What is the job of a school psychologist? What does a psychologist do at school? How a psychologist can help a child

Fragments of the book Mlodik I.Yu. School and how to survive in it: the view of a humanistic psychologist. - M.: Genesis, 2011.

What should a school be like? What needs to be done to ensure that students find education interesting and important matter, left school ready for adult life: self-confident, sociable, active, creative, able to protect their psychological boundaries and respect the boundaries of other people? What is special about a modern school? What can teachers and parents do to prevent children from losing the desire to learn? You will find answers to these and many other questions in this book.

Psychological problems at school

Everything I know about teaching
I owe it to bad students.
John Hall

Not so long ago, people knew almost nothing about psychology as a science. It was believed that a Soviet citizen, and especially a child, has no internal problems. If something doesn’t work out for him, his studies have gone wrong, his behavior has changed, then this is due to laziness, promiscuity, poor upbringing and lack of effort. The child, instead of receiving help, was evaluated and criticized. Needless to say, how ineffective this strategy was.

Now, fortunately, many teachers and parents are ready to explain the difficulties a child has at school by the presence of possible psychological problems. As a rule, this is true. A child, like any person, strives to fulfill his own needs, wants to feel successful, needs security, love and recognition. But a variety of obstacles may arise on his way.

Now one of the most common problems noted by almost all teachers is: hyperactivity children. Indeed, this is a phenomenon of our time, the sources of which are not only psychological, but also social, political, and environmental. Let's try to look at the psychological ones; personally, I only had to deal with them.

Firstly, children called hyperactive are very often just anxious children. Their anxiety is so high and constant that they themselves are no longer aware of what and why they are worried. Anxiety, like excessive excitement that cannot find a way out, forces them to make many small movements and fuss. They fidget endlessly, drop something, break something, rustle something, tap something, rock it. It is difficult for them to sit still, and sometimes they can jump up in the middle of a lesson. Their attention seems scattered. But not all of them are truly unable to concentrate. Many study well, especially in subjects that do not require accuracy, perseverance and the ability to concentrate well.

Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder require more engagement and benefit from smaller classes or groups where the teacher has more opportunity to give him personal attention. In addition, in a large group, such a child is very distracting to other children. During educational tasks, it can be very difficult for a teacher to maintain the concentration of a class in which there are several hyperactive students. Children prone to hyperactivity, but without an appropriate diagnosis, can study in any class, provided that the teacher does not increase their anxiety and does not constantly upset them. It is better to touch a hyperactive child when sitting him down than to point out the obligation to be disciplined a hundred times. It is better to be allowed to go to the toilet and back for three minutes from class, or to run up the stairs, than to call for attention and calm. His poorly controlled motor excitation passes much easier when it is expressed in running, jumping, that is, in wide muscle movements, in active efforts. Therefore, a hyperactive child must move well during recess (and sometimes, if possible, during class) in order to relieve this anxious excitement.

It is important to understand that a hyperactive child has no intention of demonstrating such behavior “to spite” the teacher, that the sources of his actions are not at all promiscuity or bad manners. In fact, such a student simply finds it difficult to control his own excitement and anxiety, which usually goes away by adolescence.

A hyperactive child is also hypersensitive; he perceives too many signals at the same time. His abstract appearance, wandering gaze misleads many: it seems that he is absent here and now, not listening to the lesson, not involved in the process. Very often this is not the case at all.

I'm in class in English and I’m sitting on the last desk with a guy whose hyperactivity the teachers don’t even complain about anymore, it’s so obvious and tiresome for them. Thin, very mobile, he instantly turns his desk into a heap. The lesson has just begun, but he is already impatient, he begins to build something out of pencils and erasers. It seems that he is very passionate about this, but when the teacher asks him a question, he answers without hesitation, correctly and quickly.

When the teacher calls him to open his workbooks, he begins to look for what he needs only a few minutes later. Breaking everything on his desk, he does not notice how the notebook falls. Leaning over to the neighbor's desk, he looks for her there, to the indignation of the girls sitting in front, then suddenly jumps up and rushes to his shelf, receiving a stern reprimand from the teacher. When he runs back, he discovers a fallen notebook. During all this time, the teacher gives a task, which, as it seemed, the boy did not hear, because he was carried away by the search. But it turns out that he understood everything, because he quickly begins to write in a notebook, inserting the necessary English verbs. Having completed this in six seconds, he begins to play with something on the desk, while the other children diligently and intently do the exercise in complete silence, broken only by his endless bustle.

Next comes an oral test of the exercise, the children take turns reading sentences with inserted words. At this time, the boy constantly has something falling down, being under his desk, then getting attached somewhere... He doesn’t pay attention to the check at all and misses his turn. The teacher calls him by name, but my hero doesn’t know which sentence to read. His neighbors give him hints, and he answers easily and correctly. And then he plunges back into his incredible construction of pencils and pens. It seems that his brain and body cannot stand rest, he simply needs to be involved in several processes at the same time, at the same time this makes him very tired. And soon he jumps up from his seat in great impatience:

-Can I go out?

- No, there are only five minutes until the end of the lesson, sit down.

He sits down, but now he’s definitely not here anymore, because the desk is shaking, and he’s simply not able to hear and write down his homework, he’s frankly in pain, it seems like he’s counting the minutes until the bell rings. With the first trills, he takes off and runs along the corridor like a catechumen throughout the break.

It’s not so easy to cope with a child’s hyperactivity even to a good psychologist, not like the teacher. Psychologists often work with problems of anxiety and self-esteem of such a child, teach him to listen, better understand and control the signals of his body. They do a lot with fine motor skills, which often lags behind the rest of development, but by working on which, the child better learns to control his gross motor skills, that is, his more major movements. Overactive children are often gifted, capable and talented. They have a lively mind, they quickly process information received, and easily absorb new things. But at school (especially elementary), such a child will be in a deliberately losing position due to difficulties in penmanship, neatness and obedience.

Hypractic children often benefit from all types of modeling with clay and plasticine, playing with water, pebbles, sticks, etc. natural material, all types of physical activity, but not sports, because it is important for them to do any muscle movement, not just the right one. The development of the body and the opportunity to throw out excess excitement allow such a child to gradually enter his own boundaries, from which he previously always wanted to jump out.

It has been noticed that hyperactive children absolutely need space for such vain manifestation of themselves. If at home it is strictly forbidden, through constant reprimanding or other educational measures, to behave in this way, then they will be much more hyperactive at school. Conversely, if school is strict with them, they will become extremely active at home. Therefore, parents and teachers need to keep in mind that these children will still find a way out for their motor agitation and anxiety.

Another no less common modern school problem - reluctance to learn or lack of motivation, as psychologists say. This, as a rule, matures in middle school and reaches its apogee by the beginning of high school, then gradually, with the awareness of the connection between the quality of knowledge and the picture of one’s own future, it declines.

A child’s reluctance to learn, as a rule, has nothing to do with the fact that he is “bad.” Each of these children has their own reasons for not wanting to study. For example, early love, which takes all your attention and energy to experiences or dreams. These could also be problems in the family: conflicts, impending divorce of parents, illness or death of loved ones, difficulties in relationships with a brother or sister, the birth of a new child. Perhaps failures with friends, inappropriate behavior of others, due to their personal or family crisis, are to blame. All this can take away the child’s energy and attention. Since many troubles may turn out to be protracted, or half-hidden, and therefore impossible to resolve constructively, over time they devastate the child, lead to failures in school, as a result, even greater depression appears, and the circle closes. Parents often find it difficult to take responsibility for unresolved problems at home, and they take it out on the child, accusing him of laziness and unwillingness to study, which, as a rule, only worsens the situation.

