Directions and forms of work with primary schoolchildren. II.2.1

To implement education in children's educational institutions, it is necessary to solve the following problems: determination of content, forms and methods of education taking into account age, individual psychological characteristics of students. Therefore, it is important to realize that today we need to talk not about event activities, but about educational activities, about human communication, about the formation of relationships, about the development of personal qualities.

Raising the younger generation is a multifaceted process. The physical and moral health of children is considered as priority areas in education; intellectual development; formation of personal culture and spiritual values; civic and patriotic education; aesthetic and labor education; formation of life plans for schoolchildren, preparation for family life, etc.

To implement pedagogical tasks, various forms of extracurricular educational work are used:

– traditional: oral journal, class hour, ethical conversation, living room;

– discussion: debate, project defense, evening of solved and unsolved mysteries;

– national ritual: folk holidays, gatherings, folk entertainment;

– television: “Theme”, “Happy Case”, “KVN”;

– collectively creative activities: “Chamomile” relay race, ring circuit;

– non-standard: sports flea market, dance ring, poetry cross-country;

– improvisations: “At the mirror”, “Smeshinka”, “Theater-exprom”.

The professionalism of a teacher and organizer lies in mastering the largest number of forms of work and the ability to use them to solve a specific pedagogical problem with maximum educational effect. “One-by-one”, according to A.S. Makarenko, individual education is the highest aerobatics in the work of an educator, teacher, and class teacher.

To educate means to organize the activities of children. A person develops, forms his skills, behavior patterns, values, feelings in the process of modern activities with people and in the course of communicating with them. Therefore, in order to achieve educational goals, the class teacher must be able to organize a variety of activities for children (teachers call it developmental, nurturing), and for children it is their natural life.

The organization of extracurricular activities for children, including leisure activities, in any school has always been and remains a very important area of ​​activity for teachers. Activities with children in addition to lessons, communication with them in a more or less free environment are essential, and often decisive, for their development and upbringing. They are also important for the teacher himself, as they help to get closer to children, get to know them better and establish good relationships, reveal unexpected and attractive sides of the teacher’s personality for students, and finally allow them to experience happy moments of unity, shared experiences, human closeness, which often makes teachers and students are friends for life. This gives the teacher a feeling of the necessity of his work, its social significance, and relevance. as they say now.

However, for this to happen, you need to know how to organize such work.

Methodists highlight types of extracurricular activities, which are possible at school, namely: cognitive activity, value-orientation, social, aesthetic, leisure. It is clear that all of them are closely related to the educational process, to the content of training and education at school and serve to achieve certain educational and educational goals. Thus, cognitive activity is aimed at developing cognitive interests, accumulating knowledge, developing mental abilities, etc.

Value-oriented activity, in essence, is the process of forming attitudes towards the world, forming beliefs, views, assimilating moral and other norms of people’s lives - all that is called values. The class teacher has ample opportunities to stimulate schoolchildren to develop attitudes and views on life in various forms of extracurricular activities: conversations on social and moral issues, class meetings, discussions, disputes. Of course, schoolchildren learn social values ​​in all other forms and activities.

Social activities involve the participation of schoolchildren in school management bodies, various student and youth associations in and outside the school, participation in labor, political and other campaigns. This occurs in such forms as self-care work, school cleaning, school assemblies, meetings, elections and student government work, evenings, holidays, etc.

Aesthetic activities develop artistic taste, interests, culture, and abilities of children. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of aesthetic activities for students, which can be organized especially effectively outside of school in special institutions of additional education and clubs. School teachers, however, also have the opportunity to carry out this work in the following forms: performances, competitions, school theaters, concerts, festivals, excursions to museums, visits to theaters and much more.

Leisure activities mean meaningful, developing rest, free communication, in which the initiative should belong to the students, but the teacher should not be an outside observer, remembering his functions as an educating adult. Sports and recreational activities can also be included here. Free communication and leisure time for students can take place in a variety of forms: games, holidays, recreation evenings, collective birthdays, competitions, joint walks, hikes, etc.

The teacher must know and be able to do a lot in order to organize all these forms of work methodically correctly. First of all, in the pedagogy of educational work at school, the very concept of “form of work” is not very clear and it is difficult to distinguish it from the method. However, it is still important for the teacher to know how he organizes the activities of students, what capabilities he has, so to speak, a methodological arsenal.

Form of extracurricular educational work with children can be defined as a specific way of organizing their relatively free activities at school, their independence with pedagogically appropriate guidance from adults. In educational practice there is a wide variety of forms of work; they are difficult to classify. Let us try, however, to streamline the forms of educational work by highlighting the predominant, main component of educational work. We can say that our typification is based on the main means (methods, types) of educational influence, of which we have identified five: words, experiences, activities, games, psychological exercises (training).

Hence, there are five types of forms of educational work with schoolchildren:

– verbal – logical
– figurative – artistic
– labor
– gaming
– psychological

Verbal and logical forms.

The main means of influence is the word (word persuasion), which evokes response emotions in children. This type of form includes conversations on various topics, class debates, meetings, conferences, lectures, etc. The main thing here is the exchange of information, messages from students, teachers and other adults, and discussion of problems. This type of educational influence takes place in the practice of schools all over the world, although the methodology, technique or even technology for its implementation may be different.

Figurative and artistic forms.

They combine activities of children where the main means of influence is a joint, predominantly aesthetic experience. The main thing here is to evoke strong, deep and ennobling collective emotions, similar to those that people experience in the theater, at holidays, and in other similar situations.

Great teachers, psychologists, artists, politicians and public figures well understood the enormous uplifting and unifying power of jointly experienced feelings, and also knew their destructive potential. The teacher must be able to provide children with shared experiences that will make them better people.

Such forms as a concert, performance, holiday, etc. have great potential.

Let us note in this regard that collective, mass experiences seem to occupy a large place in modern life, especially among young people: rock concerts, discos, “parties” of informals. But, alas, not to mention the content and nature of these ideas, the noise and external effects there often fill the inner emptiness and leave no room for deep inner experience. In modern life, obviously, there is generally a lot of noise and there is no silence that would help a person discover himself. When organizing the life of schoolchildren, it is necessary to ensure that there are moments of silence filled with contemplation, penetration into phenomena, the discovery of new things in the world around them, in people, in themselves.

Labor forms of extracurricular work.

Joint work, and more broadly, various activities, any work, has a positive effect on children. These are different types of work at the school, from daily cleaning to repairing the school, setting up and organizing a garden, park, organizing a farm, a school cooperative, a printing house, and an information center. This also includes various types of assistance to those in need, work in self-government bodies, social movements and organizations. Collaborative work can inspire no less than theater, aesthetic spectacle or celebration.

Game (leisure) forms of work.

These are games, joint recreation, meaningful entertainment. Games can be sports, educational, competitive, competitive. All of them, like the above-mentioned types of forms of educational work, often combine various means of influence: word, image, feelings, work.

Particular attention should be paid to PSYCHOLOGICAL FORMS of working with students. In forms of this type, the main means of influence are elements of psychological training, methods of practical psychology, individual and group psychotherapy. These are lectures, conversations, discussions, psychological exercises, consultations. They require some special knowledge and skills of the teacher.

For success when using various forms of work with children, the teacher must imagine their hidden capabilities and, on the basis of this, organize them in the most optimal way. It should be remembered that, as we have already noted, any form of work involves exposure to words, sensory experiences, play (competition), and labor (work). On this basis, we can identify the following mandatory elements of all forms of work with students: information, experiences, actions. Information- this is something new and important that students learn about by participating in a particular activity . Experiences– this is their emotional perception of information and everything that happens, assessment, attitude. Actions– this is their joint activity (with each other and adults), which enriches and develops. Children, participating in various activities, learn new things, experience successes and failures, and happy moments of creativity. Thus, they acquire the social experience they need and the personality orientation approved by society.

The forms of extracurricular activities and their content are very diverse and difficult to account for. Here are the most common ones that are most often encountered in school practice. At the same time, let us remember that many of them are carried out both on a school-wide scale and within a class or two parallel classes. In a modern school, class teachers and teachers organize the following activities together with children: holidays, evenings, fairs, “lights”, discos, usually tied to a calendar date or associated with the tradition of the school (Soviet solemn dates are supplanted by Christmastide, Maslenitsa, American Halloween, European Valentine's Day, etc.); traditional class and school duty, periodic school cleaning; competitions, days and weeks of knowledge in academic subjects; excursions to museums, to enterprises, to the sights of your hometown, sightseeing trips to the city, country, going to the theater, less often the cinema; walks, trips to the forest, to cultural and historical monuments, multi-day hikes and trips (mainly in summer); sports competitions, health days; workshop on rules of conduct and safety on the street, in the yard, at the entrance; release and competitions of wall newspapers, holiday posters, postcards and much more.

Let us especially note such a phenomenon as Classroom hour, needlessly pushed out of school practice. Class hour, in our opinion, has at least two meanings, the first of which is simply the time the class teacher works with the class, included in the lesson schedule (alas, no longer!). At this time, the class teacher can do with the class whatever he and the students deem necessary: ​​conversations on a variety of issues, educational games, discussions, reading books, etc. Unfortunately, it happens that teachers gather students only to solve organizational issues and “Reprimands” for bad behavior and academic performance. Therefore, there is a second meaning of the concept “class hour” - a meeting of class students to discuss class matters. Here it is necessary to give the floor to student self-government, which will solve organizational and other pressing issues of class life. It seems that a class hour in the first and second meanings does not have to be held every week, but twice a month is sufficient.

Note that often the boundary between different types of class hours is quite arbitrary: at a class meeting dedicated to discussing class problems, the teacher, parents, and some guests can give a talk or a message. But let’s say that conversations should not turn into personal verbal reprimands and edifications.

"Quiz".

Educational objectives: helps to increase the cognitive activity of schoolchildren.

This is a game of answering questions, usually united by some topic.

Requirements for the quiz:

- common topic;
– questions must be specific;
– select a certain number of questions;
– take into account the age and amount of knowledge of children, their interests;
– think over the form of the event – ​​“What? Where? When?”, “Field of Miracles”, “Bray-ring”, “Happy Accident”;
– question – answer (oral or written);
– it is possible to conduct a quiz without prior preparation or the questions are given to children in advance;

The quiz can have different tasks:

– explain if you can;
– which statement is true, etc.

Give questions to broaden the horizons of children, to which they must find the answer independently from sources. Please indicate literature.

“Living Newspaper”.

Educational objectives: development of creative and communication abilities.

The model is old, it was invented by counselors of the 20s. The “living” newspaper was revived in the 50s. Strictly speaking, this is a performance in the form of a newspaper, the script of which is written, invented and staged by counselors and children in compliance with the genres of journalism: editorial, feuilleton, report, essay, interview, questionnaire, cartoon, literary parody, funny mixture, information, announcements, advertising and etc. The participants of the newspaper, and there should be at least 7-10 people, first discuss the program of the issue and come up with its composition. A newspaper can touch upon international events, talk about news in the country, in one’s native land, city, village, and always about one’s unit or class. The main thing is to choose the idea that the newspaper will defend and the phenomena that it will oppose.

A newspaper may have regular columns: “The Globe”, “Native Land”, “Ask - We Answer”, “Congratulations”, “This is Interesting”, “The Obvious - the Incredible”, etc. “Living Newspaper” can use the traditions of radio and television, the genres of the living word - fairy tale, fable, riddle, epic, ditty, couplets.

Participants in the newspaper can make costumes for themselves (hats from the newspaper; attributes; posters; cut out letters that make up the name of the newspaper, letters are usually pinned on shirts; costumes necessary for each role, and others); It’s good if the newspaper has musical accompaniment. A newspaper can be political, satirical, critical, environmental, funny, mischievous—all sorts of things.

“Quiet Reading Hour.”

Educational objectives: instills a love of books, the literary word and broadens one’s horizons.

An hour of quiet reading arises in contrast to schoolchildren’s boundless fascination with television and video films, which displace communication with books from the student’s life, freeing the developing psyche of a young person from the efforts of imagination, thinking and memory.

On the day when the “quiet reading hour” occurs, children and teachers bring with them to school extra-curricular books that they are “now reading”, they are provided with a time common to all members of the school community, when in silence and comfort each person can read quietly the book he brought.

This moment is pre-prepared: an announcement is posted, 1-2 days in advance, leaflets appear - reminders, teachers remind children about the planned task. As a result, very rarely do some schoolchildren forget to take a book with them to school. But even this rare case is provided for: teachers and a librarian select a number of books that they will offer to the child.

The educational potential of the “quiet reading hour” is not fully exhausted if, at the end of it, the list of books read by children and teachers is not made public. This list is posted at the end of the school day. “What we read today” and “What the teachers read.” An emotional atmosphere is created, intellectual leaders are highlighted, and the field of bibliographic knowledge is expanded. Children sometimes carry the idea of ​​a “quiet reading hour” into the family, introducing their parents to reading books they have long forgotten.

“Project protection”(the project is a dream).

Educational objectives: development of imagination, creativity, communication skills.

“Project protection” is a form of group activity for children. In it, the student manifests himself as an individual, capable of not only assessing reality, but also projecting into it some necessary changes in the name of improving life. Much in these projects comes from dreams, from fantasy, but the basis for a fantastic flight of thought remains a real awareness of the course of today's everyday life.

Here are examples of thematic content of such projects: “Our school after 50 years”, “Classroom built by me”, “Art in our school”, “My grandchildren’s schoolyard”.

Initially, to protect the dream project, you can create free groups with a set of strict game roles: dreamer - speaker, critic of an opponent, ally, propagandist. The discussion of the project is programmed in this way, but the content remains free and unpredictable. Later, when defending projects as a form of creative play has been mastered, you can abandon group ones, moving on to discussing individual options for creative pictures of the future. The announcement of the upcoming competition can be bright, colorful, cheerful and kind, so that every schoolchild would want to create a dream project. Class teachers should support this flaring desire, encourage, and give the first advice on how to start the project.

It is better to evaluate projects according to different criteria, so that the first places in the competition are taken by several authors: “for the most daring project”, “for the most elegant project”, “for the most beautiful project”, etc.

From work experience.

Fairytale quiz for 2nd grade students.

Goals:

• develop memory, thinking
• introduce the structure of a fairy tale

Visibility: pictures with fairy-tale characters, drawings.

Developed skills and abilities: learn to guess fairy tales by the names of the characters and their actions.

1. Teacher's opening speech:

- There are a lot of fairy tales. Guys, do you like fairy tales?

– How do fairy tales differ from other works of fiction?

-Who writes fairy tales?

Guys, now you will divide into 2 teams of 6 people each and compete. The rest will be fans. Questions will help you. Whoever answers the question will be on the team.

Questions: The named characters have double names. The beginning is given, you complete it.

So, the teams have been created.

2. Name the fairy tales based on the pictures.

umbrella – “Ole – Lukoil”
pea – “The Princess and the Pea”
sleigh – “Snow Queen”
nettle – “Wild swans”.

