Until now, there is no single and clear definition of the concept of “child readiness for school” or “school maturity” in psychology. Evidence of this is the definition of these concepts by different and very authoritative experts in this field.
Let's take a look at some of them.
A child's readiness for school is "mastering the skills, knowledge, abilities, motivation and other necessary for the optimal level of assimilation school curriculum behavioral characteristics,” says Anna Anastasi.
School readiness is the achievement of a developmental stage where the child is able to take part in schooling the well-known Czech psychologist J. Shvantsara believes.
Both definitions are as broad as they are vague. They rather give general idea about the concept, than they offer specific directions in determining the psychological determinants of a child's readiness for schooling. Perhaps, an indication of such determinants is present in the definition of readiness given by L. I. Bozhovich.
The readiness of the child for school consists of a certain level of development of mental activity, cognitive interests, readiness for arbitrary regulation of behavior. In our opinion, it is the arbitrariness of the behavior of a younger student that is the central moment that determines his readiness for learning, since it manifests itself both in the arbitrariness of cognitive processes and in the system of his relations with an adult (teacher), peers and himself.
In this regard, the characteristic of a child's readiness for school includes 3 aspects: physical, special and psychological.
Physical readiness for learning primarily characterizes the functional capabilities of the child and the state of his health. Assessing the state of health of children when they enter school, the following indicators should be taken into account: the level of physical and neuropsychic development; the level of functioning of the main body systems; the presence or absence of chronic diseases; the degree of resistance of the body to adverse influences, as well as the degree of social well-being of the child. Based on the totality of the identified indicators, the state of children's health is judged. There are five groups of children.
The first group consists of healthy children who do not have deviations in all signs of health, do not get sick during the observation period, and also have minor single deviations that do not affect their health. The number of such children entering the first grade is declining from year to year and now averages about 20%.
The second group - or "threatened children", i.e. children at risk of chronic pathology and prone to increased morbidity, with various functional abnormalities due to the degree of morphological maturity of organs and systems. Children belonging to this group represent the most difficult and alarming category, since even minor loads can lead to a sharp deterioration in their health and the development of chronic diseases. On the other hand, it is these children who, as a rule, fall out of the systematic medical supervision, as well as teachers and parents, since a student with functional disorders is considered “practically healthy”. Children belonging to the second group of health make up the vast majority - 66%, and in connection with the foregoing, this further exacerbates the problem.
The third group includes children suffering from various chronic diseases in the period between exacerbations, and the fourth and fifth - children with serious, gross health disorders that are incompatible with teaching a child in a public school. The total number of such children is 16%. In general, the state of children's health, as well as their mental health and psychological well-being, according to N. G. Veselov, is assessed by doctors as unsatisfactory - 2.1 - 2.2 points on a 5-point scale. It is not by chance that the term “often ill children” appeared. Most of these children (75% -80%) for health reasons are assigned to the 2nd health group, and the rest - to the 3rd and 4th. Unfortunately, their number is growing from year to year and the approximate proportion of these patients in the older preschool age is 25%. Frequent illnesses lead to exhaustion not only physical, but also mental. As a result of a psychological study of frequently ill children, 31% of children with a delay were identified among them. mental development, 17% of children with low level intellectual development, 24% of children with an average level and 28% - with a high level of intelligence. Thus, often ill children are not only a medical problem, but also a psychological and pedagogical one. The study of factors affecting the health of children before school age showed that greatest influence have socio-hygienic (housing conditions, mother's education) and regime (hardening) factors.
With regard to the special aspect of a child's readiness for school, it refers to a certain level of the child's skill in relation to reading, writing and counting.
The psychological readiness of the child for school implies readiness intellectual, personal and emotional-volitional.
Intellectual readiness should be understood as the required level of development of certain cognitive processes. E.I. Rogov believes that for a comprehensive assessment of intellectual readiness for learning, it is necessary to evaluate:
- the degree of differentiation of perception,
- analytical thinking (the ability to establish connections between the main features and phenomena, the ability to reproduce a pattern),
- the presence of a rational approach to reality (weakening the role of fantasy),
- logical (arbitrary) memory,
- development of fine hand movements and hand-eye coordination,
- mastery of colloquial speech by ear and the ability to understand and use symbols,
- interest in knowledge, the process of obtaining it through additional efforts.
Diagnosis of a child's personal readiness for school is the most difficult, because it is required to assess the level of the child's relationship with adults, peers, and himself. Personal readiness presupposes a certain level of development of the motivational sphere (a system of subordinate behavioral motives). In short, it is necessary to assess the extent to which the child is capable of arbitrary regulation of his activities and behavior in general.
The last aspect of psychological readiness is the diagnosis of the development of the emotional-volitional sphere, or rather the level of emotional tension. It has been shown that emotional factors have powerful impact on the child's mental health.
Most often, emotional tension affects the child's psychomotor (82% of children are affected by this effect), his volitional efforts (70%); it leads to speech disorders (67%), reduces the efficiency of memorization in 37% of children. Along with this, emotional tension has a strong influence on internal changes in the mental processes themselves. The greatest changes occur (as they decrease) in memory, psychomotor, speech, speed of thinking and attention. Thus, we see that emotional stability is the most important condition for the normal educational activity of children.
Children react differently to the action of emotiogenic factors, but there is not a single child who would not react to them. In conditions of emotional tension, some of the children practically do not change the productivity of their activities, while others are generally incapable of any activity. Such a state affects the entire system of his relationships with others. Unfortunately, today almost half of the children (48%) experience tension in their relationship with their parents. It should be borne in mind that the nature of these relationships in different children may be different. Thus, for 26% of children, on the whole, a passive-defensive type of relationship with their parents is characteristic. Usually this type of relationship arises in response to the formally pedantic approach of parents to the child, when his inner world is closed to adults, when the child lacks faith in the possibility of establishing emotional intimacy with them.
Another type of child's reaction to emotional tension in the family can be called active-defensive. Such families are characterized by an atmosphere of emotional restraint, conflicts and scandals. Children adopt this style and treat their parents like a mirror. They do not count on support from their parents, they are ready to accept censure, reproaches, punishment and threats. Aggressive responses are given to accusations. They are characterized by the inability to restrain their emotional reactions, the behavior itself is characterized by excessive excitability, conflict, aggressiveness.
Finally, the third group of children who experience tension in the family react in a completely different way. They are distinguished by the weakness of their nervous processes and, in response to sharp and, in fact, overwhelming influences, react even with physiological disorders, such as tics, enuresis, or stuttering.
Without disclosing the psychological content of the reactions of children who experience emotional tension in relationships with educators and peers (it is very similar to the one described above), let's say that 48% of children experience it in relationships with educators, and 56% of children with peers. It is interesting to note that if educators adequately assess the relationship between the children themselves, then neither they nor the parents are able to adequately assess their relationship with the children.
And two more important points
The effectiveness of corrective measures will be directly proportional to how comprehensively emotional tension acts on different aspects mental activity of the child and his relationship with others. It turned out that only in 26% of children emotional tension negatively affects 1-3 parameters of mental activity. In 45% of children, 4-5 parameters change, in 29% of children, 6-8 parameters.
As for the psycho-correctional measures themselves, this is a topic for a special discussion. It is clear that the best form of preventive and psycho-corrective measures is the normal living conditions of the child, the correct position of parents and educators in relation to the child. However, for this you need not only to love children, but also to know them!
Psychological diagnosis of a child's readiness for school
Ultimately, according to the degree of readiness for learning, it is desirable to predict the learning ability of a child. Learnability acts as a manifestation of general abilities that express the cognitive activity of the subject and his ability to learn. In turn, the most significant qualities of cognitive processes and personality that provide learning opportunities are:
- the level of arbitrariness of attention, memory, thinking, etc.,
- speech capabilities of a person, the ability to understand and use various types of sign systems (symbolic, graphic, figurative).
Unfortunately, in the practice of psychodiagnostic activity, there has been a clear bias towards the assessment of the child's own intellectual development and an underestimation of the level of speech activity. But the number of children with speech disorders by the beginning of schooling is 33% of the total. From this point of view, the subject of psychological diagnostics when a child enters school in order to predict his learning ability should be:
reading, writing and imaginative thinking as the main components of learning. These preliminary remarks seem necessary before characterizing the most popular psychodiagnostic procedures for determining school maturity.