Perhaps the child does not want to learn out of a feeling of protest towards how he is taught, who teaches him. He may unconsciously resist parents who force him to study, and because of bad grades they limit him in some ways (they don’t let him go out, don’t buy what they promised, deprive him of holidays, trips, meetings and entertainment). Parents and teachers often do not understand that even if there is mandatory universal education, you can gain knowledge only voluntarily. As the proverb says, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot force it to drink. You can teach by force, but you can learn only by wanting to. Pressure and punishment in this matter are much less effective than interesting and exciting learning. Although, of course, it is easier to put pressure and punish.

Another reason for the lack of motivation to acquire knowledge: low self-esteem of students. Constant criticism and fixation on failures do not help everyone move forward, learn and grow effectively. Many people (depending on their psychotype and character) are deprived of energy by failure. Constant non-compliance with someone’s requirements gives rise to total self-doubt, disbelief in own strength, the inability to discover within oneself the resources, abilities and desire to achieve success. Such children can easily “give up” and come to terms with the stigma of a passive and incapable “C” student, whose motivation, of course, will be buried under the weight of failures, other people’s negative assessments and own helplessness change something. At the same time, it is quite obvious that there are no hopeless or absolutely hopeless children; each has their own resource, their own talent and a huge, but sometimes carefully hidden, need to be noticed.

Another reason why children don't want to learn: the way they learn. Passive types learning, when the student can only be a recipient, a listener, absorbing a certain amount of information, and then presenting it (not always assimilated) in verification work, reduce the child’s own learning motivation. Lessons that lack at least some interactivity are practically doomed to passivity and disengagement for the majority of students. Information that does not become knowledge is forgotten within a few hours. Knowledge acquired without involvement and interest is forgotten within a few weeks or months. Education that does not provide the opportunity for personal participation and does not arouse personal interest is doomed to meaninglessness and rapid oblivion.

Most children find it difficult to be equally interested in all school subjects. There are individual inclinations and preferences. Perhaps, parents and teachers should not insist that the child joyfully, with great enthusiasm and, most importantly, success, study, for example, the Russian language, although he has technical inclinations. Or, no matter what, he received “A” grades in mathematics, being interested in drawing and sculpting.

A psychologist, together with a teacher and a parent, can help such an unmotivated student find his interest, deal with family difficulties, increase his self-esteem, resolve difficulties in relationships with others, realize his own resistance, discover talents and begin to enjoy school.

Another problem that seriously complicates the life of almost any teacher is inappropriate behavior of students. Many teachers complain about rudeness, rudeness, provocations, and disruption of lessons. This is especially true in grades 7–9 and, of course, also has several grounds and reasons.

We talked about one of them - the inevitable, during the passage of a teenage crisis, tendency towards separation from the entire adult world, accompanied by manifestations various forms aggression. Teachers often take hostile attacks from students very personally and, as they say, “close to their hearts.” Most of the teenage “freaks” are aimed at the adult world as a whole, and are not aimed at a specific person.

Sometimes sudden comments in class cause a violent reaction in the class that is not always necessary for the teacher. This is a manifestation of a teenager’s demonstrativeness, the need to be in the center of attention all the time, which is explained by the child’s characterological characteristics, which at a certain age became accentuations (that is, very pronounced personality traits). And again, the behavior of such a demonstrative teenager is by no means aimed at destroying the teacher’s authority and is motivated not by the desire to offend or humiliate him, but by the need to satisfy own need in attention. In such situations, they act in different ways: you can strictly put him in his place, ridiculing his desire to be an “upstart,” or, conversely, with humor and understanding, use the student’s demonstrativeness for peaceful purposes: in performances, projects, speeches, shows. The satisfied need to be the center of attention will significantly less interfere with the lesson.

Again, if in a family with a strict upbringing the demonstrativeness of such a child is “repressed,” then school will become the very place where this quality of character will inevitably manifest itself.

In some cases, school is the place where the child realizes accumulated aggression. As a rule, everyone: teachers, classmates, and the teenager himself suffers from such unfair behavior. It can be quite difficult to understand this if the child does not want to trust one of the adults, which does not happen often, since aggression is an indicator of fear and mistrust.

Sometimes a teacher encounters an aggressive outburst in the classroom due to his own injustice, disrespect, or incorrect comments addressed to students. A teacher who is absorbed in the content of the lesson and does not notice the processes taking place in the class (boredom, showdown, passion for an unrelated topic) will also not avoid an aggressive attack: for ignoring the needs of the class.

Children, as a rule, also test new teachers with a simple provocation to determine the stability of psychological boundaries. And not at all because they are embittered “fiends of hell”, they need to understand who is in front of them and navigate the situation of uncertainty. A teacher who reacts sharply to provocations with shouting, insults, and resentment will be subjected to aggression again and again until he is able to defend his boundaries with dignity and respect for himself and the children.

As a rule, it is difficult for a teacher to help a teenager deal with inappropriate behavior, since he himself becomes a participant in what is happening. An adult's resentment or anger prevents him from discovering and eliminating the causes of aggression. It is much easier for a psychologist to do this because, firstly, he was not included in the incident, and secondly, he knows about the peculiarities and complexity of the teenager’s personality. A psychologist is able to build a non-judgmental, equal contact that will help the child better understand the origins of his hostility, learn to manage his own behavior and express his anger in acceptable circumstances and in an adequate form.

A problem for the teacher can be strong emotional displays children: tears, fights, hysterics, fears. Teachers often experience great confusion when faced with similar situations. In each such case, there is, as a rule, its own backstory. Often only the tip of the iceberg is visible. Without knowing everything that is hidden under water, it is easy to make mistakes. In any case, without finding out all the causes of the incident, it is better to avoid any conclusions and assessments. This can hurt the student due to injustice, worsen his condition, and deepen his psychological trauma.

The reason for this behavior may be the most wide range events: from purely personal and very dramatic, to illusory ones that take place only in a child’s imagination. In order for these reasons to be voiced and eliminated, the child sometimes lacks trust and a sense of security.

If a teacher does not have a trusting relationship with a student who finds himself in a difficult situation, it is worth entrusting him to the adult with whom communication is most beneficial. A psychologist can also be such a person, because he is not involved in teacher-student relations, but, as a rule, has important information about this child, knows how to establish contact, inspire trust and get out of a difficult situation.

Another layer of problems: learning difficulties. The inability of individual children to meet the requirements of the school curriculum can also be caused by various reasons: physiological, medical, social, psychological.

A student may, for example, have an individual pace of perception and processing of information. Often, inevitable in school, the average pace can prevent children from meeting general requirements systems. Guys with a phlegmatic temperament, for example, do everything slowly but thoroughly. Melancholic people sometimes lag behind because they are focused on their experiences and trying to do everything “super well.” For choleric people, the pace may seem too slow; they inevitably begin to get distracted, wanting to save themselves from boredom by disturbing other children. Perhaps only sanguine people are most adapted to the average pace, provided that today is not the day of their energy decline. Changes in weather, quality of food, rest and sleep, physical well-being and past illnesses can also significantly affect a child's ability to comprehend material or answer test items.

Some children are unable to concentrate in large classes. Someone is knocked out of a state of psychological stability permanent shift teachers, frequent changes in schedules, continuous innovations and changes in requirements.

Psychological reasons also include: difficulties in communication, difficult family situation, low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence, high anxiety, strong addiction from external assessments, fear of possible mistakes, fear of losing the respect and love of parents or other significant adults. Neuropsychological: underdevelopment of certain areas of the brain and, as a consequence, a lag in normal development mental functions: attention, logic, perception, memory, imagination.

A school with a personal, personalized approach to learning is able to organize assistance for a child with learning difficulties: conduct consultations and classes with certain specialists, vary the composition and number of students in the class, dividing them into mini-groups a certain level, conduct individual lessons if necessary. All these activities provide an opportunity to cope with the challenges of the educational process without feeling like a failure and an outsider, unable to follow everyone else.