3. “Guess the fairy-tale names and objects.”

1. Five people tried to eat him, but the sixth one succeeded. (Kolobok)
2. Ivanushka's sister. (Alyonushka)
3. A reptile with three or more heads. (Dragon)
4. A fairy-tale hero whose death is in an egg. (Koschei)
5. Traditional male name in fairy tales. (Ivan)

1. What did the bear wear to carry the girl along with the pies? (Box)
2. At its end is the death of one of the heroes. (Needle)
3. The dish from which the crane fed the fox? (Jug)
4. The name of the hero who slept on the stove (Emelya)
5. The dwelling of Baba-Yaga. (Hut)

4. Who can name more fairy tales?

- about children

- about birds

5. Portray the heroes of a fairy tale (skit, pantomime)

– Babu-Yaga

– Snake – Gorynych

6. Postman Pechkin accidentally dropped the telegrams, and they fell into our hands, but we cannot understand who they are from, maybe you can help us?

1. Happy Birthday.
2. I found boots that are fast walkers, I’ll arrive home soon.
3. I will, I will wash my face in the mornings and evenings.

1. Grandma and grandpa, save me, a fox is chasing me.
2. The fox took over my house and drove me out. Help!
3. A wolf came and ate 6 kids. Save!

Result: Guys, did you like the fairy tales? I am very glad that you know so many fairy tales so well! I hope that you will continue to read a lot of fairy tales from different peoples and different writers: Andersen, C. Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, etc. Until next time.

Literature:

1. Voronov V.“Diversity of forms of educational work”, w. “To the class teacher”, 2001 - No. 1, pp. 21-24.
2. Table “Types and forms of educational activities.”
3. R.N.Buneev and E.V.Buneeva“A small door to a big world”, literary reading, 2nd grade.
4. Russian folk tales and original tales of different nations.

Types and forms of educational work.

No.	Kind of activity	Special purpose	Active forms of organizing activities
1.	Cognitive	Enriches the understanding of the surrounding reality, creates the need for professional education, and promotes intellectual development.	Lesson: seminar, lecture, role-playing game, project defense, creative report, test, non-traditional form. Extracurricular: conference, round table, pedagogical readings, intellectual marathon, extracurricular activities of the PCC (supplementing class activities)
2.	Public	Promotes the socialization of students, includes	Meetings with politicians, publication of periodicals, discussions, work of self-government, patronage.
3.	Value-oriented	Rational understanding of universal and social values, the formation of culture, one’s “I”.	Debates on moral topics, etiquette and professional ethics, solving pedagogical situations, testing, questioning, drawing up a psychological map, acts of mercy.
4.	Sports – Wellness	A healthy lifestyle builds strength, endurance, plasticity and beauty of the human body and relationships.	Clubs, sections, general physical training, sports competitions, friendly competitions.
5.	Artistic	Sensual worldview, the need for beauty, the realization of individual inclinations and abilities.	Musical and literary lounges, creative competitions. Additional education, amateur art concerts, performances in languages, excursions to museums, recreational evenings, holidays.
6.	Free communication	Mutually enriching leisure time for schoolchildren. Communicate with each other.	Group activities, “lights”, social hour, quiz, evenings, group name days.
7.	Labor	Creation, preservation and increase of material assets.	Socially useful self-service work, school duty, etc.

The boundaries of primary school age (hereinafter simply referred to as “junior age”), coinciding with the period of study in primary school, are usually set from 6-7 to 9-10 years. During this period, further physical and psychophysiological development of the child occurs.

At this age, fundamental changes occur in the social situation of the child’s development. He becomes a “public” subject and now has socially significant responsibilities, the fulfillment of which receives public assessment. During early childhood, a new type of relationship with other people begins to develop. The unconditional authority of an adult is gradually lost and by the end of childhood, peers begin to become increasingly important for the child, and the role of the children’s community increases.

Educational activity becomes the leading activity at a young age. It determines the most important changes occurring in the development of the psyche of children at this age stage. Within the framework of this activity, new psychological formations are formed that characterize the most significant achievements in the development of younger children and are the foundation that ensures development at the next age stage. The leading role of educational activities in the process of child development does not exclude the fact that the youngest child is actively involved in other types of activities, during which his new achievements are improved and consolidated.

At this age, thinking moves to the center of the child’s conscious activity. The development of verbal-logical, reasoning thinking, which occurs during the assimilation of knowledge, rebuilds all other cognitive processes: “memory at this age becomes thinking, and perception becomes thinking.”

Significant changes occur in the development of attention; all its properties are intensively developed: the volume of attention increases especially sharply (2.1 times), its stability increases, and switching and distribution skills develop. By the age of 9-10, children become able to maintain attention for a long time and carry out a randomly assigned program of actions. At a young age, memory, like all other mental processes, undergoes significant changes. Their essence is that the child’s memory gradually acquires the features of arbitrariness, becoming consciously regulated and mediated.

Younger ages are sensitive to the development of higher forms of voluntary memorization, therefore purposeful developmental work on mastering mnemonic activity is the most effective during this period. There are 13 mnemonic techniques, or ways of organizing memorized material: grouping, highlighting reference points, drawing up a plan, classification, structuring, schematization, establishing analogies, mnemonic techniques, recoding, completing the memorized material, serial organization of associations, repetition.

The difficulty of highlighting the main, essential is clearly manifested in one of the main types of activity - retelling. A brief retelling is much more difficult for children than a detailed one. To tell briefly means highlighting the main thing, separating it from the details, and this is precisely what children do not know how to do.

The inability to overcome the learning difficulties that arise in this case sometimes leads to the abandonment of active mental work. Then children begin to use various inadequate techniques and ways of performing tasks, which psychologists call “workarounds,” which include mechanical repetition without understanding it. Children reproduce the story almost by heart, word for word, but at the same time cannot answer questions about it. Another workaround is to perform a new task in the same way as a previous task.

At this age, another important new formation appears - voluntary behavior. The child becomes independent and chooses what to do in certain situations. This type of behavior is based on moral motives that are formed at this age. The child absorbs moral values ​​and tries to follow certain rules and laws. This is often associated with selfish motives and desires to be approved by adults or to strengthen one’s personal position in a peer group. That is, their behavior is one way or another connected with the main motive that dominates at this age - the motive of achieving success. New formations such as planning the results of action and reflection are closely related to the formation of voluntary behavior in younger children.

The child is able to evaluate his action in terms of its results and thereby change his behavior and plan it accordingly. A semantic and guiding basis in actions appears; this is closely related to the differentiation of internal and external life. A child is able to overcome his desires if the result of their fulfillment does not meet certain standards or does not lead to the set goal. An important aspect of a child’s inner life is his semantic orientation in his actions. This is due to the child’s feelings about the fear of changing relationships with others. He is afraid of losing his importance in their eyes.

The child begins to actively think about his actions and hide his experiences. The child is not the same on the outside as he is on the inside. It is these changes in the child’s personality that often lead to outbursts of emotions on adults, desires to do what they want, and whims. “The negative content of this age manifests itself primarily in mental imbalance, instability of will, mood, etc.”

The development of the personality of the youngest child depends on his success and the assessment of the child by adults. A child at this age is very susceptible to external influence. It is thanks to this that he absorbs knowledge, both intellectual and moral. “The counselor plays a significant role in establishing moral standards and developing children’s interests, although the degree to which they are successful in this will depend on the type of relationship they have with their peers.” Other adults at camp also play an important role in the child's life.

At a young age, children's desire to achieve increases. Therefore, the main motive of a child’s activity at this age is the motive of achieving success. Sometimes another type of this motive occurs - the motive of avoiding failure.

Certain moral ideals and patterns of behavior are laid down in the child’s mind. The child begins to understand their value and necessity. But in order for the development of a child’s personality to be most productive, the attention and assessment of an adult is important. “The emotional-evaluative attitude of an adult to the actions of a child determines the development of his moral feelings, individual responsible attitude towards the rules with which he becomes acquainted in life.” “The child’s social space has expanded - the child constantly communicates with the counselor and peers according to the laws of clearly formulated rules.”

It is at this age that a child experiences his uniqueness, he recognizes himself as an individual, and strives for perfection. This is reflected in all areas of a child’s life, including relationships with peers. Children find new group forms of activity and activities. At first they try to behave as is customary in this group, obeying the laws and rules. Then begins the desire for leadership, for superiority among peers. At this age, friendships are more intense but less durable. Children learn the ability to make friends and find a common language with different children. “Although it is assumed that the ability to form close friendships is determined to some extent by the emotional connections a child develops during the first five years of his life.”

Children strive to improve the skills of those types of activities that are accepted and valued in an attractive company in order to stand out in its environment and achieve success.

At primary school age, the child develops an orientation towards other people, which is expressed in prosocial behavior, taking into account their interests. Prosocial behavior is very important for a developed personality.

The ability to empathize is developed in the conditions of a children's camp because the child participates in new business relationships, involuntarily he is forced to compare himself with other children - with their successes, achievements, behavior, and the child is simply forced to learn to develop his abilities and qualities.

Thus, the younger age is the most critical stage of childhood. The main achievements of this age are determined by the leading nature of the activity and are largely decisive for subsequent years. By the end of the younger age, the child must want to learn, be able to learn and believe in himself.

Full-fledged living of this age, its positive acquisitions are the necessary foundation on which the further development of the child as an active subject of knowledge and activity is built. The main task of adults in working with children of primary school age is to create optimal conditions for the development and realization of children's capabilities, taking into account the individuality of each child.

If the products obtained as a result of efforts turn out to be of high quality, effective in use, and valuable in the eyes of others, then a person develops a basic, deep-seated conviction in his own competence. In this case, the famous formula of a three-year-old person “I myself” is supplemented with the very important word “I can” - “I can do it myself,” “I can handle it.” This, if you like, is largely the psychology of a winner. People with this kind of inner conviction, when faced with a difficult problem, think not about how difficult it is, but about how to solve it. And they usually succeed. Failure for them is a reason not to give up, but to gain new knowledge and find additional resources and opportunities.

In the case when the products created by the child turn out to be unusable, unclaimed and unappreciated, he develops a deep awareness of his own failure as a destructive alternative to competence.

So, in order not to become unhappy, it is important for a child to be convinced of his own competence. Can we help him with this? Can we “help” him in another way - to feel unsuccessful? So, the leading need for personal development at the age in question is to be convinced of one’s own competence. That is, create something yourself. Therefore, even children who are pronounced extroverts often prefer to make something alone during this period. Let's give them this opportunity. Even if you see that the child is not doing well, that he is upset or angry, do not rush to the rescue until you are asked for help. Let's believe him this time too. He is able to decide whether he needs our advice and trusts us enough to ask for help when he really needs it. If you are asked to evaluate something or help with something at an inopportune hour, when you do not have the time, energy or simply desire to do it, say so directly. Decide for yourself when you really (not necessarily “tomorrow”) will be able to pay the necessary attention to this child’s request, and be sure to say about this too. Trust again that your child is capable of understanding everything correctly. This will not hurt him. On the contrary, he will once again feel his importance from the fact that they speak to him seriously and frankly, as to an adult. Pain can be caused by a quick, disinterested glance at what he has put so much effort into, and a formally indifferent “well done, now go to sleep.” Such an attitude devalues ​​not only the fruit of creation - it devalues ​​the creator himself.

The child uses example as the main form of evidence. When explaining something, everything comes down to the familiar, the particular, the known.

The following features can be distinguished in a child’s thinking. Firstly, children are characterized by animism (animation of inanimate nature, celestial bodies, mythical creatures). Secondly, syncretism (insensitivity to contradictions, linking everything with everything, inability to separate cause and effect). Thirdly, egocentrism (inability to look at oneself from the outside). Fourthly, phenomenality (the tendency to rely not on knowledge of the true relationships of things, but on their apparent relationships).

The peculiarity of children's thinking - spiritualizing nature, attributing to inanimate things the ability to think, feel, do - Jean Piaget called animism (from the Latin animus - soul). Where does this amazing property of the thinking of younger people come from - to see something alive where, from the point of view of an adult, it cannot exist? Many found the reason for children's animism in the unique vision of the world that a child develops by the beginning of preschool age.

For an adult, the whole world is ordered. In the consciousness of an adult, there is a clear line between living and nonliving, active and passive objects. There are no such strict boundaries for a child. The child proceeds from the fact that living things are everything that moves. The river is alive because it moves, and the clouds are alive for the same reason. The mountain is not alive because it stands.

From the moment of his birth, the youngest child heard an adult’s speech directed at him, full of animistic constructions: “The doll wants to eat,” “The bear has gone to bed,” etc. In addition, he hears expressions such as “It’s raining,” “The sun has risen.” ". The metaphorical context of our speech is hidden from the child - hence the animism of thinking in the younger ones.

In a special, animate world, a child easily and simply masters the connections between phenomena and acquires a large stock of knowledge. A game and a fairy tale, in which even a stone breathes and talks, is a special way of mastering the world, allowing a preschooler in a specific form to assimilate, understand and in his own way systematize the flow of information that befalls him.

The next feature of children's thinking is associated with the establishment of natural causality between events that occur in the surrounding world, or syncretism.

Syncretism is the replacement of objective cause-and-effect relationships with subjective ones that exist in perception. In his experiments, J. Piaget asked children questions regarding causal relationships in the world around them. "Why doesn't the sun fall? Why doesn't the moon fall?" In their answers, the children indicated various properties of the object: size, location, functions, etc., connected in perception into one whole. "The sun doesn't fall because it's big. The moon doesn't fall because the stars. The sun doesn't fall because it shines. The wind doesn't fall because the trees sway." Let us give an example of syncretism in the story of a six-year-old child. “Little Red Riding Hood is walking through the forest, a fox meets her: “Why are you crying, Little Red Riding Hood?” And she answers: “How can I not cry?!” The wolf ate me!"

The next feature of children's thinking is the child's inability to look at an object from the position of another and is called egocentrism. The child does not fall into the sphere of his own reflection (does not see himself from the outside), he is closed in his own point of view.

The phenomenality of children's thinking is manifested in the fact that children rely on the relationships of things that seem to them, and not on what actually exists.

So, it seems to the child that there is a lot of milk in a tall and narrow glass, but if it is poured into a short but wide glass, it will become less. He does not have the concept of conservation of quantity of a substance, that is, the understanding that the quantity of milk remains the same despite the change in the shape of the vessel. In the process of growing up and as he masters counting and develops the ability to establish one-to-one correspondence between objects in the external world, the child begins to understand that a certain transformation does not change the basic qualities of objects.

From the first day at camp, children are expected to master the complex (for them) social rules that govern relationships in the unit. Relationships with peers consist of finding a balance between cooperation and competition; relationships with a counselor consist of a compromise between independence and obedience. In this regard, already at a young age, moral motives begin to acquire importance, among which the most important are the following: to do something pleasant, necessary for people, to bring benefit, to maintain positive relationships with adults, children, as well as cognitive interests, including new types of activities .

