The problem of psychological readiness for school. The problem of psychological readiness for school

A child’s readiness for school can be divided into psychophysiological, intellectual and personal.

Under psychophysiological readiness a certain level of physical maturation of the child is understood, as well as the level of maturity of brain structures, the state of the main functional systems of the body and the state of the child’s health, ensuring the functioning of mental processes that corresponds to age standards (Fig. 10.5). Readiness for school implies a certain level physical development and the somatic health of the child, since they have a significant impact on educational activities. Children who are often ill and physically weak may experience learning problems even if they have a high level of cognitive development.

Data on the somatic health of children as a component of psychophysiological readiness for school are given in the medical record in sufficient detail (weight, height, body proportions, their correlation with age standards). At the same time, there is often no information about the state of the nervous system, while in many preschool children, additional examination reveals various types minimal brain dysfunction (MCD). A large number of children of senior preschool and primary school age have neuroses.

Rice. 10.5.

From the point of view of mental development, such preschoolers correspond to the norm and can be educated in a regular school. Minimal organic disorders of the nervous system can be compensated under favorable conditions of upbringing, training and timely psychocorrectional work. Children with MMD and neuroses are distinguished by a number of characteristics of behavior and activity that should be taken into account during the educational process: a decrease in the level of development of mnemonic processes and properties of attention, reduced performance, increased exhaustion, irritability, problems in the process of communication with peers, hyperactivity or inhibition, Difficulties in accepting a learning task and exercising self-control. As a result of a psychodiagnostic examination, such preschoolers may show a normal level of readiness for school, but in the process of learning according to the programs higher level difficulties, with intense intellectual load they may have certain difficulties in educational activities; the success of developing knowledge, skills and abilities is reduced compared to other children who do not have deviations in the functioning of the nervous system.

There are various factors that determine the occurrence of functional and organic disorders in the development of the nervous system of children: pathology of pregnancy and childbirth, some somatic and infectious diseases in infancy and early age, head injuries and bruises, severe stress (death of a loved one, flood, fire, parental divorce), unfavorable family parenting styles.

With the start of schooling, the level of stress on the child’s body and psyche increases significantly. Systematic execution educational assignments, a large amount of new information to be assimilated, the need to maintain a certain position for a long time, a change in the usual daily routine, and being in a large student group cause great mental and physical stress for the child.

By the end of preschool age, the restructuring of the child’s physiological systems has not yet been completed, and intensive physiological development continues. Psychophysiologists note that, in general, in terms of its functional characteristics, the body of an older preschooler is ready for systematic learning at school, but there is an increased sensitivity to negative factors environment, in particular to great mental and physical stress. Children more younger age The more difficult it is to cope with school loads, the higher the likelihood of problems occurring in his health. It should be borne in mind that the child’s actual age does not always correspond to the biological age: one older preschooler may be ready for school education in terms of his physical development, while for another child, even at seven years old, everyday educational tasks will cause significant difficulties.

The conclusion about the physiological readiness of older preschool children for school education is formulated taking into account the data of a medical examination. A child is considered ready for systematic education at school if the level of his physical and biological development meets the passport age or exceeds it and there are no medical contraindications.

To examine the physical development of a child, three main indicators are most often assessed: height (standing and sitting), body weight and chest circumference. Researchers note that in terms of physical development indicators, modern six- to seven-year-old children are significantly different from their peers in the 1960-1970s, significantly ahead of them in height and general development.

In older preschool age, children grow very quickly, which is due to neuroendocrine changes in the children's body (height increases by 7-10 cm per year, weight by 2.2-2.5 kg, chest circumference by 2.0-2.5 cm ), therefore this age period is called the period of “lengthening”. Girls are characterized by more intensive physical development compared to boys. Senior preschool age can be considered critical due to the fact that it is characterized by a decrease in physical and mental endurance and an increased risk of diseases. Criteria for biological age can be the number of erupted permanent teeth (Table 10.5), the formation of certain proportional relationships between the sizes of head circumference and height (Table 10.6).

Table 10.5

Number of permanent teeth in preschool children

Table 10.6

Body proportions of a child in preschool age

In accordance with the comprehensive health assessment scheme, children can be divided into five groups:

• children who have no functional abnormalities, a high level of physical development, and who rarely get sick (on average, this is 20-25% of the total number of future first-graders);
• children with some functional impairments, with a borderline state between health and a disease that has not yet become chronic. Under unfavorable factors, they may develop more or less pronounced health problems (on average, this is 30-35% of the total number of future first-graders);
• children with various chronic diseases who have pronounced somatic disorders, as well as children with a low level of physical development, for whom schooling from the age of six is ​​contraindicated due to increased intellectual stress (on average, 30-35% of the total number of future first-graders);
• children with chronic diseases who require long-term treatment, clinical examination and constant observation by a doctor of the appropriate specialty and who are recommended to study at home, in sanatorium-type educational institutions, specialized schools;
• children with significant health problems that exclude the possibility of education in secondary school.

In addition to diagnosing indicators of a child’s physical development (height, weight, chest circumference), when determining physiological readiness for school learning, the state of the main physiological systems of the body is revealed. During the medical examination, heart rate, blood pressure, lung capacity, arm muscle strength, etc. are determined.

In older preschoolers, the reserve capabilities of the cardiovascular system increase, the circulatory system improves, they restructure and develop intensively respiratory system and metabolism. Senior preschool age is characterized by intensive development of the musculoskeletal system: skeleton, muscles, joint-ligamentous apparatus, changes in skeletal bones in shape, size and structure, continuation of the ossification process (especially the bones of the wrist and phalanges of the fingers, which should be taken into account when conducting classes with children ). In older preschool age, the large muscles of the trunk and limbs are quite well developed, which allow them to perform various complex movements (running, jumping, swimming). However, the fine motor skills of many children are not sufficiently developed, which causes difficulties in writing and rapid fatigue when performing graphic tasks. Incorrect posture, sitting at a desk for a long time, or performing graphic tasks for a long time can cause poor posture, curvature of the spine, and deformation of the dominant hand.

An important component of a child’s psychophysiological readiness is the normal functioning of the nervous system. Disorders of nervous activity can lead to rapid fatigue in children, exhaustion, instability of attention, low memory productivity and, in general, have a negative impact on educational activities. Identifying the parameters of psychophysiological readiness for learning makes it possible to take into account the individual characteristics of children in the learning process and thus prevent many psychological and pedagogical problems.

Under intellectual readiness for a child to learn, a certain level of development of cognitive processes is understood - mental operations of generalization, comparison, classification, identification of essential features, the ability to make inferences; a certain stock of ideas, including figurative and moral ones; level of development of speech and cognitive activity.

The intellectual component of readiness also presupposes that the child has an outlook, a stock of specific knowledge, including:

• formed elementary concepts such as: species of plants and animals, weather phenomena, units of time, quantity;
• a number of ideas of a general nature: about the types of work of adults, about their native country, about holidays;
• concept of space (distance, direction of movement, size and shape of objects, their location);
• ideas about time, its units of measurement (hour, minute, week, month, year).

The correspondence of this awareness of children with the requirements of the school is achieved by the program according to which the kindergarten teacher works.

However, in domestic psychology, when studying the intellectual component of a child’s psychological readiness for school, the emphasis is not on the amount of acquired knowledge, although this is also an important factor, but on the level of development of intellectual processes. The child must be able to identify the essential in the phenomena of the surrounding reality, be able to compare them, see similar and different; he must learn to reason, find the causes of phenomena, and draw conclusions.

Intellectual readiness for school education implies the formation in children of elementary skills in the field of educational activities, namely the ability to identify and accept an educational task as an independent goal of activity, an understanding of the content of learning, educational actions and operations.

Children’s intellectual readiness for learning is judged by the following signs:

• differentiation, selectivity and integrity of perception;
• concentration and stability of attention;
• developed analytical thinking, providing the ability to establish basic connections between objects and phenomena;
• logical memory;
• ability to reproduce a sample;
• sensorimotor coordination.

A child’s intellectual readiness for schooling is directly related to the development of thought processes. Developed visual-figurative thinking and a sufficient level of development of generalizations (prerequisites for verbal-logical thinking) are required. An older preschooler has to solve increasingly complex and varied problems that involve identifying and using various connections and relationships between objects and phenomena. Curiosity and cognitive activity stimulate children's use of thinking processes to understand the surrounding reality, which goes beyond the boundaries of their immediate practical activity. It is important that children have the opportunity to foresee the results of their mental actions in advance and plan them.

An important component of a child’s intellectual readiness for school is speech development. Speech development is closely related to intelligence and is an indicator of both the general mental development of a preschooler and the level of his logical thinking, while the ability to find individual sounds in words is important, i.e. developed phonemic awareness. A sufficient vocabulary, correct sound pronunciation, the ability to construct a phrase, sound analysis skills of a word, knowledge of letters, and the ability to read are also required.

