность к внушаемости. Дети способны отстаивать свою точку зрения, понимать комические ситуации. По данным исследований, старшие дошкольники в характерных жизненных ситуациях самокритичнее, требовательнее к себе, чем младшие школьники в новой для них учебной деятельности. Важные изменения в личности ребенка связаны с изменением его представлений о себе (его образе – я) и осознанием отношений к нему окружающих.

Старший дошкольный возраст является сензитивным для морального развития. Это период, когда закладываются основы морального поведения и отношения. Одновременно, он весьма благоприятен для формирования морального облика ребенка, черты которого нередко проявляются в течение всей последующей жизни.

Таким образом, ребенок дошкольного возраста отличается еще большими физическими и психическими возможностями, чем дети средней группы. Их отношение со сверстниками и взрослыми становятся сложнее и содержательнее. Дети имеют необходимый для свободного общения словарный запас, формируются все стороны личности ребенка: интеллектуальная, нравственная, эмоциональная и волевая действенно – практическая; формируются и элементы трудовой деятельности – навыки самообслуживания, труд в природе и др. Ведущим видом деятельности является сюжетно — ролевая игра, игра с правилами. В игре они отражают не только действия и операции с предметами, но и взаимоотношения между людьми. Основные изменения в деятельности, сознании и личности ребенка заключается в появлении произвольности психических процессов – способность целенаправленно управлять своим поведением и психическими процессами – восприятием, вниманием, памятью и др. Происходит изменение в представлении о себе, его образе – я.

90000 physiological, psychological. Adults and children 90001 90002 Children 7 years old are the guys who are in thesenior preschool or at a younger school age. This means that in their psychology and physiology, changes are bound to occur soon. For many parents, the characteristics of the age characteristics of children of 6-7 years will seem surprising, but this does not mean that it is bad. Just be prepared for the child to move to a new stage in his development. 90003 90002 This age is characterized by the fact that the babyactive, open to everything new and optimistic about life in society.He tries to learn more and more information, make friends with all the people around him. In parallel, he learns the communication skills that will be necessary for him at school. 90003 90002 In addition, the age features of the child 6-7 years old are also physiological. They are no less important than psychological ones. 90003 90008 Physiological features of preschool children 90009 90002 Physiology is a change in the structure of the body during the growth of a person. At the child of 6-7 years it is possible to allocate such features: 90003 90012 90013 The body proportionately increases.90014 90013 Growth varies mainly within the range of 113-122 cm. 90014 90013 Weight is 21-25 kg. 90014 90013 All the nervous processes in the body develop. 90014 90013 The mobility of nervous processes is weak. For example, a 7-year-old girl can not respond quickly to a boy who insulted her in the kindergarten; she, as a rule, takes offense and leaves or begins to cry. 90014 90013 The respiratory system is poorly developed, there is a strong need for oxygen. 90014 90013 The heart muscle becomes much thicker.The heart rate also increases, but it is not quite rhythmic. 90014 90013 The muscles of the child become larger and denser. The kid becomes stronger. However, the muscular system, as a rule, is unevenly developed, so that physical activity must be present in the child’s life. 90014 90013 The work of the sense organs develops rapidly, this is facilitated by constant training. 90014 90031 90002 Adults and children should all the timeto interact. Parents should take an active part in the development of the child.Keep track of the health and behavior of the baby in order to notice possible violations in time. Caring and attentive parents usually prevent all sorts of problems, and if this is not done, the diseases quickly cure. 90003 90002 Do not neglect the words of the child. If he wants to tell you something, listen to him. Often children themselves report that they feel uncomfortable. This information helps to quickly solve the problem from the life of the family. In a timely manner, lead the child to a doctor for an examination, this is a good prevention of all kinds of diseases.90003 90008 What happens to the mental state of the preschooler 90009 90002 Children of 7 years actively learn the world around them. Usually in the behavior of a child of this age, you can notice some features: 90003 90012 90013 He readily accepts the new rules that he was told at school. The child is open to communication with peers and teachers. 90014 90013 The child is able to treat any problem not only for his part. Gradually, he gets used to take into account the point of view of others.90014 90013 The child understands the signs of many objects andcan analyze them. For example, a boy of 7 years old understands that the radio control car will stop working if it is immersed in water, and the stone that he throws can break glass. In this regard, children become more cautious. 90014 90013 The child begins to understand that in lifethere are not only games. The cognitive process is actively developing. But at the same time, it is difficult for a child to concentrate on one task for a long time, especially if he does not consider it interesting.90014 90013 The baby is emotionally and physically fully ready forschool. He is able to concentrate on one task for 30-45 minutes. In addition, in an effort to learn something new preschooler surpasses any adult person. 90014 90013 Be careful, since the child is verysensitive to the opinion of others. A 7-year-old girl, for example, will consider herself to be ugly, if she has been told about this by her classmate. It is important to explain to the child that not always the words of others are true, so that he does not form his own wrong image for himself.90014 90031 90002 It is also worth noting that agepsychological features of children 6-7 years do not end on general provisions. There are other factors that indicate that the child develops according to his age. 90003 90008 Mathematical features of children of senior preschool age 90009 90002 Age features of a child of 6-7 years suggest that the baby: 90003 90012 90013 Is able to add and subtract numbers. 