The development of the emotional-volitional sphere is associated with the formation of the regulatory function of the psyche. During the age period under consideration, children are prone to strong experiences; due to the plasticity of nervous processes, a rapid change of feelings occurs. In children, feelings associated with their learning activities and the process of cognition begin to acquire special significance. They are no longer satisfied with just gaming activities. Moral feelings are further developed, on the basis of which such qualities as responsibility, hard work, honesty, and partnership are formed.

By the beginning of this age period, the processes of excitation in the child prevail over the processes of inhibition. The regulatory function of the will is manifested in the activation and inhibition of the child’s activities. A young child should develop such concepts as “necessary”, “possible”, “impossible”. It is necessary to put away toys, brush teeth, make the bed, etc. - all this is a motivating, activating function of the will. You cannot throw things around, etc. - these verbal influences from adults are aimed at inhibiting the child’s motor activity. “It’s possible” forms rules of behavior in the child’s mind, on the basis of which the formation of such important personality traits as discipline and responsibility occurs: “You can go for a walk after ... (you do everything else necessary),” etc.

Many younger children have developed strong-willed qualities that allow them to successfully complete various tasks. Children are able to set a goal, make a decision, outline a plan of action, make a certain effort to overcome an obstacle, and evaluate the result of their action. In order for a child to develop volitional qualities, an adult must organize his activities, remembering that volitional action directly depends on the difficulty of the task and the time allotted for its completion.

Children's range of needs is expanding. New needs emerge to gain the status of a schoolchild. The child wants to learn new information no longer through play, but in communication with adults and other children; he begins to realize his needs, however, often the needs and interests are aimed at the external, most attractive side of learning.

Counselors should take into account that self-esteem in young children is generally inflated. And one of the difficulties of children’s activities will be associated with the formation of adequate self-esteem

Here are some points still worth paying attention to.

• Some children of this age do not have a sufficiently varied experience of communicating with strangers - both adults and children.
• Some children get lost without the skill of "surviving in a crowd"
• It's no secret that those around you are not always friendly and understanding. Teach your child not to get confused when you are criticized or - the child's version - teased. The main thing is that the child understands: when criticizing him, you are assessing not his personality as a whole, but a specific action. It’s great if you have developed a fairly stable positive self-esteem.
• It is important for a child to be able to express his needs in words. Ask your child to communicate his desires in words; if possible, organize situations where he needs to ask an unfamiliar adult or child for help.
• At camp, the child will often find himself in situations of comparison with peers. This means that it is worth watching him in games that include a competitive moment, competition between children. How does he react to the success of others, to his own failures and similar situations?
• Try to get your child used to working independently and not requiring constant attention and encouragement from an adult. After all, in a camp, a counselor is unlikely to be able to give everyone equal attention. Gradually stop praising your child for every step in the work - praise him for the finished result.
• Teach children to sit quietly and work for a certain time. Include a wide variety of activities in your daily routine, alternating quiet work with active games. This is especially important for an excitable, active child. Gradually he will get used to the fact that it is possible to squeal and rush around at a certain, “noisy” time.
• From the first days, a child will feel confident in the camp if he is instilled in advance with basic skills of activities in the camp. For example, teach how to make a bed correctly, listen carefully to instructions and follow them, etc.
• Here's something else worth remembering. When a child is in camp (usually for the first time for the youngest), it is still better to start a new important period in one’s life with the feeling “I can do this and that” than with the feeling “I can’t do anything that other children can do.”

Formally speaking, we can identify several criteria for children’s readiness for activities in the camp.

1. Intellectual readiness (ability to concentrate, ability to build logical connections, memory development, fine motor skills);
2. Emotional readiness (motivation for activity, ability to concentrate, managing emotions);
3. Social readiness (need for communication, correction of behavior in a team, ability to perform).

The following criteria can help evaluate this:

• Assessing cognitive development.
  • Does the child know the basic concepts: right-left, big-small, etc.?
  • Is the child able to understand the simplest principles of classification, for example: things that can roll and those that cannot?
  • Can the baby remember and follow at least three instructions?
• Assessing the child's basic experience.
  • Does the child show interest in anything, does he have a hobby?
  • Assessment of language development.
  • Can the child name and label the main objects around him?
  • Is it easy for a child to answer questions from adults?
  • Can the child explain what different things are used for: a vacuum cleaner, a refrigerator, a table, etc.?
  • Can the child explain where certain objects are located: on the table, on the chair, on the floor, against the wall, etc.?
  • Can a child tell a story, describe an incident that happened to him?
  • Does the child pronounce words clearly?
  • Is the child's speech grammatically correct?
  • Is the child able to participate in a general conversation and role-play any situation?
• Assessment of the level of emotional development.
  • Does the child seem cheerful (with adults and among friends)?
  • Has the child developed an image of himself as a person who can do a lot?
  • Is it easy for a child to “switch” when there are changes in the usual daily routine, to move on to solving a new task?
  • Is the child able to work independently and compete in completing tasks with other children?
• Assessment of communication skills.
  • Does the baby join in the play of other children and share with them?
  • Does he take turns when the situation calls for it?
  • Is the child able to listen to others without interrupting?
• Assessment of physical development.
  • Does the child hear well?
  • Does he see well?
  • Is he able to sit quietly for some time?
  • Does he have good motor coordination, such as playing catch, jumping, going up and down stairs?
  • Does the child seem cheerful and engaged?
  • Does the child look healthy, well-fed and rested?
• Visual discrimination.
  • Can a child identify similar and dissimilar shapes? For example, find a picture that is different from the others?
  • Can a child distinguish between letters and short words, for example b-p, cat-year?
• Visual memory.
  • Can a child notice the absence of a picture if he is first shown a series of three pictures and then one is removed?
  • Does the child know at least six to eight names of objects that he encounters in everyday life?
• Visual perception.
  • Is the child able to put a series of pictures in order (in a given sequence)?
• Level of hearing ability.
  • Is the child able to distinguish words that begin with different sounds, for example forest-weight?
  • Can a child repeat a few words or numbers after an adult?
  • Is the child able to retell the story while maintaining the main idea and sequence of actions?
• Assessment of attitudes towards books.
  • Does he listen attentively and with pleasure when you read aloud to him?
  • Does the child ask questions about what they are reading - what they mean, etc.?
• General and psychological readiness. Can this child:
  • Explain with words, rather than pointing with a finger, what he wants?
  • Express yourself coherently, for example, “show me...”
  • Understand the meaning of what is read to him?
  • Tell me your address and phone number?
  • Use paints, plasticine, colored pencils, felt-tip pens?
  • Cut with blunt-tipped scissors, evenly and without getting hurt?
  • Listen and follow the instructions received?
  • Pay attention when someone talks to him?
  • Concentrate for at least ten minutes to complete the assigned task?
  • Enjoy being read aloud or told stories?
  • Positively evaluate: am I a person who can do a lot?
  • “Adjust” when adults change the topic of conversation?
  • Show interest in the objects around him?
  • Get along with other children?
• Your relationship with your child, your role in his activities in the camp. (here it is important to answer honestly at least to yourself)
  • Do you like this baby?
  • Are you listening to what your child is saying?
  • Do you look at your baby when he talks to you?
  • Are you trying to create in your child a sense of significance in what he is talking about?
  • Do you correct your baby's speech?
  • Do you allow your child to make mistakes?
  • Do you praise your baby and hug him?
  • Do you laugh with him?
  • Do you set aside time every day to talk with him?
  • Do you encourage your child's interests and hobbies?
  • Are you trying to set an example for your child by being interested in surrounding events?
  • Do you ask your child questions about the meaning of what he saw?

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that all of the listed criteria are also far from being the ultimate truth, and there is no need at all to try to ensure that this child meets all of them without exception and in full: by the way, when guided by this test, it is not necessary to use only ratings “yes” or “no”: the options “always, sometimes, often, rarely, never” are also allowed. By observing nature and the events of the surrounding life, children learn to find spatiotemporal and cause-and-effect relationships, generalize, and draw conclusions.

The child must:

1. Know about everyday life.
2. Have a stock of information about the world around you and be able to use it.

3. Be able to express your own judgments and draw conclusions.

For younger ones, a lot happens spontaneously, from experience, and adults often believe that special training is not required here. But that's not true. Even with a large amount of information, a child’s knowledge does not include a general picture of the world; it is fragmented and often superficial. By including the meaning of some event, knowledge can be consolidated and remain the only true one for the child. Thus, a child’s stock of knowledge about the world around him must be formed within the system and under the guidance of an adult.

Intellectual readiness for school also presupposes the development of certain skills in a child. For example, the ability to highlight a task. This requires the child to be able to be surprised and look for the reasons for the similarities and differences between objects and their new properties that he notices.

The child must:

1. Be able to perceive information and ask questions about it.
2. Be able to accept the purpose of observation and carry it out.
3. Be able to systematize and classify the characteristics of objects and phenomena.

In order to intellectually prepare a child in a camp, adults must develop cognitive needs, provide a sufficient level of mental activity, offering appropriate tasks, and provide the necessary system of knowledge about the environment.

Developing specific functions does not at all mean conducting developmental classes. If a child lives with everyone else, and not in some parallel world, then daily participation in the life of the group is the key to his full development. We can do anything with our children, even knit brooms, and this will develop them. Because along the way we will discuss that these twigs are flexible and these are rigid, these are longer and these are shorter. That the brooms today are somehow brownish, unlike those made a couple of days ago, they were yellow. That today we tied fifteen brooms, and tomorrow we need to do more. That you can’t finish it yet, because you haven’t finished the job yet. And together we will clean the workplace. And we'll sharpen the knife for tomorrow's work.

And he doesn’t need any additional “development” or “training”. For the development of a child, it is completely indifferent what exactly to take as a basis. His mental functions can be loaded with any material, through any activity.

The main thing is that he will see exactly how to obtain information and take this method into service. Or he won't take it. But you did your job. Shown. Once, twice, three times. You gave the child an opportunity, that's what matters. And through their actions they began to form a stereotype of his behavior. In this case, this stereotype is as follows - if I don’t know something, then I need to ask or spy on someone else. This is development.

While focusing on the child’s intellectual activity for camp, one should not lose sight of emotional and social readiness, which include skills on which the child’s success in camp significantly depends. Social readiness implies the need to communicate with peers and the ability to subordinate one’s behavior to the laws of children’s groups, the ability to take a role in the camp, the ability to listen and follow the instructions of the counselor, as well as the skills of communicative initiative and self-presentation. This may include such personal qualities as the ability to overcome difficulties and treat mistakes as a certain result of one’s work, the ability to assimilate information in a group learning situation and change social roles in the team.

Counselors should focus their efforts on introducing the child in more detail to the requirements of the camp, and most importantly, to himself, his strengths and weaknesses.

Often, trying to be objective in assessing children's successes, adults do not skimp on critical remarks. Without noticing the child’s achievements, they ultimately ensure that the child refuses to do activities at all, makes no attempts to overcome difficulties, shedding tears or running away. This behavior is called “learned helplessness” in behavioral psychology. Let's look at how it is formed. If a person finds himself in a situation where external events, as it seems to him, in no way depend on him, they cannot be prevented or modified, and then this state is transferred to other situations, then “learned helplessness” is evident. A very short history of uncontrollability of the external environment is enough for learned helplessness to begin to live its own life and control human behavior. In a young child, “learned helplessness” often arises due to the complete absence of any reactions from the adults around him.

When there is no reaction on the part of the counselor to the actions, efforts, and words of the children, then the kids cannot compare their behavior with the reaction of an adult, and therefore understand which behavior is approved and which is not. The child finds himself in a situation of uncertainty, and the most harmless way out of it is complete inactivity. The second reason for the emergence of “learned helplessness” is the monotony of an adult’s reactions to a child’s actions.

The same type of reactions of adults contribute to the formation of helplessness. Moreover, this applies to both constantly positive and constantly negative reactions. The danger lies precisely in the uniformity of adults’ reactions to the actions of children. A child who, in response to different (good and bad) behavior, receives exactly the same reactions from adults (indifferent, pleasant, negative), and in response to his different efforts (intense or minimal) receives the same assessments (eternal dissatisfaction or unreasonable delight), loses guidelines for managing your own activity.

A third reason for helplessness may be that so much time passes between the actions of children and the reactions of adults that the child cannot connect the reactions of the environment with his own actions. Adults' disapproval is perceived as something autonomous, completely unrelated to children's behavior and therefore loses any regulatory role.

Learned helplessness is much easier to prevent than to overcome. Therefore, the counselor should not spare time and effort to show the child the benefits of independence, while not forgetting to provide varied and timely feedback. The reactions of adults should be different in response to different actions of children and the same - to the same ones. Simple and clear principles of education to avoid helplessness are as follows.

• Rule "Communication is not a luxury." The world around us does not always change somehow due to children’s actions. Whether the picture is neatly colored or carelessly, clothes are hung up or thrown on the floor - this will not make the book cry and the shirt will not run away. In such cases, the reaction of adults is absolutely necessary. And for this, at least the counselor should be nearby. Therefore, the first rule is: communicate with your children, tell them about your feelings, sensations, opinions.
• Rule of diversity. In response to children's different behavior, the counselor should behave differently. You can be angry or happy, you can show all the diversity of your feelings, it is only important to show your children what their actions these feelings relate to.
• Timeliness rule. The time interval between action and reaction should be minimal. React immediately after the action. This is especially important in the case of extreme behavior, unusually bad or unusually good.
• Rule of chance. Some may object to the previous rules. Indeed, it is impossible to comment on any action of a child. Yes, this is not necessary. Unsystematic and random consequences work better than constant ones. It is enough just to show your attitude to the child’s actions from time to time.

Attitude to mistakes and failures

The attitude towards one’s own failures and mistakes largely determines a child’s activity. If every mistake for a child is proof of his intellectual incompetence, lack of recognition and acceptance by adults, then he has less and less strength and desire to master new skills. One way or another, the moment comes when the child declares: “That’s it, I won’t do it anymore” - or continues to study, driven by the fear of disapproval, overcoming internal resistance and thereby acquiring somatic diseases.

But an error can also simply serve as a not very suitable result, one of the attempts. Failure can stimulate further activity in the child, igniting in him the excitement of achieving victory over his own ineptitude. How a child will treat his mistakes depends on the attitude of adults towards them. Their opinion for the younger ones is the most authoritative on all issues. If the counselors believe in this child and rejoice at his most insignificant successes, then the child also concludes that he is competent in the activity that he is now mastering. If every failure of a child is perceived by adults as a universal catastrophe, then he, too, comes to terms with his own worthlessness. It is very important to be extremely attentive to the baby’s activities and literally look for reasons for approval and praise.

Praise can benefit a child, increase his self-confidence, and build adequate self-esteem if counselors:

• praise the child sincerely;
• express approval not only in words, but by non-verbal means: intonation, facial expressions, gestures, touches;
• praised for specific actions, efforts, initiative;
• do not compare the child with other people.