Attention must be of a voluntary nature. Children need to be able to voluntarily control their attention, directing and holding it on the necessary objects. To this end, older preschoolers use certain methods that they adopt from adults. Memory should also include elements of arbitrariness, the ability to formulate and accept a mnemonic task. To implement them, it is necessary to use techniques that help increase memorization productivity: repetition, drawing up a plan, establishing semantic and associative connections in the memorized material, etc.

Thus, the intellectual readiness of children for school education consists of ideas about the content of educational activity and methods of its implementation, basic knowledge and skills, a certain level of development of cognitive processes that ensure the perception, processing and preservation of various information in the learning process (Table 10.7). Therefore, preparing preschool children for learning should be aimed at mastering the means of cognitive activity, developing the cognitive sphere, cognitive decentration and intellectual activity of the child.

Table 10.7

Characteristics of children's intellectual readiness for schooling

Stock of knowledge, horizons	Elementary concepts of mud: types of plants and animals, weather phenomena, units of time, quantity; a number of ideas of a general nature: about the types of work of adults, about their native country, about holidays; concept of space (distance, direction of movement, size and shape of objects, their location); ideas about time, its units of measurement (hour, minute, week, month, year)
Ideas about the content and methods of carrying out educational activities	Elementary ideas about the specific content of training; academic work skills (sitting at a desk, orientation on a page in a notebook, ability to act in accordance with the rule, etc.)
Development of cognitive processes	Ability to highlight the essential; the ability to see similarities and differences; ability to concentrate; ability to remember necessary information; ability to explain and reason;
	ability to generalize and differentiate; speech understanding; the ability to formulate statements to express one’s thoughts; correct pronunciation; developed phonemic awareness; cognitive activity.

Under the child’s personal readiness for school it is understood that there is developed educational motivation, communication skills and joint activities, emotional and volitional stability, which ensures the success of educational activities (Fig. 10.6).

Rice. 10.6.

L. I. Bozhovich identifies several aspects of a child’s mental development that have the most significant impact on the success of educational activities. These include a certain level of development of the child’s motivational-need sphere, which presupposes developed cognitive and social learning motives, developed voluntary regulation of behavior. L. I. Bozhovich considers educational motives, which she divided into two groups, to be the most significant component in a child’s psychological readiness for schooling:

• broad social motives for learning, or motives associated with the child’s needs for communication with other people, for their evaluation and approval, with the student’s desires to occupy specific place in the system available to him public relations;
• motives related directly to educational activities, or the cognitive interests of children, the need for intellectual activity and the acquisition of new skills, abilities and knowledge.

N.V. Nizhegorodtseva and V.D. Shadrikov identify six groups of motives in the structure of the motivational sphere of future first-graders:

• social motives based on an understanding of the social significance and necessity of learning and the desire for social role schoolchild (“I want to go to school, because all children should study, it is necessary and important”);
• educational and cognitive motives, interest in new knowledge, desire to learn something new;
• evaluative motives, the desire to receive a high assessment from an adult, his approval and disposition (“I want to go to school, because there I will only get A’s);
• positional motives associated with interest in external attributes school life and the student’s position (“I want to go to school, because they are big there, and in kindergarten they are small, they will buy me notebooks, a pencil case and a briefcase”);
• motives external to school and learning (“I’ll go to school because my mother said so);
• a play motive that is inadequately transferred to educational activities (“I want to go to school because there I can play with friends”).

A child who is ready for schooling wants to study because he strives to take a certain position in society, which gives him the opportunity to be included in the world of adults, and also because he has developed a cognitive need that cannot be satisfied at home. The synthesis of these two needs leads to the formation of a new attitude of the child to the surrounding reality, which L. I. Bozhovich called “the internal position of the schoolchild,” i.e. a system of needs and aspirations of the child associated with school, such an attitude towards school when involvement in it is experienced by the child as his own need. L. I. Bozhovich considered this new formation to be a purely historical phenomenon and very significant, regarding it as a central personal positioning that characterizes the child’s personality structure, determines his behavior and activities, and also determines the characteristics of his relationship to the surrounding reality, to other people and to to myself. When formed internal position As a schoolchild, the child understands the school lifestyle as the life of a person who is engaged in educational, socially useful activities that are evaluated by other people. The internal position of the schoolchild is characterized by the fact that the child refuses preschool playful, individually direct methods of action and develops positive attitude to educational activity in general, especially to its aspects directly related to learning. The child considers educational activity to be an adequate path to adulthood for him, since it makes it possible to move to a new age level in the eyes of the younger ones and find himself in an equal position with the elders, and corresponds to his motives and needs to be like an adult and perform his functions. The formation of a student’s internal position directly depends on the attitude of close adults and other children to learning. The formation of a student’s internal position is one of the most important prerequisites for the successful inclusion of a child in school life.

Case Study

An experimental study by M. S. Grineva revealed that older preschoolers undergo a structural restructuring of personal readiness for school. At five years old, the internal position of a schoolchild is associated only with the child’s ability to accept and maintain a role in the process of solving a social problem; the components of self-awareness, motives for learning and emotional attitude towards school are not associated with the idea of ​​oneself as a schoolchild. In six- and seven-year-old children, a relationship appears between the student’s internal position and the sphere of self-awareness, which is mediated by the motivational aspects of the attitude towards school.

The structure of a child’s personal readiness for school includes characteristics of the volitional sphere. The arbitrariness of a child’s behavior manifests itself when fulfilling the requirements and specific rules of an adult. Already in preschool age, a child needs to overcome emerging difficulties and subordinate his actions to the goal. Many skills as prerequisites for the successful mastery of educational activities by a primary school student arise precisely on the basis of voluntary regulation of activity, namely:

• conscious subordination of one’s actions to a certain rule, which generally determines the method of action;
• performing activities based on orientation to a given system of requirements;
• attentive perception of the speaker’s speech and accurate completion of tasks in accordance with oral instructions;
• independent performance of necessary actions based on a visually perceived model.

In essence, these skills are indicators of the level of actual development of voluntariness, on which the educational activity of a primary school student is based. But this level of voluntary regulation of activity can only manifest itself if play or learning motivation is formed.

The new formation “internal position of the schoolchild,” which arises at the turn of preschool and primary school age and represents a fusion of two needs – cognitive and the need to communicate with adults at a new level – allows the child to be involved in the educational process as a subject of activity, which is expressed in social formation and the fulfillment of intentions and goals, or, in other words, the voluntary behavior of the student. There is no point in talking about voluntariness as an independent component of readiness for school, since voluntariness is inextricably linked with motivation. The emergence of a certain volitional orientation, the highlighting of a group of educational motives that become the most important for the child, leads to the fact that, guided in his behavior by these motives, he consciously achieves his goal, without succumbing to any distracting influence. The child needs to be able to subordinate his actions to motives that are significantly removed from the goal of the action. The development of volition for purposeful activity and work according to a model largely determines the child’s school readiness.

An important component of a child’s personal readiness for school is also the development of communication skills, the ability to interact in a group, performing joint educational activities. Features of relationships with adults, peers and attitude towards oneself also determine the level of a child’s psychological readiness for school, since it correlates with the main structural components of educational activity. Communication in a lesson situation is characterized by the exclusion of direct emotional contacts and the absence of conversations on extraneous topics. Therefore, preschoolers should develop a certain attitude towards the teacher as an indisputable authority and role model, and non-situational forms of communication should be formed. Personal readiness for school also implies a certain attitude of the child towards himself, a certain level of development of self-awareness.

The effectiveness of educational activities largely depends on the child’s adequate attitude towards his abilities, the results of educational activities, and behavior. Personal readiness also presupposes the formation of mechanisms of emotional anticipation and emotional self-regulation of behavior.

Thus, personal readiness for schooling presupposes a combination of certain characteristics of the volitional, motivational, emotional spheres and sphere of self-awareness of the child, necessary for the successful start of educational activities.

For the discipline: Developmental psychology

Topic: The problem of children's readiness for school

Introduction

1. a brief description of children of senior preschool age and the crisis of seven years

2. Motivational readiness for school

3. Strong-willed readiness for school

4. Social readiness for school

5. Intellectual readiness for school

6. Physiological readiness for school

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

School is a social institution that was formed historically relatively recently, and a child’s enrollment in school plays a leading role in the process of adaptation to life in society.

Entering school is a very serious step for a child, as it is a turning point in life. He seems to be trying to get out of his childhood and take a new place in the system of relations mediated by norms of behavior; a desire appears to “become a real schoolchild” and carry out real, serious, socially significant activities.

When a child moves to a new stage of development, a change in leading activity occurs, this is a transition from role-playing play to educational activity.

How a child’s school life turns out, how successful the start of schooling will be, determines the student’s performance in subsequent years, his attitude towards school, and ultimately his well-being in adulthood. If a student does not study well, this always negatively affects relationships with peers or the family microclimate.

The problem of children's readiness for school education is, first of all, considered from the point of view of compliance of the child's development level with the requirements of educational activities.