90014 90013 Can solve simple problems and disassemble simple puzzles. 90014 90013 Is able to correctly determine the direction of motion.90014 90013 Can count at least to 10. 90014 90013 Correctly determines which number is greater, which is less. 90014 90013 Correctly determines the shape of objects. Knows how simple geometric shapes look. 90014 90013 He knows the simplest mathematical signs. 90014 90013 Solves problems in one action, can make such tasks independently. 90014 90013 Is able to name the numerical sequence in reverse order. 90014 90031 90002 Along with such mathematical abilities, the child must develop thinking.90003 90008 Age features of the child 6-7 years: logical thinking 90009 90002 Age features of older preschoolers are also evident in logical thinking: 90003 90012 90013 The child should be able to identify the pattern and complement a number of subjects, following the logic . 90014 90013 The kid is able to find an extra object, tag or number from the proposed series. 90014 90013 The child should be able to make simple stories based on the proposed pictures. In addition, he must independently come up with the ending of various stories.90014 90013 A preschooler should be able to combine subjects into groups on the basis of common characteristics. 90014 90031 90002 Mathematical abilities do not always determine the level of development of a child. It is also important to consider other components in his thinking. In particular, pay attention to the development of speech. 90003 90008 The speech of the senior preschooler 90009 90002 Age features of the child 6-7 years are also evident in his speech: 90003 90012 90013 The kid should know how to name his name, the surname, the city in which he lives.He also needs to know the same information about his parents. 90014 90013 The child must know by heart his home address and telephone number. 90014 90013 Adults and children should communicate without feeling uncomfortable. The speech of the child should be coherent and well-coordinated so that parents can understand it without hindrance. 90014 90013 The child should be able to color his thoughts intonationally. 90014 90013 A kid should know when they tell him something, when they ask a question, when they need to perform a task.90014 90013 The child is able to lead a discussion and enter into disputes, ask questions and formulate his own requirements. 90014 90013 In addition to dialogue, the child must have a monologue. 90014 90013 The child must know a large number of poems by heart. In addition, it is desirable that he is able to tell them with an expression. 90014 90031 90002 A full development of a preschooler’s speech is impossible without knowing the world around him. 90003 90122.90000 Psychological and pedagogical characteristics of younger schoolchildren 90001 90002 Psychological and pedagogical characteristics of the youngerschoolchildren is a document that must be issued by the teachers on a mandatory basis in the timeframe set by the school administration (most often when the child ends junior classes). Such a characteristic, as a rule, is compiled according to a certain template, taking into account the basic rules and requirements. If you are a young teacher and do not know how to describe correctly, in this article you will be able to find general recommendations and advice that will certainly help you.90003 It should not be forgotten that when disclosing a personthe teacher should most fully describe it, analyzing the behavior of the student. It is very important that the originator of the characteristics draws on the most characteristic facts of child behavior and does not write anything baseless. It is the factual material and weighty arguments in psychological conclusions that, without which it is impossible to write such a characterization. 90002 How deep will bepsychological and pedagogical characteristics of junior schoolchildren, depends on the degree of definition of the psychological basis of the student’s behavior.The teacher should recommend his own pedagogical influence on the student’s behavior, taking into account the above-mentioned principles. 90003 90002 As a rule, psycho-pedagogicalthe characteristics of the child are written in a separate thin notebook or on a separate sheet of A4 paper. On the title page, it is necessary to indicate who and on whom the description was made. You can also note how much time the teacher observed the child, as well as indicate the methods that were used to analyze the behavior of the student.Before beginning the compilation of the document, the teacher can ask the school administration for the previously written characteristics and use it as a sample. 90003 Psychological and pedagogical characteristics of the child (style of writing) is somewhat different in different schools, but in general it contains the same items. We bring to your attention an indicative scheme for drawing up a document. 90002 Initially, the most general information about the student (age, class, appearance) is indicated.90003 90002 Then follows the description of the conditions of family upbringing (given parents, their professions), a brief description of the actions for raising a child is given. 90003 90002 The next part of the characteristic is, perhaps, the most voluminous. It describes the educational, play, work activity, as well as the characteristics of the student’s communication with peers and friends. It is necessary to pay attention to the child’s attitude to learning and learning new things, games, work and leisure.Describing the communication of the child, you need to display his character, especially the circle of communication and behavior with adults, peers and younger children, as well as representatives of the opposite sex. 90003 Further it is necessary to describe the pupil as a member of the class collective, his place in the class, his reputation, the number of friends among his classmates, and the nature of his communication with them. 90002 In any order the teacher should describepersonality of the schoolboy: his character, self-awareness, ability, temperament.As this is the psychological and pedagogical characteristic of younger schoolchildren, psychological aspects such as attention, perception, memory, and thinking are also described. The pupil’s speech, his imagination, feelings and emotions are evaluated. 