Useful criticism

Using praise in communication with a child, adults probably understand that it is impossible to do without critical comments. Criticism helps a little person to form realistic ideas about the results of his work, about his own strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately contributes to the creation of adequate self-esteem. But criticism from counselors can also be destructive; it can reduce a child’s already low self-esteem and increase his uncertainty and anxiety. You can make criticism useful for your child using the rules of useful criticism.

Rules for useful criticism:

1. The golden proportion of education. It is difficult for a person to agree with criticism of himself if he does not have a firm belief that he is “generally good”, that he is needed and important for loved ones, that is, if a person’s basic psychological needs are not satisfied: for safety, security and stability, love, a sense of belonging, self-respect and respect from others. Satisfying these needs is as important for a child’s psyche as vitamins are for his body. Seals of approval are one means of accomplishing this serious task. These signs can be a kind look, a gentle touch, an attentive listening and, of course, verbal praise. The golden proportion of upbringing indicates the ratio of approval and criticism when addressing a child. This is a "4:1 ratio": four marks of approval for every criticism. In this case, the information contained in the critical statement will quite possibly be perceived by the child and used by him in his development.

2. Separation of criticism and feelings. Separate criticism from expressing your own feelings. Helpful criticism is always calm. If you experience irritation, resentment, anger, fear, anxiety, you will not be able to hide your feelings; they will definitely break through at the most inopportune moment. Therefore, during periods of “storm,” it is better to refuse criticism and leave it until better, “calmer” times.

3. Kind criticism. Your criticism will be useful for the child if the comments indicate your love and respect for the child. Love and respect can be conveyed by soft intonation, a kind, attentive look, and gentle words: “Sunny, listen...”, “Vanya, I want to tell you...”.

4. Criticism of actions. Useful criticism concerns the child's actions and actions, but not his personality.

5. Specific criticism. Helpful criticism includes your specific wishes. Tell your children specifically what you don’t like about their actions, make sure they understand you.

6. Creative criticism. Helpful criticism includes not only what you are not satisfied with, but also what you want from your child. Place an emotional emphasis on the second.

7. Reasoned criticism. Helpful criticism includes explanations of the benefits of desired behavior. If you tell a child, “Do this because I said so,” then this will be an order, not an explanation. The child will not be able to see the connection between his actions and the benefits they will bring.

8. Criticism with training. Finish your critique with training in the desired behavior. For example, after your comment about abandoned clothes and an explanation of how and why they are tidied up, you invite the child to imagine that he has come after a walk and is changing his clothes. Let the child tidy up his clothes as needed while playing. Completing a workout is the best time to praise. This addition of criticism will help the child learn new, more acceptable behavior. There is a huge difference between what a person knows and what a person can do. Any knowledge requires practice and training. You can tell your child in detail how to ride a bike, but this does not mean that he will master the skill on the first try.

Children don't always want to exercise. So don't forget to encourage the kids. Turn your workout into a fun game. Younger children like to come up with different situations and play different roles in them. Children love to use their favorite toys to act out imaginary stories. Thus, a teddy bear can learn to behave in a dental office, and a Barbie doll learns not to make noise during quiet hours.

Group training

In a children's camp, junior units mainly consist of 20-30 children, so the child's ability to learn in a group atmosphere becomes especially important. For many children, group learning poses additional challenges: difficulty concentrating, arguing for one's point of view, feeling like the worst or the best at something, speaking in front of large numbers of people, and much more.

To successfully master knowledge and skills in a group learning atmosphere, the following prerequisites must be present:

• the ability to concentrate in the face of many distractions;
• the ability to highlight a task among your immediate interests;
• the ability to recognize one’s own opinion, state and prove it.

Communication Initiative

An important prerequisite for a child’s successful activities in the camp is communicative initiative - the child’s ability to consciously organize his interaction with the counselor. In real life in a camp, this is the ability to ask a counselor a substantive question, calmly express disagreement, ask for help, or offer help yourself. How can all these wisdom be taught to a child?

It is known that the baby receives his first behavioral models in the family. It is parents or their substitutes who become children's first mentors in the subtle art of communication. Counselors, just like parents, can teach a child all the secrets of communicative initiative in the simplest and most effective way - by their own example.

If it is customary in the family to correctly ask for help and offer it, then the child will absorb this skill and will demonstrate it in appropriate cases. If adults in the family often talk about their interests, hobbies, observations, difficulties, listen carefully to the interlocutor and naturally ask him questions to the point, then the child will naturally learn these skills, and they will become an integral part of his individual communication style. The counselor should do the same.

Autonomy and independence. Difficulties in demonstrating communicative initiative are associated with the child’s personal qualities, such as insufficiently formed autonomy and low self-esteem. Autonomy is the result of a child asserting his independence. It is formed from the moment the child begins to walk, masters new motor capabilities, thereby establishing his autonomous self.

In behavior, autonomy manifests itself as independence, independence and responsibility. In a children's camp, a previously helpless baby must learn to become a completely independent and independent person, capable of self-regulation and conscious behavior. Independence allows a child to set a personal goal and achieve it without outside help.

For the development of a child’s independence, the character, style of communication of the counselors with him, and the degree and timeliness of their assistance are of particular importance. A child's lack of independence or its complete absence is often the result of excessive help from adults and serves as an obstacle to the development of self-regulation and initiative. The constant coercion of adults and their excessive care creates in the child a feeling of his own weakness and uselessness.

It is important for counselors to dose their help to this child. If the help of adults is excessive, the child does not learn to do anything, does not master a new skill, but most importantly, loses faith in his own strength, experiences a feeling of helplessness, and develops dependence on the people around him. The child acquires a negative experience of his own powerlessness, which in the future may determine his behavior in similar situations.

If the adult’s help is insufficient, the child finds himself in a situation of “abandonment.” In some children, it causes a feeling of “uselessness to anyone,” which blocks all activity. Therefore, they give up any attempts to master what adults want to teach them, and for a long time they retain the conviction: “I can’t do anything.”

Other children in similar situations show maximum effort and persistence in order to achieve results and learn what their adults want. They also experience the situation of “abandonment,” but they see a different way out of it: “Achieve what the counselors want, no matter how difficult it may be, and thus achieve their love.”

Communication with peers. The need and ability to communicate with peers is also a necessary condition for successful activities in the camp. The connection between communication and success is especially clear. A child who is popular among his peers acts more confidently, experiences his own mistakes and external criticism more calmly, and quickly masters new, incomprehensible activities.

Recognizing the importance of a child's ability to communicate with peers, counselors can help him in two ways. Firstly, communication skills can be taught through clear examples of one’s own behavior in interaction with other people, and above all with the child himself. Secondly, it is possible to create conditions that allow children to gain successful experience interacting with peers - a comfortable play space and games.

Should adults intervene in children's play? Not always. Having given children the opportunity to play with peers, adults should distance themselves from this situation in the hope that each child will learn all the subtleties of communication on his own. Friendly, calm, subtle and creative intervention from adults can organize communication between children with maximum benefit for everyone. Such an intervention can be especially effective if the counselors have built a holistic program for the development of each child’s communication skills, taking into account his individuality. Its mandatory initial stage is observation, the purpose of which is to get to know each child as much as possible and his communication abilities.

In psychology, communication abilities are defined as individual psychological characteristics of a person that ensure the effectiveness of his communication and compatibility with other people. Communication ability includes:

• desire to make contact with others (“I want!”);
• the ability to organize communication (“I can!”), including the ability to listen to the interlocutor, the ability to empathize emotionally, the ability to resolve conflict situations;
• knowledge of the norms and rules that must be followed when communicating with others (“I know!”).

Task for adults:

Following three directions - “I want!”, “I can!”, “I know!” - carefully and patiently observe a particular child. Pay attention to this child's behavior during his interactions with peers. Don't interfere, don't tell him how to behave, don't push him to take any action. Remember: your goal is observation. The basis for observation may be the following questions:

1. Does this child easily come into contact with unfamiliar children?
2. Does he like himself?
3. Does this baby often get offended and cry?
4. Does he participate in competitive games?
5. Does the child have a desire to play with peers?
6. Does he often get into fights?
7. How does a child get out of conflict situations?
8. What is his mood most often, and does it change often?
9. Is this child talkative or silent?
10. Does he have a restful sleep?
11. Does your baby have friends?
12. Do the children he knows take him into the game?
13. Does he know how to organize a game (come up with a plot, distribute roles, etc.)?
14. Does the child know how to defend his opinion?
15. Does he have difficulty speaking?

Perhaps, by observing how the child communicates with his peers, counselors understand that he is experiencing certain difficulties. Thinking counselors will not attribute them to the children around the baby, explaining all the problems that arise with the bad manners of his friends. Most likely, such counselors will take a closer look at this child, trying to determine his characteristics. Maybe he is characterized by emotional instability, aggressiveness, conflict, isolation, shyness or anxiety. In this case, counselors need to pay special attention to the development of the child’s communication skills.

The second stage of an individual program for the development of a child’s communication skills is the acceptance stage. Its essence is to accept the child, to love him for who he is. Even if your child can’t sit still for a minute or constantly gets into fights, he still remains your favorite. This does not mean that counselors need to agree with the child’s unwanted behavior, but in any case, the child must be confident in the love of the counselor. It is extremely important for counselors to accept and not criticize those qualities of a child’s personality that are given by nature and make up the child’s temperament.

In the structure of a biologically given temperament, 9 traits are distinguished:

• activity - a motor characteristic of behavior, including mobility during bathing, playing, eating, dressing;
• rhythmicity - regularity of manifestation of basic physiological functions: passivity - activity, sleep - wakefulness, eating - defecation, etc.;
• intensity - energy level of reactions;
• mood - quality of mood;
• approach - avoidance (withdrawal) - the child’s first reaction to something new (to food, toys, people, procedures, premises);
• adaptability - adaptation is how easily a child is able to change the initial reaction to a more appropriate one;
• threshold of sensitivity, vulnerability - the level of external stimuli necessary to change the child’s reactions;
• attention, perseverance, endurance, concentration - the time during which a child is able to perform certain actions, despite obstacles and distractions;
• distractibility - the ability of an external stimulus to influence a child’s behavior, interrupt or change his actions.

Knowing what qualities are biologically determined, adults will probably agree that demanding that a child do something faster or feel relaxed in an unfamiliar environment is the same as persuading a child to change his brown eyes to blue.

The next, third stage of the individual program is the search stage. Counselors at this stage need to find ways to effectively help the child communicate with peers, a kind of “golden key” that makes up for the lack of any communication skills and opens the door to the land of friendship and cooperation. The search for “golden keys” requires adults to have patience, creativity, psychological knowledge and the use of their own communication experience. Each child needs to choose his own “key”, which exactly takes into account the characteristics of both the little person and the specific moment. We offer several tips for the development of a child’s communication skills to add to the “golden keys” collection.

Piggy bank of "golden keys":

1. For a child with innate caution, entering into an unfamiliar situation is greatly facilitated by a calm and detailed preliminary story from an adult about who and what awaits the baby, how he should behave, and how the situation will end. Do not rush your child to quickly start playing with unfamiliar children; he needs to take a closer look and feel safe.

2. A child with unpredictable behavior has difficulty being distracted from play to go to dinner or go to bed, so he needs time to prepare for this moment. Inform the playing child about the upcoming lunch 15-30 minutes in advance, remind again 10-15 minutes in advance. Such preparation will make it easier for the child to get used to routine moments.

3. Give a child with increased activity more opportunities to expend excess energy. Daily physical activity in the fresh air is beneficial: long walks, running, sports activities. Learn how to communicate well with others, how to behave in public, how to ask a friend to return his toy, and other social skills. Introduce your baby to several basic emotions, such as joy, interest, surprise, suffering, sadness, disgust, contempt, anger. Pay his attention to how they manifest themselves in facial expressions, gestures, posture, intonation, tempo and volume of speech.

4. For an aggressive child, his popularity in the peer group is of great importance. Unable to gain authority among children in any other way, he strives to take a leadership position in the group with the help of his fists. Counselors can teach the child how to improve his status in the children's team. Among children, appearance, beautiful clothes, sociability, and willingness to share toys are valued. What matters is the intellectual level, speech development, physical development, agility, and the degree of mastery of various types of activities. But the main role is played by the level of development of social skills.

Popular kids typically have the following communication skills:

• gradually join group classes, making relevant comments, sharing information, and only then move on to active actions;
• sensitive to the needs and actions of others;
• do not impose their will on other children;
• agree to play near other children;
• know how to maintain friendly relations;
• come to the rescue if necessary;
• able to carry on a conversation;
• share interesting information;
• respond to suggestions from other children;
• know how to resolve conflicts;
• in conflict situations, they are not prone to aggression or the use of physical force.

5. It is useful to teach a sensitive, emotional child to count to ten before doing anything. This useful habit will develop conscious inhibition and self-control.

6. Help a shy child expand his circle of acquaintances.

What an adult comes up with is not immediately perceived by a child. The counselor has to take an active part in the child’s communication with peers. Therefore, the next stage is called the active assistance stage. Its task is to form in the child an understanding of the benefits of behavior offered by adults. After the child is convinced that thanks to tips he can be more successful in communication, you can move on to the stage of a “kind mirror” and active support. It consists of introducing the child to himself. It is important for a child to know what qualities are inherent in him and what they are called. The result of the work will be the development of his self-awareness. The adult in this case is a mirror in which a small person can study his reflection. But the mirror must be kind! In it, the child must first of all see his strengths, and recognize his weaknesses as a continuation of his strengths.

Sometimes adults have a negative attitude towards those qualities of the baby that are part of the structure of temperament, and therefore are naturally conditioned.

It is important for adults to understand that any trait of temperament can be neither bad nor good. Everything that is given by nature cannot be appreciated. A person with any temperament is in demand in life. The Universe needs someone who, not knowing the ford, climbs into the water, and someone who measures seven times and cuts once. If all of humanity consisted only of people of the first kind, then it would burn like a flock of butterflies flocking to a fire.

A person needs to know what he is like, but at the same time be absolutely sure that he is “good.” Here is the formula for the structure of self-awareness: “I am Petya - a good - boy - was, is, will be - must, have the right.” There are five components in this formula, which, when combined, create for everyone a unique picture of their own personality. It includes awareness of one's physical appearance, gender, destiny, rights and responsibilities. But the most important component is a person’s attitude towards his appearance, his gender, and his life. It is this that makes a person self-confident or not, an optimist or a pessimist.

The child’s counselors play the most important role in how a child sees himself and whether he considers himself “good” at camp. Therefore, no matter what kind of child you have in your squad: cautious or recklessly bold, sensitive or persistent, orderly or unpredictable, he is “good” for you and, of course, good for himself.