The Kern-Jirasek school maturity test, which allows you to get an idea of the level of voluntary mental activity, the degree of maturity of hand-eye coordination and intelligence, has become the most widely used in diagnosing a child’s psychological readiness for school. It includes three tasks: draw a figure of a man from a representation, copy written letters, and copy a group of dots. J. Jirasek introduced an additional fourth task in the form of a questionnaire of 20 questions, the answers to which make it possible to judge the level of development of social qualities associated with general awareness and the development of mental operations.
1. The drawing of a man is an old diagnostic test proposed in 1926 by F. Goodenough to assess the level of intellectual development. In 1963, a student of F. Goodenough D. Harris standardized this task and formulated 10 informative signs used to evaluate a drawing made by a child according to the idea:
1) parts of the body, details of the face;
2) three-dimensional image of body parts;
3) the quality of the connections of body parts;
4) compliance with proportions;
5) the correctness and detail of the image of clothing;
6) the correctness of the image of the figure in profile;
7) the quality of mastering a pencil: the hardness and confidence of straight lines;
8) the degree of arbitrariness in using a pencil when drawing forms;
9) features of the drawing technique (only in older children, for example, the presence and quality of shading);
10) expressiveness of the transmission of the movements of the figure.
The research of P. T. Homentauskas made it possible to formulate the following indicators for evaluating the drawing:
1. Number of body parts. Whether: head, hair, ears, eyes, pupils, eyelashes, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, mouth, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet.
2. Decoration (details of clothing and decorations):
hat, collar, tie, bows, pockets, belt, buttons, hairstyle elements, clothing complexity, jewelry.
The dimensions of the figure can also be informative:
children who are prone to dominance, self-confident, draw figures of large sizes; small figures of a person are drawn by children who are anxious, insecure, experiencing a sense of danger.
If children older than five years of age miss some parts of the face (mouth, eyes) in the drawing, this may indicate serious violations in the field of communication, the child's autism. A high level of detail in the drawing indicates a higher level of intellectual development of the child.
There is a pattern that with age, a child’s drawing is enriched with new details: if at three and a half years a child draws a “cephalopod” (arms and legs seem to grow from the body), then at seven years old it is a drawing with a large number details. Therefore, if at the age of 7 a child does not draw one of the details of the body (head, eyes, nose, mouth, arms, torso or legs), then this should be paid attention to.
2. Copy letters. The child is asked to copy a simple three-word sentence written in cursive (7 letters). The distance between the sample words is about half a letter.
3. Copy points. It is proposed to copy 9 points, placed by 3 points in 3 horizontal rows;
the second row of dots is shifted to the right by one dot. It should be noted that the Kern-Jirasek test provides only a preliminary orientation on the level of a child's readiness for school. However, if the child shows a high score on average from 3 to 6 points, then additional psychological research is not carried out. In the case of an average, and even lower result, an individual psychological study of the child is required. For a comprehensive assessment of a child's readiness for school, E. A. Bugrimenko and others propose to assess the level of development of the prerequisites for educational activity:
- the ability to carefully and accurately follow the consistent instructions of the teacher, to independently act on his instructions, to focus on the system of task conditions, overcoming the distracting influence of side factors - the methods of "graphic dictation" by D. B. Elkonin and "sample and rule" by A. L. Wenger;
- the level of development of visual-figurative thinking - the "labyrinth" technique.
A list of diagnostic methods used to assess a child's readiness for school can be found in the book by T. V. Cherednikova "Tests for the preparation and selection of children in schools."
Sizonenko Olga Anatolievna
Svobodnoye village
Area Esilsky
Akmola region
st. Youth 4, tel. 24-4-94
educational psychologist
State Institution "Svobodnenskaya Secondary School of the Yesil Department of Education"
The effectiveness of teaching children at school is largely determined by the level of their preparation. Readiness to study at school is the most important result of the upbringing and education of a preschool child in the preschool and in the family. It is determined by the system of requirements that the school imposes on the child. The nature of these requirements is due to the peculiarities of the new socio-psychological position of the student, the new tasks and responsibilities for which he must be prepared.
The transition to school education is associated with fundamental changes in the child's habitual way of life, in the system of his relations with other people. For the first time, a socially significant educational activity occupies a central place in the life of a child. Unlike the free play activity familiar to the child, teaching is mandatory and will require the most serious and responsible attitude from the first grader. As a leading activity, learning restructures the entire course of a child’s daily life: the daily routine changes, the time for free games is reduced, and most of the time is devoted to new school duties. The requirements for the independence and organization of the child, his diligence and discipline are significantly increased.
Quality academic work the student is constantly evaluated by the teacher, and this assessment largely determines the attitude of those around him: parents, peers.
The new position of the student creates a special moral orientation of his personality. Teaching begins to be perceived by the child as his own labor duty, as his participation in the working life of people, for which he is responsible to the whole country.
The task of the pre-school is to ensure that the entire system of upbringing and educational work ensures the formation of readiness for school in children, which most fully meets the requirements of modern school education.
The general readiness for school is expressed in the achievement by the child by the time of entering the school of such a level of mental, moral, volitional, aesthetic and physical development, which creates the necessary basis for the active entry of the child into the new conditions of schooling and conscious assimilation educational material. General readiness is characterized by a certain level of mental development, which the child reaches by the time of the transition to schooling.
The concept of psychological readiness summarizes the most important qualitative indicators of the mental development of a child entering grade 1 from the standpoint of successful schooling.
Psychological readiness for schooling includes motivational readiness, which is manifested in the child's desire for learning, in the desire to be a schoolchild, a fairly high level cognitive activity and mental operations, the child's mastery of the elements of educational activity, a certain level of volitional and social development. All components of the child's psychological readiness for school provide the psychological prerequisites for the inclusion of the child in the class team, the conscious, active assimilation of educational material at school, and the fulfillment of a wide range of school duties.
Special readiness for school is a necessary addition to the general, psychological readiness of the child for schooling. It is determined by the presence of the child's special knowledge, skills and abilities that are necessary for the study of school subjects. The intensive work carried out in the pre-school on the formation of elementary mathematical concepts in children, on the development of speech and preparation for mastering literacy, provides the necessary level of special readiness for children to study at school.
A child entering school must be prepared for a new way of life, for new activity. He must reach a certain level of physical development in order to cope with new serious responsibilities.
In the content of the general readiness of children for schooling, several interrelated aspects are distinguished, the most important of which are moral-volitional, intellectual, and physical readiness.
Moral-volitional readiness to study at school is expressed in the achievement by the end of preschool childhood of a child of such a level of development of moral behavior, will, moral feelings and consciousness, which allows him to actively take a new social position and build his relationship with the teacher and classmates on a moral basis. The content of moral and volitional readiness for school is determined by the requirements for the personality and behavior of the child, which are determined by the position of the student. These requirements, literally from the first days of schooling, put the student in front of the need to independently and responsibly fulfill their educational duties, to be organized and disciplined, to arbitrarily manage their behavior and activities, to strictly observe the rules of a culture of behavior in relations with the teacher and students, to carefully and carefully treat school students. accessories.
Moral-volitional readiness is manifested in a certain level of development of the personal behavior of an older preschooler. Indicative in this respect is the ability of the child to voluntarily control his behavior during preschool age: the ability to consciously follow the rules and requirements of the educator, inhibit affective urges, persevere in achieving the goal, the ability to complete the necessary work, despite the attractive, but distracting from her goals, etc. The basis for the development of the arbitrariness of the behavior of the future student is formed by the end of preschool age, the hierarchy of motives, their subordination. The subordination of motives is associated with an effort of will, with the conscious overcoming of one's momentary desires for the sake of a morally significant goal. Naturally, at preschool age, the child's behavior is not yet distinguished by a constantly high degree of voluntariness, but it is important that during this period a mechanism of voluntary behavior is formed that ensures the transition to a new type of behavior at school.
Significant for the formation of moral and volitional readiness for school are also such traits of personal behavior as independence, organization and discipline.
Evidence of the successful formation of independence is the habit of following the rules of behavior without reminders and help from the teacher, the ability to use the correct habitual methods of action in new conditions, the desire to take the initiative, and the willingness to help. Closely related to independence, organization and discipline of behavior are expressed in the purposefulness of the child's behavior, in the ability to consciously organize their activities in accordance with the rules adopted by the preschool, in the ability to achieve the result of activities and control it, to coordinate their behavior with the actions of other children, to feel personal responsibility for their own deeds. The presence of these traits in the behavior of preschoolers confirms the formation of moral and volitional readiness for school.