90003 90002 At the very end of the characteristic, the teacher mustdraw general conclusions and write whether the level of mental development of the child corresponds to its age, whether it is necessary to take any measures to correct behavior.Note that the better all the above features are described, the better will be the psychological and pedagogical characteristics of younger schoolchildren, and the easier the teacher will work with students in the future. 90003 p >> .90000 The Psychological Development of the Child 90001 The Psychological Development of the Child 90002 Henri Wallon 90003 90004 The Psychological Development of the Child 90005 90006 90002 90008 Written: 90009 1965; 90010 90008 Source: 90009 «L’evolution psychologique de l’enfant» in 90013 The World of Henri Wallon 90014; 90010 90008 Translator: 90009 Michael Vale; 90010 90008 Publisher: 90009 Jason Aaronson 1984; 90010 90022 Transcription / Markup: 90023 Nate Schmolze; 90010 90022 Online Version: 90023 Wallon Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2001. 90003 90006 90002 The child can only live his childhood; to understand childhood is the province of the adult. But whose vantage point is to prevail, the adult’s or the child? The adult recognizes differences between himself and a child. But these differences are usually reduced to the quantitative, to a matter of mere degree. When he compare himself with a child, an adult sees the child as relatively or eve totally incapable of actions or tasks he himself can accomplish. These inabilities can shed light on differences in mental organization between the child and the adult.90003 90002 An adult demonstrates his egocentrism through his conviction that all mental development must naturally and inevitably lead to modes of thought and feeling exactly like his own and bearing the particular stamp of the time and place in which he lives. If he does somehow manage to achieve the insight that a child’s thoughts an feelings do follow paths quite different from his own, it does not occur to him to consider this as anything more than an oddity. Since this oddity is constant and seems as necessary and normal as his own ideological system, he feels an attempt should certainly be made to understand its mechanism.But he first finds he must understand the nature of this oddity. Is it true that the mentality of the child and that of the adult follow different paths and conform to different principles; that the transition from one to the other involves a total transformation; that the principles the adult believes govern his own thought constitute an immutable and inflexible norm in the light of which a child’s thought may be dismissed as outside the domain of reason; and that the intellectual inferences of a child bear no relation whatever to an adult’s? Could adult intelligence have remained so rich and productive if it really had been forced to abandon the sources from which the child’s intelligence springs? 90003 90002 After all, it is the world of adults that the environment imposes on the child, so that at each stage the structures and contents of the mind display a certain uniformity.But it does not follow that the adult need take into account only those aspects of a child’s thought that the adult imposes. Even the manner in which a child assimilates material may bear absolutely no resemblance to the way an adult utilizes it. If the adult surpasses the child, the child in his way surpasses the adult. 90003 90002 The child’s frequent inability to use a previously acquired skill has been pointed out by several authors. The explanations given by W. Stern and, later, by Piaget are more or less similar.A particular mental operation extends over different levels, and during the course of mental development the passage from one level to the next always occurs in the same sequence. The circumstances under which an operation must be carried out present obstacles of widely varying difficulty. If the difficulty increases, the operation may then be performed at a lower level. Thus, the same person, at the same age, can perform the same operation at a variety of levels. Piaget, by way of explanation, uses concepts such as causality, which the child seems to know how to apply objectively to everyday activity, though in his explanations at the «verbal level» he regresses to much more subjective forms of causality, such as voluntaristic or affective ones.90003 90002 Although a child’s mental development presupposes a kind of network in which internal and external factors are intertwined, it is possible to unravel their distinct, respective roles. The internal factors are presumably responsible for the strict sequence of developmental phases, the chief determinant of which is the growth of the organs. Substances of relatively simple chemical composition seem to perform the decisive roles of stimulating and regulating the differentiation of organs.This differentiation sets the stage for the emergence of the future organism’s structures from the embryo (in which they are latent, though invisible). These substances are the hormones, secreted by the endocrine glands. Each hormone is endowed with a strict specificity, although hormones are often mutually dependent. They control the appearance and development of different kinds of tissues, and the sequence in which they are activated is precisely attuned to the needs of growth. In addition to their morphogenic role, they also exercise an equally specific elective action on physiological and mental functions.Von Monakow regarded them as the material substrate of the instincts. 