When telling your child about himself, convey to him your kind attitude towards him. Any of his traits are not shortcomings, they are just his features, which sometimes help him in communicating with people, and sometimes hinder him. Thus, adults contribute to the formation of adequate self-esteem in the child, without violating his self-acceptance, his idea of ​​himself as “good.”

The next stage is teaching the child self-support. Its essence is to give the baby the “golden keys” you found. Let him know not only about his characteristics, but also how to live with them. So, if a small person needs to get a book from a shelf under the ceiling, he will not wring his hands and sob: “Oh, I’m unhappy!”, but will simply take a stepladder.

As they grow up, these children will get used to using the “keys” given to them, which gradually become an integral part of their communicative style. Over time, the collection of “golden keys” is enriched and replenished with new ways to improve communication skills. And finally the time comes when the matured child himself comes up with a new, more advanced way of interacting with people - the stage of independent search begins. It begins with the first attempt at creative communication and continues throughout life.

We all have the luxurious opportunity to endlessly and limitlessly search for “golden keys” to the land of love, mutual understanding, revelation, happiness, unanimity and surprise before the Other.

At a young age, intensive development of intelligence occurs. The development of thinking leads to a qualitative restructuring of perception and memory, turning them into regulated, voluntary processes. A 7-8 year old child usually thinks in specific categories. By the beginning of adolescence, children, as a rule, can already reason independently, draw conclusions, compare, analyze, find the particular and the general, and establish simple patterns.

If preschoolers were characterized by analyzing perception, then by the end of early childhood, with appropriate development, synthesizing perception appears. Developing intelligence creates the ability to establish connections between elements of what is perceived. This can be easily seen when children describe the picture. These features must be taken into account when communicating with a child and his development.

Age stages of perception:

• 6-9 years - description of the picture;
• after 9 years - interpretation of what was seen.

Memory at a young age develops in two directions - arbitrariness and meaningfulness. Children involuntarily remember what they see, which arouses their interest, presented in a playful way, associated with bright visual images, etc.

Under the influence of the environment, memory develops in two directions: the role of verbal-logical, semantic memorization increases (for the youngest, visual-figurative memory predominates, children are prone to memorization through mechanical repetition, without awareness of semantic connections). Young boys and girls have differences in memory. Girls know how to force themselves, their voluntary mechanical memory is better. Boys appear to be more successful in mastering memory techniques. During the learning process, perception becomes more analytical and takes on the character of organized observation. The counselor specially organizes children’s activities in the perception of certain objects, teaches them to identify essential signs, properties of objects and phenomena. One of the effective methods for developing perception is comparison. At the same time, perception becomes deeper, the number of errors decreases.

The possibilities of volitional regulation of attention at a young age are limited. A younger child (unlike a teenager, who can force himself to focus on uninteresting, difficult activities for the sake of a result that is expected in the future) can usually force himself to work hard in the presence of “close” motivation (praise, other positive evaluation). At a young age, attention becomes concentrated and stable when the activity presented by an adult is clear, bright, and evokes an emotional attitude in the child. The content of children's internal position changes. At this age, children’s claims to a certain position in the system of business and personal relationships of the children’s group appear. The emotional state of a child begins to be increasingly influenced by how his relationships with friends develop, and not just by successes in activities and relationships with adults. And if for 6-7 year olds the relationships of children with each other are regulated mainly by the norms of “adult” morality, i.e. success in activities, fulfilling the requirements of adults, by the age of 9-10 the norms associated with the qualities of a true comrade come to the fore.

The character of younger children has the following features: impulsiveness, a tendency to act immediately, without thinking, without weighing all the circumstances (the reason is age-related weakness of volitional regulation of behavior); general lack of will - a child of 7-8 years old does not yet know how to pursue an intended goal for a long time, or stubbornly overcome difficulties. Capriciousness and stubbornness are explained by the shortcomings of family upbringing; this is a unique form of protest against the demands that the camp makes, against the need to sacrifice what one “wants” for the sake of what one “needs.” In general, during this age period of a child’s life, as a rule, the following qualities are formed: arbitrariness, reflection, thinking in concepts; In addition, a qualitatively new, more “adult” type of relationship with adults and peers should appear.

The leading activity is teaching. For teaching to become a leading activity, it must be organized in a special way. It should be akin to play: after all, a child plays because he wants to, it is an activity for its own sake, just like that. The product of educational activity is the person himself.

A. Einstein: “It is a big mistake to think that a sense of duty and compulsion can help one find joy in looking and searching. It seems to me that even a healthy predatory animal would lose its greed for food if it were possible to force it to eat continuously with the help of a whip.” even when it is not hungry, and especially if the food offered forcibly is not chosen by it.”

Neoplasms

The main new developments of the child: 1. personal reflection; 2. intellectual reflection.

Personal reflection

At an older age, the number of factors influencing self-esteem in a child significantly expands.

Children between the ages of 9 and 12 continue to develop the desire to have their own point of view on everything. They also develop judgments about their own social importance—self-esteem. It develops through the development of self-awareness and feedback from those around them whose opinions they value. Children usually have a high rating if adults treat them with interest, warmth and love.

However, by the age of 12-13, the child develops a new idea of ​​himself, when self-esteem loses its dependence on situations of success and failure, but acquires a stable character. Self-esteem now expresses the relationship in which self-image relates to the ideal self.

Younger age is the completion of the development of self-awareness.

Intellectual reflection

This refers to reflection in terms of thinking. The child begins to think about the reasons why he thinks this way and not otherwise. A mechanism arises for correcting one’s thinking using logic and theoretical knowledge. Consequently, the child becomes able to subordinate the intention to an intellectual goal and is able to maintain it for a long time. In the future, the ability to store and retrieve information from memory improves, and metamemory develops. Children not only remember better, but are also able to reflect on how they do it.

Mental development

7 – 11 years – the third period of mental development according to Piaget - the period of specific mental operations. The child's thinking is limited to problems relating to specific real objects.

The egocentrism inherent in the thinking of the youngest child at 6-7 years old gradually decreases, which is facilitated by joint games, but does not disappear completely. Children who think concretely often make mistakes when predicting the outcome. As a result, children, once they have formulated a hypothesis, are more likely to reject new facts than change their point of view.

Decentration is replaced by the ability to focus on several signs at once, correlate them, and simultaneously take into account several dimensions of the state of an object or event.

The child also develops the ability to mentally trace changes in an object. Reversible thinking arises.

Relationships with adults

The behavior and development of children is influenced by the leadership style of adults: authoritarian, democratic or permissive (anarchic). Children feel better and develop more successfully under democratic leadership.

Peer relationships

From the age of six, children spend more and more time with peers, almost always of the same sex. Conformity intensifies, reaching its peak by the age of 12. Popular children tend to adapt well, feel comfortable among their peers, and are generally cooperative.

Children still spend a lot of time playing. It develops feelings of cooperation and competition, and such concepts as justice and injustice, prejudice, equality, leadership, submission, devotion, and betrayal acquire personal meaning.

The game takes on a social connotation: children invent secret societies, clubs, secret cards, codes, passwords and special rituals. The roles and rules of children's society make it possible to master the rules accepted in adult society. Playing with friends between the ages of 6 and 11 takes up the most time.

Emotional development

His emotional development depends more than before on the experiences he gains in the camp.

The child’s fears reflect the perception of the world around him, the scope of which is now expanding. Inexplicable and imaginary fears of past years are replaced by others, more conscious: lessons, injections, natural phenomena, relationships between peers. Fear can take the form of anxiety or worry.

From time to time, school-age children may show signs of illness. The symptoms (headache, stomach cramps, vomiting, dizziness) are widely known. This is not a simulation, and in such cases it is important to find out the cause as quickly as possible. This could be fear of failure, fear of criticism from adults, fear of being rejected by counselors or peers. In such cases, the counselors’ friendly, persistent interest in the activities of this child helps.

The relationship between a counselor and a child is, first of all, a human relationship. A child’s attitude towards activities in the camp depends to a great extent on how he relates to the counselor. A counselor for a small child is the living embodiment of justice. If the ward feels injustice, he is shocked. And young children always consider an unsatisfactory assessment of their (children’s) activities by the counselor as an injustice and deeply experience it, because it almost never happens that a child does not want to be successful.

Look into the eyes of a child who has received an unsatisfactory assessment from an adult. – The child not only feels unhappy, but also experiences a feeling of hostility, and often hostility, towards the adult. A counselor who gives an unsatisfactory assessment of a child’s actions, essentially because the child did not understand something, seems to children to be an unfair person.

There is nothing more dangerous for the development of a child’s moral and volitional strength than the indifference of a counselor to his activities. The painful reaction of the nervous system to the injustice of the counselor in some children takes on the character of agitation, in others it is a mania of unfair insults and persecution, in others it is embitterment, in others it is feigned carelessness, in others it is indifference, extreme depression, in others it is fear of punishment, in front of the counselor, in front of the camp, in sevenths - antics and clowning, in eighths - bitterness, sometimes taking on pathological manifestations (very rarely, but this cannot be ignored).

By the age of six, there comes a time in a person’s life when he is most ready for systematic activity. Education, both scientific and social, at a new, higher level. During this period, from the point of view of personal development, the child’s need to realize the basic trust in the world, autonomy and initiative in independent activities that has been formed to a greater or lesser extent in previous years comes to the fore from the point of view of personal development. And not just in activity in general, such as, say, a game, but in purposeful activity, the result of which would be a certain product that is valuable and suitable for use. This need is characterized as a feeling of creation. It is no coincidence that, starting from about six years old, the desire of many children to take everything apart down to the screw is replaced by the desire to make, sew, or repair something. And certainly on your own.

At this age, the motives for setting fires may be playing with matches and curiosity. Fire safety classes are conducted in the form of conversations, using visual aids (posters, pictures). At a young age, learning new things is closely related to the significance of the activity, as well as the growth of cognitive interests. It is important to shape the child’s activity in such a way that it teaches him to control himself (his knowledge, his skills) and evaluate his own achievements.

Already at a young age, children should know that work is the source of all values ​​that provide the basis for well-being. In the process of labor education, children are instilled with respect for the work of adults, they are attracted to feasible useful activities.

Choleric people do not always adapt to life in a children’s camp right away, as they are prone to conflicts with others, show intemperance at events, have a quick temper, and are irascible in response to the counselor’s comments. Such children, with a strong but unbalanced type of higher nervous activity, are guided in their behavior more by feelings, desires and less by reason. They are inclined to study music, and react vividly to poetry and visual arts.

A characteristic feature of the psycho-emotional sphere of children aged 7-10 years is curiosity, a keen interest in everything new and bright. This trait is combined with a pronounced desire to imitate a lot, and sometimes to copy something without a sufficiently critical attitude towards the object of attention, therefore the personal example of adults, their methods of moral and aesthetic influence on the child have extremely important educational significance. An atmosphere of friendliness, love between adults for each other, mutual respect and understanding, a sensitive readiness to immediately come to the rescue only ennobles children, contributes to the formation of the kindest spiritual qualities in them, develops the world of their feelings, thoughts, and views in the most favorable direction.

Pedagogical experience shows that children who are subjected to frequent punishments grow up fearful and timid, gloomy and deceitful, but they willingly get into fights with peers, use every opportunity to offend the less powerful or younger, while showing malice and bitterness. This applies even more to corporal punishment. Even the so-called light corporal punishment (a light spanking) subjects the child’s psyche to the most severe test due to the clash in his soul of opposing feelings - love and hatred - towards a loved one. Children aged 7-8 years are characterized by spontaneity and gullibility. Adults must take this into account and be careful about manifestations of honesty, sincerity, and straightforwardness in the reasoning and behavior of children.

In the upbringing and education of children 7-10 years old, the role of the emotional principle is great.

Counselors need to encourage younger children to strive for independent thinking. It is necessary to support in every possible way children’s attempts to compare their thoughts with those of others and check their conclusions in practice. It is good when counselors carefully but methodically form a disciplined mind in a child, teach them to be critical of their own statements and judgments, but at the same time firmly defend their thoughts, views, and beliefs. It is important to develop in younger children the ability to think quickly and quickly come to the right conclusion. However, the speed of thinking has nothing in common with the haste of the mind, which is more often characteristic of lazy and careless children who are in a hurry to somehow overcome a mental difficulty.

Counselors need to help the child not to be distracted during activities, master the ability to control and direct his attention, and, through an effort of will, maintain attention at the required level. It should be remembered that the degree of concentration of attention depends on many factors: it becomes dull when tired and drops sharply when overtired, weakens under the influence of monotonous activities, monotonous exercises, and under the influence of extraneous stimuli (noise, conversations, strong odors). Stuffiness also negatively affects a child's attention. However, absolute silence, especially during uninteresting activities, can interfere with concentration, as a drowsy state develops.

An important condition for firmly remembering the rules of behavior in the camp is repetition.

The performance and well-being of younger children increases significantly if order is maintained in the bedroom, in the child’s personal sleeping place and in the place where his things are stored, if activities are performed at set hours and a clear sequence of actions is developed, if a certain mode of activity and its optimal alternation are observed. A disciplined child's personal belongings are always in a certain place. They are located so that you can quickly find what you need. Keeping your bedside table and personal shelf in perfect order not only saves your child’s time, but also promotes a good mood and keeps him productive longer.

The color of the walls, the color of the furniture and its upholstery have a certain influence on a person’s mental performance and mood. Bluish, light green tones evoke a feeling of freshness, while white and cream tones evoke purity. They are pleasant to perceive and reduce eye strain. Dark and dirty gray tones have the opposite effect on the psyche and organ of vision.

About 2 hours before going to bed, you should reduce influences that can disrupt the mechanism of falling asleep: mental stress, exciting sights. Silence, fresh, cool air are conducive to sound sleep, so it is useful to ventilate the sleeping area before bed.

The daily need for sleep is largely determined by a person’s age. The younger the children, the longer the sleep should be. The duration of night sleep at the age of 7-10 years should be 10-11 hours. If a student is sick or weakened, he needs longer sleep than healthy children (additional daytime sleep is introduced). When they talk about proper sleep, they mean its duration, depth, continuity, correlation with a certain time of day. A calm, complete sleep is primarily facilitated by strict adherence to the daily routine, while a “sleepy” conditioned reflex is developed for a while. The best nighttime sleep time for children aged 7-10 years is from 21.00 to 7.30.

A natural concomitant of intense and prolonged mental and physical activity is fatigue - decreased performance. Subjectively, fatigue is expressed by fatigue. Excessive fatigue leaves a certain imprint on the child’s appearance: pallor, blueness around the eyes, lethargy, and stooping appear. The child becomes distracted, inhibited, hot-tempered, irritable, prone to quarrels and conflicts.

At a younger age, the child acquires new self-care skills. Keeping the body and clothes clean is part of the child's personal hygiene. In order for caring for the body and concern for its cleanliness to become a habit and a natural need for a child, at least three conditions must be strictly observed.