Psychologist at school

Psychology has a long past,
but short story.
Hermann Ebbinghaus

Psychology, as a helping profession, has long accompanied social life in many developed countries. In Russia, after a long break of seventy years, it again became not only a subject scientific interest, but also a separate service sector capable of professionally and purposefully carrying out both diagnostic and psychotherapeutic functions. For a long time The work of psychologists at school was carried out as best they could by teachers, doctors and administration. Many of them were helped by intuition, universal wisdom, and a great desire to help. Therefore, students, most often, were not left without participation and support. But in school life there have always been and will be certain problems and difficulties that are almost impossible to resolve without a professional psychologist.

Psychological assistance as a service had no place in the Soviet authoritarian state. An ideology that considered a person not as a separate person with his own rights, characteristics, views on the world, but as a cog for certain functions state, did not need specialists and was afraid of them. Of all the methods, theories and practical approaches that have been used in the West for many years, only one was implemented in Russia: the activity approach, aimed at treating any disorders and dysfunctions with work. Everything that could not be corrected by work, or did not fit within the ideological framework, was declared laziness, debauchery, or the object of psychiatric treatment.

Gradually, issues of the formation of a person’s personality, morality, ethics and value concepts became independent and very personal. And then psychology as a science was able to continue to study personality and its manifestations broadly, not limited to the activity approach, but as a service sector began to help people understand their own values, solve issues of their individual, unique existence.

At the beginning of his journey across Russia, practical psychology mystified, it was given, in my opinion, the shade of almost secret knowledge, capable of some in special ways plumb the depths human soul and have a dark or light effect on it. A psychologist was equated to a shaman or an esotericist, a magician, capable of solving all problems and coping with the difficulties of life through mysterious manipulations. Psychology seemed like an unknown land on which anything could grow. And perhaps that is why she inspired such different feelings: from awe and unlimited faith in its capabilities to distrust and declaring all psychologists to be sectarians and charlatans.

Now, in my opinion, psychology is gradually freeing itself from its mystical trail and becoming what it is meant to be: a field of knowledge and a service sector, it inspires confidence and opens up opportunities to use scientific knowledge and methods in search of a better quality of life.

Gradually, at school, the psychologist ceased to be an unusual figure, a fashionable, piquant addition to the learning process, as he was just a few years ago. He became what he should be: a professional providing services in accordance with the needs of this school.

From the experience of colleagues in different educational institutions, I know that these requests can be very diverse: conducting universal testing, sometimes with unclear goals, drawing up reports to support the status of an individual leader or institution, individual and group work with students, assistance to parents, trainings for teachers. In any case, a psychologist who comes to work at a school must understand what his activities are aimed at and meet the assigned tasks.

Some young psychologists come to school and immediately try to subordinate the established system to their psychological goals. Often their undertakings do not find support from the administration and fail, which is completely natural. The school as a system and its individual parts are clients and objects of psychological services. If it is possible to clearly and accurately determine the needs of the customer, and this is, as a rule, the school administration or representatives of the teaching staff, then the psychologist has the opportunity to decide whether he can and wants to perform the proposed work.

Sometimes school system officials cannot clearly articulate their order. Sometimes they don’t know what results can be obtained from the work of a psychological service, they don’t want to figure it out in a basic way, they trust the psychologist to choose where to apply his knowledge and skills. In this case, the school psychologist has to independently outline the terms of reference and responsibilities. Which most people cope with successfully. But, nevertheless, it seems to me that periodic, or better yet constant, feedback with the administration and agreement on the future direction of joint work is very important.

Aspiring psychologists love to go to work in schools, but realizing themselves here is not an easy task. A young specialist, as a rule, comes to a team where more people work. mature people, occupying a completely different professional niche. For teachers who have briefly studied psychology, it may be difficult, and for some, impossible, to empower a newly minted colleague to assume an expert position in their specialty. Such teachers, willy-nilly, begin to compete with psychologists not only on issues general order, but also on highly specialized topics that psychologists spend more than one year studying.

Another problem is that most psychologists do not teach lessons, and this is the main activity in school. Many teachers believe that a psychologist who is not involved in the educational process does not deserve encouragement because he only deals with “meaningless conversations.” And this, of course, is unfair. Firstly, a psychologist should not engage in training unless it is particularly necessary, since mixing roles most often has a negative impact on building good psychotherapeutic, helping relationships. And secondly, verbal communication, colloquially speaking, conversation is the main method of work of a psychologist, not counting games and art therapy methods (drawing, modeling, origami, etc.).

The next problem may be differences in professional position. The teaching system, accepted almost everywhere, still recognizes as effective unequal “I-Him” relationships, where there is an expert position of the teacher and an attentive position of the student. This type of relationship always builds a significant distance and may not evoke the most positive feelings in the person “from below”. And the “I-Thou” connection between a psychologist and someone who turned to him for help is built on equality, mutual active participation and sharing of responsibility. Such equal relations often evoke a positive response in children, a desire to communicate, gratitude, and sometimes affection. This often gives rise to jealousy and suspicion among teaching staff. Only a truly real Teacher manages to achieve an equal position, which guarantees not only the constant interest of students in his subject, but also human closeness, deep respect, and recognition.

Another difficulty arises from setting different goals. Psychological services, designed to support the school and meet its educational needs, are often expected to provide immediate results or a final solution to all existing problems. But a psychologist works in a system where there are a lot of basic and additional variables (if teachers, parents and other school employees can be called that). Very often, the efforts of one specialist or even the entire service cannot be crowned with success, since the participation of all parts of the system is required. Parent's reluctance to make changes own life or the teacher’s inability to look at the child’s problem from a different angle can lead to the fact that the psychologist’s work will be ineffective.

For one child, a simple conversation or the opportunity to vent pent-up feelings is enough; for another, it will take more than one year of weekly classes with the involvement of people from the system to help. Each problem is individual and does not accept standard solutions, no matter how obvious they may seem at first glance.

But all of the above issues become easily resolved if the psychologist and school representatives are in constant contact. If a psychologist is able to explain the specifics of his work, talk about its opportunities, difficulties and prospects, and teachers and administration are able to hear, take into account and establish interaction, then together they will be able to work on common goals, and carry out their work not only effectively, but also with pleasure, allowing students to receive not only an education, but in a certain sense, care and participation.

What can a psychologist do at school?

The true cost of help is always found
in direct dependence on
how it is provided.
Samuel Johnson

The activities of a psychologist in a school can be determined and limited only by his capabilities and the needs of a given educational institution.

One of the extremely rarely requested work is process monitoring, with the ability to see and eliminate failures and malfunctions that can occur in any system, including school ones. Such activities of a psychologist as an organizational consultant make it possible to bring the system into a harmonious balance and, conversely, give it the right direction in implementing urgent and necessary changes. Organizational consulting, as a way of working, requires the school director to have great motivation, personal maturity and the ability to change, starting, as a rule, with himself.

The most popular practice of using psychology in school has become testing. For reasons unknown to me, it is often the only indicator for the administration of the work done by the psychologist or is necessary only for reporting. Testing very often deprives a specialist of the opportunity to do much more useful things: individual psychotherapy or correction with children, counseling, conducting trainings. And if testing, especially group testing, is the only direction of work, then it can do much more harm than good: often children do not want to communicate with psychologists later, rightly not wanting to be tested again.

During group testing, the basic rules of communication with the client are very often violated. After this, children are not given feedback. The child gives the psychologist a very personal information, but at the same time has no way of knowing why he did it, what the results were, and how the school system would react to it. Individual testing with subsequent feedback allows the student to learn something new about himself, to better understand himself, to identify points of his growth or the need for certain changes. He does not have, as after group testing, the feeling of wasted effort and time. Moreover, from adequate feedback The student has a feeling of greater trust and support.