90003 90002 The problem of the relations between functional maturation and functional learning now arises. Obviously, to systematically impute every development to the maturation of the corresponding organs would be only to repeat, in modified form, the old explanations in which every effect was merely referred to an entity modeled after it. But to contend a priori, as Piaget does in his book La naissance de l’intelligence chez l’enf ant (1936), that during the course of mental development new activities emerge that must necessarily have their source in the functional activation of matured organic structure, is to mistake a simple description, however rich, penetrating, and ingenious, for the deep-seated mechanisms of mental life.90010 90003 90042 PLAY 90043 90002 It has been said that play is the activity uniquely appropriate to the child; and as a child often sees deeply engrossed in his play, certain authors (W. Stern, for example) have felt obliged to attribute to children what they call serious games. According to Charlotte Bhler, play is a stage in the total development of the child that disappears of its own accord at succeeding periods. Indeed, play is mingled in all of the child’s activity so long as that activity remains spontaneous and untouched by objects introduced for educative purposes.At the beginning, games are purely functional; then come games of make-believe and games of practical skill. 90003 90002 In his play the child repeats the impressions of events he has just experienced. He reproduces; he imitates. For the very young child, imitation is the only rule of the game so long as he is unable to go beyond the concrete, living model to abstract instructions. Initially, children’s comprehension is no more than the assimilation of others to themselves and themselves to others, and in this process imitation plays an important role.Imitation, as the instrument of this fusion, demonstrates a contradiction that explains certain contrasts on which play thrives. Imitation is not random; the child is very selective. He imitates people who enjoy the most prestige in his own eyes, those who evoke his positive, affectionate feelings. At the same time, the child «Borrows» or becomes these persons. Always totally immersed in what he is doing, he accordingly imagines and wishes himself to be them. But soon his latent awareness of this borrowing arouses in him feelings of hostility against the person serving as a model, whom he can not eliminate.He finally comes to resent this person whose absolutely incontestable and frustrating superiority he often continues to experience. 90003 90002 Between the ages of six and seven it becomes possible to disengage the child from his spontaneous activity and to divert his interest to others. Until comparatively recently, productive labor, including factory work, began at this age. Indeed, in some colonial countries this is still the case. In France, the child enters school at this age and tackles the demands of formal education-which include self-discipline.90010 90003 90042 SOME ASPECTS OF IMITATION 90043 90002 Two contradictory elements are basic to all imitation. One is a plastic union in which the external impression is taken in and then discharged again gently from its strange receptacle, leaving only those elements that are able to be incorporated into existing mental structures. The result is a new, albeit rudimentary, capacity. The second and active aspect, equally important to the first, is execution and completion. The ensuing act requires tentative, and sometimes obvious, gropings.Separation and recombination of suitable elements are operations whose often long-enduring imperfections indicate the difficulties these processes involve. In particular, the rediscovered gestures and movements may not yet be in the right order. Taken by themselves they by no means reproduce the model; they must conform to the requirements of an internal prototype. However, as they become more explicit, they make possible and even encourage objective comparisons with the external model. Alternation between these two contrary but complementary phases of intuitive assimilation and controlled execution may then assume a more or less rapid cadence until the imitation appears adequate.90003 90042 FUNCTIONAL DOMAINS IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT 90043 90057 Emotions 90058 90002 Emotions, affectivity’s outward expression, trigger changes that tend to reduce the emotions themselves. * Emotions [* Affectivity refers to the total dynamic aspect of the personality and as such involves the emotions as a form of expression and such diverse tendencies as will, desires, etc.] are the underlying basis for the gregarious drives that constitute a rudimentary form of communication and community.The relations made possible through emotions create finer and more subtle forms of expression and transform these into more and more specialized instruments of social interaction. But as their significance becomes more precisely defined, these modes of expression become more autonomous and detached from emotion. Instead of releasing the floodtide of emotion, they tend to dam up emotion and compartmentalize it, thus destroying its pervasiveness and power of contagion. As soon as speech and convention become the media of mimicry, convention multiplies nuances, tacit understandings, and innuendos.Subtlety is thus introduced, in contrast to the undivided expression of pure emotion. 90003 90002 Emotion and intellectual activity follow the same evolution and present the same antagonism. Even before a situation is analyzed the activities that a situation provokes and the dispositions and attitudes it arouses give it meaning. In mental development this practical insight appears long before the ability to discriminate and compare. It is a first form of comprehension, wholly dominated by the interest of the moment and thoroughly absorbed in the particular.The sharing of attitudes is the first crude form of mutual contact or understanding between individuals, even though it is still totally engrossed in desires or impulses of the moment. An image that is useful for comparison or expectation can emerge from these pragmatic and concrete relations only by gradully reducing the role of body reactions-that is, of emotions and affectivity. Conversely, each time that affective attitudes and the corresponding emotion again become dominant, an image loses its richness, becomes blurred, and vanishes.This phenomenon is commonly observed in adults: suppression of emotion through intellectual control or by simple translation of its motives or conditions into intellectual modes; or, on the other hand, the routing of reason and objective representations by emotion. In the child, progress from purely casual, personal, and emotional reactions to a more stable conception of things is a slow process. Regression is very frequent. 