• Firstly, counselors should serve as a personal example for children, instill in children how beneficial hygienic procedures are for health, and what importance they have for the prevention of infectious and other diseases.
• Secondly, hygiene skills turn into conscious, useful habits if the educational influence on the child is carried out methodically and persistently.
• Thirdly, counselors must create proper conditions for washing and bathing the child, provide him with personal items: towels, linen, toothbrush, comb, scissors, etc.

And one more important condition: the hygienic education of children should be closely linked with the formation of their will and character, with their moral and aesthetic education. Dirty and sloppy cannot be perceived as beautiful and attractive, cannot find a positive moral assessment.

In the morning, the child washes not only his hands, but also his face; before going to bed - his face, neck, ears, legs; after his feet, he should wash his hands again, using soap and a brush. It is necessary to have separate towels for hands and feet; they are stored in different places during use. It is unacceptable for a child to wash his hands with cold water, carelessly, hastily, without soap, since the hands remain essentially unwashed, and the towel becomes dirty, subsequently becoming a source of infection of the skin of not only the hands, but also the face, mucous membranes of the lips and eyes. Cold water does not wash away sebum and skin flakes, and does not remove dirt accumulated in the pores and folds of the skin well. It is very easy to convince a child of this if you invite him to wash his hands first with cold water without soap, and then again with hot water and soap. The child will see that after the second wash, cloudy water flows from his hands.

Regular water procedures are a basic hygienic rule, a source of cheerful mood, pleasant sensations, increased performance, a good means of improving sleep and strengthening the body.

Some younger children have ugly and even bad habits. For example, by picking the nose, a child can introduce an infection into the mucous membrane, and this is fraught with the development of a boil in the nose and brain complications. The habit of biting nails is dangerous for contracting gastrointestinal infectious diseases and worms. It is necessary to wean them from such habits, especially since this is not difficult to do.

The complex of hygiene skills of a younger child includes caring for the oral cavity, nose, and ears. After each meal, children should rinse their mouth with warm water. To prevent a number of diseases of the oral cavity and pharynx, healthy children can rinse their mouths with cool water. Some adults kiss children on the lips, not realizing that this is dangerous for the child. Many adults in the oral cavity with dental caries, chronic inflammation of the gums, tonsils or mucous membrane of the throat have many pathogenic microbes - staphylococci, streptococci, etc. When kissing, they can get on the mucous membrane of the lips, skin of the chin and cheeks, and then penetrate into the cavity mouth, respiratory tract of the child and cause him illness. The infection can enter the mouth if a child takes the end of a pencil or pen with his lips or licks his fingers after eating. With insufficient care, teeth are affected by caries - a widespread disease, which is characterized by the formation of a defect in the hard tissues of the tooth, the progression of this process, and its spread to other teeth. Teeth should be brushed 2 times (within 25-30 seconds) - in the morning before breakfast and in the evening before lights out. Using a toothbrush, the child brushes all the teeth front and back, as well as their chewing surface. Special toothpastes are produced for children, which have a more pronounced cleansing, refreshing and deodorizing (eliminating unpleasant odors) effect than powders. The toothbrush should not be stored in a closed case (or at least in a plastic bag). If there is such an opportunity, then place it in a glass or other vessel, then the bristles dry out well and their bacterial contamination is reduced. Every day, it is useful to lather the bristles of your toothbrush well and rinse thoroughly with warm water. Young children cannot do without a handkerchief. Using it, the child first releases one half of the nose, and then the other, alternately pinching the nostrils during a strong exhalation. It is impossible to cover both nostrils at the same time, since in this case the air pressure inside the nose increases sharply and an infection from the nasal cavity can penetrate into the internal reservoirs of the ear, causing inflammation (otitis media).

It is necessary to strictly prohibit children from putting matches, pins or other objects into their nose or ear. Such actions are fraught with serious consequences: a foreign body entering the respiratory tract through the nose, infection, or perforation of the eardrum. If wax accumulates in your child’s ears or wax plugs form, you should contact the camp doctor.

Gymnastics requires a positive psychological attitude and is most useful if carried out at a certain time for 15-30 minutes, strictly regularly. The most comfortable clothing is a tracksuit, or better yet, a T-shirt, panties and slippers. For exercises on the floor you need a mat. Girls are recommended to include exercises with a hoop, jump rope and other objects in their morning gymnastics; try to perform all movements smoothly and plastically.

Posture is one of the signs of the harmonious development of a person’s physical qualities. A slender body, flexible movements, and easy gait make the figure beautiful and graceful. With good posture, the head is held straight, the shoulders are turned, both shoulder blades and the iliac crests are symmetrical. If the posture is correct, then physiological processes, and above all breathing and blood circulation, proceed normally, but if the posture is disturbed, the body’s functions may be upset. Children (especially girls) with postural defects try to be in public less, to somehow hide their physical defect. Deviations in posture can have a traumatic effect on schoolchildren. Children with poor posture develop stooping, sidewaysness, curvature of the spine (scoliosis), asymmetry of the shoulders and shoulder blades, and flat feet.

Children's clothing should be light, comfortable and beautiful. It is important that it does not restrict movement, does not impede breathing and blood circulation, and does not irritate the skin. It is necessary that hygienic clothing correspond to climatic conditions, time of year, and air temperature. Clothing that is too warm is just as undesirable as clothing that causes children to experience unpleasant sensations of cooling and chills.

Sometimes children wear two of the same type of clothes: two pairs of trousers, two shirts, two dresses. This makes movement difficult and unhygienic, contributing to overheating. Some boys wear a jacket over a T-shirt, which is also unacceptable, as the clothes quickly become dirty, the feeling of comfort is disrupted, and skin irritation can occur.

Sportswear should not be worn outside of the stadium or gym. This is unhygienic and unethical.

Shoes protect feet from cooling and overheating, from moisture, dirt and damage, facilitate movement, and provide a feeling of comfort and aesthetic satisfaction.

Sneakers that are intended only for physical education and short hiking trips are also not suitable for every day. They also put felt insoles in them and put on woolen socks. On long marches, use comfortable, worn-in shoes, and place a rubber sponge under the heels.

Shoes with rubber soles should be kept away from heating sources. We must remember that younger children, as a rule, do not know about this.

Some children experience increased sweating of their feet. To eliminate it, it is recommended to wash your feet daily, first with warm and then with cool water, change socks (or stockings) more often, and in the summer do without them, do not wear rubber shoes, be sure to use insoles, and avoid overheating your feet in shoes.

Primary school age is called the peak of childhood. The child retains many childish qualities - frivolity, naivety, looking up at the adult. But he is already beginning to lose his childish spontaneity in behavior; he has a different logic of thinking.

The seven-year crisis occurs at the border between preschool and primary school age. Regardless of when a child starts school, at 6 or 7 years old, at some point in his development he goes through a crisis. This fracture may begin at age 7, or may shift by age 6 or 8.

Thinking becomes the dominant function at primary school age. The child develops logically correct reasoning. However, when arguing, he still relies on concrete, visual material.

To successfully solve pedagogical problems, the counselor must have a clear understanding of those factors in the child’s activity that affect the child’s self-esteem and personality development.

The success of educational work directly depends on the pedagogical skills of the counselor. The latter is based on the concept of pedagogical tact.

It is very useful to understand the general structure of motivation for activity at this age:

a) Cognitive motivation If a child, in the process of activity, begins to rejoice that he has learned, understood, or learned something, it means that he is developing motivation that corresponds to the structure of the learning activity.

b) Motivation to achieve success Children with high performance results have a clearly expressed motivation to achieve success - the desire to perform a task well, correctly, and get the desired result. In junior units, this motivation often becomes dominant. The motivation to achieve success, along with cognitive interests, is the most valuable motive; it should be distinguished from prestigious motivation.

c) Prestigious motivation Prestigious motivation is typical for children with high self-esteem and leadership inclinations. She encourages the child to do everything better than his peers, to stand out among them, to be the first. If sufficiently developed abilities correspond to prestigious motivation, it becomes a powerful engine of development of the child, who will achieve the best results at the limit of his efficiency and hard work. Individualism, constant competition with capable peers and a disdainful attitude towards others distort the moral orientation of the personality of such children. If prestigious motivation is combined with average abilities, deep self-doubt, usually not recognized by the child, along with an inflated level of aspirations lead to violent reactions in situations of failure.

d) Motivation to avoid failure In unsuccessful children, prestigious motivation does not develop. The motivation to achieve success, as well as the motive of receiving high praise from others, are characteristic of children of junior units. But even at this time, the second tendency clearly manifests itself - the motivation to avoid failure. Children try to avoid the consequences that a low assessment of their activities entails - ridicule from others.

e) Compensatory motivation By this time, unsuccessful children also develop special compensatory motivation. These are secondary motives in relation to a specific activity that allow one to establish oneself in another area of ​​activity. When the need for self-affirmation is satisfied in some area of ​​activity, low success in the first does not become a source of difficult experiences for the child.

Not being able to distinguish well enough the reasons for failure, some counselors usually use a very meager and far from perfect set of means of helping lagging children. In practice, they can be reduced to two: 1) organizing additional explanations, the same, and 2) applying various measures of pressure on the child.

All these remedies are not only ineffective, but often turn out to be harmful, since they do not affect the cause and allow the “disease” of failure to start. Typically, a child comes to camp positively motivated. To ensure that his positive attitude toward the camp does not fade, the counselor’s efforts should be aimed at creating a stable motivation to achieve success, on the one hand, and developing the child’s interests, on the other.

Forming a stable motivation to achieve success is necessary in order to blur the “position of an unsuccessful person”, increase the child’s self-esteem and psychological stability. The high self-esteem of unsuccessful students for their individual qualities and abilities, their lack of an inferiority complex and self-doubt play a positive role, helping such children to establish themselves in activities that are feasible for them, and are the basis for the development of their motivation for activities in the camp in general.

To successfully solve pedagogical problems, the counselor must have a clear understanding of those factors in the activity of the ward that affect the self-esteem and development of the child’s personality.

a) The influence of others’ assessment of the child’s activities. Assessment by others directly affects the development of the child’s self-esteem. Children, focusing on the counselor’s assessment, consider themselves and their peers to be successful and unsuccessful, endowing representatives of each group with a set of corresponding qualities. Assessing success at the beginning of a shift is essentially an assessment of the personality as a whole and determines the child’s social status. Successful children develop high self-esteem. For unsuccessful children, systematic failures and low evaluations by others reduce their self-confidence and their abilities. Their self-esteem develops in a unique way. Initially, children do not agree with the position of laggards, which is assigned to them at the beginning of the shift, and strive to maintain high self-esteem. If you ask them to evaluate their performance, most will rate their performance with a higher score than it deserves.

At the same time, they focus not so much on what has been achieved, but on what they want: “I’m tired of being a sucker. I want to be at least average.” “Everyone underestimates me, I like myself.” “I’m no worse than everyone else, I can also be successful in something.”

The unrealized need to get out of the ranks of those lagging behind and acquire a higher status is gradually weakening. The number of children lagging behind in their activities, who consider themselves even weaker than they actually are, further increases by almost 3 times. Self-esteem, inflated at the beginning of the shift, sharply decreases.

How do younger children cope with such a difficult situation?

Children with low and low self-esteem often have a feeling of inferiority and even hopelessness. Even in cases where children compensate for their low luck with success in other areas, a “muted” feeling of inferiority, inferiority, and acceptance of the position of a laggard lead to negative consequences.

b) Sense of competence Success, awareness of one's abilities and skills to perform various tasks efficiently lead to the formation of a sense of competence - a new aspect of self-awareness at a young age. If a sense of competence in activities is not formed, the child’s self-esteem decreases and a feeling of inferiority arises, his personal development is distorted.

Children themselves realize the importance of competence in a specific area of ​​activity. When describing the qualities of the most popular peers, younger children point, first of all, to intelligence and skills.

In order for children to develop correct self-esteem and a sense of competence, it is necessary to create an atmosphere of psychological comfort and support in the unit. Counselors, distinguished by high professional skills, strive not only to meaningfully evaluate the activities of children (not just to evaluate, but to give appropriate explanations), but also to convey their positive expectations to each ward, to create a positive emotional background for any, even low, assessment of their activities.

They evaluate only specific activities, but not the individual, do not compare children with each other, do not encourage everyone to imitate the successful, orient children towards individual achievements - so that tomorrow’s activities are better than yesterday’s. They do not praise the best children, especially those who achieve high results without much effort. And, on the contrary, they encourage the slightest progress in the activities of a weak but diligent child.

c) The emergence and influence of reflection Towards the end of early childhood, reflection appears and, thus, new approaches to assessing one’s achievements and personal qualities are created.

Self-esteem becomes, in general, more consistent with reality, and judgments about oneself become more justified. At the same time, there are significant individual differences. It should be especially emphasized that in children with high and low self-esteem, it is extremely difficult to change its level.

Young children who come to children's camp for the first time are in a stressful state and experience increased anxiety. Experiences and anxiety accompany the assessment process in any case, no matter how friendly and calm the atmosphere may be. What causes this?

A child, in the process of communicating with a social environment close to him, the requirements of which he needs to satisfy, creates his own level of aspirations. On the verge of the child’s level of aspirations and his ignorance of the possible outcome of the assessment, experiences, worries, and anxiety arise, which negatively affect the identification of even those knowledge and skills that he has a good command of.

He needs an assessment at the level of aspirations, and therefore anxiety arises, fueled by worries about future relationships in the social environment rather than for a truly accurate and error-free assessment.

This anxiety may disappear if for the child these relationships lose meaning, if he finds another environment in which he will not be viewed and evaluated through the prism of the results of his activities and evaluations of them.

It should be especially emphasized that the lack of assessment in conditions of simultaneous assessment of other children is the worst type of assessment. This situation disorients the child, forcing him to build his own self-esteem not on the basis of an objective assessment, which reflects his actual capabilities, but on very subjective interpretations of hints, semi-understandable situations of behavior of the counselor and peers. The intonation, gesture, and facial expressions of the counselor acquire special semantic meaning for children precisely when they are not assessed in the usual way.

Different children are attentive in different ways. Some children have stable, but poorly switched attention; they perform one task for quite a long time and diligently, but find it difficult to quickly move on to the next. Others easily switch during their activities, but are just as easily distracted by extraneous moments. For others, good organization of attention is combined with its small volume. There are also inattentive children who concentrate their attention not on the activity, but on something else - on their thoughts, etc. The attention of these children is quite developed, but due to the lack of the necessary direction, they give the impression of being absent-minded.

The first group includes children who became such at a certain period of their life. The sudden inattention and absent-mindedness could be the result of a long-term chronic illness of the child, which exhausted his nervous system. Along with this, the cause of inattention can be a conflict with an adult or peers. The child, constantly in a state of tense anticipation, cannot concentrate on the instructions of the counselor, etc.