Many parents believe that school readiness lies only in mental readiness, so they devote maximum time to developing the child’s memory, attention and thinking. Not all classes involve developing the necessary qualities for studying at school.

Often, children who are unsuccessful in their studies have all the necessary skills in writing, counting, reading and have a fairly high level of development. But readiness presupposes not only the presence of certain skills and abilities necessary for studying at school, it is necessary to ensure the full and harmonious development of the child.

Preparing children for school is a complex task, covering all areas of a child’s life.

These are, first of all, the levels of social and personal, motivational, volitional, intellectual development, all of which are necessary for the successful assimilation of school curriculum. When children enter school, insufficient development of any component of psychological readiness is often revealed. Shortcomings in the formation of one of the levels sooner or later entail a lag or distortion in the development of others and one way or another affect the success of training.

And so, the goal of the work is to analyze the child’s psychological readiness for school.

Based on the goal set, it is planned to solve the following problem: to analyze the main components of a child’s psychological readiness for schooling, and specifically: motivational, social-personal, intellectual, volitional, physiological.

1. Brief characteristics of children of senior preschool age and the crisis of seven years

The seven-year crisis is a critical period that requires a change in the social situation; it is associated with the beginning of the child’s education at school.

It is at this age that the foundations of personality are laid and a stable hierarchy of motives is formed (the bittersweet phenomenon). There is a desire to take a new position in society and perform socially useful activities. If there is no change in the social situation, then the child develops a feeling of dissatisfaction.

The crisis of seven years is characterized by defiant behavior of the child, he behaves, makes faces, and clowns around. According to Vygodsky, such behavior indicates a loss of childish spontaneity; the child seems to experience a separation of internal and external life, the child tries on different roles, and through this, a loss of spontaneity of behavior occurs. Until the age of seven, a child acts in accordance with the problem that is relevant to him. The acquisition of mediocrity of behavior includes awareness; between the idea of ​​an action and the action itself, censorship, a norm of behavior, is inserted; behavior becomes more independent of various environmental influences.

The child begins to realize and evaluate his place among other people, an internal social position is formed, the desire to meet the demands of an adult, to accept a new social role - the role of a schoolchild.

New social needs appear, the need for respect, recognition by peers and adults. The desire to act in accordance with the rules, the child needs to perform the action correctly. He strives to participate in group activities. Moral norms, social values, and rules of behavior in society are being learned; now you have to act not as you want, but as you should.

The child’s activity acquires new content. The ability not only to control your actions, but also to focus on results.

Psychological research indicates that during preschool childhood, a child already develops self-esteem; this emerging self-esteem is based on the results of activities, success or failure, as well as the assessments of others and the approval of parents.

That. the presence of a seven-year crisis is an indicator of psychological readiness for school.

2. Motivational readiness for school

Motivational readiness is considered as the motivation to study, the child’s desire to study at school. The child's initial motive is to climb new level relationships.

There are external and internal motivation. Most children of senior preschool age dream of becoming schoolchildren, but of course, almost none of them have any idea what school is in reality; many children have a completely idealized attribute idea of ​​school; if you ask them who a schoolchild is, they will certainly answer that this is a child who carries a large briefcase, sits at his desk with his hand raised, writes, reads, and good children get A's, and bad children get D's. And I want the same, and everyone will praise me.

Internal motivation is associated with a direct desire to learn, expressed in cognitive interest, manifested in the desire to learn new things, to find out the incomprehensible. A very difficult situation arises, because not all children are ready to fulfill the teacher’s demands and do not get along in the new social environment due to the lack of an internal motive. A child’s cognitive need exists from birth, and the more adults satisfy the child’s cognitive interest, the stronger it becomes, so parents need to devote as much time as possible to the development of their children, for example, reading books to them, playing educational games, etc.

Academic motivation develops in a first-grader when there is a pronounced cognitive need and the ability to work. A first-grader tries to be an exemplary student in order to earn the praise of the teacher and then the parent. Emotional praise allows the child to believe in his abilities, increases his self-esteem and stimulates the desire to cope with what is not immediately possible. (Bozhovich)

3. Strong-willed readiness for school

Another component of school readiness is volitional readiness. Volitional readiness implies the child’s readiness to have to fulfill the teacher’s demands. This is the ability to act according to the rules, in accordance with the established pattern. Fulfillment of the rule underlies the social relations of a child and an adult.

D.B. Elkonin conducted an experiment. First grade children were asked to draw four circles, and then color three yellow and one blue; the children painted all the circles in different colors, claiming that it was more beautiful this way. This experiment perfectly demonstrates that not all children are ready to accept rules.

The emergence of will leads to the fact that the child begins to consciously control himself, manage his internal and external actions, his cognitive processes and behavior in general. He gradually masters the ability to subordinate his actions to motives.

L. S. Vygotsky and S. L. Rubinstein believe that the appearance of a volitional act is prepared by the previous development of the voluntary behavior of a preschooler.

4. Social readiness for school

Social readiness represents readiness for a new form of relationships in a school learning situation.

Going to school is, first of all, learning something new. social status schoolboy. He enters into new social relationships, the child-teacher model, which subsequently affects the child’s relationships with parents and the child with peers, because the way the situation at school develops will determine how much success will be expressed, which will subsequently affect relationships with peers and parents.

In a lesson situation, there are strict rules that the student must adhere to, for example, only subject communication.

Children who are ready to learn, understand the conventions of educational communication and behave adequately in the classroom; communication between teacher and student acquires a feature of arbitrariness.

5. Intellectual readiness

The child must be able to communicate in dialogue, be able to ask questions, answer questions, and have the skill of retelling.

In order for a student’s education to be successful, it is necessary that his level of actual development must be such that the training program falls into the child’s “zone of proximal development,” otherwise he simply will not be able to assimilate the material.

It goes without saying that you have basic writing, reading and counting skills. The child must be able to compare, generalize, classify objects, and identify essential features and draw conclusions. Now he has to work with abstract categories and scientific concepts. “The child must learn to distinguish between different aspects of reality, only then can he move on to subject teaching. The child must see in an object its parameters, the individual aspects that make up its content. And also to master scientific concepts, the child must understand that his point of view is not absolute and not the only one.”

A child of senior preschool age has already formed operations, this is proven by an experiment with two flasks on the conservation of quantity.

6. Physiological readiness for school

It is also necessary to determine the physiological readiness for school, whether the child is ready for such loads; on the one hand, the student’s body is often ready for the requirements imposed by the school, but on the other hand , Some children find it very difficult to bear such mental stress and physical exercise, or the child may have poorly developed hand motor skills and cannot write, this is a failure of the regime and the restructuring of the whole body to a new way of life, maintaining attention in lessons for 40-45 minutes, etc. This is quite difficult for some. Before entering school, honey is taken. examination and readiness is determined. According to indications, by the age of 8 almost everyone is ready. Physiological readiness is determined by three criteria: physiological, biological and health status. At school, a child faces a lot of problems, for example, an incorrect position can lead to curvature of the spine, or deformation of the hand due to heavy loads on the hand. Therefore, this is as significant a sign of development as the others.

Conclusion

Going to school the most important step in the development of a child, requiring a very serious approach and preparation. We have established that a child’s readiness for school is a holistic phenomenon, and for complete readiness it is necessary that each of the signs be fully developed; if at least one parameter is poorly developed, this can have serious consequences. Comprehensive preparation for school includes five main components: motivational, intellectual, social, volitional, physiological readiness. It is advisable to determine psychological readiness for school a year before the expected admission, since in this case there is time to change what needs correction. There are many methods for diagnosing children's readiness for school; they require careful selection, since many of them are inadequate. When preparing a child for school, it is also necessary to consult with a child psychologist and teachers.

Mental development of children during the transition from preschool to school age

Problems of school readiness for 7-year-old students.

Traditionally, there are five separate aspects of a child’s readiness for school:

physical(determined by weight, height, muscle tone, vision, hearing);

intellectual(not only vocabulary, outlook, special skills, but also the level of development of cognitive processes and their focus on the zone of proximal development, higher forms of visual-figurative thinking, the ability to identify a learning task and turn it into an independent goal of activity);

emotional-volitional(reduction of impulsive reactions and the ability to perform a not very attractive task for a long time);

personal and socio-psychological(formation in the child of readiness to accept a new “social position”, the formation of which is determined by the new attitude of others towards the child).

Accordingly, with insufficient development of one of the above aspects, problems of successful learning arise. Comprehensive preparation of preschoolers for school is carried out.

Traditionally, in Russian psychology, a child who has reached the age of 7 was considered a junior schoolchild. Based on D.B. Elkonin’s periodization of mental development in a 7-year-old child, all psychological neoplasms characteristic of primary school age have been formed (loss of spontaneity in social relationships, generalization of experiences associated with assessment, a certain level of self-control, etc.). It is noted that the transition from one psychological age to another is marked by a change in the leading type of activity, for example, in preschool age - this role-playing game, and in primary school it is systematic teaching. Discussing the problem of readiness for schooling, D.B. Elkonin, in the first place, put the formation of psychological prerequisites for mastering educational activities, which included: the child’s ability to consciously subordinate his actions to a rule that generally determines the method of action; ability to navigate the system of rules in work; the ability to listen and follow instructions from an adult; ability to work according to a model. According to the author, these prerequisites are formed within the framework of preschool activities, among which play occupies a special place.