Another rule often violated by psychologists when testing at school is confidentiality. Despite the fact that the psychologist is focused on the goals of the school as an organization, he does not have the right to make available to teachers or administration all the information received from the student, but only that which relates to his educational activities and only in the form of conclusions, generalizations, and recommendations.

I witnessed an indignant story from one mother about how, at a parent meeting, the class teacher (!) publicly discussed test drawings of a family made by some students. Moreover, this was accompanied by condemnation, negative assessments of parents and the demand to “immediately improve.” Such a blatant violation of confidentiality by a psychologist and failure to explain to the teacher necessary rules, of course, brought much more harm than good to all participants in the process.

It is important for a psychologist to understand the differences between tests that describe a trend in the whole class, and individual tests. test tasks, in which the child reveals important subconscious information, often hidden from himself. Collective indicators and trends may be of interest to the school administration or class teacher for carrying out any correction together with a psychologist. Individual information should be used extremely carefully, only by the child’s psychologist and exclusively to help him cope with life’s difficulties.

Individual prolonged or one-time working with a child- another important, in my opinion, direction in school. One-time work, as a rule, is situational: a sudden conflict, stress, misunderstanding, or failure can be resolved during one meeting with a psychologist. In this case, there is no need or opportunity to obtain prior parental permission. The situation often requires immediate intervention, and its analysis does not always lead to a deep and long analysis that requires the participation of the family or school.

Long-term work with a child usually requires the consent of the parents or people replacing them, for whom it is important to know about the direction psychological activity and, if possible, support the changes taking place in their creation. Or, conversely, refuse help, not wanting to bring your family system into inevitable movement and transform it. Extended classes with a child are also impossible without the consent and support of the class teacher or curator, who are able to provide the student with time and place for such communication with a specialist, and skillfully monitor further changes in the child's behavior.

Consulting- also a common form of work of a psychologist at school. It involves one-time or few meetings with the child’s parents or his teachers regarding the existing difficulties. In this case, the psychologist has the right to some expert opinion. His task is to listen to the story of a parent or teacher, consider the current situation, express his opinion on this matter, issue recommendations or outline measures to help the child. When counseling, it is important to remember that the search for a solution can only begin when all parties have spoken, they have been heard, and feelings have been expressed and understood. Then the chances for making a joint and the most correct decision will be maximum. When consulting, you should also remember about confidentiality and not take the information received further than the meeting place.

The holding of trainings- an important and necessary form of work for a psychologist in a school. Trainings can be either thematic, aimed at resolving difficulties that have arisen in the classroom, or regular, with the goal of developing certain psychological skills: effective communication, increasing the level of tolerance, strengthening leadership qualities, development of creativity and so on. For children adolescence trainings or group work are absolutely necessary, since they, as a rule, help solve the problems of one’s own crisis: the search for “I”, establishing relationships with the outside world and understanding the sources of one’s own aggression, anxiety, and fears.

Another area of ​​such activity is career guidance. The game-based training form allows children to better understand their abilities, inclinations, and talents. Gives you the opportunity to “try on” different professions and bring your future closer to yourself.

The next type of training work is preventive. Having learned necessary information about alcoholism, drug addiction, smoking, AIDS, many children not only think about these phenomena and their consequences, but also try to explore their own tendencies towards this kind of addiction and the possibilities for eliminating their root cause.

Seminars, lectures, psychological groups for teachers, curators, class teachers They can also provide informational and psychological assistance, but their organization is impossible without the support and clear desire of the category of school employees for whom the classes are held. Despite the fact that many teachers are susceptible to emotional burnout and need the support of a specialist, school staff often treat such events with obvious distrust and without much enthusiasm. Teachers feel that such work not only takes up their personal time, but it is also unsafe, since it requires self-disclosure and immersion, and this sometimes can complicate relationships in the team. In addition, the psychologist leading such seminars must be an authoritative and trustworthy figure for them.

Obviously, topics for classes in such groups and seminars are proposed by customers, and if they are not stated in advance, they arise directly in the process of work. The psychologist must be as correct as possible, helping group members to open up, get to know themselves, not forget about safety issues when conducting such events and maintain confidentiality.

Information events for parents, involve the participation of a psychologist in parent meetings, holding special clubs, seminars, and discussions. Parents are not required to know the specifics of a child’s psychology at different ages, the peculiarities of the formation of his self-esteem or the stages of overcoming the teenage crisis, but they sometimes have a desire to learn about these phenomena when raising their own children.

As a rule, a parent involved in the life of his own child has many questions for a psychologist; sometimes there is a need to discuss something, complain or be proud, or ask for advice. The school psychologist is in a non-evaluative position, has knowledge of developmental psychology and its components, and therefore can be very useful to the parent. Feeling that his own child and he himself are not indifferent to the school, the parent more willingly and freely builds relationships with the educational system and cooperates with teachers. The school also senses the parent’s interest, support and active participation in the child’s educational destiny. This allows the teaching staff to effectively build and implement the learning process for each individual student.

Psychology lessons, will certainly be different from normal activities. It makes absolutely no sense to conduct them in the usual passive format. Games for juniors and beginners are acceptable high school, trainings and seminars for teenagers and high school students. As already mentioned, it is undesirable for a psychologist to teach psychology classes and simultaneously carry out psychocorrection or psychotherapy in the same class. Although sometimes this is impossible to do due to a lack of specialists.

Scientific work a psychologist at school is not only possible, but also important. Analysis, research, and identification of patterns are most often carried out using standard or specially designed specific topic tests. At scientific testing all rules of communication with the client must also be observed: explanation of the goals and objectives of these events, personal information about their results in accordance with the wishes of the student. Scientific details should not obscure the personality and uniqueness of each individual child in the process of dialogue with him.

Participation in school-wide projects It is no less important for a psychologist, since it helps to better navigate school life, allows you to see both children and teachers in a different, non-educational environment, and also gives you the opportunity to appear in a new role yourself. In addition, a psychologist can introduce fresh ideas into the usual course of events, diversify them, and add something of his own.

Organizing your own projects. In some schools, psychologists have the opportunity to carry out thematic on-site programs aimed at solving various psychological and general educational tasks. Some organize psychological field camps, others hold psychology weeks in their schools, and organize special theatrical performances. With the trust and support of the administration, a clearly defined goal and well-thought-out tasks, with a formed and united team, such events bring not only a lot of pleasure to the participants, but also a lot of benefits, since the process uses a creative approach to solving very complex problems.

To summarize, I will say that the work of a psychologist in a school can be an exciting and useful activity, provided that there is a clearly built relationship with the administration and teaching staff, when realizing their place in the team as support service, with constant professional and personal growth and development.

The work of a practical psychologist requires constant improvement of professional level: attending seminars and conferences, mutual enrichment of specialists, studying new literature, personal development, participation as a client in various thematic trainings, groups, programs. All this is important for the school administration to take into account if it wants to have a good professional on its staff, and not to treat such events as insignificant or optional.

© Mlodik I.Yu. School and how to survive in it: the view of a humanistic psychologist. - M.: Genesis, 2011.
© Published with permission from the publisher

Good afternoon, dear teachers, students and parents!

“My name is Meleshkevich Kristina Sergeevna, I am a school teacher-psychologist. On this page you will find out what I do, as well as in what cases you can contact me for help.”

Also at the bottom of the page you can find a psychological trust mail.

Work schedule of a teacher-psychologist for 2018-2019.

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday	DAY OFF

The school psychologist is a unique link between teachers, parents and children. A psychologist helps a child acquire and assimilate social experience through awareness of his behavior and building his own position - this helps the child develop a conscious perception of the world.

The main position of the psychologist is to create conditions for life systems and select these systems for children. At working together psychologist and teachers create conditions for the child to create a personal position: awareness of his own “I”, self-confidence and the ability to form own opinion. The school psychologist acts as an organizational link between children and teachers, as this is necessary to protect the interests and identify the capabilities of schoolchildren. Interaction between the psychologist and the administration, as well as teaching staff leads to the creation of conditions for the protection of health and personal development of students, their parents, employees and other participants educational process.