Another group of absent-minded children are those who suffer from absent-mindedness from birth due to weakness of the nervous system. We are actually talking about a small congenital uneven development of individual brain functions, in which attention most often suffers. The child lacks energy and is forced to resort to frequent changes in activities. He is able to notice everything that the counselor and his peers are doing around him, but he does not have enough energy to be attentive to the counselor’s demands. This is not his fault, but his misfortune. This child needs more rest. He should not experience overload. He should work less, but more often. In addition, both the child and the adult should be in an environment of peace and quiet.

Nothing penetrates the human soul without attention. The counselor has several means at his disposal to draw the children’s attention to what he is telling them.

• Enhancing the impression

You can strengthen the impression in a direct way, for example, by raising your voice, emphasizing words, drawing a large map and bright colors, etc.; and indirect, removing impressions that could distract attention: lack of silence in the room, objects that entertain the attention of children.

• Direct demand for attention

One of the best remedies is frequent contact with children. In order to keep children's attention constantly focused on the issue of discussion, it is useful to force young children to perform several actions on the received command. For example, stand up, sit down, spread your hands, curl your hands, etc. under some counting rhyme. This gives children the habit of being attentive to the words of an adult every minute.

Measures against absent-mindedness

In addition to the absent-mindedness of individual children, there is also a general absent-mindedness of the group, a drowsy state that precedes falling asleep. The reasons for this condition are physical and psychological.

• The reasons are physical: the room is too hot, too little oxygen in the air, which often happens in cramped and rarely ventilated rooms; further – body immobility, full stomachs, severe fatigue in general.
• The reasons are psychological: monotony and monotony of what is happening, fatigue from the same actions.

Entertaining event

The most boring activity can be made entertaining for children by external means that are not related to the content of the activity; the activity is made entertaining, like a game of attention, like competition, in resourcefulness, etc. With small children these are very useful techniques; but these external measures cannot limit the stimulation of attention.

The internal fun of activity is based on the law that the new must complement, develop or contradict the old, thanks to which it can enter into any association with what is already known. The older the child becomes, the more internal entertainment should displace external ones.

It is very important to find out how children imagine what is being said. Children think concretely and tend to take everything literally. Meanwhile, when explaining, we often speak abstractly and just as often use words in a figurative meaning, which causes many misunderstandings in classes with young children.

If you need to give children certain general principles, they must be specified with some example, etc. All the same, the children will be more specific, but without the help of a counselor they will do it in such a way that, as they say, you will not be happy. The same applies to new concepts: they must be illustrated by the child’s experience, etc.

The syntax of a young child is predominantly the syntax of a simple sentence. Therefore, the counselor's instructions are to avoid long, complex phrases. The terms must, of course, be carefully explained. Any reservations or amendments to what the counselors have just said are unacceptable, as they confuse the children.

Understanding requires knowledge, but isolated, fragmentary knowledge is not everything for understanding. Our story, our reasoning is always some chain of events, judgments, etc. And a child is able to understand only when he is able to trace this entire chain from beginning to end. The younger the child, the less developed he is, the more difficult it is for him to do this, and the shorter the story should be: otherwise the child will lose the thread. In addition, as already noted, the thread must be straightforward: any deviations to the side greatly complicate the child’s understanding.

It is easier for us to understand the meaning of some actions if we know in advance the final result or purpose of them. We understand a foreign text better if we know in advance what is being said. In the same way, a child picks up the thread of a story or argument more easily if he knows in advance where it will lead. That is why it is recommended to begin the briefing by clarifying the purpose and expected result.

A small child is prone to visual thinking. It helps him a lot in understanding, since one image, one picture can immediately cover something that sometimes requires a long series of phrases. Every experienced counselor knows how difficult it is for a small child to make causal and temporal connections. Meanwhile, we truly understand something only when we know why it happened and what consequences it entails. It is necessary to distinguish logical justifications from causal explanations, which are given to children with even greater difficulty.

Logic is not yet sufficiently developed in young children. Quite often they ask the question “why?” in the sense of “on what basis do you think this is correct?” understood as the question: “How did you come to this idea?” Therefore, in junior detachments, counselors, as a rule, are not very eager to prove something to children, remembering that this often may not make it easier for children to understand, but rather complicate it.

At a young age, it is very often quite possible to be content with the fact that a given thought, a given statement is convincing for children thanks to well-chosen examples, checking the result, etc. Logical evidence should be given only where it is really necessary, and causal explanations are easier for a child if they go from cause to action.

Compared to asking “why?” The question “why?” is much clearer to a child. Therefore, this question is very popular in junior units, for example: “Why does a cat have sharp claws?” (although, of course, such a teleological formulation of the question is completely wrong). This question is especially clear to a child if we are talking about goals close to his experience and interests.

Another feature of children's thinking is the inability to consider an object or situation from different angles, the inability to simultaneously perform all the required actions.

For example, when one thought develops and another is lost, etc. In such a complex activity as establishing cause-and-effect relationships, children, considering a phenomenon that has several causes, usually name only one of them, and if several consequences follow from one cause , then not all are indicated, but most often only one.

The third question still remains to be answered: “Why do children often say that they understand without actually understanding?”

Older children sometimes act this way out of false shame, so as not to appear stupid. But kids especially often answer this way, and quite sincerely and confidently. The point here, of course, is not a matter of false shame, but a lack of self-control. That’s why, when working with kids, you need to constantly monitor whether they really understood.

The desire of younger children to repeat, to assimilate new things as they were given, sometimes turns out to be excessive. This happens even when they are asked to “tell it in their own words.” A brief retelling is much more difficult for children than a detailed one. To tell briefly means highlighting the main thing, separating it from the details, and this is precisely what children do not know how to do. If you ask children to briefly tell only the most important things, they often miss significant semantic points, and the meaning of their retelling suffers greatly from this.

How to help an unsuccessful child overcome self-doubt? The counselor needs to create conditions for the ward to experience success and the positive emotions associated with it. To do this, it is recommended to set tasks for the child that will be feasible and feasible for him. We must try to identify those areas of activity in which the child can show initiative and earn recognition in the squad. Isolating the “successful” areas of activity of an unsuccessful child allows you to change the attitude of peers towards him for the better.

It is useful to record, celebrate and encourage the slightest successes of the child in his activities, the most seemingly insignificant changes for the better. Particular attention should be paid to not allowing new failures to take hold. To do this, by training the child’s will, you need to force him to complete the work he has begun, without postponing it until “later” at the first mistakes.

Particular attention should be paid to the nature and form of reprimand and encouragement of an unsuccessful child. In no case should reproach concern the child’s abilities. It must be extremely specific and aimed at eliminating deficiencies clearly recognized by the student himself (for example, violations of discipline, negligence in work, etc.).

It is also important what the counselor’s tone of speech is at the moment of reprimand. Irritation and anger in the voice only cause a negative reaction from the ward. You need to try to talk to him calmly, kindly and interested.

You should also pay attention to such points associated with an unsuccessful assessment, such as its detailed justification, as well as highlighting the criteria by which the assessment is carried out, so that they are understandable to the children themselves.

A technique that can be quite effective is turning a loser into a “mentor” who helps another loser.

Observation of unsuccessful and undisciplined children shows that their bad behavior is most often a reaction to failure, a form of protest against the existing negative attitude towards them on the part of their counselor and peers.

Therefore, work with such children should be aimed not only at filling gaps in their knowledge, skills and abilities, but also at changing their social position.

An attempt, through the organization of an activity new to the child, allows, through changing his relationship with the team, to achieve positive changes in relation to the unsuccessful child, to increase his success.

The success of educational work directly depends on the education and pedagogical skills of the counselor. The latter is based on the concept of pedagogical tact.

The following main features of pedagogical tact are distinguished:

1. Naturalness, ease of handling without familiarity;
2. Sincerity of tone, devoid of any falsehood;
3. Trust in the ward without connivance;
4. Request without begging;
5. Advice and recommendations without intrusiveness;
6. Demands and suggestions without suppressing the pupil’s independence;
7. Serious tone without tension in relationships;
8. Irony and humor without derogatory mockery;
9. Demanding without petty pickiness;
10. Efficiency in relationships without irritability, coldness and dryness;
11. Firmness and consistency in the implementation of educational influences without unreasonable cancellation of the requirement;
12. Development of independence without petty supervision;
13. Speed ​​and timeliness of educational influence without haste and rash decisions;
14. Attentiveness to the child without emphasizing your control;
15. Calm concentration and balance in communication, excluding indifference and excessive excitability;
16. Conducting a conversation with a child without didacticism or moralizing.

The main sign of pedagogical tact is finding a measure in the relationship between the counselor and the ward in the process of communication.

And finally, about child theft in junior units.

We will try not to use the word “theft”, since we are dealing with children of seven or eight years old. Of course, even at this and at an earlier age, many children will never take someone else’s, since this moral norm is literally absorbed by them with their mother’s milk. But many children are raised in families where no attention is paid to moral issues, and often children see adults bringing something home from work without considering it reprehensible. Growing up in such an environment, and even having a tendency to impulsive behavior, when a child acts without reasoning or thinking about the consequences of his actions, it is very easy for him to commit something that can be classified as theft.

Where it leads? If the squad finds out that such and such a boy or such and such a girl has stolen something, and the counselor loudly gives this act the appropriate moral assessment, then the child will gain a reputation as a thief. Naturally, children will not want to be friends with a thief in the future. And very soon the child who committed such an act will remain isolated. Where should he go, because he needs communication? And he will find this communication among those children (usually older than him) for whom his action is not only not a crime, but, on the contrary, allows him to occupy a certain position in the circle of new friends. To prevent these new friends from turning their backs on him, he will now have to live by their laws. Thus, he can take the path of deliberate theft.

If the child’s misdemeanor is not immediately classified as theft, but we try to help the child overcome his undesirable characteristics by developing him personally and spiritually, then there is a much greater chance that the development of the ward will not take an asocial path, although there may be prerequisites for this. In such cases, adults must talk to the child, but only in private and not in the form of scolding or lecturing, but in a confidential conversation. We must try to convey to the child the moral meaning of his action and reveal to him the experiences of other people (the victim) caused by the crime. The child should feel that you are very upset because you consider him a good person.

However, it should be made clear to the child that he will not be allowed to do this. The child must return the stolen property to another child or where he took it. The counselor can return the stolen property to the owner to save the child from public shame.

About other reasons for children's theft, the famous children's pediatrician Benjamin Spock writes the following: “For example, a seven-year-old boy, well raised by conscientious parents, who has enough toys and other things and small pocket money, steals. He probably steals small sums of money from his mother or friends, pens and teachers, or pencils from his desk neighbor. Often his theft is completely pointless, because he may have the same thing. Obviously, it's about the child's feelings. He seems to be tormented by a need for something and is trying to satisfy it by taking things from others that he actually doesn’t need at all. What does he need?

In most cases, such a child feels unhappy and lonely. Perhaps he lacks the kind attention of adults or he cannot find friends among his peers (this feeling of abandonment can occur even in a child who enjoys the love and respect of his friends). The fact that seven-year-old children steal most often suggests that at this age children are especially acutely aware of how they are moving away from adults. If they don’t find true friends, they feel abandoned and useless. This is probably why children who steal money either give it to their comrades or buy candy for the whole squad, that is, they try to “buy” the friendship of their squad mates. During early adolescence, a child may also feel more lonely due to increased shyness, sensitivity, and desire for independence.

At any age, one of the reasons for theft is an unsatisfied need for love and affection. Other reasons are individual: fear, jealousy, discontent.”

Junior schoolchild as an object of psychological assistance. — The child’s readiness for schooling. — Motivation for learning and child’s adaptation to school. — Correction of school anxiety and fears in younger schoolchildren.

III.2.1. Junior schoolchild as an object of psychological assistance

Junior school age (from 6-7 to 10-11 years) is the pinnacle of childhood. The child retains many childish qualities - naivety, frivolity, looking up to the adult. But he is already beginning to lose his childish spontaneity in behavior, he has a different logic of thinking. Teaching is a significant activity for him. At school, he acquires not only new knowledge and skills, but also a certain social status. The child’s interests, values, and entire way of life change his life.

On the one hand, like a preschooler, he is distinguished by mobility, restlessness, impulsiveness of behavior, instability of attention, general lack of will, and a clear manifestation of typological properties in behavior. On the other hand, he develops characterological properties, a new level of needs that allow him to act guided by his goals, moral requirements and feelings, demands and selectivity arise in relationships with peers, a cognitive attitude to the world develops, abilities are differentiated, and the student’s internal position is formed.

Junior school age promises the child new achievements in a new sphere of human activity - learning. At this age, the child goes through a developmental crisis associated with an objective change in the social situation of development. It introduces the child into a strictly standardized world of relationships and requires him to be organized, responsible for discipline, for the development of performing actions associated with acquiring skills in educational activities, as well as for mental development. Therefore, the new social situation tightens the child’s living conditions and becomes stressful for him. Every child entering school experiences increased mental tension! This affects not only the physical condition and health of the child, but also the behavior of the child.

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CONTENT

INTRODUCTION 3

1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN
JUNIOR SCHOOL AGE 4

2. DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING CHILDREN
JUNIOR SCHOOL AGE 6

3. MAIN AREAS OF WORK
SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST WITH YOUNGERS
SCHOOLCHILDREN 8

CONCLUSION 12

LIST OF REFERENCES USED 13

INTRODUCTION

Primary school age is one of the main periods in a person’s life, laying the foundation for a large array of transformations that influence all further life activities of the individual. And the development of cognitive processes in this period is especially relevant, since this is the age range of changes in microsocial conditions, the change from the family and preschool environment to the environment of the primary school, which has its own special specifics. And not only the quality of schooling, but also the entire future ability for individual self-development will depend on how adequately the adaptation process takes place in a given time period.
It should be noted that the age from 6-7 to 10-11 years is extremely important for the mental and social development of a child. Firstly, his social status changes radically - he becomes a schoolchild, which leads to a restructuring of the child’s entire system of life relationships.
The purpose of the work is to consider the methodology of a psychologist’s work with primary schoolchildren.
Subject of research: diagnostic and correctional work with junior schoolchildren in classes with a psychologist.
Object of study: the process of psychocorrectional work.
Based on the goal, the following tasks were set:

Analyze the literature on this issue.
Consider the psychology of younger schoolchildren
Consider the specifics of a psychologist’s work in an educational institution.