Another important component of moral and volitional readiness for school is the child's ability to build his relationships with adults and peers in accordance with the rules. Experience shows that adaptation to the conditions of learning in a stake is directly dependent on how successfully the child’s qualities of “public” have been formed over previous years: a benevolent, respectful attitude towards comrades, organizational skills, sociability, readiness to show sympathy, to provide mutual assistance. The presence of such a complex of collectivistic traits in the child's behavior is an indicator of his moral and volitional readiness for school and creates an emotionally positive tone of communication with peers in a new team.
At school, on a fundamentally new, business basis, the relationship between the child and the teacher is also built. The assessment of the teacher becomes an objective criterion for the quality of the student's knowledge and the fulfillment of his educational duties. The assimilation of a new style of relationship with the teacher is possible only in the conditions of schooling. Nevertheless, the habit brought up at preschool age of strict fulfillment of the requirements of an adult, respect for him, knowledge and implementation of the rules of cultural behavior in relation to elders constitute the necessary moral basis for the “acceptance” by schoolchildren of a new style of relationship with a teacher and successful adaptation to school conditions.
Moral-volitional readiness for school is also characterized by a certain level of development of moral feelings and consciousness of the child. The most indicative in this regard is moral behavior, the development of the ability to self-evaluate one's actions, the formation of a sense of responsibility, justice, the foundations of humanistic and elements of civic feelings. Developing moral feelings and elements of moral self-awareness ensure the emotional "acceptance" by the child of a new socio-psychological position of the student, understanding the importance of fulfilling educational duties. They constitute the fundamental basis for the subsequent formation in students of a sense of personal responsibility for their educational work in front of loved ones and the whole country.
The composition of moral-volitional readiness also includes a set of qualities that express the attitude of a preschooler to work. This is a desire to work, a sense of satisfaction from a job well and accurately done, respect for the work of others, mastering the necessary labor skills. For the future student, the skills of self-service work are of particular importance - the ability to dress neatly on their own, monitor the condition of their belongings, school supplies, the ability to eliminate individual problems in clothes, shoes without a reminder from outside (sew on a button, wash a handkerchief, clean shoes, etc.) . An important role in teaching a student is played by the skills of collective work acquired in the pre-school (the ability to plan one's work, distribute responsibilities, coordinate one's actions with comrades, and bring things to a close).
Thus, the moral-volitional readiness of the child for school acts as a certain result of his moral-volitional development in the first seven years of life. It covers the most important traits of a child’s personality and behavior from the point of view of schooling, which together constitute the necessary prerequisites for the child’s adaptation to school conditions, the responsible fulfillment of new duties, the formation moral attitude to the teacher and students. Moral-volitional readiness is inextricably linked with the intellectual and physical readiness of the child for schooling.
The value of the intellectual readiness of children for school is due to the leading type of activity of the student - teaching, which requires students to work hard mentally, to activate mental capacity and cognitive activity. Intellectual readiness for school consists of several interrelated components.
An important component of intellectual readiness for school is that a child entering school has a fairly wide stock of knowledge about the world around him. This fund of knowledge is the necessary basis on which the teacher begins to build his work.
The knowledge of children entering school should be sufficiently differentiated. The preschooler must single out both relatively large areas of reality (living and inanimate nature, different spheres human activity and relations, the world of things, etc.), as well as individual aspects of objects, phenomena and one's own activity.
Essential for intellectual readiness for school is the quality of knowledge acquisition by children. An indicator of the quality of knowledge is, first of all, a sufficient degree of their comprehension by children: the accuracy and differentiation of ideas; completeness of the content and volume of elementary concepts; the ability of children to independently use knowledge in solving available educational and practical problems; consistency, i.e. the ability of preschoolers to reflect available, significant connections and relationships between objects and phenomena (functional, spatio-temporal, causal, etc.)
A component of intellectual readiness for school is a certain level of development of the child's cognitive activity.
Of particular importance is, firstly, the growing arbitrariness of cognitive processes: the ability to arbitrary semantic memorization and reproduction of material, the planned perception of objects and phenomena, the purposeful solution of cognitive and practical tasks, etc.; secondly, improving the quality of cognitive processes: the accuracy of sensations, the completeness of perception, the speed and accuracy of memorization and reproduction; thirdly, the child has a cognitive attitude to the world around him, a desire to acquire knowledge and study at school.
As many psychologists (L.I. Bozhovich, L.S. Slavina, N.G. Morozova, A.A. Lyublinskaya, L.A. Venger) emphasize, the education of curiosity, interest in knowledge, desire to learn and comply with school rules, the formation of a positive attitude towards school, interest in the book are an important prerequisite for creating sustainable learning interests in students and a responsible attitude to school.
A significant role in the formation of intellectual readiness for school is played by the general level of mental activity of the future student.
Under the conditions of systematic, purposeful work of the preschool on mental education, children develop such valuable features of mental activity as the ability to fairly complete, multilateral analysis of objects, the ability to apply social sensory standards to examine the properties and qualities of objects and phenomena, the ability to elementary generalization based on identifying the main connections, dependencies, signs in objects and phenomena, the ability to compare objects based on the consistent selection of signs of similarity and difference. Future schoolchildren develop elementary independence of mental activity: the ability to independently plan their practical activities and carry them out in accordance with the plan, the ability to set a simple cognitive task and solve it, etc.
It should be noted that the listed features of cognitive activity in the majority of children of preschool age are at the stage of initial formation; their most complete development occurs in the process of schooling. But in their totality, they constitute the most important prerequisite for the conscious and active assimilation of educational material by the future student at school.
Intellectual readiness for school also includes the mastery of elements of educational activity by children.
By the end of preschool childhood, in conditions of systematic education, children should master the main components of learning activity: the ability to accept an accessible learning task, understand and accurately follow the instructions of the teacher, achieve results in work using the methods indicated by adults, the ability to control their actions, behavior, the quality of the task, the ability to critically evaluate their own work and the work of other children. A special role in preparing children for schooling is played by the formation of the ability to consciously subordinate their activities and behavior to certain requirements and rules put forward by the teacher.
A necessary component of a child's intellectual readiness for school is a fairly high level of speech development. Clear pronunciation, variety of vocabulary, ability to express thoughts coherently, grammatically correct, culture speech communication All this is a prerequisite for successful schooling.
The content of intellectual readiness also includes a fairly wide range of knowledge, skills and abilities in the field of elementary mathematical representations, mother tongue, the first foundations of literacy. These knowledge, skills and abilities create the necessary readiness of children to master the relevant subjects in the 1st grade. It should be emphasized that the significance of "special" knowledge, skills and abilities for school education largely depends on the basis on which they are built and how well they are formed. As emphasized by many researchers (A.V. Zaporozhets, A.M. Leushina, D.B. Elkonin, L.E. Zhurova, N.I. Nepomnyashchaya), the initial teaching of literacy and the rudiments of mathematics in preschool institutions should have a great developmental effect and first of all, to form in children a broad orientation in the world of values and in the world of language sounds, thereby creating the basis for the transition to subject education.
A child's physical readiness for school is essential to successful learning. The restructuring of the child's lifestyle associated with entering school, changing the regime, serious educational work, the duration of lessons, and doing homework require significant physical stress from the child. Physical readiness for school includes many components. First of all, this is a good state of health of the child, hardiness, a certain endurance and performance of the body, a high degree of resistance to diseases. This is the harmonious physical and neuropsychic development of the child, the correspondence of morphological and physiological development to age indicators (or some advance of them), a high level of development of motor skills. The development of the small muscles of the hand plays a special role in preparing children for school - a prerequisite for the successful mastery of writing. Physical readiness for school also implies the child's mastery of cultural and hygienic skills, the cultivation of the habit of observing the rules of personal hygiene.
Physical readiness is a necessary component of the formation of school maturity in a child. The concept of "school maturity" has become widespread in modern scientific literature. This is a rather voluminous concept that summarizes many aspects of the mental and physical development of the child. AT general view“school maturity” is understood as such a level of physical and mental development at which it can be assumed that the child will fully cope with all the requirements of schooling.
To identify "school maturity", a multivariate analysis is used, which involves assessing the state of health and biological maturity of the child's body (anthropometric indicators, the development of the bone, muscle, respiratory and cardiovascular systems), assessing functional readiness for school as the main indicator of school maturity and, above all, the level of development a number of physiological functions. These include the development of the ability to brake, which is necessary for a sufficiently long sitting at the desk, good coordination of movements, in particular small finger movements, necessary for performing graphic tasks related to writing and drawing; relative rapid formation and strengthening of conditional connections of a positive and inhibitory nature and sufficient development of the second signaling system.
Success in school high degree associated with the development of "school maturity".
A clear daily routine, tempering procedures, regular physical education, a variety of outdoor games and physical exercises, an active motor regime are necessary conditions ensuring the physical readiness of children for schooling.