The main areas of work of a school psychologist:

• psychological and pedagogical diagnostics;
• correctional and developmental work (individual and group);
• psychological and pedagogical counseling for students, teachers and parents;
• psychological prevention and education;
• methodical work.

In what cases should you seek help from a psychologist?

1. Difficulties in studying

Some children do not study as well as they would like. There could be a lot of reasons for this. For example, not a very good memory, distracted attention or lack of desire, or maybe problems with the teacher and a lack of understanding why all this is needed at all. During the consultation, we will try to determine what the reason is and how to fix it, in other words, we will try to find what and how needs to be developed in order to learn better.

2. Relationships in the classroom

There are people who easily find contact with others and easily communicate in any company, even unfamiliar ones. But there are, and there are also a lot of them, those who find it difficult to meet people, difficult to build good relationships, difficult to find friends and just feel light and free in a group, for example? in class. With the help of a psychologist, you can find ways and personal resources, learn techniques for building harmonious relations with people in a variety of situations.

3. Relationships with parents

Sometimes it happens that we lose a common language and warm relationships with our closest people - our parents. Conflicts, quarrels, lack of mutual understanding - this situation in the family usually brings pain to both children and parents. Some find solutions, while others find it quite difficult to do so. The psychologist will tell you how to learn to build new relationships with your parents and learn to understand them, and how to make your parents understand and accept you.

4. Choosing a life path

Ninth, tenth and eleventh grades are the times when many people think about their future profession and, in general, about how they would like to live their lives. If you're not sure? Whichever path you want to go, there is always the opportunity to go to a psychologist. It will help you realize your dreams, desires and goals, evaluate your resources and abilities, and understand (or get closer to understanding) in which area(s) of life you want to be realized.

5. Self-government and self-development

Our life is so interesting and multifaceted that it constantly poses a lot of challenges for us. Many of them require considerable effort and the development of a wide variety of skills. personal qualities, skills and abilities. You can develop leadership skills or argumentative skills, logical thinking or Creative skills. Improve your memory, attention, imagination. You can learn to manage your life, set goals and achieve them effectively. A psychologist is a person who owns the technology for developing certain qualities, skills and abilities and will be happy to share this technology with you.

Activities of a teacher-psychologist at school

When preparing a specialist psychologist, special attention is paid to his knowledge of his rights, responsibilities and professional ethics. A psychologist who violates professional ethics may lose his right practical activities forever.

Sand therapy

What is sand therapy?

Sand therapy is one of the methods of psychotherapy that arose within the framework of analytical psychology, which teaches communication with the world and oneself; This is also an excellent way to relieve internal tension and embody it on an unconscious-symbolic level; moreover, this method increases self-confidence and opens up new paths of development. Sand therapy reveals the deep, authentic “I”, restores the child’s mental integrity, and makes it possible to assemble his own unique image of the world.

Purpose of sand therapy

The goal of sand therapy is to enable the child to be himself, and not to change and remake him. It is the game that is the symbolic language for a child’s self-expression, therefore, by controlling toys, he can show himself better than he could express in words his own attitude towards himself, towards adults, towards events in his life and towards others. Sand therapy acts as a leading method of corrective action, as well as aid, which allows you to stimulate the child’s sensory skills and reduce emotional stress. In addition, this method can be used as a psychoprophylactic and developmental tool for a child.

Which children need sand therapy?

Sand therapy is most suitable for working with younger children school age, as well as for children with mental retardation. Such children often find it difficult to express their experiences, since their verbal apparatus is underdeveloped and their ideas are poor.

Children with low self-esteem increased anxiety and excessive shyness, they willingly choose various figures and turn their attention to them.

For children who have experienced mental trauma, such a game is also very useful: it helps them relive the traumatic event and get rid of the feelings associated with it.

Sand therapy cannot rid a child of all problems, but it helps them change their attitude towards them and themselves.

Why do you need a psychologist and who is he?

During the work of psychologists in educational institutions Many “myths” have arisen about psychologists themselves and their clients. Let’s try to dispel these myths and take a fresh look at the content of a psychologist’s work.

Myth 1.“A psychologist is one who works with “crazy people.” A psychologist and a psychiatrist are one and the same.”
Truth: A psychiatrist is a specialist in the field of treatment mental illness. Uses predominantly medicinal treatment methods.
A psychologist is a specialist who advises HEALTHY people in situations of difficulty in various areas of life (problems in studies, relationships in a team, relationships between children and parents, communication problems, choice of life path, conflict situations and much more). A PSYCHOLOGIST IS NOT A DOCTOR, HE DOES NOT DIAGNOSIS, HE DOES NOT TREAT.

Myth 2.“Only the weak and weak come to a psychologist. foolish people who cannot solve their problems themselves.”
Truth: People turn to a psychologist who feel the need to change something, to solve a problem. A psychologist is ready to be there when you are having a hard time. This is a person who has professional information, but without ready-made answers for all situations, because each case is individual. Therefore, the psychologist will only advise and help, and the decision will always remain yours.

Myth 3.“If you contact the school psychologist, the whole school will know about it.”
Truth: the basic rule of a psychologist’s work is CONFIDENTIALITY.
Without your consent, no one will know what question you asked a psychologist about. This also applies to the results of psychological testing conducted at school. Only a psychologist knows about your specific results. To the class teacher materials are provided in a generalized form (for example: 70% of the students in the class completed the test with high scores; 30% with average scores, etc.).

Ethical principles of activity of a psychologist:

1. Unconditional respect for the client's personality.
2. Honesty, sincerity.
3. Confidentiality of information except in cases where its concealment could harm the client.
4. Protection of client rights.
5. Psychoprophylactic presentation of the results.
6. The psychologist is obliged to communicate the purpose of psychodiagnostics and name the persons to whom the diagnostic results will be available.
7. The psychologist is obliged to accept the client’s refusal to work with him psychologically.
8. The psychologist is obliged to prevent the use of psychological techniques by incompetent persons.
9. A psychologist should not make promises to clients that he is unable to fulfill.
10. A psychologist should not give advice or specific instructions. The main thing is to expand the client’s perception of the situation and instill in him confidence in his abilities.
11. The psychologist is responsible for using certain psychological methods and techniques and making recommendations. The client is responsible for the choice of actions and the result (if the client is a child, then the parent).
12. Professional independence of a psychologist. His final decision cannot be canceled by the administration. Only a special commission consisting of highly qualified psychologists and endowed with appropriate authority has the right to cancel a psychologist’s decision.

Here you can find useful information that will help you to fully reveal your child’s abilities, solve his possible difficulties at different stages of development and help build the most harmonious relationships with him.

"Hello, dear parents!
I am glad to welcome you to my page!
Here you can find useful information that will help you to fully reveal your child’s abilities, solve his possible difficulties at different stages of development and help build the most harmonious relationships with him.
Also in the “Methodological Box” section there will be presented psychodiagnostic techniques, tests, presentations and simply useful links.
Parenting is not easy, but together we can do a lot!
Good luck and patience!"

1. Recommendations for parents of first-graders on the adaptation period process
2. Your child is often capricious at school, does not listen to the teacher’s comments, fights and calls him names
3. How to avoid serious breakdowns and illnesses in the first year of study
4. Recommendations for preventing school maladjustment
5. Information for parents on information and psychological safety of minors
6. How to recognize and prevent impending suicide. The role of parents in the prevention of suicide attempts

You often ask questions about topics that interest you, and that’s just wonderful! Now, for your convenience, useful information will be posted in this section!

"Hello, my dear schoolchildren!
You often ask questions about topics that interest you, and that’s just wonderful! Now, for your convenience, a lot of useful information will be posted in this section!
And, as always, I’m waiting for you for a consultation in my room 35! Remember: all our conversations remain only between us!
Good luck in your studies!
Peace of mind and more creative ideas!"