1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN
JUNIOR SCHOOL AGE

Children of different ages, as is known, differ greatly from each other in their general psychological appearance. This gives grounds to talk about psychological characteristics that are typical, for example, for preschool children, primary schoolchildren or teenagers. Indeed, no matter how striking individual psychological traits children of the same age possess, they, as a rule, have something in common with each other.
What determines the age-related psychological characteristics of a child?
The development of organisms occurs under the determining influence of the external conditions of their life. The child develops in a complex social environment, in conditions of upbringing and training. The conditions in which the child lives, influencing him, create a gradual complication of his connections with these conditions, a gradual complication of his life processes. He also develops those higher processes that are called mental and which ensure “an infinitely complex relationship between the body and the surrounding world.”
Research by the great Russian physiologists I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlov showed that the basis of mental processes is the higher nervous activity of the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the organ of the psyche. Thus, the physiological basis for the development of a child’s psyche is the development of the higher nervous activity of his brain. It occurs in the process of complicating the child’s life connections, primarily with the social environment, with society. At the same time, the child’s mental development does not occur spontaneously, but is controlled by upbringing and training, which are the most important factors of mental development. Each stage of development of a child’s psyche is characterized not only by a different level of development of his neuropsychic processes, but also by the impact of what social conditions they reflect and under the influence of what upbringing they are formed.
The age-related characteristics of the children’s psyche depend, therefore, primarily on the specific historical conditions in which children develop and what kind of upbringing they receive. At different stages of development of human society, and in a class society and in children belonging to different classes, different psychological traits are observed at the same age.
A decisive turning point occurs in the lives of our seven-year-old children: they enter school. The transition to schooling means for children, first of all, a transition to the systematic accumulation of knowledge. Mastering the fundamentals of science broadens their horizons, develops thinking, changes the nature of all mental processes - perception, memory, attention, making them more conscious and controllable, and most importantly - forms the foundations of a child’s worldview.
A child’s entry into school means for children a transition to a new way of life, a new leading activity; this decisively affects the formation of the child’s entire personality.
Purposeful, active formation of the child’s personality is carried out only under the condition of pedagogically correct organization of the entire life and activity of children, since it is in the real life and activity of the child that his personality is formed. For the correct comprehensive formation of a child’s personality, it is necessary, according to Makarenko, broad political education, general education, books, newspapers, work, social work and, of course, also games, entertainment, recreation.
At the same time, at different ages the role that different types of activity play in the mental development of a child is not the same. Thus, if play plays a very important role in the development of a small preschooler, then upon the transition to school age, learning becomes the leading activity.
At first glance, it may seem that for all school-age children, regardless of the specific historical conditions in which they live and develop, learning plays a leading role. However, it is not.
In order for this or that activity to become leading in the formation of the psyche, it is necessary that it constitute the main content of the lives of the children themselves, and be for them the center around which their main interests and experiences are concentrated.
In old... Russia, learning and school, although they occupied a large place in the lives of children... but neither the knowledge they received at school, nor the system of educational relations and responsibilities constituted the main content of their lives. Knowledge was often perceived formally, and teaching was, for many students, primarily a performance of forced duty, devoid of joy and satisfaction.
In the lives of our schoolchildren, teaching occupies a completely different place. This happens because teaching... just like work, acquires a deep ideological meaning in the state...
Schooling is viewed in our society as preparation. Therefore, the transition to schooling is... a transition to a new socially significant activity, and at the same time to a new position in relation to society. A schoolchild, unlike a small child, has his own important social responsibility - the duty to study well, his own educational community, his own life in it, full of serious relationships. Under such conditions, school truly becomes the center of children's lives, and learning becomes their leading activity. It is recognized by schoolchildren not only as a means necessary for one day, in the future, to become active members of society, but also as a special form of their feasible participation in the big, real life of today.
On the other hand, school knowledge itself, thanks to its genuine scientific content and connection with practice, is deeply interesting for our schoolchildren. They broaden children's horizons, satisfy their cognitive interests, and serve as a means of understanding reality.
The content and methods of teaching in... school do not allow students to mechanically memorize educational material; they require the child to truly consciously master the fundamentals of science, i.e. such assimilation in which school knowledge, turning into the child’s beliefs, shapes his worldview.
A child's enrollment in school really changes the entire daily course of his life and activities. A child who enters school has new relationships with the people around him and new, serious responsibilities related to school. He must get up at a strictly defined time and go to school, study those subjects that are determined by the school curriculum, strictly follow the school regime, obey the school rules of behavior, and achieve a good assimilation of the knowledge and skills required by the program.
The quality of the student’s academic work, as well as his entire behavior, is assessed by the school, and this assessment affects the nature of his relationships with others: with teachers, parents and friends. A child who is careless about his academic duties and does not want to learn is treated differently by those around him than a schoolchild who diligently performs his social duty.
Thus, a child, having become a schoolchild, occupies a new place in society compared to a preschooler. He now has the responsibilities that society imposes on him, and bears a serious responsibility to the school and parents for his educational activities.

2. DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING CHILDREN
JUNIOR SCHOOL AGE

The boundaries of primary school age, coinciding with the period of study in primary school, are currently established from 6-7 to 9-10 years. During this period, further physical and psychophysiological development of the child occurs, providing the opportunity for systematic learning at school. First of all, the functioning of the brain and nervous system is improved. According to physiologists, by the age of 7 the cerebral cortex is already largely mature. However, the imperfection of the regulatory function of the cortex is manifested in the peculiarities of behavior, organization of activity and emotional sphere characteristic of children of this age: younger schoolchildren are easily distracted, are not capable of long-term concentration, are excitable, and emotional. At primary school age, there is unevenness in psychophysiological development in different children. Differences in the rates of development between boys and girls also remain: girls are still ahead of boys. Pointing to this, some authors come to the conclusion that in fact in the lower grades “children of different ages sit at the same desk: on average, boys are a year and a half younger than girls, although this difference is not in calendar age.”
The beginning of schooling leads to a radical change in the social situation of the child’s development. He becomes a “public” subject and now has socially significant responsibilities, the fulfillment of which receives public assessment.
Educational activity becomes the leading activity at primary school age. It determines the most important changes occurring in the development of the psyche of children at this age stage. Within the framework of educational activities, psychological new formations are formed that characterize the most significant achievements in the development of primary schoolchildren and are the foundation that ensures development at the next age stage.
During primary school age, a new type of relationship with other people begins to develop. The unconditional authority of an adult is gradually lost, peers begin to acquire more and more importance for the child, and the role of the children's community increases. Thus, the central neoplasms of primary school age are:

a qualitatively new level of development of voluntary regulation of behavior and activity;
reflection, analysis, internal action plan;
development of a new cognitive attitude to reality;
peer group orientation.

Thus, according to the concept of E. Erikson, the age of 6-12 years is considered as a period of transferring to the child systematic knowledge and skills that ensure introduction to working life and aimed at developing diligence.
The most important new formations arise in all areas of mental development: intelligence, personality, and social relationships are transformed. The leading role of educational activity in this process does not exclude the fact that the younger student is actively involved in other types of activities, during which the child’s new achievements are improved and consolidated.
According to L.S. Vygotsky, the specificity of primary school age is that the goals of activity are set for children mainly by adults. Teachers and parents determine what a child can and cannot do, what tasks to complete, what rules to obey, etc. One of the typical situations of this kind is when a child performs some kind of assignment. Even among those schoolchildren who willingly undertake to carry out instructions from an adult, there are quite frequent cases when children do not cope with tasks because they did not understand its essence, quickly lost their initial interest in the task, or simply forgot to complete it on time. These difficulties can be avoided if, when giving children any assignment, you follow certain rules.
Kolominsky Ya.L. believes that if a child by the age of 9-10 has established friendly relations with one of his classmates, this means that the child knows how to establish close social contact with a peer, maintain relationships for a long time, that communication with him is also important to someone and interesting. Between 8 and 11 years old, children consider as friends those who help them, respond to their requests and share their interests. For the emergence of mutual sympathy and friendship, such qualities as kindness and attentiveness, independence, self-confidence, and honesty become important. Gradually, as the child masters school reality, he develops a system of personal relationships in the classroom. It is based on direct emotional relationships that prevail over all others.
Numerous studies by Russian psychologists have identified the most essential conditions that allow an adult to develop in a child the ability to independently manage their behavior. These conditions are:
1) the child has a sufficiently strong and long-lasting motive for behavior;
2) introduction of a restrictive purpose;
3) division of an acquired complex form of behavior into relatively independent and small actions;
4) the presence of external means that are a support for mastering behavior.
The most important condition for the development of a child’s voluntary behavior is the participation of an adult who directs the child’s efforts and provides the means of mastery.
From the first days of school, the child is involved in the process of interpersonal interaction with classmates and the teacher. During primary school age, this interaction has certain dynamics and patterns of development.
As you know, many children are characterized by temporary deviations in behavior. As a rule, they are easily overcome through the efforts of parents, teachers, and educators. But the behavior of some children goes beyond acceptable pranks and offenses, and educational work with them, proceeding with difficulties, does not bring the desired success. Such children are classified as “difficult”.
Students at risk are a category of children that requires special attention from teachers, educators and other specialists.
These include children with disorders in the affective sphere, educationally neglected children, children with mental retardation, children with developmental problems (oligophrenic), children with psychopathic behavior and many others. Having studied the literature on defectology and psychology, it turned out that left-handed children and children with emotional disorders can also be included in this category.
Recently, a lot has been written and spoken about difficult schoolchildren. As a rule, this is the name given to underachieving, undisciplined schoolchildren, disruptors, that is, students who are not amenable to training and education. “Difficult” teenager, “difficult” schoolboy have become fashionable words. It is believed that most juvenile offenders were formerly difficult students.
When people talk about difficult children, they usually mean pedagogical difficulties. In this case, most often, one side of the phenomenon is taken as a basis - the difficulty of working with these children, and the second is not considered - the difficulty of the life of these children, the difficulty of their relationships with parents, teachers, comrades, peers, adults. Problematic children are often not so much unwilling as they are unable to study well and behave appropriately.

3. MAIN AREAS OF WORK
SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST WITH JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN

As a rule, all children entering school want to do well and no one wants to be a failing student. However, different degrees of readiness for schooling, due to different levels of mental development of children, do not allow all students to immediately successfully master the school curriculum. Therefore, the task of a school psychologist in working together with a teacher is to create favorable conditions for the development of each child, to ensure an individual approach to him from the very first days of his stay at school. But the implementation of the latter requires a good knowledge of the developmental characteristics of children. In this regard, the psychologist should get to know future first-graders already at the stage of enrolling them in school.
From the very first days of first-graders’ stay at school, the psychologist is faced with a lot of problems, the successful solution of which determines the well-being of the students. The main ones that the school psychologist and the teacher have to decide on are the following: an individual approach to students; adaptation of each child to school; difficulties in communication between teacher and student; difficulties that a child has when communicating with peers in a group; development of cognitive and educational interests of students; school performance.
The psychological service at school is the main link organizing psychological support for subjects of the educational process.
The goals and objectives of the psychological service can be determined in accordance with the “Regulations on the service of practical psychology in the system of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.”
The goals of the service are:
- assistance to the administration and teaching staff of educational institutions of all types in creating a social development situation that corresponds to the individuality of students and pupils and provides psychological conditions for protecting the health and personal development of students, pupils, their parents (legal representatives), teaching staff and other participants in the educational process;
- assistance in the acquisition by students and pupils of educational institutions of psychological knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to obtain a profession, develop a career, and achieve success in life;
- providing assistance to students and pupils of educational institutions in determining their capabilities based on their abilities, inclinations, interests, and health status;
- assistance to teaching staff, parents (legal representatives) in the education of students, pupils, as well as in the formation in them of the principles of mutual assistance, tolerance, mercy, responsibility and self-confidence, the ability for active social interaction without infringing on the rights and freedoms of another person.
Objectives of the psychological service:
- psychological analysis of the social situation of development in educational institutions, identifying the main problems and determining the causes of their occurrence, ways and means of resolving them;
- promoting the personal and intellectual development of students and pupils at each age stage of personality development;
- formation in students and pupils of the ability for self-determination and self-development;
- assistance to the teaching staff in harmonizing the socio-psychological climate in educational institutions;
- psychological support of educational programs in order to adapt their content and methods of development to the intellectual and personal capabilities and characteristics of students and pupils;
- prevention and overcoming deviations in social and psychological health, as well as the development of students and pupils;
- participation in a comprehensive psychological and pedagogical examination of the professional activities of specialists from educational institutions, educational programs and projects, teaching aids, carried out on the initiative of educational authorities or individual educational institutions;
- participation together with educational authorities and teaching staff of educational institutions in the preparation and creation of psychological and pedagogical conditions for continuity in the process of lifelong education;
- promoting the dissemination and implementation of achievements in the field of domestic and foreign psychology into the practice of educational institutions;
- assistance in providing the activities of teaching staff of educational institutions with scientific and methodological materials and developments in the field of psychology.
The main functions of a psychologist in a school are:
- Gnostic, which includes the study of the specific features of the activities of teachers and their students in a given institution to the extent that they determine their psyche and make certain demands on them, as well as the study of a number of psychophysiological, individual psychological and personal characteristics of teachers, staff, students , their social status, characteristics of interpersonal relationships both in teams of teachers and in groups of students. The result of this work is a detailed psychological characterization of the personality of a teacher, employee, student, drawing up psychological passports that allow one to outline and implement corrective psychotherapeutic measures;
- constructive and educational, which includes work to prevent conflicts caused by psychological reasons; providing teachers and educators with basic information on social psychology, developing techniques and communication skills; planning research and preventive measures; modeling of individual development programs.
This function can be carried out in the form of consultations, suggestive influences, educational and psychotherapeutic conversations with various contingents. The psychological and pedagogical impact on students can be realized through teachers, educators and mentors who are directly involved with groups of students, working with them at a permanent seminar;
- consulting, including explanation and psychological interpretation of individual states, moods of teachers and students or the characteristics of their behavior in professional activities and family life;
- educational, which includes the selection and implementation of activities aimed at the moral and volitional education of students, the formation of certain personal qualities in them, the impact on the social status of individuals, the organization of adequate interpersonal relationships in teaching staff and groups of students;
- psychoprophylactic and psychotherapeutic, including diagnosis, psychotherapy and psychoprophylaxis of neurotic conditions, prevention of difficulties in intellectual and personal development, organization of rehabilitation measures, as well as implementation of measures to manage mental state (training mental self-regulation, building self-confidence, developing creative potential, developing mobilization skills under stress, etc.);
- methodological, including all work on the creation of new and adaptation of old methods of teaching and education, as well as the development of new methods of diagnosis and psychoprophylaxis both for the needs of this institution and for the requests of other institutions in the region that do not have a similar service.
The work of a school psychologist is traditionally organized in the following areas:
· diagnostic work;
· correctional and developmental work;
· advisory and educational work.
I. Diagnostic work. Often, school management and teachers have the idea that a psychologist’s work with a child includes only testing, while diagnostics is an applied form of activity of a school psychologist. Several problems arise related to the diagnostic work of a psychologist in a school: what to do with test results, how to bring methods into line with specific educational problems. Diagnostic methods should also be developmental and used as developmental.
The conditions for diagnosing children at school require the cost-effectiveness of the procedure, which should be short so as not to tire the child and not take up much time from school activities, should be multifunctional, simultaneously serving as both a diagnostic tool and the development of mental functions, and provide as much information as possible about condition and development prospects of the child. The diagnostic results should make it possible to judge the causes of the child’s difficulties and create conditions for overcoming them, to predict the characteristics of the child’s development, whereas most methods only allow us to state the presence of something.
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