The data of modern researchers indicate that a high level of readiness for school is the result of an organic combination of work aimed at the comprehensive harmonious development of the child's personality, with special teaching of the beginning of mathematics and literacy, which should be carried out by methods corresponding to the age characteristics of preschoolers, and have a wide developing Effect.
Institution and family
Plan
2. Development of children of senior preschool age. Features of the organization of the pedagogical process in the senior groups of preschool educational institutions.
3. General and special preparation of children for school, their relationship.
4. Readiness for schooling as a result educational process in DOW.
5. Continuity in the system "family - preschool- elementary School".
6. Family in the process of preparing children for school.
7. Psychological and pedagogical problems of preparing children for school.
1. The content of the concepts “preparation”, “preparation for school”, “readiness for school”, “school maturity”, “continuity”
The formation of children's readiness for schooling is one of the significant and logical results pedagogical activity DOW specialists. Readiness for school is a complex result of purposeful preparation and spontaneous activity of participants in the pedagogical process.
Training - the formation and enrichment of attitudes, knowledge, skills necessary for an individual to adequately perform specific tasks. In our case, to perform social role student and mastering a new type of activity.
Preparing for school is the organization of educational work in a preschool educational institution, which ensures a high level of overall comprehensive development of preschoolers and special preparation of children for mastering school subjects.
School readiness in the psychological and pedagogical dictionary it is defined as the result of the upbringing and education of children in preschool educational institutions and the result of targeted systematic preparation for school. Readiness for school is a set of morphophysiological and psychological characteristics of a child of senior preschool age, which ensures a successful transition to systematic organized schooling. It is due to the maturation of the child's body, his nervous system, the level of development of mental processes, the formation of the child's personality. The terms “preparation” and “readiness” are linked by cause-and-effect relationships: readiness directly depends on and is determined by the quality of preparation.
In preschool pedagogy, there is another term associated with the result of preparing children for school - school maturity. Different authors present ambiguous interpretations of the content of this concept. Some authors consider it to be synonymous with school readiness, others separate the concepts of “school maturity” and “readiness for school”. More often, school maturity is understood as such a level of morphological and functional development at which the child can cope with the requirements of systematic schooling (biological, functional maturity, development of physiological functions, health status). School maturity combines the mental and physical aspects of a child's development. This is the basis on which all other types of readiness (personal, moral, social, intellectual) are superimposed. School maturity reflects the psychophysiological aspect of organic maturation.
When disclosing the goals, content and methods of preparing children for schooling, another term is used - “continuity”. Continuity - a specific connection between different stages of development, the essence of which is to preserve the elements of the whole when the whole as a system changes.
The continuity of the work of the preschool educational institution and the school in the process of preparing children for school is a meaningful, two-way connection, which implies, on the one hand, the focus of the preschool educational institution on the requirements of the school, on the other hand, the teacher's support for the level of development achieved by older preschoolers, the active use of the child's experience in further schooling .
2. Development of children of senior preschool age. Features of the organization of the pedagogical process in the senior groups of preschool educational institutions
Senior preschool age is a special period of preschool childhood. This is the stage of preparation and transition to a new age level, to a new education system, new types of social relations. This period in psychology is characterized as a crisis. This crisis is correlated with neoplasms in physiology and psyche, changes in personality, social status, intellectual, emotional-volitional, moral, motor spheres.
G.S. Abramova, Ya.L. Kolominsky, E.A. Panko, V.S. Mukhina note that children of this age have a good instinct for language; they know a lot of words, like to talk. Since in life children are both realists and dreamers, in their imagination, which has great variability, they create fictional situations about themselves, about their family, recreating the social conditions in which they find themselves. Gradually, the child learns to control his imagination, experiments (pretends, pretends to be pretend, etc.). We can say that although these are involuntary actions, they are already actions that are based on effort.
And over time, six-year-old children lose their immediacy of behavior in relationships with other people. The secret of one's own "I" appears, so the child becomes more closed and less understandable to an adult. In behavior, this is expressed in avoiding the influence of adults (we will listen, but we will do it our own way). The state “I am a mystery” requires protection, so the child begins to invent his own, only for him belonging to the world. Children's lies appear, both deliberate (an attempt to protect their world from uninvited guests), and unintentional (the child really cannot separate reality and his own fiction), or imaginary. It is with this personality trait that the emergence of a productive and directed imagination is associated.
Children of older preschool age are characterized by cognitive activity, which is expressed in their endless “why?” and organizes their attention. They can already arbitrarily regulate their behavior, focus on what attracts them, although they are mainly characterized by involuntary attention. They easily remember what is important for the realization of their own claims (success in the game, reading poetry at a holiday, etc.), although in general, involuntary memorization is the most productive for them.
In the productive activity of any type of children of older preschool age, the procedural side is more attracted and less the result, which is very important to use in teaching them all types of skills (labor, organizational).
As noted by V.S. Mukhina, in the mind of a child of senior preschool age, all the main links in the structure of self-consciousness are represented: a claim to recognition, awareness of one's gender (awareness of oneself as a boy or as a girl), awareness of oneself in time, attitude to one's rights and duties. Children know a lot of norms and rules of behavior, they know how to fulfill them, it is easier to perceive the assessment of their actions by adults and peers; it is more difficult for them to evaluate themselves.
Adults often induce a state of “learned helplessness” in a child, which is expressed in his refusal of his own activity and initiative. It is dangerous that, manifesting itself in any one type of activity, it spreads to the entire life of the child.
Children of older preschool age are characterized by close emotional ties with their parents, relatives (grandmother, grandfather, etc.), in which they are immersed and which, unfortunately, they still do not know how to analyze. Children are highly emotionally dependent on an adult, so the style of relationships chosen by adults determines the mental health of children. They are prone to deep feelings of both grief and joy, so their feelings should not be underestimated.
Children seek positive relationships with adults. This organizes their behavior. Earning approval is one of the main motives for the behavior of older preschool children. The desire to assert oneself is sometimes the cause of children's whims, especially when the child cannot cope with this or that task. The negative behavior of adults exacerbates the whims of children even more. Children of six or seven years old are constantly worried about this or that reason, being prisoners of their emotions. They are very expressive - their feelings flare up quickly.
Children of this age lack willpower. The motives “I want” and “I have to” enter into single combat. And the moral motive does not always win. A child sometimes deliberately lies in order to maintain good relations with adults. He needs positive emotions - the first human need. The ability to reflect, which is already quite well developed in children of this age, gives them the opportunity to navigate their relationships with adults and deliberately correct their actions and behavior, sometimes to please an adult.
Unfortunately, some children of older preschool age are not spared by such mental disorders as neuroses of all kinds. main reason neurosis, as a rule, is fear arising from a lack of love from adults, therefore, it is possible to prevent the development of negative mental states in children only by creating an appropriate atmosphere based on the goodwill of the teacher, peers, and parents.
Children are characterized by gullibility and cheerfulness, based on concrete, figurative thinking. With all the “adulthood”, the child lives in the world of those generalizations that are accessible precisely to his experience, correspond precisely to his experiences and intellectual capabilities, therefore the children's world is full of details and colors, sometimes simply invisible to an adult, as G.S. Abramov.
By the age of seven, the child becomes ready to accept a new social role for him as a schoolchild, to master new (educational) activities and a system of specific and generalized knowledge. However, it cannot be said that the formation of this readiness does not occur spontaneously. The school readiness of the child is formed in the process of long and directed work, which lasts more than one year and is conducted by both preschool teachers and parents of a preschooler.
By the end of preschool age, a restructuring occurs in the overall development of the child, which gives reason to consider this stage as a turning point. General physical development becomes more harmonious. All body systems are intensively developing: cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal system. In this regard, there is an improvement in motor functions, physical qualities. The dynamics of the development of the nervous system is more pronounced, especially in the morphology and physiology of the brain. In older preschoolers, the psychophysiological resources necessary for complex and lengthy activities increase. There are changes in the course of nervous processes, the possibility of inhibitory reactions increases. This creates a prerequisite for arbitrary regulation of behavior, emotions, and activities. The weak side of the development of the older preschooler is the rapid depletion of the energy reserve in the nervous tissues, which should be taken into account when building the pedagogical process. This feature of development is preserved in the first stages of teaching children in the first grade. elementary school. An essential feature of this age stage is a strong emotional connection with close adults.