90003 90002 In the domain of affectivity, this conflict produces transformations.If rationalist theories of emotion have seemed plausible, it is by virtue of the importance of intellectual motives and images in the realm of feelings and passion. In reality there is a transfer between emotion and the latter feelings. This tranfer is dependent on the age of the child. But the most emotional children do not necessarily become the most sentimental or the most passionate. Rather, it is a question of different types of children, in whom the various psychic functions are balanced differently.90003 90057 Language 90058 90002 The beginnings of speech in the child coincide with marked progress in his practical skills. In this respect, a comparison of the child’s behavior with that of the monkey is particularly striking. Thus, Boutan, followed by others, particularly Kellog and his wife, compared a child in the preverbal and verbal period with a young monkey in identical situations. Child and monkey were even raised together in the same environment. During the initial period, behavior was very similar.But as soon as the child acquired the use of speech he rapidly outstripped his companion. For example, when presented with several boxes arranged in a row, one of which contained a treat, the training necessary to find the special box without error at first yielded similar results. But if the order of the boxes was altered, the monkey became perplexed and had to rely on trial and error, whereas the child, once he could speak, was quickly able to discover the change. 90003 90002 Obviously, speech was still at a level too primitive to warrant the hypothesis of an internal instruction or some sort of mental calculation.Rather, the child was displaying a capacity to imagine a displacement, a line, or a direction that did not exist between the objects perceived. This capacity is possible only if vision, instead of being total absorption in the objects themselves, deploys them over an imaginary canvas of stable and interdependent positions. Without this ability, there is no way to conceptualize any sort of order or to mentally construct a sequence. This capacity is also necessary to give order to the successive parts of discourse.The loss of one of these abilities entails the loss of the other. An aphasic can not indicate the directions up, down, right, left, etc., with his eyes closed. When his eyes are open, that which he points out, according to Sieckmann, is not a direction, but an object-for example, the ceiling, the floor, the hand holding the razor, the hand that is not writing, etc. 90003 90002 A necessary but not sufficient condition is the awareness that objects and movements are seen successively or in transition.This by no means explains all the functions of language, nor its important implications for the species and the individual. Without going into the social relations made possible by, and patterned after, language, or into the fact that each dialect is a bearer and transmitter of history, one may at least state that it is language that has transformed into consciousness the compact mlange of things and actions that constitute the raw material of experience. Actually, language is not the cause of thought; it is the indispensable tool and sustaining element in thought’s progress.If one sometimes falls behind the other, their reciprocal action quickly reestablishes a harmonious balance. 90003 90002 Through language, the object of thought need no longer be confined to things presently perceived. Language provides a means whereby the representation of things no longer present, or of things that might appear, can be evoked and compared and contrasted between themselves and with current perceptions. In reintegrating the absent into the present, language provides a means of expressing, fixing, and analyzing the present.It imposes the world of signs, the marks of thought, on direct experience, in circumstances in which thought can imagine and pursue a free course, unite what was disjointed, and separate what had been simultaneous. But this substitution of the sign for the thing is not without its problems and pitfalls. It forces the practical solution of problems that can be dealt with only later through speculative reflection. In clarifying what was unclear and permanently establishing what was transitory, representational thought, delimited by means of signs, gives rise to an opposition between the same and the other, the like and the unlike, the one and the many, the permanent and the transitory, the identical and the changing, the stationary and the moving, and the being and the becoming.Many inconsistencies and incongruities that startle us in a child have their actual source in the clash between these contradictory notions, however adept the child may be at evasion through omission or at circumvention with the aid of speech and thinking habits acquired from adults. The advance that language permits thought to make and the effort it demands from thought in return may be clearly seen in the setback thought suffers when language appears to regress-as in aphasics. 90003 90057 Problems of Discontinuity in Development 90058 90002 The discontinuity in the thought of the child has another cause whose consequences are no less significant: the inadequacy of accommodation to an object, whether it activates motor, perceptual, or intellectual mechanisms.Accommodation long remains hesitant and irresolute. It oscillates back and forth around its object, its precise focus remains elusive, and its fluctuations are out of step with those of its objective. Like a kitten that on seeing its ball of yarn disappear into an inaccessible place stops short and becomes uncertain, the most lively and playful child has his moments of sudden disorientation and loss of objective. The moment the object of his thought eludes him, a faintly bewildered expression passes over his face.Thus, a fluctuating image of things results, making it difficult to identify any one object and easy to confuse one with another. The notion of possible transformations of things, far from being diminished through contact with reality, instead finds its base in this contact. Hence, the phantasmagorias a child finds so believable should cause us no surprise. 