1. How to do your homework more successfully

In order to resolve important issues for you regarding the harmonization of relationships between you and your students, your professional self-improvement and ways to resist “professional burnout,” this section will contain the necessary practical recommendations.

Hello, dear teachers!
We all understand that being a teacher is a difficult and responsible task! But for those who truly love their profession, there are no limits! You just need to learn to give yourself some kind of “break” more often, which will contribute to a more productive implementation of your new ideas and a surge of strength. In order to resolve important issues for you regarding the harmonization of relationships between you and your students, your professional self-improvement and ways to resist “professional burnout,” this section will contain the necessary practical recommendations.
I wish you success!!!

1. Questionnaire for assessing the neuropsychic stability of a teacher
2. How to behave and what to do in a conflict situation with parents
3. How to communicate with a passive child (memo for teachers and parents)
5. Postponing until the next day is stress factor. Plan ahead and you will manage everything today.
6. Relax your standards. Contrary to popular belief, not all things worth doing are worth doing well. Be more flexible. Perfection is not always achievable, and even if it is achievable, it is not always worth it.
7. Count your luck! For every bad luck you have today, there are probably ten times you were successful. Remembering good things can reduce your irritation.
8. Try to have friends who don't worry or worry too much. Nothing will develop a habit of constant worry in you faster than worrying and worrying together with other chronically worried, tormented people.
9. While working, get up and stretch periodically, do not sit crouched in the same position all day.
10. Get enough sleep.
11. Create order out of chaos. Organize your home or workplace so that you can always find what you are looking for.
12. Do deep, slow breathing. When people feel stressed, they breathe quickly and shallowly. This can lead to muscle tension due to insufficient oxygen supply to the tissues. Relax your muscles and take a few deep breaths.
13. Do something to improve your appearance. Looking better can make you feel better. A good hairstyle and a neat suit can give you the vitality you need. Treat yourself well.
14. Make your days off as varied as possible. If weekdays are usually hectic, use the weekends for a relaxing break. If your workdays are filled with tasks that require you to do alone, then spend more time on weekends. public image life.
15. Forgive and forget. Accept the fact that the people around you and the world we live in are imperfect. Accept other people's words favorably, unless there is evidence to the contrary. Trust that most people try to do the best they can. And, of course, pay attention to good nutrition and regular exercise.

If you are afraid to talk about a serious problem, then you can call!



The school has created an electronic psychological trust mail, which you can contact with your problems!!!

This email address is being protected from spambots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view it.

What does a psychologist do at school?

More than 20 years have passed since the first practical psychologists came to work in schools. But the question of the activities of psychological services still worries students, parents, and teachers. Some people still tend to see some higher mystical meaning in the profession, while others, on the contrary, imagine the work in a rather primitive way. This can be understood, because There is still a search going on among psychologists themselves, and conversations about the place and role of psychological services in an educational institution do not subside. It should be noted that, along with the social and pedagogical service, the psychological and pedagogical service is the youngest in the education system. It is constantly developing, improving, gaining new experience and creating a need for it among all participants in the educational process.

The service's activities are carried out in accordance with the basic regulatory documents 1996. In particular, they spell out the main areas of activity of a teacher-psychologist: diagnostic, psychoprophylactic, correctional and developmental (for relevant educational institutions), advisory, and also - psychological education. As we see, there is nothing supernatural in the work of a psychologist. And he himself is an ordinary living person doing his job. There is a fundamental difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist or psychotherapist. The work of the last two relates to medicine, deviations from the norm, and pathology. The psychologist works “with the norm.”

The division between the main areas of activity of a teacher-psychologist is very arbitrary; rather, they interpenetrate and complement each other, forming some kind of integral system. All these areas are necessarily present in the work of every educational psychologist. However, the degree of expression of this or that work may be different. For example, in special correctional educational institutions the main emphasis is on correctional and developmental work, as the most necessary. The number of children in such schools and kindergartens is significantly smaller than in educational institutions, and the psychologist has the opportunity to “directly” (immediately) work with each child. And he receives a salary for precisely this kind of work.

The situation is different in secondary schools. There are so many students here that the psychologist does not have the opportunity to work directly with everyone, and the main request secondary school other. It would be wrong to focus on working with lagging or problem students, if only because this will inevitably affect the “coverage” of psychological services for other, less problematic students, the infringement of their rights, the curtailment of other types of work and, as a result, irrational use taxpayer funds. Let me note that a general education school educational psychologist receives his salary precisely for reaching all students approximately equally. The model of “direct”, immediate work with the student is not suitable for a comprehensive school; it is not effective. Where is the way out? How can work be organized to meet these conditions?

There is another “indirect” model of activity of a teacher-psychologist in a secondary school, which is most adequate to the needs modern system education. According to this model, the activities of the psychological service are built through educational environment(or the educational process) as a whole.

In fact, who is closest to the child? - Parents, close friends. This is the first, inner circle, which has the most strong influence on human development and education. No less important, but still more distant, are teachers and peers in the school community. It is clear that teachers primary school, who have the opportunity to interact with children every day, are more influential than their counterparts in middle and high school. The school administration, as well as all specialists (educational psychologist, in particular) objectively stand even further from the student, their direct influence is very insignificant, and therefore there is a need to organize their indirect (indirect) influence on students through the educational environment and other participants in the educational process: teachers, parents, peers.

The educational environment includes the educational process itself (the process of training and education, or rather effective ways training and education), the activities and communication of the teacher with the student and parents, as well as socio-psychological processes in cool teams(communication with peers). That is why at our school the educational psychologist devotes Special attention innovation activity in 2 main areas: “Mastering modern developmental approaches in education” and “Managing educational work at school based on the results of monitoring interpersonal relationships.”

The core problem of the first direction is increasing the psychological and pedagogical competence of the teacher and his mastering of modern developmental methods and approaches in education. Modern requirements Education systems are not limited to the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. Knowledge is not a goal, but a means of developing the intellect and personality as a whole. The teacher’s task is not just to “replenish the student’s treasury” of knowledge, but to structure the learning process so that the student independently actively absorbs new knowledge, developing his potential. It is these requirements that are reflected in the new education standards. During the years of schooling, every child must cultivate the need for self-education and self-development, because... only these qualities will ensure his success in our rapidly changing world. This task is very difficult. Not every teacher is able to set such a task and solve it; A psychologist is called upon to help the teacher with this. Due to his professional knowledge, a psychologist’s view of the learning process is deeper than that of a traditional school teacher. It is no coincidence that developmental educational programs of a new generation have been created by leading psychological schools in collaboration with teachers. It is no coincidence that the appearance of the first psychologists in schools in the late 80s coincided with the period of active development by teachers of modern developmental approaches and programs. And the alternative psychological and pedagogical meaning of the new generation programs is not always clear to the teacher. The teacher’s mastery of this new meaning is much more effective in collaboration with a psychologist.

To make it clearer, I will give a simple example. During the lesson, the teacher reads a few words to the children and asks them to remember them, then the students name the ones they remember. According to the teacher, this is how the students’ memory develops. However, the psychologist has a different opinion. Training rote memorization a small volume of abstract words is ineffective for the following reasons:

Mechanical memorization is best developed in children 2-5 years old, and it cannot ensure full assimilation of knowledge due to the limited volume;

The essence of memory development is the child’s mastery effective techniques memorization, on the contrary, “leading away” from the mechanical method, and allowing one to operate with ever-increasing amounts of information;

Effective mastery of the techniques of meaningful, associative memorization is carried out through daily, “every lesson” presentation in a certain way. educational information. This is exactly what it consists of difficult process transforming “traditional” knowledge into “developmental” knowledge.