Thus, when preparing children of senior preschool age for schooling, attention should be paid to the following features of the development of children: preschoolers at this age actively use their imagination, gradually learn to manage it; lose the immediacy of communication, behavior in relationships with other people; children at this age are characterized by cognitive activity; there is arbitrariness in the regulation of behavior, attention; the most developed involuntary memorization; children are very expressive, emotionally connected with close adults.
Entering school is a turning point in a child's life, which is associated with:
- with a change in the usual way of life;
Analyzing content pedagogical work in preparatory group DOW, there are a number of features:
- the organization of children's activities is aimed at educating personal qualities necessary in schooling - independence, responsibility, arbitrariness, activity, individuality, discipline and organization, curiosity, sociability, creativity;
- mastering new forms of cooperation in free and regulated activities with peers, teachers, younger students;
- promotion of the social orientation of the activity and the presentation of requirements for the achievement of its results;
- the emergence of requirements for independence, organization of children, the ability to independently manage activities, regulate their manifestations;
- the time for the execution of regime processes is reduced, the transition from one activity to another is carried out faster, the requirements for the pace of activity increase;
- the style of communication between the teacher and children changes - the requirements and relations characteristic of the school are introduced;
- increases the time of classes, their number. A special learning zone is created in the group. Children are introduced to school supplies, the rules of conduct at school, they are used in teaching in the classroom;
- training in the classroom is aimed at preparing for the assimilation of school subjects by children, new classes appear (literacy);
- in the course of classes, the teacher sets goals for the formation of elements of educational activity. There is a motivation for learning, the ability to plan, build and evaluate the process of solving educational problems. Children learn to listen to the teacher, complete his tasks, ask questions and answer them, set or accept a learning task, plan the course of its solution, evaluate activities;
- a different approach is being taken in evaluating the results of children's activities: the teacher seeks the completion of the task by each child, the achievement of the result. The accuracy, the quality of the task, the ability to maintain the pace of work, self-control are assessed;
– work is carried out to develop the cognitive interests of children, their cognitive activity, a habit is formed for active mental work, the field of social phenomena that children are introduced to is expanding;
- the content of the activity, the ways of its implementation are enriched. The teacher develops the ability to collectively plan activities, to cooperate in its process, to achieve results by common efforts;
- Purposeful work is being carried out to solve the general and specific problems of preparing children for school;
- Parallel work is carried out with parents in order to solve the problems of training, consolidating the acquired knowledge, skills, relationships, abilities in a family setting.
Thus, the specifics of the pedagogical process in the preparatory preschool group is determined by the need to prepare children for a new stage of education, softening the process of adaptation to new conditions and school requirements. The pedagogical process continues to perform its traditional functions - educational, didactic, developing. However, it is aimed at solving specific training problems. We will reveal the directions of preparation for schooling and its tasks in the next question.
3. General and special preparation of children for school, their relationship
The effectiveness of schooling, the success of adaptation to the conditions of a new educational level are largely determined by the level of preparation of children in preschool educational institutions. Preparation for school is a specific role of older groups, one of the important tasks and results of the entire pedagogical process.
Sh.A. Amonashvilli, R.S. Bure, L.A. Wenger, N.I. Gutkina, Z.M. Istomina, R.I. Zhukovskaya, A.V. Zaporozhets, E.E. Kravtsova, G.G. Kravtsova, V.I. Loginov, V.G. Nechaev, R.B. Sterkina, D.V. Sergeeva, T.V. Taruntaeva, U. Ul'enkov, A.P. Usova and others. In foreign pedagogy, the issues of preparation for school, the formation of school maturity were revealed by G. Getzer, J. Jirasek, A. Kern, S. Strebel.
Special studies show that the number of children unprepared for school decreases with age: at the age of five, they are about 80%; among six-year-olds - 51%; among children of six and a half years of age, there are already significantly fewer "not ready" ones - 32%. Among seven-year-old children, 13% of children are not ready for schooling.
Special training to school - a process during which the child acquires knowledge and skills that ensure the success of mastering the content of educational material in the first grade in the main subjects (mathematics, reading, writing, the world around him).
aim general training is the harmonious all-round development of the child. The result of this process is the formation of the physical, motivational, moral-volitional, intellectual, communicative spheres of the personality and the development of all types of child activities.
These two directions must be seen in unity. The division of the integral process of preparation into two logical parts is justified not only by the goals and timeframes for their implementation in the pedagogical process of the preschool educational institution.
General preparation is carried out throughout preschool childhood. In all age groups, the teacher works on the development different areas personality, over the development of children's activities. Outcome - diversified development children according to age and individual abilities.
Specific preparation for the assimilation of school subjects takes place at the senior preschool age when studying the material that is the basis for the further assimilation of school subjects at school. This training is carried out in special classes. Children receive the basics necessary for the development of knowledge and skills even earlier. However, in the older preschool age, special attention is paid to teaching literacy, mastering the concepts and patterns of the existence of the world around us, and there are clear requirements for the quality of the process and learning outcomes. The goals, the content of special preparation for school are understandable, and in preschool pedagogy there are practically no discrepancies in understanding its significance and timing of implementation.
General training as a subject of research is considered in preschool pedagogy and psychology. In determining the components of the general preparation of children for school, in contrast to the special one, a variety of positions can be seen. Hence the different approaches to determining the areas of general training.
Summing up the views on general training, we find that it is aimed at:
- the physical development of the child;
- development of the intellectual sphere, cognitive processes, mental actions and operations, speech;
- social and moral education of the individual;
– development of communication and interaction skills with adults and children;
- the formation of knowledge about the school, educational, cognitive and social motivation for learning, the internal position of the student;
- the development of important personality traits of the future student - the development of large and fine motor skills, graphic skills, the development of mental processes, arbitrariness, learning motivation, learning ability;
- development of arbitrariness in behavior and activity;
– formation of components of educational activity.
Goals determine the results of preparing children for schooling. The result is readiness for school as a synthetic result of a holistic process.
4. Readiness for schooling as a result of the educational process in a preschool educational institution
Formation school readiness- the problem is complex, requiring increased attention of specialists and parents of preschool children. At school for recent times serious transformations took place, new programs were introduced, the structure of the school changed. Ever higher demands are placed on children going to first grade. The development of alternative methods in the school makes it possible to teach children according to a more intensive program.
The most important task of the system of preschool education is the comprehensive development of the personality of the child and his preparation for school. The high demands of life on the organization of upbringing and education intensify the search for new, more effective psychological and pedagogical approaches aimed at bringing teaching methods in line with the requirements of life.
"Psychological readiness of preschool children to study at school" is one of the most important and relevant topics today.
Recently, the problem of determining the readiness of older preschoolers to study at school has occupied one of the most important places in the development of ideas in applied psychology. Success in solving problems aimed at developing the personality of children, increasing the level of learning efficiency, as well as its favorable professional development is largely determined by how correctly the level of readiness of the child for schooling is taken into account.
Readiness for learning is the innate ability of the human intellect to acquire knowledge and master skills and abilities. Everyone's willingness to learn is different and is enhanced by many factors: good health and access to health facilities, good nutrition, economic opportunities parents and whether they have a job, supporting family, availability of services and support policies.
Readiness for school is a set of certain knowledge and skills that a child must possess in order to optimize school experience Keywords: physical and motor skills, social and emotional skills, aptitude for learning, speech and cognitive skills.
To a greater extent, the psychological preparation of the child for schooling and the actualization of the level of development of his personal qualities occurs at the stage of implementation of preschool education for children 5-6 years old.
Readiness for school is not only the state of the child, but also the conditions of the school, family, environment. In order to better understand and define these conditions, older preschool childhood standards are needed.
The relevance of this study determined the purpose and objectives of the work:
Objective- to consider the psychological readiness of preschool children to study at school.
To achieve the goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:
1. Consider the essence of the readiness of preschool children to study at school.
2. Consider the psychological characteristics of children 6-7 years of age.
To disclose the topic, the following structure is defined: the work consists of an introduction, two chapters and a conclusion. The title of the chapters reflects their content.
1.Children's readiness for schooling
Psychological readiness for school means that the child can and wants to go to school.
Assessing the readiness of a child to study at school is the pinnacle of creativity, both for a preschool psychologist and a preschool teacher (educator). Mistakes in assessing the capabilities, abilities and inclinations of a child are fraught with very great consequences in the development of him as a person, and later as a citizen. Therefore, it is very important what conceptual approaches are guided by specialists in child psychology and pedagogy, what they are guided by in their work - momentary successes (even if unexpected or "fantastic") or scientifically based forecast, only intuition or practical experience, personal motives (including and parent-family motives) or the social significance of their profession. But, first of all, it is necessary to highlight the structure of the child's readiness for schooling. She, according to N. V. Nizhegorodtseva and V. D. Shadrikov, is as follows:
Types of readiness of the child to study at school:
physiological readiness;
special readiness;
· psychological readiness (intellectual, personal and socio-psychological).
