Children will always come first for parents. With the advent of a child in a person's life, his views, worldview, attitude, emotional background change. From this moment on, life takes on a new meaning, all the actions of a parent revolve around just one baby. Together they overcome all the crises of growing up, from the first, one-year-old, and ending with adolescence and the crisis of coming of age. In this regard, not the last place is given to children's features of psychological development at primary school age.
Psychological features in development in this period are in a number of specific points that affect the maturation of the child and the formation of his character. Behavior, mannerisms, reactions, actions - all this depends onHow is the social adaptation of the child. But what are the main concepts involved in the study of this issue? What aspects of the child's thinking and the upbringing provided by parents and teachers reflect the main psychological and pedagogical features in primary school age in children?
Crisis of seven years
There comes a time in every child's life when it's time to graduate from preschool. Kindergarten and teachers are being replaced by schools and teachers. The kid is met by new acquaintances, new communication, new emotions and impressions. It is at this age that the child undergoes the so-called crisis of seven years. At this time, at primary school age, the psychological characteristics of which sharply make themselves felt by a change in the child's behavior:
- Firstly, the child loses his spontaneity. This is a fundamental feature in the psychological and pedagogical development of children of primary school age. If earlier the thinking of the crumbs was not able to separate words from thoughts, and he behaved according to the principle “what I think, then I say”, then during this period everything changes dramatically. No wonder this stage is called a crisis: the baby undergoes certain changes in his mind, and this is reflected outwardly in his habits. He can begin to behave, grimacing, clowning around, modifying his voice, changing his gait, trying to joke and work on the reaction of his parents, classmates, and those around him. All these manifestations indicate the maturation of the baby and his transition to a new stage of development.
- Secondly, it begins to appear deliberatelyadult behavior. The child seeks to defend his own position. He shows denial if he doesn’t like something, tries to behave as if he has already grown to the point where you can show off a little. At the same time, there is an interest in one's appearance, demands on oneself are manifested. The child tries on the elements of self-observation, self-punishment, self-regulation, self-control. He begins to get acquainted with adults again, as if entering into role-playing interaction, obeying the conditions of the situation in which he finds himself. He manages to distinguish between communication: the manner of conversation changes depending on whether he is talking with adults or with peers, whether they are acquaintances or strangers. He begins to show interest in classmates, in the course of establishing relationships, affection, sympathy, friendship appear.
- Thirdly, in children, the peculiarity of primary school age in the psychological and pedagogical aspect implies the emergence of an opportunity to seize the right moment to start the educational process. That is, seven years is the very age when a child is ready to learn, receive information, learn new things. And here the involvement of parents and teachers in the process is already working, since in the future it determines the ability or inability of the child to study well.
Ability or inability
Psychological and pedagogical features of primary school age in children are also manifested in their willingness to learn: the child is aware of the level of his abilities, he is able tomake contact, obey what the elders tell him. In no age period is the ability to meet the requirements and instructions of teachers and parents expressed in the same way as at this time. A kind of complaisance is associated with the stage of growing up and changing the elements of the child's thought process. It is not surprising that first-graders are always considered diligent students and obedient pupils in the classroom. From this moment, their full-fledged psychological development begins, because this is the first social status of every baby: a first grader, a schoolboy. Depending on how attentively parents will treat this stage of their child's life, how involved they are in the children's educational process, it will depend on whether the baby will be capable or incapable in the future.
All children are born capable. There are no disabled children. They can become incapable only as a result of incorrect education. But there is also the other side of the coin: education is not omnipotent, there are also natural inclinations: for some they are developed to a greater extent, for others to a lesser extent. It is important here that parental participation and maintenance in the child of those initial inclinations that he shows best.
Learning activities
Another psychological and pedagogical feature of primary school students is the acceptance of study as a leading activity. The most important thing that worries the student at this stage of development is the educational process. He learns new moments, learns new skills, acquires new skills,builds a trusting relationship with the teacher, seeing in him something very significant, something that helps him grow up and become smarter. For a child, a teacher is a socially significant authority. But if the teacher allows loy alty in the matter of discipline and rules, these rules will immediately lose their significance for the child.
Communication with peers
Surprising, but true: numerous studies have shown that the most effective way for a child to learn material is in the circle of his peers, in the process of communicating with them. The coefficient of assimilation of the educational topic is higher when the children study a phenomenon in a group than one on one with the teacher. This is another psychological and pedagogical feature of children of primary school age.
It is important to note that in no case should you prevent communication with classmates. Firstly, for a child, this is already a serious step - to start communicating with other people, with guys whom he does not know. Secondly, due to isolation in early childhood in adulthood, such individuals become unsociable, socially inactive, lonely, so the age in question is a good start for the emergence of correct and necessary communications.
9 family commandments
In addition to studying and peers, the most important role is given to family coziness, comfort and a friendly atmosphere at home. Parents must learn a few basic rules for the development of children, the observance of which will depend on the further upbringing of the child. What are they?