90003 90057 Confusion between the Self and Others 90058 90002 The initial lack of distinction between the self and others implies inadequate discrimination of others.When a small child pursues every man he sees with the name «Daddy,» it would be premature to say that he identifies them all with his father or that he puts them into a class denoted by the name of the individual because he does not know the collective name for them. He experiences a reaction to the whole, which evokes by means of certain of its features a specific quality in which the parts are confused with the whole and hence are liable to entail a confusion of totalities otherwise mutually distinct.90003 90042 STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 90043 90002 The first weeks of life are totally taken up by the needs of sleep and nourishment. However, turgescence of the genitals has been observed during the days immediately following birth. In the girl infant it may even reach the point of blood loss. Although it appears to be the result of hormones, the mechanism and significance of this turgescence are still imperfectly understood. The act of feeding involves a child’s first organized movements. But the gesticulations elicited from the infant by a diaper change or a bath exceed the narrow limits of this first field of movement.A detailed record of these movements will reveal two tendencies. On the one hand, there is a disappearance of certain spontaneous or elicited reactions, which are reabsorbed or inhibited by less automatic activities. On the other hand, there is an emergence of new gestures often derived from dissociation of global muscular actions and exhibiting a tendency to integrate fragments sequentially. From the third month on, these advances in movement become the child’s major occupation. 90003 90002 The infant’s first affective manifestations are limited to cries of hunger or colic or to the calm of sleep or digestion.Their differentiation is initially very slow. But by the age of six months, the structured channels available to the infant for expressing his emotions are sufficiently diversified to serve as a broad osmotic surface with his human environment. This is a major stage in his mental development. His gestures acquire a certain efficacy through the mediation of other persons, and the gestures and movements of others take on specific anticipatory meanings. However, this reciprocity is at first completely undifferentiated.It involves the child’s total participation, whereas at a later stage he will come to define himself, already profoundly enriched by this initial absorption in others. A synchronism is to be noted at this stage, as the child also begins to show an interest in colors at the age of six months. 90003 90002 During the latter third of the first year, sensorimotor action patterns begin to be systematized and become the means by which movements may be linked with their perceptual effects. Proprioceptive and sensorial impressions become mutually attuned, down to their subtlest nuances.After first establishing a continuity and concordance among their variations over extended sequences, these impressions can then go on to mutual exploration and discovery. The voice refines the ear; the ear cultivates the voice. Sounds, which become identifiable and discernible through this concurrence of various impressions, can later be recognized when they come from an external source. When the child visually follows the intricate patterns and contours traced by his own moving hand, he is marking out the first spatial references of his visual field.Thus marked out by proprioceptive responsiveness, the perceptual fields may then merge and in so doing eliminate their source or, rather, consign it to anonymity, the source now having superseded interoceptive or visceral responsiveness. The same object becomes identifiable in different perceptual fields, and their fused totality acquires sufficiently real attributes for the child to seek in it an object that has disappeared or that has been revealed through data from only one of the senses. 90003 90002 But walking, and then language, which develop during the second year, once again come to upset this delicate balance in behavior.Objects that a child is able to fetch and carry from place to place and that he knows have a name become dissociated from their settings and are manipulated for their own sake. He picks them up, pushes them, drags them, moves them about by hand or in a cart; he arranges them in piles, either at random or by kind; he empties and fills boxes and bags. But at another level, the independence achieved by the child through this ability to get about by himself and the greater diversity that language introduces into his relations with others around him make possible a more resolute and clear cut affirmation of his personality.The crises of opposition, and then of imitation, begin at the age of three and last until age five. 90003 90002 During the period in which he is intent upon appearing distinct from others, the child also becomes increasingly capable of distinguishing between objects and sorting them by color, shape, dimensions, tactile qualities, and odor. At the age of four a child begins to be concerned with, and self-conscious about, his attitudes and manners, what they are, and how they may appear. He begins to blush when embarrassed, which conversely allows him the material for mockery and jesting.Grimaces, jokes, and pranks delight him. He enjoys laughing and seeing himself laugh. His name, surname, age, and home become for him an image of his diminutive person, which, in turn, becomes for him a sort of sounding board for his own thought. Now that he is able to observe himself, he diffuses his attention less and pursues a task with more patience and perseverance. He contemplates himself in his works and deeds and becomes attached to things he has made. He reflects upon them