Let's consider these types in more detail.
1.1. Physiological readiness for school
The physiological readiness of children to study at school includes the following criteria:
the level of biological development;
The level of physical development;
· health status;
state of the analyzer systems;
development of fine motor skills;
development of the main types of movements;
Implementation and observance of basic hygiene standards.
Thus, the physiological readiness of children to study at school is determined by the development of the main functional systems of their body, as well as the state of health. The assessment of the physiological readiness of the child to study at school is carried out by physicians according to standard criteria. When diagnosing and forming psychological readiness for schooling, it is necessary to take into account the level of physiological development, due to the fact that it is the foundation for school performance.
1.2.Special readiness for school
Special readiness of the child for schoolingincludes a sufficient degree of development of the following skills and abilities:
the ability to draw;
The ability to play music
The ability to dance
The ability to pretend
the ability to compose;
The ability to design
Ability to engage in physical education and sports.
Thus, special preparation for school involves the development of preschoolers' abilities that will make it easier for them to study at school at an early stage.
1.3.Psychological readiness for school
1.3.1. Intellectual readiness of the child for school
The most important indicators of a child's intellectual readiness for learning at school are the characteristics of the development of his thinking and speech.
By the end of preschool age, the central indicator of the mental development of children is the formation of their figurative and fundamentals of verbal-logical thinking.
During the preschool age, children begin to lay the foundations of verbal-logical thinking, based on visual-figurative thinking and being a natural continuation of it. A six-year-old child is capable of the simplest analysis of the world around him: breeding the main and the insignificant, simple reasoning, correct conclusions.
In addition, studies have found that older preschoolers, due to the fact that they use the system of sensory standards developed by the public, begin to master certain rational methods when examining the external properties of certain objects, the use of which enables children to analyze and perceive complex objects in a differentiated way. However, these abilities are limited to the range of children's knowledge. Within the limits of what is known, the child successfully establishes causal relationships, which is reflected in his speech. He uses the expressions "if, then", "because", "therefore", his everyday reasoning is quite logical. The beginnings of logical thinking are also manifested in the ability to classify objects and phenomena in accordance with generally accepted concepts; by the end of preschool age, the child can already combine objects into “conceptual” groups: “furniture”, “dishes”, “clothes”.
Summarizing the above and taking into account the age-related features of the development of the cognitive sphere of the child, we can say that the development of intellectual readiness for schooling includes:
analytical thinking (the ability to reproduce a pattern, the ability to comprehend the connections and signs between phenomena);
· differentiated perception;
· logical memorization;
weakening the role of fantasy (a rational approach to reality);
interest in the process of obtaining knowledge and in knowledge itself through additional efforts;
development of visual-motor coordination, as well as fine hand movements;
The ability to use and understand symbols, as well as mastering colloquial speech by ear.
Intellectual readiness is an important, but not the only prerequisite for a child's successful schooling.
1.3.2. Personal readiness of the child for school
For a person, as you know, personality is his image-I and I-concept. At preschool age, the process of forming the personality of children begins.
The determining role in the personal component of psychological readiness for school is played by the motivation of a preschooler. Much attention was paid to the role of the motivational sphere in the formation of the child's personality in the theoretical works of L.I. Bozovic. Psychological readiness for school was considered from the same positions. In other words, the motivational plan is recognized as the most important. There are two groups of motives for learning:
1. Motives that are associated with educational activities, or cognitive interest child, the need for children in intellectual activity, as well as in mastering new skills, abilities and knowledge.
2. Social motives for learning, or motives that are associated with the needs of children in communicating with comrades and adults, in their approval and evaluation, with the need for students to take a specific place in the system of social relations available to him.
Personal readiness to study at school implies a specific level in the development of the emotional sphere of children. They master social norms when expressing feelings, while the role of emotions in the activities of children changes, emotional anticipation is formed, their feelings become more generalized, conscious, reasonable, extra-situational, arbitrary, higher feelings are formed - moral, intellectual, aesthetic.
Thus, by the beginning of schooling, children should have achieved a fairly good emotional stability, against which educational activity develops and proceeds.
Many authors who consider the personal component of psychological readiness for school pay special attention to the problem of the development of volitionality in children. There is a point of view that the weak development of arbitrariness is the main reason for poor progress in primary school. But to what extent it is necessary to develop arbitrariness by the beginning of schooling is a question that has been very poorly worked out in the literature. The main difficulty boils down to the fact that, on the one hand, voluntary behavior is a neoplasm of a younger student, which develops within the educational (leading) activity of primary school age, and on the other hand, a weak degree of development of volitionality creates obstacles to the beginning of schooling.
After analyzing the prerequisites that are necessary for the successful mastery of educational activities, D. B. Elkonin identified the following parameters:
the ability to orientate in a given system of requirements;
the child's ability to consciously subordinate his actions to a rule that generally determines the mode of action;
the ability to independently perform the required tasks according to a visually perceived pattern;
The ability to listen carefully to the speaker and accurately perform tasks that are offered orally.
In fact, these parameters can be considered as the lower level of the actual development of voluntariness, on which teaching in the first grade is based.
G. G. Kravtsov considered the problem of the development of arbitrariness through its relationship with the will, emphasizing that the direction of the development of the child's personality towards his own individuality coincides with the expansion of the zone of his own freedom, the ability to consciously control his psyche and behavior, that is, with the formation of arbitrariness.
In this case, a number of practically significant conclusions can be drawn, one of which is the determination of the leading activity for each age stage of a child's development, depending on the type and level of arbitrariness of his mental activity.
At the same time, the levels of arbitrariness are not formed in a linear sequence, but have periods of "overlapping".
ON THE. Semago gives age development standards for the first two levels of development of arbitrariness. So, when diagnosing the arbitrariness of motor activity, one should be guided by the following standards:
By the age of 5.5-6 years, it is possible to perform reciprocal movements of the hands (with single errors);
By the age of 6.5-7 years, the child performs arbitrary facial movements according to the adult's verbal instructions (with single errors);
By the age of 7-7.5 years, the child can perform various motor programs both with different arms (feet) and with mimic muscles.
Diagnosis of the arbitrariness of higher mental functions provides for certain age standards:
By the age of 5.5-6 years, the child keeps the instructions, sometimes helping himself with sentences, independently detects mistakes, can correct them, keeps the program of activities in the main, but at the same time he may need the organizing help of an adult. The distribution of attention is available for no more than two signs at the same time;
By the age of 6.5-7 years, the child can hold the instruction, but when difficult tasks sometimes needs to be repeated. By this age, the child is able to keep the program of performing tasks of a verbal and non-verbal nature. Against the background of fatigue, a little organizing help from an adult may be required. Freely copes with tasks that require the distribution of attention according to two criteria;
By the age of 7-7.5 years, the child fully retains instructions and tasks, is able to independently build an execution program, independently corrects obvious mistakes. Distribution of attention on three signs at the same time is available.
When correlating the given age standards and parameters identified by D.B. Elkonin as the lower level of the actual development of arbitrariness, on which teaching in the first grade is based, we can conclude that there is some contradiction. On the one hand, the level of arbitrariness necessary for successful learning in a mass school, according to age standards, is achieved only at the age of 6.5-7 years, on the other hand, a massive transition to the beginning of education is possible from the age of six.
1.3.3. Socio-psychological (communicative) readiness of the child for school
In addition to personal readiness, one more component of the child's psychological readiness for school can be distinguished - socio-psychological readiness, defining it as the birth of qualities in the child, thanks to which he could communicate with friends and teachers. Children come to a class, a school, where the guys are busy with one common thing, and they need to be flexible enough to establish relationships with comrades, act together with others, be able to enter a children's society, be able to defend themselves and give in.
Thus, this component involves the development in the child of the need to communicate with others, the ability to obey the customs and interests of the children's group, which develop the ability to cope with the role of a younger student in school conditions.
According to a number of researchers, a number of substructures are distinguished in the structure of the socio-psychological component of school readiness:
social competence;
communicative competence;
language competence.
The use of the concept of competence is associated with the fact that it is rarely used in child psychology, in this way it remains possible to avoid differences in its interpretation. The very word "competence" means knowledge of something. It follows from this that social competence is knowledge of the rules and norms of behavior that are accepted in a particular socio-cultural environment and attitude towards them, as well as the implementation of the acquired knowledge in practice.