- Must acceptbaby just the way he is.
- You can’t give orders to a child on your own whim - all requests, instructions and instructions must have reason, be justified.
- You need to be able to keep a balance: non-interference in the life of a child is as fraught as excessive obsession and importunity.
- It is worth paying attention to your behavior and closely controlling it - the child will always look at his parents as a role model. You need to get rid of bad habits, stop using bad language and remember to keep your tone even (never raise your voice).
- You need to establish a trusting contact between yourself and your child. Your child must believe you, only then will you know about his little secrets and be able to influence the worldview, behavior, decisions made.
- Exclude excessive coaxing of children with gifts - the child should not be spoiled with excessive attention, manifested in the eternal indulgence of his whims, desires and as yet unreasonable needs for toys and sweets. Otherwise, you risk growing an egoist in the family.
- Make all decisions together - the child must see that he is contributing to family councils, that his voice also means something.
- Get used to sharing everything equally in the family. So you will bring up in the child the awareness that you need to be able to share with your neighbor.
- Never, being offended, make it a habit of indifferent silence in response to the questions of a delinquent child. This method of moral pressure can adversely affect the behavior of the child in the future, itwill simply begin to communicate with you in the same spirit.
These simple life values are directly and directly related to the personal development of children and the psychological characteristics of primary school age. Briefly, in modern family psychology they are called the nine family commandments.
Child-friendly environment
The key to the correct, ethical upbringing of the child and age development is to stay in a friendly atmosphere at home and at school. The energy background of the child deteriorates if there are frequent scandals in the house, constant screams, swearing, obscene language are heard. Much depends on the situation at school: if classmates dislike the child, treat him like an outcast, the desire to learn and develop disappears. The duty of the parents is to create a safe environment for the child at home, and the duty of the teachers is to monitor the relationship of the children in the lessons, breaks, observe their disagreements and immediately reconcile them in case of conflicts. This is another important point that affects the development and age-related psychological characteristics of primary school age.
Physical development
An integral part of the educational process is physical education. And we are talking not only about the exercises performed in the classroom, but also about those activities that parents should conduct with the child at home. Teach your baby from childhood to morning exercises. This not only disciplines the baby,but also accustoms to regime, makes it possible to understand and accept the need for sports from early childhood. The active physical part closely echoes the child's thinking, with his awareness of the need to live in active movement.
Perception
At preschool age, a child's understanding of the world around him is characterized by instability, disorganization, blur. Therefore, further acquaintance with perception becomes an essential element of cognition at primary school age, the psychological feature and characteristic of which is reflected mainly in the responsibility for the further mental and behavioral model in children. That is, in other words, how the child perceives the information received depends on how he interprets it later and how he behaves as a reaction to perception.
It is noteworthy that by the end of the first stage of school, the perception of children becomes more analytical: they begin to constantly analyze what they see, hear, differentiate various things (to distinguish between “bad” or “good”, “possible” or “impossible”) - the knowledge of the world around the baby takes on a more organized character.
Attention
Attention as a pedagogical feature of children of primary school age should also be actively developed and supported in every possible way by parents. The kid must be involved, he must be interested. This moment - elementary school - is incredibly important in the overall complex educational process. If you miss the attention of a childat the initial stage, later you can only complain about yourself, and not slander about the inability of the child. Due to age development and natural inclinations at primary school age, the attention of the baby undergoes several stages:
- First is not stable enough, limited in time.
- Slightly increased, but still focused on some uninteresting activities that distract and interfere with the main thing.
- Involuntary, fleeting attention turns on.
- Voluntary attention develops along with other functions and, above all, the motivation for learning.
Speech
Speech factor is another psychological feature of primary school age. A socially active position lies in the fact that, through speech, the child begins to communicate with the people around him, he becomes part of a team, a group of people (classmates), turns into a social unit, into a part of society. From this follow the manifestations of social adaptation. The extent to which a child feels confident in the circle of his peers is often manifested in the degree of his speech activity - conversational communications with other children.
This is about internecine speech as a necessary aspect of the baby's communication with the world around him. But there is another side to the correctness of the child's conversation, the correctness of the words he pronounces. Here, the coordinated work of teachers and parents should be in such a way that the child, pronouncing the words incorrectly oruttering incorrect phrases, he was constantly corrected by adults. Such help will allow the child to quickly get rid of defects in diction, misunderstanding of words and their incorrect use in everyday speech.
Thinking
Primary education takes the thought processes of beginning schoolchildren as the basis for development. In the transition from emotional-figurative to expanded abstract-logical thinking, teachers are trying to teach the child to understand objects and phenomena at the level of cause-and-effect relationships. At the same time, depending on the mindset, children are already initially divided by psychologists into schoolchildren-theorists (the so-called thinkers) - they mainly solve educational tasks, practical children who rely on visual material in their reflections, and toddler artists who have a bright figurative thinking.