Psychological readiness for school is a complex education that presupposes a fairly high level of development of the motivational, intellectual spheres and the sphere of volition. By the end of preschool age, there are three lines of development (P. Ya. Galperin):

1 - line of formation of voluntary behavior, when a child can obey school rules;

2 - line of mastering the means and standards of cognitive activity that allow the child to move on to understanding the conservation of quantity;

3 - line of transition from egocentrism to decentration. Development along these lines determines the child’s readiness for school.

To these three lines, which were analyzed by D. B. Elkonin, motivational readiness should be added child for schooling. Intelligent Readiness includes: orientation in the environment; stock of knowledge; development of thought processes (ability to generalize, compare, classify objects); development of different types of memory (figurative, auditory, mechanical, etc.); development of voluntary attention. Interest in school Internal motivation, i.e. the child wants to go to school because it is interesting and he wants to know a lot, and not because he will have a new backpack or his parents promised to buy a bicycle (external motivation). Preparing a child for school includes developing his readiness to accept a new “social position” - the position of a schoolchild who has a range of important responsibilities and rights, and occupies a different, special position in society compared to preschoolers. Volitional readiness for school. The formation of the volitional readiness of the future first-grader also requires serious attention. After all, hard work awaits him; he will need the ability to do not only what he wants, but also what the teacher, the school regime, and the program require of him. By the age of six, the basic elements of volitional action are formed: the child is able to set a goal, make a decision, outline a plan of action, carry it out, show a certain effort in overcoming an obstacle, and evaluate the result of his action. L. S. Vygotsky said that readiness for schooling is formed during the training itself. The transition to the school education system is a transition to the assimilation scientific concepts, the transition from a reactive program to a school subject program.

Any psychological concept, as a rule, has its own history. Now we are already accustomed to the combination “readiness for school.” But this is a fairly young term. And the problem of school readiness is also very young. In the early 80s people just started talking about it. And even such great psychologists as A.V. Davydov, did not attach serious importance to it. And the problem of readiness arose in connection with experiments on teaching six-year-olds. As long as children went to school from the age of seven or even eight, no questions arose. Of course, some studied better, others worse. Teachers dealt with this and explained the reasons for failure in their own way: “ bad family", "launched", "there are not enough stars in the sky." But when they encountered six-year-olds, the usual, established methods of work suddenly failed. Moreover, forecasts of children's school success and the usual explanations for their failures turned out to be untenable. Here comes a cute child from intelligent family. Well-mannered. His parents pay him a lot of attention and develop him as best they can. He both reads and counts. It would seem, what more could you want from a future student? Just teach him - and you will turn out to be an excellent student. It doesn't work that way! Six-year-olds were not accepted everywhere. These, as a rule, were elite schools that had the opportunity to select children in one way or another. The teachers were selected according to their usual indicators. And six months later it turned out that almost half of the selected children did not live up to the expectations placed on them. It’s not that they weren’t excellent students: problems arose even at the level of mastering the program. It seemed that the difficulties that had arisen could be resolved: since the children study poorly, it means they are poorly prepared. And if you are poorly prepared, you need to cook better. For example, from the age of five. And this “better” again meant “read, count,” etc. And again nothing worked. Because nothing good can be done with a child by mechanically lowering the educational bar, ignoring the laws of his psychological development.

Readiness- this is a certain level of human mental development. Not a set of certain skills and abilities, but a holistic and rather complex education. Moreover, it is wrong to narrow it down solely to “readiness for school.” Each new stage of life requires a certain readiness from the child - readiness to engage in role-playing games, readiness to go to camp without parents, readiness to study at a university. If a child, due to his developmental problems, is not ready to enter into detailed relationships with other children, he will not be able to participate in role-playing game.

For a child to turn from a preschooler into a schoolchild, he must change qualitatively. He must develop new mental functions. It is impossible to train them in advance, because they are absent in preschool age. “Training” is generally an incorrect word in relation to small child. Motor skills, thinking, memory - all this is wonderful. It just has nothing to do with school readiness.