Language competence is a level of speech development that allows a person to freely apply his knowledge of the language when communicating. These types of competence are considered as elements of communicative competence, or more broadly - this is communication competence, which also includes understanding and knowledge of non-verbal communication language, the ability to make contact with peers and adults.
Social, communicative and speech competencies, which are formed in the process of raising and socializing a child, have a certain level of development by the senior preschool age, which reflects the level of the child's socio-psychological readiness for schooling.
A huge influence on the degree of readiness for teaching older preschoolers to school is exerted by the mental characteristics of the development of children of this age.
2. Mental features of the development of children 6-7 years of age.
Psychology speaks of complex restructuring brain activity, in this critical period of a person's life: senior preschool age is the boundary between involuntary behavior and the formation of elements of voluntary behavior. If the first is connected mainly with emotions, the direct expression of desire - “I want”, then the second is regulated by a conscious goal - “it is necessary”. This restructuring is associated with the emergence and consolidation of important mental neoplasms, the development of attention, memory, thinking, imagination, the formation of a plan of mental actions, the ability to take the point of view of a peer, an adult. In 6-7 year old children, the level of self-esteem of their own actions increases; they increasingly find themselves a model for comparison and imitation.
This age is characterized by a rather high level of sensory abilities associated with the development of the sense organs. These abilities are expressed in the ability to determine the size of an object, distinguish sounds, catch the rhythm, and much more. All this allows you to actively develop speech, musical, visual and motor operations.
The favorable conclusions of psychologists about the possibility of starting education are based on the ability of children of this age to highlight the essential, to identify similar and different features of objects and phenomena. It is significant that logical judgments arise as a result of subject-practical actions, in the process of transforming objects and highlighting the properties hidden in them. At this age, the most natural form of activity for a child is play. In it there is an active self-expression and development of all his spiritual and physical forces.
All these mental characteristics of the child's personality arise and develop under the influence of favorable factors, with reasonable and purposeful pedagogical influence. Only on the basis of the child's natural abilities, it is possible to determine in the best way the content and methods of education appropriate for this age, to prevent overstrain and overwork, to ensure full, versatile and harmonious development. Of particular importance is the achievement of the formation of the child's personal position in relation to the new role of the student, the desire and ability to learn. Thus, not only intellectual maturity plays a role here, but also moral and volitional readiness for educational activities - to communicate in a team, the correct reaction to the requirements of an adult, the assimilation of norms of behavior. All this is part of the social activity of the individual.
Based on the age characteristics of children aged 6-7, the teacher must keep in mind a wide range of individual differences in opportunities and their abilities. Skill in teaching and upbringing is to a large extent expressed in the ways of an individual approach to each child.
The health of the child depends, first of all, on a properly organized life, his physical and mental well-being.
Senior preschool age, as well as preschool in general, is a stage of intensive mental development. At the same time, a feature of this stage is that passive changes are noted in all areas, from the improvement of psychophysiological functions to the emergence of complex personality neoplasms.
The productivity of perception is largely determined by the level of development of attention and memory. As noted by various authors, the patterns of development of these mental functions are of a similar nature. In older preschool age, attention is involuntary. States of increased attention are associated with orientation in the external environment, with an emotional attitude towards it, while the content features of external impressions that provide this increase change with age. Gradually, due to the complication of activity, as mental development increases, the stability of attention increases.
An extremely important achievement of mental development at this age is the fact that a child of 6-7 years old can be set a goal - to remember. The presence of such an opportunity is due to the fact that the child is already beginning to use various techniques specifically designed to increase the efficiency of memorization: repetition, semantic and associative linking of material.
At the age of 6, verbal and semantic memory develops intensively (by the age of 7 it is almost equal to figurative memory). This increases the efficiency of using semantic connections as a mnemonic device.
At 6-7 years of age, a fairly high level of mental development is noted, including dissected perception, generalized forms of thinking, semantic memorization. The child develops a certain amount of knowledge and skills, intensively develops arbitrary forms of using memory, imagination, thinking, based on which you can encourage the child to listen, consider, memorize, analyze. An older preschooler is able to coordinate his actions with peers, participants in joint games or productive activities, regulating his actions on the basis of learned social norms of behavior. His behavior is characterized by stability and direction, which is determined by the presence of a formed sphere of motives and interests, an internal plan of action, the ability to fairly adequately assess both the result of his own activity and his capabilities.
One of the results of the mental development of a preschooler is his readiness to study at school.
Every 6-7 year old child already has clearly expressed personal, individual traits, behavioral motives and life position.
The cognitive capabilities of older preschoolers are such that they can already begin systematic education at school.
A child of 6-7 years old, as noted above, has sufficiently developed attention, memory, and imagination. He easily switches attention, remembers better what impresses him; his imagination is connected with impressions.
All mental processes of children 6-7 years old are gradually becoming more manageable. This is especially effective in specially organized conditions.
The intellectual readiness of children 6-7 years old to study at school involves the development of their mental processes, sensory development, the need to learn new things, the ability to learn from an adult, the availability of the necessary amount of knowledge acquired in the system, etc.
Emotional-volitional readiness consists in a positive attitude to the content of new activities, the desire to overcome difficulties, achieve the result of one's activity, in the ability to organize workplace and maintain order on it, make contact with new people (adults and peers), etc.
An adult must know the features of cognitive, emotional and volitional mental processes, the features of motivation for the behavior and activities of an older preschooler, know the requirements of the school and understand the system of relationships “child-teacher”, “child-classmates”, “child-parents”.
In order to identify the above criteria, various methods are used.
3. Methods for diagnosing the mental development of preschoolers
Among the most well-known foreign tests for determining school maturity, used in our country, one can single out the “Kern-Jerasek Test” - a technique for diagnosing the level of readiness for schooling. A significant advantage of the test is its versatility (the use of verbal, graphic methods of research, focus on a wide range of social factors that affect the child).
The orientation test of school maturity consists of three tasks:
The first task is drawing a male figure from memory, the second drawing of written letters, the third drawing of a group of dots. To do this, each child is given sheets of paper with the presented samples of tasks. All three tasks are aimed at determining the development of fine motor skills of the hand and coordination of vision and hand movements, these skills are necessary at school for mastering writing. Also, the test allows you to identify (in general terms) the intelligence of the development of the child. The tasks of drawing written letters and drawing a group of dots reveal the ability of the children to reproduce the pattern. These also allow you to determine whether the child can work for some time with concentration, without being distracted.
The result of each task is evaluated on a five-point system (1 - the highest score; 5 - the lowest score), and then the summed total for the three tasks is calculated. The development of children who received in total for three tasks from 3 to 6 points is considered as above average, from 7 to 11 - as average, from 12 to 15 - below average. Children who received from 12 - 15 points must be additionally examined.
J. Jirasek conducted a study to establish the relationship between the success of the school maturity test and success in further education. It turns out that kids who do well on a test tend to do well in school, but kids who do poorly on a test may do well in school.
Therefore, J. Jirasek emphasizes that the test result can be considered as the basis for a conclusion about school maturity and cannot be interpreted as school immaturity (for example, there are cases when capable children schematically draw a person, which significantly affects their total score).
They also use the test "Ability to learn at school" by G. Witzlak (1972), which is designed to diagnose the psychological readiness for school of children 5-7 years old.
To diagnose the diagnosis of the formation of fine motor skills in children, the technique of N.I. Gutkina "House", A.L. Wenger's "Draw mouse tails" and "Draw umbrella handles".
The technique is a task for drawing a picture depicting an object that needs to be completed.
The task allows you to identify the child's ability to focus on a sample in his work, the ability to accurately copy it, reveals the features of the development of voluntary attention, spatial perception, sensorimotor coordination and fine motor skills of the hand. Methods are designed for children 5.5 - 10 years old.
Methods that determine the formation of psychological prerequisites for learning are based mainly on the provisions of D.B. Elkonin on the tasks of diagnosing the mental development of a child in transitional periods.
Among them are the methods "Pattern" by L.I. Tsekhanskaya, "Graphic Dictation" by D.B. Elkonin, "Drawing by points" A.L. Wenger, the "Sample and Rule" technique (developed by A.L. Wenger) and some others.
The listed methods most clearly reflect the essence of the methods that determine the formation of the psychological prerequisites for mastering educational activities.
Method L.I. Tsekhanskaya is aimed at studying the formation of children's ability to consciously subordinate their actions to a rule that generally determines the method of action, and, in addition, the ability to listen carefully to the speaker.