In this regard, classes on the development of mental cognitive processes, which are usually conducted by novice psychologists, also raise great doubts. Not a single special one, the most best exercise(lesson) conducted once a week cannot be compared in effectiveness with all subject lessons built taking into account psychological patterns, i.e. in a modern, developing way (remember, we're talking about about secondary school). Psychological support that optimizes the educational process and enhances its developmental nature is the most difficult and relevant task for a teacher-psychologist for the modern education system.

The second most complex and significant task associated with the innovative area of ​​work “Management of educational work in school based on the results of monitoring interpersonal relationships” is the creation and regulation of a favorable, psychologically comfortable situation in classroom groups. A person becomes an individual only in a social environment. School is one of the most important social institutions In human life. Therefore, the ability to build relationships with others (adults and peers) contributes to the development of the student’s personality, his socialization and social adaptation. Development communication skills personality (goodwill, tolerance, activity, respect for the personality of another person, etc.) is one of the main indicators of a student’s upbringing. Psychologically comfortable social situation in the classroom and school is a necessary condition the success of training and education of each and everyone, as well as the result of the activities of the teaching staff as a whole.

Thus, The activities of a teacher-psychologist in a comprehensive school, ours in particular, are aimed at solving problems of optimizing the educational process ( educational environment). This work is not a fad " magic wand”, but a painstaking, sometimes invisible activity to others. But in modern society, it is necessary in the education system. Its results are positive changes in the intellectual and personal development of students, the nature of relationships between adults and children, the professionalism of teachers, and the validity of management decisions.

I would like to end with the words of one outstanding scientist, which I remember from my student days: “The presence of a psychologist in a team is sometimes unnoticeable, but his absence is always noticeable...”

According to new educational standards, each educational institution must provide psychological support for its students. What this “support” is is not entirely clear from the documents, but the schools habitually “took the show” and hastily introduced the required position into the staffing table - a psychologist.

The job responsibilities of a specialist with the dangerous prefix psycho- are defined very vaguely in the standards, so to begin with, the position was preventively bureaucratized. The school psychologist is subject to multiple local acts, some of which he composes himself, writes plans and reports. The paper side of his work is going well.

We talked about what the role of a school psychologist really is, why he is needed and what he should do, with Roman Zolotovitsky, a certified psychodramatist and sociodramatist, consultant at the Center for Autism Problems and teacher at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, psychologist at inclusive school No. 1465 in Moscow.

Roman Zolotovitsky

member of the British Association of Psychodrama and Sociodrama, teacher at Moscow State University, RATI (GITIS)

Despite the fact that psychologists have been working in schools for quite a long time, the profession of a school psychologist remains unclear, either functionally or methodologically. The situation at school in general is in a constant state of sliding, first in one direction, then in the other. Requirements for teachers are changing. Views and points of view change, and only in administrative terms of reporting does everything improve.

From the old understanding of the role of a psychologist, many tools are adopted that are absolutely unsuitable for school. For example, psychodiagnostics. At school, it can only be a diagnosis of the situation as a whole. Individual psychodiagnosis is not needed, and there is no time to do it. She is distracting, and the school psychologist needs to be in the center of things. He should not work on leads, on complaints, on appeals.

Appeal means that we are late, that we are trailing behind events.

But we need to work on warning. The school psychologist must be aware of any conflict between students, teachers and, of course, at the epicenter of any conflict between student and teacher.

He must walk along the corridor and not just say hello, but call everyone by name, exchange a few phrases, catch with his sixth sense the vibes of tension between people.

Twenty minutes big change- the most important start, the main immersion in work. If at this time the psychologist sits in the office, then he will not be able to do anything except ineffectively sort out “appeals”. His task is to be in the thick of it, inside what is happening, and to make this happening as transparent as possible for everyone, building communication and relationships with the help of his professional tools.

Children's situation: how to understand it

At school there are two completely different people- students and teachers. They have completely different motives, attitudes, desires and perceptions of what is happening. Our teachers often do not really understand what a child’s situation is. They exist separately, and it only seems to them that they know “who started it first.” It’s bad when students are aware of what is happening, but the teacher is not.

And the “declarative” system, when the psychologist reacts to external signals, will never provide timely and reliable information. Even if a psychologist has an “extensive intelligence network,” this is not the same. Thus, only criminal information will flow to him. He will be within the system of presumption of guilt that reigns in our schools.

We live with post-traumatic consciousness, and the slogan of educational work in almost any school sounds like that of Chekhov’s hero Belikov - “if only something had not happened.” The sword of Damocles of guilt hangs over the student.

Sometimes, in a panicky fear of problems, teachers even cross the line. For example, if there is a correctional class at school, then at some point an irritated teacher may intimidate a student whose behavior she is dissatisfied with - “look, if you behave like this, you will go to class with fools.” This phrase means that we have all lost very much, and it will take a long time to disentangle the situation, because, following adults, children can repeat many more nasty things for a long time, humiliating each other.

Of course, we need to understand our limitations, but still try to fit into a child’s situation. For example, let adults play children at some training. Let it be something spontaneous - a sociodrama in which different forces will meet, and everyone will be able to look at the same situation with different sides. In general, a teacher who “ inner child" somehow manifests himself, is already an order of magnitude less anxious, since he has more life experience and is able to master group dynamics not according to the textbook.

In pedagogical institutes there is no emphasis on the relationships of children and to children, or on group dynamics. All these properties of relationships are very vague in psychology courses. But if you don't understand what a class is as a group, you won't be able to understand what's going on in it.

The learning process consists of at least two parts - the exchange of knowledge and the vibrant group dynamics of children.

An adult becomes part of this dynamic not only when a button is placed on his chair. A teacher who tries to avoid this dynamic finds himself in a very dangerous situation - he simply becomes a guard of the educational process. The situation is familiar to everyone: an irritable, incredibly tired teacher, not noticing how she barks at everyone who encroaches on her educational process, as the security guard rushes around the classroom and tries to force the children to listen - of course, ineffective.

But you just need to be able to look around.

Keep a large circle of people under surveillance. Look without focusing on one thing, but perceive the situation as a whole.

There are teachers who do not see or hear the group. I have met teachers who love their work very much, but do not know how to manage a group. If a teacher who does not master group dynamics is not confident in himself as a person, then his “I”, armed with professionalism, goes haywire, crushing both the children and himself. And here the school psychologist should see this and take action.

We need to start with teachers...

And above all, from elementary school. The requirements for a primary school teacher are higher, and the working conditions are more difficult. But pedagogical schools do not provide an understanding of what children are like now, and what types of complex behavior will have to be worked with.

For example, hyperactivity. Hyperactive child with a well-developed intellect, he easily masters knowledge, but at the same time drives the teacher to white heat. Not knowing any techniques, she tries to persuade her parents. Parents perceive this as the fact that she wants to shift her guilt onto them (which is often not without reason). Any analysis or diagnosis leads to an investigation. And here we move into the field of medicine and begin to “treat the diseased organ.” But we need to change the situation as a whole.

School psychologists should become teacher trainers.

It's no more difficult than working with children. Moreover, if a specialist can do it with children, then it will work with adults. But not the other way around.

When I train business coaches, I advise them to come to the school at least once a year for two hours and play with the children. After children, boards of directors are no longer scary.

Inclusion and correction

Soon all our schools will be inclusive. The logic of exclusion is doomed, if only because now, according to statistics, 1.5% of children are born with various autism spectrum disorders. This is a huge number. We are no longer dealing with an epidemic, but with a pandemic. This means that in every class there will be such a child.

The correction system does not correct anything. She can teach some household skills, but that’s all.

We got too carried away with specialization, began to create “types of children,” and divided them into eight types of specialized schools. But autistic people don't fit into any of them.

Creating another, ninth species is an absolutely dead-end path. Correctional schools are not suitable for them. Autistic children already have enormous difficulty communicating. By locking them in the social vacuum of a family/special school, we will only worsen the situation - we will raise thousands of people who are unable to live without the support of others.