PLAN. Introduction. Theoretical aspects problems of children's readiness for school. Studying the problem of readiness for schooling in domestic and foreign psychology. Features of mental development of children 6–7 years old. Specifics of implementing a differentiated approach to teaching primary schoolchildren. Conclusion. References INTRODUCTION. The problem of a child's readiness for school has always been relevant. Currently, the relevance of the problem is determined by many factors. Modern research shows that 30–40% of children enter the first grade of a public school unprepared for learning, that is, they have insufficiently developed the following components of readiness: - social, - psychological, - emotional - volitional. The successful solution of problems in the development of a child’s personality, increasing the effectiveness of learning, and favorable professional development are largely determined by how accurately the level of readiness of children for schooling is taken into account. IN modern psychology There is no single and clear definition of the concept of “readiness” or “school maturity” yet. A. Anastesi interprets the concept of school maturity as the mastery of skills, knowledge, abilities, motivation and other behavioral characteristics necessary for the optimal level of assimilation of the school program. I. Shvantsara defines school maturity as the achievement of such a stage in development when the child becomes able to take part in school education. I. Shvantsara identifies mental, social and emotional components as components of school readiness. L.I. Bozhovich points out that readiness for learning at school consists of a certain level of development of mental activity, cognitive interests, readiness for voluntary regulation of one’s cognitive activity and the social position of the student. Today, it is generally accepted that readiness for schooling is a multicomponent education that requires comprehensive psychological research. Issues of psychological readiness for learning at school are considered by teachers, psychologists, and defectologists: L.I. Bozhovich., L.A. Wenger., A.L. Wenger., L.S. Vygotsky, A.V. Zaporozhets., A. Kern, A.R. Luria, V.S. Mukhin, S.Ya. Rubinstein, E.O. Smirnova and many others. The authors provide not only an analysis of the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities of a child during the transition from kindergarten to school, but also consider issues of a differentiated approach in preparing children for school, methods for determining readiness, and also, importantly, ways to correct negative results and in connection with These are recommendations for working with children and their parents. Therefore, the primary task facing both domestic and foreign scientists is the following: - to identify at what age it is better to start learning, - when and under what condition of the child this process will not lead to disturbances in his development or negatively affect his health . Scientists believe that a differentiated approach as a socio-educational environment is based on the level of speech readiness of younger schoolchildren. A differentiated approach will be carried out more effectively if the speech development of first-grade students is identified. Theoretical aspects of the problem of children's readiness for school. Studying the problem of readiness for schooling in domestic and foreign psychology. Psychological readiness for learning at school is considered at modern stage development of psychology as a complex characteristic of a child, which reveals the levels of development of psychological qualities, which are the most important prerequisites for normal inclusion in a new social environment and for the formation of educational activities. In the psychological dictionary, the concept of “readiness for schooling” is considered as a set of morpho-physiological characteristics of a child of senior preschool age, ensuring a successful transition to systematic, organized schooling. V.S. Mukhina argues that readiness for schooling is the desire and awareness of the need to learn, arising as a result of the social maturation of the child, the appearance of internal contradictions in him, which set the motivation for educational activities. D.B. Elkonin believes that a child’s readiness for schooling involves “growing in” social rule, that is, systems of social relations between a child and an adult. The concept of “readiness for school” is most fully given in the definition of L.A. Wenger, by which he understood a certain set of knowledge and skills, in which all other elements must be present, although the level of their development may be different. The components of this set are, first of all, motivation, personal readiness, which includes the “internal position of the student,” volitional and intellectual readiness. (10) L.I. Bozhovich called the new attitude of the child to the environment that arises upon entering school “the internal position of the student,” considering this new formation a criterion of readiness for learning at school. (8) In her research, T.A. Nezhnova points out that a new social position and the activity corresponding to it develop insofar as they are accepted by the subject, that is, they become the subject of his own needs and aspirations, the content of his “internal position.” (36) A.N. Leontyev considers the direct driving force of a child’s development to be his real activity with changes in his “internal position.” (28) B last years More and more attention is being paid to the problem of school readiness abroad. When solving this issue, as J. Jirasek notes, theoretical constructs are combined, on the one hand, and practical experience, on the other. The peculiarity of the research is that the intellectual capabilities of children are at the center of this problem. This is reflected in tests showing the child’s development in the areas of thinking, memory, perception and other mental processes. (35) According to S. Strebel, A. Kern, J. Jirasek, a child entering school must have certain characteristics of a schoolchild: be mature in mental, emotional and social terms. (28) The authors refer to the mental area as the child’s ability to differentiated perception , voluntary attention, analytical thinking and so on. By emotional maturity they understand the child’s emotional stability and almost complete absence of impulsive reactions. They associate social maturity with the child’s need to communicate with children, with the ability to obey the interests and accepted conventions of children’s groups, as well as with the ability to take on the social role of a schoolchild in the social situation of schooling. F.L.Ilg, L.B.Ames conducted a study to identify the parameters of readiness for schooling. As a result, a special system of tasks arose that made it possible to examine children from 5 to 10 years old. The tests developed in the study have practical significance and have predictive ability. In addition to test tasks, the authors suggest that if a child is unprepared for school, they should be taken from there and, through numerous training sessions, brought to the required level of readiness. However, this point of view is not the only one. Thus, D.P. Ozubel proposes, if the child is unprepared, to change the curriculum at school and thereby gradually equalize the development of all children. (1) It should be noted that, despite the diversity of positions, all of the listed authors have a lot in common. Many of them, when studying readiness for schooling, use the concept of “school maturity”, based on the false concept that the emergence of this maturity is mainly due to individual characteristics the process of spontaneous maturation of the innate inclinations of a child and essentially independent of the social conditions of life and upbringing. In the spirit of this concept, the main focus is on the development of tests that serve to diagnose the level of school maturity of children. Only a small number of foreign authors - Vronfenvrenner, Vruner - criticize the provisions of the concept of “school maturity” and emphasize the role of social factors, as well as the characteristics of public and family education in its emergence. Doing comparative analysis foreign and domestic research, we can conclude that the main attention of foreign psychologists is aimed at creating tests and is much less focused on the theory of the issue. In the works domestic psychologists contains an in-depth theoretical study of the problem of school readiness. An important aspect in the study of school maturity is the study of the problem of psychological readiness for learning at school. (L.A. Wenger, S.D. Tsukerman, R.I. Aizman, G.N. Zharova, L.K. Aizman, A.I. Savinkov, S.D. Zabramnaya) Components of a child’s psychological readiness for school are: - motivational (personal), - intellectual, - emotional - volitional. Motivational readiness is the child’s desire to learn. In the studies of A.K. Markova, T.A. Matis, A.B. Orlov shows that the emergence of a child’s conscious attitude towards school is determined by the way information about it is presented. It is important that information about the school communicated to children is not only understood, but also felt by them. Emotional experience is ensured by the inclusion of children in activities that activate both thinking and feelings. (31) In terms of motivation, two groups of motives for learning have been identified: 1. Broad social motives for learning or motives related to the child’s needs in communicating with other people, in their assessment and approval, with the student’s desire to take a certain place in the system of social relations available to him. 2. Motives related directly to educational activities, or the cognitive interests of children, the need for intellectual activity and the acquisition of new skills, abilities and knowledge. Personal readiness for school is expressed in the child’s attitude towards school, teachers and educational activities, and also includes the formation in children of such qualities that would help them communicate with teachers and classmates. Intellectual readiness presupposes that a child has an outlook and a stock of specific knowledge. The child must have systematic and dissected perception, elements of a theoretical attitude to the material being studied, generalized forms of thinking and basic logical operations, and semantic memorization. Intellectual readiness also presupposes the development in a child of initial skills in the field of educational activity, in particular, the ability to identify an educational task and turn it into an independent goal of activity. V.V. Davydov believes that a child must master mental operations, be able to generalize and differentiate objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, be able to plan his activities and exercise self-control. At the same time, it is important to have a positive attitude towards learning, the ability to self-regulate behavior and the manifestation of volitional efforts to complete assigned tasks. (18) In Russian psychology, when studying the intellectual component of psychological readiness for school, the emphasis is not on the amount of knowledge acquired by the child, but on the level of development of intellectual processes. That is, the child must be able to identify the essential in the phenomena of the surrounding reality, be able to compare them, see similar and different; he must learn to reason, find the causes of phenomena, and draw conclusions. Discussing the problem of readiness for school, D.B. Elkonin put the formation of the necessary prerequisites for educational activity in the first place. Analyzing these prerequisites, he and his staff identified the following parameters: - the ability of children to consciously subordinate their actions to rules that generally determine the method of action, - the ability to focus on a given system of requirements, - the ability to listen carefully to the speaker and accurately carry out tasks proposed orally, - the ability to independently perform the required task according to a visually perceived model. These parameters for the development of voluntariness are part of psychological readiness for school; learning in the first grade is based on them. D.B. Elkonin believed that voluntary behavior is born in play in a group of children, allowing the child to rise to a higher level. (41) Research by E.E. Kravtsova (25) showed that in order to develop voluntariness in a child, a number of actions should be performed when working conditions: - it is necessary to combine individual and collective forms of activity, - take into account age child's characteristics, - use games with rules. Research by N.G. Salmina showed that first-grade schoolchildren with a low level of voluntariness are characterized by low level gaming activities, and, therefore, are characterized by learning difficulties. (53) In addition to the indicated components of psychological readiness for school, researchers highlight the level of speech development. R.S. Nemov argues that children’s verbal readiness for teaching and learning is primarily manifested in their ability to use it for voluntary control of behavior and cognitive processes. No less important is the development of speech as a means of communication and a prerequisite for mastering writing. Particular care should be taken about this function of speech during middle and senior preschool childhood, since the development of written speech significantly determines the progress of the child’s intellectual development. (35). By the age of 6–7 years, a more complex independent form of speech appears and develops – an extended monologue utterance. By this time, the child’s vocabulary consists of approximately 14 thousand words. He already knows word measurement, the formation of tenses, and the rules for composing sentences. Speech in children of preschool and primary school age develops in parallel with the improvement of thinking, especially verbal-logical thinking, therefore, when psychodiagnostics of the development of thinking is carried out, it partially affects speech, and vice versa: when a child’s speech is studied, the resulting indicators cannot but reflect the level of development thinking. It is not possible to completely separate linguistic and psychological types of speech analysis, nor is it possible to conduct separate psychodiagnostics of thinking and speech. The fact is that human speech in its practical form contains both linguistic (linguistic) and human (personal psychological) principles. Summarizing what was said above in the paragraph, we see that in cognitive terms, by the time a child enters school, he has already reached a very high level of development, ensuring free assimilation of the school curriculum. In addition to the development of cognitive processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking and speech, psychological readiness for school includes developed personal characteristics. Before entering school, a child must have developed self-control, work skills, the ability to communicate with people, and role behavior. In order for a child to be ready to learn and acquire knowledge, it is necessary that each of these characteristics be sufficiently developed, including the level of speech development. At preschool age, the process of mastering speech is basically completed: * by the age of 