in his thoughts, along with himself, for comparison and contrast.Emulation is born, and with it the first needs for companionship. However, the groups that form are still of the gregarious type, in which each member takes his place spontaneously as follower or leader. But by this time the child no longer limits himself to the elaboration of further nuances in his discrimination of objects and their qualities: his perception becomes more abstract; and he begins to distinguish among patterns, lines, directions, positions, and graphic signs. Yet the actual observation of things, in which detail must be continually referred to the whole, the many to the one, and the variable to the constant for orientation, is still beyond his capacities.90003 90002 After five years, school age begins; henceforth, interest will pass beyond the self to become involved with things. However, the transition is slow and difficult. Until the age of six or more, the child remains absorbed in his interests and activities of the moment. His activity has a certain exclusivity. He is unable to shuttle rapidly from object to object or from task to task. In order to divert her young pupils ‘ attention from what they were doing to a proposed new object of attention, one teacher hit on the idea of ​​an automatic interruptive gesture, which the child executed whenever she gave the signal.90003 90097 School demands that intellectual activities be immediately concentrated on command, on subject matters that are consecutively and arbitrarily diverse. Schools have often abused this authority. The tasks imposed must to some extent tear the child away from his spontaneous interests, and too often these tasks are able to obtain from him only a constrained effort, a feigned attention, or simply intellectual apathy. Too often they are exercises with only a future usefulness, which is not at all apparent to the child executing them.Thus, it has seemed necessary to shore up the child’s activity with accessory incentives. This is the purpose of rewards and punishments, which in many cases are still based on the principle of «the carrot or the stick» -that is, a simple technique of discipline and training. At the other extreme are those who claim to base the compulsory activities of the child on his sense of responsibility. The first method is inhibiting; the second, premature. A trained animal responds to a cue with movements in accordance with inculcated sets of associations.It does not perform a task, which requires pursuit of an end, adjustment of means, rules to be observed, and sustained application of effort. But as the child is successively absorbed in each of his tasks, he seems no more capable than an animal of sustaining the burden of his tasks solely on the basis of his own independently conceived idea of ​​what he owes himself. To appeal prematurely to this sense of obligation is to outline its features, so that far from promoting self-sufficiency, such an appeal imposes on a child a forced, confusedly understood dependence.90003 90002 The period from seven to about twelve or fourteen years is the age at which syncretism yields to objectivity. Things and the self gradually lose their quality of being fragments of an absolute, undivided experience that impose themselves successively on intuition. The various categories of understanding bring to bear the most variegated array of classifications and relations. But the real initiator of these processes is the child’s own activity, which itself enters into a categorical phase; it must now establish tasks and learn to apportion time to them so that each may be carried out with full possible effectiveness.Interest in a task is indispensable-far more important than simple training; it may suffice, and it precedes by far a constant and conscientious personal involvement in carrying out a task. 90003 90002 The taste a child acquires for things is commensurate with his desire and power to manage, modify, and transform them. He continually finds himself occupied with tearing down and building up. In this way he discovers the details, relations, and varied possibilities of things. He also selects his companions with a view toward determinate tasks.His preferences change according to the game or task. Naturally, he has regular companions, but all their interactions refer to their common ventures. They are united as collaborators or accomplices around mutual projects and mutual problems. They vie with each other through emulation in the execution of a task. Their projects determine their rivalries. Differences thus emerge in relationships, from which each child derives a notion of his own distinctness, according to circumstances, and at the same time, of his own essential continuity and individuality throughout a diversity of situations.90003 90002 When friendship and rivalries are no longer based on agreement or conflict or interest in ongoing or impending tasks, when their justification is sought in moral affinities or moral repulsions, and when they seem to be concerned more with intimacy than with effective collaborations or conflicts, then childhood is already being undermined by puberty. Once again, the effects of the new period will permeate simultaneously all spheres of mental life. A single mood of discord or disquiet will make itself felt in actions, personal conduct, and cognitive processes.In each sphere, there are mysteries to penetrate. There is a continuing and undifferentiated need for possession, a need that is, in a certain sense, so basic that actual possession is unable to satisfy it and must go in quest of uncharted horizons. 90003 90002 From one stage to another, a child’s mental development demonstrates that beyond the complexity of factors and functions and the variety and contrasts of the crises that punctuate it, there is a certain unity, an interrelatedness, both within each stage and across stages.To treat the child fragmentarily is contrary to nature. At each age he constitutes an indivisible and original whole. In the succession of different periods, he remains one and the same being undergoing metamorphoses. Composed as he is of contrasts and conflicts, his whole self will only be that much more capable of further enrichment. 