The horror is that all of our correctional pedagogy considers itself the heir of Vygotsky, making him the founder of modern defectology. Using a certain set of techniques and diagnostic tools, defectologists measure why a child is bad. It is considered a merit to study the complex structure of a defect, but in fact the nature of what occurs in human brain processes is largely unclear.

Neurologists argue that modern hyperactivity, for example, is associated with various problems immunity, with ecology, with congenital pathologies that cannot be recognized for a long time. Everything related to the brain remains a sealed secret. But no one wants to admit this and stop.

If a child has behavioral problems, sooner or later he will be sent to a psychiatrist. Then everything usually happens according to the standard scenario. The child is prescribed medications. They don’t help, so the psychiatrist increases the dose. When this does not produce results, the drug is replaced. This course of therapy can continue indefinitely. Parents are simply scared, and they no longer notice that an experiment is actually being conducted on their child.

What is our life? A game!

A school psychologist not only needs to be at the center of events - he must generate these events himself. The game is an excellent tool that helps you find out how things are, change something, prevent it, improve it, and even just “get to know” teachers and students better with each other.

I once asked the second graders to bring their favorite toys, and we spent the whole lesson building relationships between the toys. When the game ended and the children left, their teacher said, “Well, it turns out what they are like.”

By the way, I also asked the teacher to bring her favorite toy. It's a shame she didn't play. But she brought a toy.

One day, one teacher turned to me with a question - what to do if a child is afraid of the dark, when a projector is used in the class and the lights are turned off. It is impossible not to show films. Other children love them, but this boy cries, shakes, and becomes hysterical.

And then I suggested playing with him in the dark without turning off the light. And play honestly, observing all the nuances. First we made sure that the child felt safe, and then little by little we began to reproduce the usual procedure. The game could be stopped at any time at the child's request. It’s not at all a fact that everything would have worked out the first time. But a slow, gradual expansion of the child’s comfort zone still ultimately produces enormous progress.

I always invite some part of the rest of the class to these kinds of games. In the future, these children will become a support in the adaptation of the “main character” of our game. They will form a structure of assistants capable of preventing various negative phenomena in the classroom, such as bullying and discrimination against the weak.

Vertical informal subordination, dependent and non-reciprocal relationships, the struggle for attention, isolation, as well as the “stardom” of individual students are softened. Sociometry is generally concerned with these attractions and repulsions, but here I am talking in general about the mission of a school psychologist, who, through events in classes, not only greatly influences the positive dynamics of relationships and the development of children, but also allows him to control the entire, in fact, huge space schools.

To play effectively, a school psychologist needs to be proficient in sociodramatic techniques and technologies, know sociometry, group diagnostics, rehabilitation practice, relationship psychology, role theory, bullying prevention and much more.

School is a place where not only children study, but also teachers, parents, and indeed any person who ends up there.

Only by realizing the need for constant self-improvement of all participants in the educational process will we make school a safe and productive environment for the growth and education of our children.

The role of a school psychologist is to create conditions for the child’s productive movement along the paths that he himself has chosen (in accordance with or in opposition to) the requirements of the school and family, and to constructively resolve the inevitable conflicts that arise as a result of this choice. The activity of a psychologist is determined in many respects by social, family, pedagogical system in which the child actually is (the child’s real social environment). The activities of a psychologist in a school include analysis of the school environment together with the teaching staff, development opportunities and requirements for the student, determination of criteria for the effectiveness of training and development; development and implementation of activities, forms and methods that are considered as conditions for successful training and development, bringing these conditions into a permanent system.

Maintenance - system professional activity psychologist to create socio-psychological conditions for the successful learning and development of a child:

• following the natural development of the child (the unconditional value of the inner world of every child);
• creating conditions for independent creative development;
• the secondary nature of psychological support in relation to the child’s living environment (not an active, targeted impact on social conditions and the educational system);
• carried out by pedagogical means, through a teacher and traditional forms of training and education.

Ideas for psychological support for a child at school include the following areas:

1. Systematic monitoring of the child’s psychological and pedagogical status and the dynamics of his development (accumulation of information related to the child’s characteristics, his problems and difficulties).
2. Creation of psychological and pedagogical conditions for the development of the child’s personality and his successful education:
   • individual and group programs psychological development that creates conditions successful development child, and a necessary prerequisite is the flexibility of the program and the teacher.
3. Creation of psychological and pedagogical conditions for providing assistance to problem children, development and implementation of a system of compensatory measures.

Areas of activity of a psychologist at school with children:

I. Applied diagnostics. 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 at 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 a lot of time. school activities, should be multifunctional, simultaneously serving as both a means of diagnosis and development of mental functions, and provide as much information as possible about the condition and prospects for the child’s development. 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.

Diagnostic goals:

• drawing up a socio-psychological portrait of a schoolchild;
• identifying ways to provide assistance to “difficult” students;
• choice of means and forms of psychological support;

There are three types of applied psychodiagnostics in school settings:

• diagnostic minimum
• differentiation of norm and pathology (intelligence),
• in-depth psychodiagnostics of personality “on request” (individual).

The diagnostic minimum allows us to separate “problem” children (grades 1, 3-5, 8, 10-11) and conduct longitudinal studies of children’s development. The diagnostic minimum is carried out as a planned event and is mainly based on expert surveys of teachers and parents, and minimally affects children. The goals of conducting a diagnostic examination of children:

a) Identification of children with low level developments for which it is impossible to organize training in a standard school.
b) Identification of children in need of special psychological-pedagogical or social assistance, children with partial impairment of cognitive processes. For such children, it is necessary to conduct correctional classes (pedagogical neglect, problems of socio-pedagogical adaptation, disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere, etc.).
c) Identification of children with developmental disabilities in order to prevent possible difficulties.

An in-depth diagnostic examination includes the following areas:

• differentiation of norm and pathology,
• study of features cognitive sphere within the age norm,
• study of the zone and content of the conflict.

II. Psychocorrection and developmental work

a) Developmental work - creating socio-psychological conditions for holistic psychological development (for psychologically “prosperous” schoolchildren).
b) Correctional work - solving specific problems of learning and behavior (for psychologically “disadvantaged” schoolchildren).

Diagnostics, carried out by a psychologist as a planned event or at the request of teachers and parents, serves as the basis for determining the direction of correctional and developmental work.

Correctional and developmental work is a holistic impact on the child’s personality (without “dividing” the child into different mental spheres), a process of influencing all aspects of the personality, based on

• voluntariness of the child’s participation in psychocorrectional work (parental consent for children up to grades 5-6),
• taking into account the characteristics of the socio-cultural environment, individual characteristics and needs,
• consistency and continuity of forms and methods of work.

Developmental work is focused on the cognitive, social, personal, and emotional spheres of a child’s mental life.

Forms of developmental work: organization of a developmental environment, training, educational meetings with a psychologist, psychological technologies on training sessions and extracurricular meetings; educational psychodiagnostics - self-knowledge.

c) Psychocorrectional work takes place as group and individual work, based on a set of correctional programs developed taking into account the age and problems of children.

III. Consulting and education of schoolchildren. Education is carried out as a response to a specific request, taking into account the age needs, values, level of development, and the real group situation of schoolchildren. Consulting is mainly aimed at high school students and is carried out both at the request of the student and at the request of parents, subject to the mandatory requirements of voluntariness and confidentiality. Consulting is carried out as individual work with schoolchildren and most often on the following range of issues:

• difficulties in learning, communication, psychological well-being;
• teaching adolescents the skills of self-knowledge and self-analysis;
• providing psychological assistance and support to schoolchildren in difficult situations.

Occasionally, counseling begins on the initiative of a psychologist or teacher, but it is more difficult for the psychologist to get in touch with the teenager.