7, language becomes a means of communication and thinking of the child, also a subject of conscious study, since in preparation for school, learning to read and write begins; * the sound side of speech develops. Younger preschoolers begin to realize the peculiarities of their pronunciation, the process of phonemic development is completed; * the grammatical structure of speech develops. Children acquire patterns of morphological order and syntactic order. Mastering the grammatical forms of language and acquiring a larger active vocabulary allows them to move on to concrete speech at the end of preschool age. Thus, the high demands of life for the organization of education and training intensify the search for new, more effective psychological and pedagogical approaches aimed at bringing teaching methods into line with psychological characteristics child. Therefore, the problem of children’s psychological readiness to study at school is of particular importance, since the success of children’s subsequent education at school depends on its solution. Features of mental development of children 6–7 years old. At primary school age, children have significant development reserves, but before using the existing development reserves, it is necessary to give a qualitative description of the mental processes of this age. V.S. Mukhina believes that perception at the age of 6–7 years loses its original affective character: perceptual and emotional processes are differentiated. Perception becomes meaningful, purposeful, and analytical. It highlights voluntary actions - observation, examination, search. Speech has a significant influence on the development of perception at this time, so that the child begins to actively use the names of qualities, characteristics, states of various objects and the relationships between them. Specially organized perception contributes to a better understanding of manifestations. In preschool age, attention is involuntary. A state of increased attention, as V.S. points out. Mukhina, associated with orientation in external environment, with an emotional attitude towards it, while the substantive features of external impressions that provide such an increase change with age. (32) Researchers associate the turning point in the development of attention with the fact that children for the first time begin to consciously manage their attention, directing and maintaining it on certain objects. Thus, the possibilities for developing voluntary attention by the age of 6–7 years are already great. This is facilitated by the improvement of the planning function of speech, which, according to V.S. Mukhina, is a universal means of organizing attention. Speech makes it possible to verbally highlight in advance objects that are significant for a specific task and to organize attention, taking into account the nature of the upcoming activity. (32) Age-related patterns are also noted in the process of memory development. As noted by P.P. Blonsky (6), A.R. Luria, A.A. Smirnov’s memory in older preschool age is involuntary. The child remembers better what is of greatest interest to him and leaves the greatest impression. Thus, as psychologists point out, the volume of recorded material is also determined by the emotional attitude towards a given object or phenomenon. Compared to primary and secondary preschool age, as A.A. points out. Smirnov, the role of involuntary memorization in 7-year-old children is somewhat reduced, but at the same time the strength of memorization increases. (56) One of the main achievements of an older preschooler is the development of involuntary memorization. Important feature of this age, as noted by E.I. Rogov, is the fact that a 6-7 year old child can be given a goal aimed at memorizing certain material. The presence of such a possibility is due to the fact that, as psychologists point out, the child begins to use various techniques specifically designed to increase the efficiency of memorization: repetition, semantic and associative linking of material. (56) Thus, by the age of 6–7 years, the structure of memory undergoes significant changes associated with the development of voluntary forms of memorization and recall. Involuntary memory, not associated with an active attitude to the current activity, turns out to be less productive, although in general this form of memory retains a leading position. In preschoolers, perception and thinking are closely interconnected, which indicates visual-figurative thinking, which is most characteristic of this age. According to E.E. Kravtsova, a child’s curiosity is constantly aimed at understanding the world around him and building his own picture of this world. The child, while playing, experiments, tries to establish cause-and-effect relationships and dependencies. He is forced to operate with knowledge, and when some problems arise, the child tries to solve them by actually trying them on and trying them out, but he can also solve problems in his head. The child imagines a real situation and, as it were, acts with it in his imagination. (25) Thus, visual-figurative thinking is the main type of thinking in primary school age. In his research, J. Piaget points out that a child’s thinking at the beginning of school is characterized by egocentrism, a special mental position caused by the lack of knowledge necessary to correctly solve certain problem situations. Thus, the child himself does not open his personal experience knowledge about the preservation of such properties of objects as length, volume, weight and others. (39) N.N. Poddyakov showed that at the age of 5–6 years there is an intensive development of skills and abilities that contribute to children’s study of the external environment, analysis of the properties of objects, influencing them in order to change them. This level of mental development, that is, visually effective thinking, is, as it were, preparatory. It contributes to the accumulation of facts, information about the world around us, and the creation of a basis for the formation of ideas and concepts. In the process of visually effective thinking, the prerequisites for the formation of visually imaginative thinking appear, which are characterized by the fact that the solution to a problem situation is carried out by the child with the help of ideas, without the use of practical actions. (43) Psychologists characterize the end of the preschool period by the predominance of visually imaginative thinking or visually. schematic thinking. A reflection of a child’s achievement of this level of mental development is the schematism of a child’s drawing and the ability to use schematic images when solving problems. Psychologists note that visual and figurative thinking is the basis for the formation of logical thinking associated with the use and transformation of concepts. Thus, by the age of 6–7 years, a child can approach solving a problem situation in three ways: using visual-effective, visual-figurative and logical thinking. S.D. Rubinstein, N.N. Poddyakov, D.B. Elkonin argue that senior preschool age should be considered only as a period when the intensive formation of logical thinking should begin, as if thereby determining the immediate future of mental development. (51) In preschool childhood, the process of mastering speech is basically completed: . by the age of 7, language becomes a means of communication and thinking of the child, also a subject of conscious study, since in preparation for school, learning to read and write begins; . The sound side of speech develops. Younger preschoolers begin to become aware of the peculiarities of their pronunciation, but they still retain their previous ways of perceiving sounds, thanks to which they recognize incorrectly pronounced children's words. By the end of preschool age, the process of phonemic development is completed; . the grammatical structure of speech develops. Children learn subtle patterns of morphological order and syntactic order. Mastering the grammatical forms of language and acquiring a larger active vocabulary allows them to move on to concrete speech at the end of preschool age. In the studies of N.G. Salmina shows that children aged 6–7 years master all forms of oral speech inherent in adults. They develop detailed messages—monologues, stories, and develop dialogical speech, including instructions, assessment, coordination of play activities. (53) The use of new forms of speech, the transition to detailed statements are due to new communication tasks facing the child during this period. Thanks to communication, which M.I. Lisina called non-situational - cognitive, vocabulary increases and correct grammatical structures are learned. Dialogues become more complex and meaningful; the child learns to ask questions on abstract topics, and to reason along the way, thinking out loud. (30) By the senior preschool age, the accumulation of extensive experience in practical actions, a sufficient level of development of perception, memory, and thinking, increases the child’s sense of self-confidence. This is expressed in the setting of increasingly diverse and complex goals, the achievement of which is facilitated by the development of volitional regulation of behavior. As studies by K.M. show. Gurevich, V.I. Selivanova, a child of 6 – 7 years old can strive for a distant goal, while withstanding significant volitional tension for quite a long time. (15) According to A.K. Markova, A.B. Orlova, L.M. Friedman, at this age changes occur in the child’s motivational sphere: a system of subordinate motives is formed, giving a general direction to the child’s behavior. Acceptance of the most significant this moment motive is the basis that allows the child to go towards the intended goal, ignoring situationally arising desires. (31) As noted by E.I. Rogov, by older preschool age there is an intensive development of cognitive motivation: the child’s immediate impressionability decreases, at the same time the child becomes more active in searching for new information. (56) According to A.V. Zaporozhets, Ya.Z. Neverovich, important role belongs to role-playing game, which is a school of social norms, with the assimilation of which the child’s behavior is built on the basis of a certain emotional attitude towards others or depending on the nature of the expected reaction. The child considers the adult to be the bearer of norms and rules, but under certain conditions he himself can act in this role. At the same time, his activity in relation to compliance with accepted norms increases. (24) Gradually, the older preschooler learns moral assessments and begins to take into account the assessment from an adult from this point of view. E.V. Subbotinsky believes that due to the internalization of the rules of behavior, the child begins to worry about violation of these rules, even in the absence of an adult. (58) Most often, emotional tension, according to V.A. Averin, affects: - the child’s psychomotor skills (82% of children exposed to this influence), - his volitional efforts (80%), - speech disorders (67%), - a decrease in the efficiency of memorization (37%). Thus, emotional stability is the most important condition for the normal educational activities of children. Having summarized the developmental features of a child aged 6–7 years, we can conclude that at this age stage children differ: . a fairly high level of mental development, including dissected perception, generalized norms of thinking, semantic memorization; . the child develops a certain amount of knowledge and skills, an arbitrary form of memory and thinking intensively develops, based on which the child can be encouraged to listen, consider, remember, and analyze; . his behavior is characterized by the presence of a formed sphere of motives and interests, an internal plan of action, and the ability to fairly adequately assess the results of his own activities and his capabilities; . features of speech development. Specifics of implementing a differentiated approach to teaching primary schoolchildren. Currently, education is considered by teachers as a universal human value. This is confirmed by the constitutionally enshrined human right to education in most countries. Its implementation is ensured by the education systems existing in a particular state. The implementation of certain values ​​leads to the functioning of various types of education. The first type is characterized by the presence of an adaptive practical orientation, that is, the desire to limit the content of general education training to a minimum of information related to ensuring human life. The second is based on a broad cultural-historical orientation. This type of education provides for obtaining information that obviously will not be in demand in direct practical activities. Both types of axiological orientations inadequately correlate the real capabilities and abilities of a person. To overcome these shortcomings, they began to create educational projects solving the problems of training a competent person. One of the main cultural and humanistic functions of education is the general focus on the harmonious development of the individual. Moreover, each component educational system contributes to the humanistic goal of education. Target modern education– development of those personality traits that she and society need for inclusion in socially valuable activities. Man is a dynamic system that becomes a personality and manifests itself as such in the process of interaction with the environment. Consequently, the content of education and the completeness of the picture can only be achieved if the personality is presented in dynamics. Based on this, the activity of the individual acts as a determinant of the content of education. Therefore, it can be determined according to V.S. Lednev, as the content of a specially organized activity of students, the basis of which is the experience of the individual. (29) Modern pedagogical science focuses not on passive adaptation to the existing level of development of students, but on the formation of mental functions, creating conditions for their development in the learning process. Therefore, of great importance, according to L.S. Vygotsky, modern teachers pay attention to the construction of education, which would take into account the “zone of proximal development” of the individual, that is, it would focus not on the current level of development, but on the tomorrow that the student can achieve under the guidance and help of the teacher. (12) For mental development, as established by the research of D.N. Bogoyavlensky. and N.A. Menchinskaya, even a complex and mobile system of knowledge is not enough. Students must master those mental operations with the help of which knowledge is acquired and manipulated. (29) N.A. Menchinskaya pays great attention to the development of learning ability, which is characterized by generalized mental activity, economy, independence and flexibility of thinking, semantic memory, and the connection of visual-figurative and verbal-logical components of thinking. She believes that developing learning ability is a reliable way to increase the efficiency of the process of acquiring knowledge and learning in general. An effective concept for increasing the developmental function of traditional education was proposed by L.V. Zankov. His didactic system, aimed at younger schoolchildren, has a developmental effect if the following principles are observed: 1. Building education on high level difficulties. 