90003 90002 90003 90006 .90000 Preschool age — Child psychology 90001 90002 Preschool age 90003 90004 The child passes into preschool age. The peculiarity of the social situation of development in the preschool age is that the child already understands that he is other adults. He treats them in a certain way, and they refer to him. As an adult advocates for the child as the bearer of social relations, the child begins to imitate the adult. Since a child can not reproduce social relations precisely because of limited opportunities, preschool children develop a game.LS Vygotsky repeatedly emphasizes that a small child can not imitate non-living objects, he imitates only adults. 90005 90004 The main characteristic of the game is determined by the presence of an imaginary situation. Imaginary situation assumes that the child transfers the value of some objects to others. For example, a child may consider a doll a daughter, a chair by a horse, etc. However, when playing, the child does not lose the real meanings of things. Here, in fact, the complex nature of the mental processes accompanying the play activity of preschoolers is noted.90005 90004 The game and the development of speech in many respects determine the development of the child’s imagination. Analyzing this process, Vygotsky singles out two different types of activity of children. One is associated with the creation of new images by combining the old in new combinations, and the other characterizes the process of relating images of one reality to another. He points to four basic forms linking the «activity of the imagination with reality». The first form is based on combining the images of impressions obtained from real objects; the second — on the establishment of a connection between the finished product of fantasy and the complex phenomenon of reality; the third — on the emotional connection; the fourth — on the new content of the image of fantasy, which previously did not occur in reality, but is embodied in the product.90005 90004 Of particular interest is the third form of connection between imagination and reality, which Vygotsky defines as «emotional.» He stresses that «every feeling, every emotion tends to incarnate into known images corresponding to this feeling.» 2 In his opinion, emotion has a special ability to choose for itself the appropriate impressions. We see that Vygotsky, without directly naming, points to a special process of mediation between two different realities, one of which represents cognitive processes, the other is affective.It is important to note not only the general idea of ​​the unity of affect and intellect, but also the idea of ​​the existence of a special relationship between the cognitive and affective spheres of man, revealed by Vygotsky. The essence of this relationship can be called a symbolic mediation. Symbolic mediation, in a sense, establishes a relationship between two series of reality — an emotional series based on a common emotional sign, and a cognitive series that is easily intelligible. 90005 90004 If in the early childhood the child’s perception is allocated and passes through the main development path, then in the preschool age, memory develops.The memory of a preschool child is immediate. This means that the preschooler does not use various techniques and tools for memorization. It is memory that is the center around which other functions are grouped. For example, perceiving for the preschooler means learning, and thinking — remembering. Imagination is also impossible without the ideas held in the child’s memory. Thinking at this age is of a complex nature: different subjects are united in word like the way people are united by one name.In other words, the sign that the objects constitute a common group differs from the logical generalization. Objects enter into any aggregate on the basis of the child’s ideas about how they met in his life, i.e. on the basis of visual connections, reflected in images of memory. As a result, by the school age the child has relatively developed attention and memory due to the fact that attention is a function of structuring the perceived and represented by memory. 90005 90004 A special way of development is the child’s speech.If at the beginning of the age it relies entirely on primitive complex structures, then by the end of the preschool age the character of children’s generalizations significantly changes. The preschooler has pseudo-concepts. They in their external composition correspond to the concepts of adults, but the objects included in them are combined according to a complex feature. Thus, the preschooler’s speech comes close to the adult’s speech in the sense that both the adult and the child have in mind similar contents.Of course, the structural consciousness of a preschool child differs from that of an adult. Memory serves as a system-forming function in the child, and in the adult — thinking in the system of scientific concepts. In this respect, the development of memory is, according to LS Vygotsky, the main neoform of preschool age. 90005 90004 Preschool childhood ends in a crisis of seven years. Outwardly, the crisis manifests itself in the behavior of the child, when he freaks, grimaces, plays the role of jester, in his behavior there is something absurd, artificial, deliberate.Vygotsky explains the emergence of the crisis as a loss of immediacy. This means that if earlier any desire of the child immediately turned into an external action, now there was a separation of the external and internal sides of the person: «Between the experience and the immediate action, the intellectual moment» is inserted. As the outer and inner sides of the personality began to differ by the child, he became able to call his states, and therefore, to generalize them. His experiences acquired meaning: the child has an orientation in his feelings.The presence of semantic experiences (when, for example, a child realizes that he is angry) complicates the child’s experience system, he begins to generalize these experiences, which leads to the emergence of the logic of feelings. He develops such qualities as self-esteem and self-esteem, but these personality traits are not lost in further development. Disappear, according to Vygotsky, conflicting, contradictory expe 90005.