2. Fast pace of learning the material. 3. The principle of the leading role of theoretical knowledge. 4. Students' awareness of the learning process. The theory of educational activity comes from the teachings of L.S. Vygotsky on the relationship between learning and development, according to which learning has a leading role in mental development carries out primarily through the content of acquired knowledge. In accordance with the theory of educational activity, students should develop not knowledge, but certain types of activities in which knowledge is included as a certain element. According to V.V. Davydov, a person’s knowledge is in unity with his mental actions. Therefore, it is permissible to use the term “knowledge” to simultaneously designate both the result of thinking and the process of obtaining it. (18) Thus, the relevance of the search effective system training has not decreased at the present time, since its further development serves as the basis for improving the learning process. According to the statement of L.V. Zankov, not every educational activity provides optimal conditions for the education and development of the individual. Therefore, to solve this problem, it is necessary to carefully organize the content of education, select appropriate forms and methods of teaching, and its technology. (19) General and equal education for all children, while ensuring the identification of the inclinations and abilities of students, does not yet guarantee their sufficiently intensive development. This is explained by the great heterogeneity of students, the difference in their inclinations and abilities. A system of certain measures is needed to ensure the development of students’ abilities in an optimal manner, taking into account the inclinations and abilities identified in students. In order to identify abilities, special tests have been developed. Testing begins from the moment the child enters school. Tests are a series of different tasks that a child must complete within a certain period of time. Test tasks, as a rule, are such that their successful completion requires a good vocabulary, developed speech, familiarity with environment and its phenomena. In other words, good overall development of the child is required. N.M. Shakhmaev believes that such differentiation of education based on high general level, answers social goals our society, which strives to provide comprehensive development each person and open the way for him to obtain special knowledge. (55) Thus, society’s interest in creating an optimal regime for identifying and developing the inclinations of all children leads to the need for differentiation of education. Consequently, one of the tasks of differentiation of education in social terms comes down to identifying and maximizing the development of the inclinations and abilities of the younger generation. It is essential that the general level of education in secondary school should be the same. Differentiation of education means taking into account the individual characteristics of students in the form when students are grouped on the basis of certain characteristics. (47) At the same time, the term “differentiation” is often considered in a much narrower sense, namely, as the division of a school into streams, sometimes even as the formation of special schools and classes. E.S. Rabunsky interprets this concept approximately this way. (47) I. Unt in his research identifies the following goals of differentiation: . The educational goal is to improve the knowledge, skills and abilities of students, to promote the implementation curricula increasing the level of knowledge and skills of each student individually and thus reducing his absolute and relative backlog, deepening and expanding the knowledge of students, based on their interests and special abilities. . The developmental goal is the formation and development of logical thinking, creativity and academic skills while relying on the student’s zone of proximal development. . The educational goal is to create the prerequisites for the development of the interests and special abilities of the child, while taking into account existing cognitive interests and encouraging new ones, evoking positive emotions, and beneficially influencing educational motivation and attitude towards educational work. (59) Studying the issue of forms and methods of differentiation, V. I. Gladkikh explored the possibilities of an individual approach in frontal work. His studies mainly took into account the individual characteristics of students when surveying them at all levels of the educational process. (16). In addition to the questioning technique, the following techniques are also suitable for this: o Using different levels of the story in the teacher’s oral presentation, that is, the teacher first simplifies his material and then complicates it; o The use of educational conversation, during which students are provoked to raise problems and demonstrate their additional and extracurricular knowledge; o Taking into account individual differences in role play and discussion. Since the 60s, the main opportunities for differentiation in domestic pedagogy have been seen in independent work. Individualization here is carried out mainly in the following ways: 1. students are not given the same tasks, which vary depending on the individual characteristics of the students; 2. by grouping students within the class according to different characteristics. Research on group work was carried out by H.J. Liimets (57), who pointed out that in a small group the student is in more favorable conditions than in frontal work with the whole class in terms of the opportunity to act in accordance with his individuality. In a conversation inside small group he can express his opinion, participate more actively in solving educational problems in accordance with his interests and abilities. Groups that are structured in a particular way—groups that are formed by the teacher based on the students’ developmental level—are particularly beneficial. In such cases, the stronger group is given more difficult tasks, and the weaker group is given easier tasks. The following forms and methods of differentiation are distinguished: . Frontal, . Group, . Work in pairs. Individual independent work. A modern model of an adaptive school is proposed by E.A. Yamburg. By adaptive school he means a school with a mixed student population, where gifted and ordinary children study, as well as those in need of remedial and developmental education. Such a school strives, on the one hand, to adapt as much as possible to students with their individual characteristics, and on the other, to respond as flexibly as possible to sociocultural changes in the environment. The main result of such two-sided activities of the school is the adaptation of children to a rapidly changing life. (20) As E.A. emphasizes. Yamburg, it is possible and necessary to teach all children without exception, regardless of their abilities and inclinations, individual differences. This is both the humanism and democracy of the adaptive school, if you put a professional pedagogical meaning. (20) E.A. Yamburg argues that an adaptive school is a mass general education school, where there should be a place for every child, that is, educational programs should be developed according to their level of readiness for learning. An adaptive school puts the physical, mental and moral development of students at the forefront, organizing the educational process in such a way as to minimize the overload of students, avoid neuroses, and ensure modern diagnostics and correction, systematic medical and psychological assistance directly at school. The health concept is developed and implemented by the director of the DAR Center named after. Vygotsky L.S., Candidate of Medical Sciences V.N. Kasatkin. The adaptive school is divided into main modules that correspond to the stages of learning and development, and accompanying modules that perform their specific tasks. The “Primary School” module defines the following goals and objectives: 1. Ensuring substantive and methodological continuity with the preschool module. Here attention is paid to the child’s psychological readiness for school and the choice of optimal learning conditions. 2. Ensuring an optimal combination of two educational paradigms: affective - emotional - volitional and cognitive. 3. Primary school students mastering the methods and skills of educational activities available to them. 4. Organization of dialogue between various pedagogical systems and technologies. This module works within the logic of the “mixed abilities” educational model. Characteristic features: > All subjects are studied in “mixed ability” groups. Thus, internal differentiation of the child’s abilities and inclinations is ensured through specially organized correctional and developmental work and selection pedagogical technologies for a specific child. > Educational material is presented in portions. > Upon completion of work on the basic educational unit, diagnostic tests are used to determine how successfully students have mastered the educational material. > During the “corrective” or “additional” period, work on tasks is organized individually or in groups. > The allocation of “corrective” or “additional” groups occurs within the class. > Particular attention is paid to working with a small group of children and individual differentiation. > All students begin studying the new basic unit at the same time. > The requirements for students' knowledge are fixed, but the time allotted for studying a particular basic unit is not limited. > The most important feature of this model is diagnostic testing. > The model works well when attention is paid to student management, as children must learn group work skills. > Since there are constant regroupings within the class, good relationships between students and the working climate become a constant concern for the teacher and a necessary condition effective learning. Thus, according to E.A. Yamburg, over time, comprehensive schools will necessarily turn into adaptive ones, where the educational process will be organized taking into account the socio-cultural characteristics of the region, the social needs of the population and the state requirements for educational standards, as flexible as possible in relation to the psychophysiological characteristics, abilities and inclinations of children. Thus, in our study, differentiated instruction will be considered as a condition for the successful speech development of first-graders. A differentiated approach is taking into account the individual characteristics of students, in the form when students are grouped based on any characteristics. When teaching primary schoolchildren, the implementation of a differentiated approach will have the following features: o Ensuring content and methodological continuity, choosing optimal learning conditions. o Ensuring an optimal combination of two educational paradigms: affective - emotional - volitional and cognitive. o Mastering by primary school students the methods and skills of learning activities available to them. o Organization of dialogue between different pedagogical systems and technologies. o Creation favorable conditions for maximum development of the inclinations and abilities of younger schoolchildren. o Eliminating overload in teaching younger students. Conclusion The successful solution of problems in the development of a child’s personality, increasing the effectiveness of learning, and favorable professional development are largely determined by how accurately the level of readiness of children for schooling is taken into account. Therefore, readiness to learn at school is considered as a complex characteristic of a child, which reveals the levels of development of psychological qualities that are the most important prerequisites for normal inclusion in a new social environment and for the formation of educational activities. The characteristic psychological characteristics of children of primary school age are: - the ability of children to consciously subordinate their actions to rules that generally determine the method of action, - the ability to focus on a given system of requirements, - the ability to listen carefully to the speaker and accurately carry out tasks given orally, - the ability to independently perform the required task according to a visually perceived sample. In addition to the indicated components of psychological readiness for school, researchers identify the level of speech development. The main indicators of first-graders’ speech readiness for learning are: - more complex independent form speech - a detailed monologue utterance, - development of the sound side of speech, the process of phonemic development is completed, - development grammatical structure speech, - mastery of morphological and syntactic patterns, - mastery of grammatical forms of language and acquisition of a larger active vocabulary, - improvement of verbal and logical thinking. According to the identified level of readiness for learning, taking into account the students’ inclinations and abilities, a system of certain measures is necessary to ensure the development of younger schoolchildren in an optimal manner. Such a system could be differentiation. The specifics of organizing a differentiated approach will depend: - firstly, on the level of readiness of students - secondly, on the specifics of the development of cognitive processes and speech development of first-graders; - thirdly, on the effectiveness of using the basic educational and developmental capabilities of educational programs; - fourthly, from the rational combination of the leading type of activity (educational) with other types of activity, with an optimal combination of forms, methods and means of teaching; - fifthly, from knowledge of the forms and methods of a differentiated approach when teaching younger schoolchildren. Bibliography. 1. Anastasi A. Psychological testing: book 2/Pod. Ed. K.M. Gurevich, V.I. Lubovsky - M., 1982. 2. Blonsky P.P. Selected pedagogical and psychological essays. T.2. – M., 1979 (Development of schoolchildren’s thinking: 5 – 118) 3. Wenger A.L., Tsukerman N.K. Scheme individual examination children of primary school age - Tomsk, 1993. 4. Davydov V.V. Problems of developmental education. – M., 1986 (Psychological development of younger schoolchildren in the process of educational activities: 163-213) 5. Zaparozhets A.V. Selected psychological works: In 2 vols. – M., 1986. – T.1 (Teachings of Piaget and the mental development of the child: 216 – 221. Problems of the development of the child’s psyche: 223 – 232. Age periods of the child’s mental development: 233 – 235, 248 – 257) 6. Lisina N.I., Kopchelya G.I. Communication with adults and psychological preparation of children for school. – Kishenev, 1987. (Genesis of communication in preschoolers: 5 – 43) 7. Nezhnova T.A. Dynamics of the “internal position” during the transition from preschool to school age. – M., 1988. 8. Podyakov N.M. Preschooler thinking. – M., 1972 (Formation in preschoolers of generalized methods of practical research of the situation: 122 – 123. Formation of visual and figurative thinking in preschoolers: 162 – 237) 9. Russian language in primary school/ Ed. N.S. Soloveichik, P.S. Zhedek. – M., 1997. 10. secondary school N.M. Shakhmaev: 269 – 297)

Introduction

Our society at the present stage of its development is faced with the task of further improving educational work with preschool children, preparing them for school. To successfully solve this problem, a psychologist is required to be able to determine the level of mental development of a child, diagnose his deviations in a timely manner and, on this basis, outline ways of corrective work. Studying the level of mental development of children is the basis for both the organization of all subsequent educational and educational work, and for assessing the effectiveness of the content of the educational process in a kindergarten.

Most domestic and foreign scientists believe that the selection of children for school must be carried out six months to a year before school. This makes it possible to determine the readiness for systematic schooling of children and, if necessary, conduct a set of correctional classes.

According to L.A. Wenger, V.V. Kholmovskaya, L.L. Kolominsky, E.E. Kravtsova, O.M. Dyachenko and others in the structure of psychological readiness it is customary to distinguish the following components:

1. Personal readiness, which includes the formation in a child of readiness to accept a new social position - the position of a schoolchild who has a range of rights and responsibilities. Personal readiness includes determining the level of development of the motivational sphere.

2. The child’s intellectual readiness for school. This component of readiness presupposes that the child has an outlook and the development of cognitive processes.

3. Social and psychological readiness for schooling. This component includes the formation of moral and communication abilities in children.

4. Emotional-volitional readiness is considered formed if the child knows how to set a goal, make decisions, outline a plan of action and make an effort to implement it.

Practical psychologists face the problem of diagnosing children’s psychological readiness for school. The methods used for diagnosing psychological readiness should show the child’s development in all areas. But in practice, it is difficult for a psychologist to choose from this set the one that will (fully) help to comprehensively determine the child’s readiness for learning and help prepare the child for school.

It should be remembered that when studying children in the transition period from preschool to primary school age, the diagnostic scheme should include the diagnosis of both neoplasms of preschool age and initial forms activities of the next period.

Readiness, as measured by testing, essentially boils down to mastering the knowledge, skills, abilities and motivation necessary to optimally master the school curriculum.

Psychological readiness for schooling is understood as the necessary and sufficient level of psychological development of a child to master the school curriculum under certain learning conditions. A child’s psychological readiness for school is one of the most important results of psychological development during preschool childhood.

Readiness for learning is a complex indicator; each test gives an idea only of a certain aspect of a child’s readiness for school. Any testing technique gives a subjective assessment. The performance of each task depends largely on the state of the child at the moment, on the correctness of the instructions, and on the conditions of the test. The psychologist has to take all this into account when conducting the examination.

1. The concept of psychological readiness for schooling

Preparing children for school is a complex task, covering all areas of a child’s life. Psychological readiness for school is only one aspect of this task.

Readiness for school in modern conditions is considered, first of all, as readiness for schooling or educational activities. This approach is justified by looking at the problem from the point of view of the periodization of the child’s mental development and the change of leading types of activity.

Recently, the task of preparing children for school education has occupied one of the important places in the development of ideas in psychological science.

The successful solution of the problems of developing a child’s personality, increasing the effectiveness of learning, and favorable professional development are largely determined by how accurately the level of readiness of children for schooling is taken into account. In modern psychology, unfortunately, there is not yet a single and clear definition of the concept of “readiness” or “school maturity”.

A. Anastasi interprets the concept of school maturity as “mastery of skills, knowledge, abilities, motivation and other behavioral characteristics necessary for the optimal level of mastering the school curriculum.”

L.I. Bozhovich pointed out back in the 60s that readiness for learning at school consists of a certain level of development of mental activity, cognitive interests, readiness for arbitrary regulation of one’s cognitive activity and the social position of the student. Similar views were developed by A.I. Zaporozhets, who noted that readiness to study at school “is an integral system of interconnected qualities of a child’s personality, including the characteristics of its motivation, the level of development of cognitive, analytical-synthetic activity, the degree of formation of the mechanisms of volitional regulation of actions, etc. d.”

Today, it is almost universally accepted that readiness for schooling is a multi-complex education that requires comprehensive psychological research. In the structure of psychological readiness, it is customary to distinguish the following components (according to L.A. Venger, A.L. Venger, V.V. Kholmovskaya, Ya.Ya. Kolominsky, E.A. Pashko, etc.)

1. Personal readiness. Includes the formation of a child’s readiness to accept a new social position - the position of a schoolchild who has a range of rights and responsibilities. This personal readiness is expressed in the child’s attitude towards school, educational activities, teachers, and himself. Personal readiness also includes a certain level of development of the motivational sphere. A child who is ready for school is one who is attracted to school not by its external aspects (the attributes of school life - briefcase, textbooks, notebooks), but by the opportunity to acquire new knowledge, which involves the development of cognitive interests.

The future schoolchild needs to voluntarily control his behavior and cognitive activity, which becomes possible with the formation of a hierarchical system of motives. Thus, the child must have developed learning motivation. Personal readiness also presupposes a certain level of development of the child’s emotional sphere. By the beginning of school, the child should have achieved relatively good emotional stability, against the background of which the development and course of educational activities is possible.

2. The child’s intellectual readiness for school. This component of readiness presupposes that the child has an outlook and a stock of specific knowledge. The child must have systematic and dissected perception, elements of a theoretical attitude to the material being studied, generalized forms of thinking and basic logical operations, and semantic memorization. However, basically, the child’s thinking remains figurative, based on real actions with objects and their substitutes. Intellectual readiness also presupposes the development in a child of initial skills in the field of educational activity, in particular, the ability to identify an educational task and turn it into an independent goal of activity. To summarize, we can say that the development of intellectual readiness for learning at school involves:

Differentiated perception;

Analytical thinking (the ability to comprehend the main features and connections between phenomena, the ability to reproduce a pattern);

Rational approach to reality (weakening the role of fantasy);

Logical memorization;

Interest in knowledge and the process of obtaining it through additional efforts;

Mastery by ear colloquial speech and the ability to understand and use symbols;

Development of fine hand movements and hand-eye coordination.

3. Social and psychological readiness for schooling. This component of readiness includes the formation in children of qualities through which they could communicate with other children and teachers. A child comes to school, a class where children are engaged in a common task, and he needs to have fairly flexible ways of establishing relationships with other people, the ability to enter the children's society, act together with others, the ability to give in and defend himself.

Thus, this component presupposes the development in children of the need to communicate with others, the ability to obey the interests and customs of the children's group, and the developing ability to cope with the role of a student in a school learning situation.

In addition to the above-mentioned components of psychological readiness for school, we will also highlight physical, speech and emotional-volitional readiness.

Physical readiness means general physical development: normal height, weight, chest volume, muscle tone, body proportions, skin covering and indicators corresponding to the norms of physical development of boys and girls of 6-7 years of age. Condition of vision, hearing, motor skills (especially small movements of the hands and fingers). The state of the child’s nervous system: the degree of its excitability and balance, strength and mobility. General health.

Speech readiness means the formation of the sound side of speech, vocabulary, monologue speech and grammatical correctness.

Emotional-volitional readiness is considered formed if the child knows how to set a goal, make a decision, outline a plan of action, make efforts to implement it, overcome obstacles; the arbitrariness of psychological processes is formed in him.