The material of the technique is geometric figures arranged in three rows. The top row consists of triangles, the bottom row consists of squares, and the middle row consists of circles. The squares are exactly under the triangles, the circles are in the gap between them. There are 17 triangles and squares in a row, 16 circles. All three rows of geometric figures are further called "stripes".
The child is given the task of drawing a pattern, following the rule: connect triangles and squares through a circle (method of action). At the same time, he must follow the dictation given by the experimenter and which indicates which figures and in what order should be connected (triangle - square, square - triangle, two squares, etc.).
First, the child is offered a sample of the pattern and given instructions. This is followed by the stage of learning the method of action, after which the children proceed to the main task.
The experiment consists of three series, differing from each other in the configuration of the pattern.
The material of the methodology ("stripes" of geometric shapes) is located on four pages. On the first page, in the center of the upper part, a sample pattern is given, which the children will have to draw after explaining the task. At the bottom of the same page is a "strip" of geometric shapes, on which the guys learn to draw a pattern from dictation. On the next three pages, one "strip" of figures is given on each, respectively, for I, II and III series of the experiment.
The method "Graphic dictation" by D.B. Elkonin is aimed at revealing the ability to listen carefully and accurately follow the instructions of an adult, correctly reproduce a given direction of lines on a sheet of paper, and independently act on the instructions of an adult.
The technique is carried out as follows. Each child is given a notebook sheet in a cage, in the upper right corner of which the surname and name of the subject, as well as the date of the examination, are recorded. On the left side of each sheet, at a distance of 4 cells from the left edge, three points are placed one under the other (the vertical distance between them is 7 cells).
The first instruction: "Now we will learn to draw different patterns. We must try to make them beautiful and neat. To do this, you must listen to me carefully - I will say in which direction and how many cells to draw a line.
Draw only those lines that I will dictate. When you draw a line, wait until I tell you where to direct the next one. Start each new line where the previous one ended, without lifting the pencil from the paper. Everyone remembers where the right hand is? This is the hand in which you hold the pencil. Pull it out to the side. You see, she points to the door (a real landmark is given in the classroom). So, when I say that you need to draw a line to the right, you will draw it like this - to the door (on the board, pre-drawn into cells, a line is drawn from left to right one cell long). This is a line drawn one cell to the right. And now, without taking my hands off, I draw a line two cells up, and now three cells to the right. "(The words are accompanied by drawing lines on the board.)
After that, they move on to drawing a training pattern.
The experimenter continues: "We begin to draw the first pattern. Put the pencil on the highest point. Attention! Draw a line: one cell down. Do not lift the pencil from the paper. Now one cell to the right. One cell up. One cell to the right. One cell down. One cell to the right. One cell up. One cell to the right. One cell down. Then continue to draw the same pattern yourself."
While working on this pattern, the experimenter walks through the rows and corrects the mistakes made by the children. When drawing subsequent patterns, such control is removed and they only make sure that the children do not turn their leaves over and start a new pattern from the right side. When dictating, pauses long enough should be observed so that the subjects have time to finish the previous line. 1.5-2 minutes are given for independent continuation of the pattern. Guys should be warned that it is not necessary to occupy the entire width of the page.
The next instruction is: "Now put your pencil on the next dot. Ready? Attention! One box up. One box to the right. One box up. One box to the right. One box down. One box to the right. One box down. One box to the right. One cell down. One cell to the right. Now continue to draw this pattern yourself."
Instructions for the final pattern: "That's it. This pattern does not need to be drawn further. We will work on the last pattern. Put the pencil on the next point. I begin to dictate. Attention! Three cells up. One cell to the right. Two cells down. One cell to the right. Two cells up "One square to the right. Three squares down. One square to the right. Two squares up. One square to the right. Two squares down. One square to the right. Three squares up. Now continue to draw this pattern yourself."
When analyzing the results of the task, it is necessary to separately evaluate the actions taken from dictation and the correctness of the independent continuation of the pattern. The first indicator indicates the ability to listen carefully and clearly follow the instructions of an adult, without being distracted by extraneous stimuli, the second indicates the degree of independence of the child in educational work.
The "Sample and Rule" technique (developed by A.L. Wenger) is aimed at identifying the ability to be guided by the system of the task condition, overcoming the distracting influence of extraneous factors. The results of its implementation also reflect the level of development of visual-figurative thinking.
The methodology consists of 6 tasks, each of which is placed on a separate sheet of a special booklet issued to the subject. On each sheet of the booklet, a sample is drawn on the left, and “dots” are applied on the right, which are crosses, circles and triangles. Following the given rule (do not draw a line between two identical "dots"), the child must, connecting these "dots" with a pencil, reproduce the sample figure depicted on the same sheet to the left of the "dots". Tasks differ from one another in the shape of the sample and the location of the "points".
Samples in problems No. 1 and No. 5 are irregular triangles, in problem No. 2 - an irregular trapezoid, in problem No. 3 - a rhombus, in problem No. 4 - a square and in problem No. 6 - a four-ray star. In order to perform the task correctly, the child must be guided simultaneously by two systems of relations between "points": on the one hand, on spatial relations (determined by the model), on the other hand, on relations determined by the rule for connecting "points".
There are also some relationships between the "points" that are inadequate to the task, but corresponding to stable perceptual gestalts: separate groups of "points" form simple geometric figures are often symmetrical.
To study speech development, the Sequence of Events method is used.
The technique was proposed by A.N. Bernstein.
The technique is designed to study the development of logical thinking, speech and the ability to generalize.
Three plot pictures presented to the subject in the wrong sequence are used as experimental material. The child must understand the plot, build the correct sequence of events and make up a story from the pictures, which is impossible without sufficient development of logical thinking and the ability to generalize. The oral story shows the level of speech development of the future first grader: how he builds phrases, whether he is fluent in the language, what is his vocabulary, etc.
The task consists of two parts:
posting a sequence of pictures;
Oral story about them.
There are cases when, with an incorrectly found sequence of drawings, the subject nevertheless composes a logical version of the story. Such performance of the task is considered as good.
If the subject correctly found the sequence, but could not compose good story, it is advisable to ask him a few questions to clarify the cause of the difficulty. So the child can intuitively understand the meaning of what is drawn in the pictures, but he lacks specific knowledge to explain what he sees (for example, in the case of the plot "Flood"). It happens that the future first grader does not have enough vocabulary to explain what is happening in the pictures. The experimenter's precise questions make it possible to understand the reason for the bad story. Compiling a story with the help of leading questions is regarded as completing an assignment at an intermediate level. If the subject correctly found the sequence, but could not compose a story even with the help of leading questions, then such a performance of the task is considered unsatisfactory. (Special consideration should be given to cases where the child’s silence is due to personal reasons: fear of communicating with strangers, fear of making a mistake, pronounced self-doubt, etc.)
The modern method of teaching reading is based on the sound analysis of a word, so the ability to distinguish various sounds in a word by ear becomes fundamentally important for a future first grader. In this regard, the study of the development of the speech sphere of the child is supplemented by another method "Sound hide and seek".
This technique is designed to test phonemic hearing.
The experimenter tells the child that all words are made up of sounds that we utter, and therefore people can hear and pronounce words. For example, an adult pronounces several vowels and consonants. Then the child is offered to play "hide and seek" with sounds. The conditions of the game are as follows: each time they agree on what sound to look for, after which the experimenter calls the subject different words, and he must say whether or not the sound he is looking for is in the word (N.I. Gutkina, 1990, 1993, 1996).
It is proposed to alternately look for sounds: "o", "a", "sh", "s".
All words must be pronounced very clearly, highlighting each sound, and even pull vowel sounds (the vowel sound to be found must be stressed). It is necessary to offer the subject that he himself uttered the word after the experimenter and listened to him. You can repeat the word several times.
Correct and incorrect answers are recorded on the form, and then the way the task is performed is analyzed. So, for example, there are children who answer all the words in a row that they have the desired sound. In this case, the correct answers should be considered as random. The same is true if the child believes that the sound he is looking for is nowhere to be found.
If the subject did not make a single mistake, then it is considered that the task was completed well.
If one mistake is made, then it is considered that the task was completed averagely.
If more than one mistake is made, then the task was performed poorly.
The procedure for determining the psychological readiness for school may be different depending on the conditions in which you have to work. The most favorable conditions are the examination of children in kindergarten, because at the same time the child is in a familiar environment, and the examination itself is similar to an individual lesson for him. The examination can be carried out in one session or, if the baby works very slowly and gets tired quickly, twice. It must be remembered that during the examination, children should be at least 5 years 6 months old - the age before which the proposed examination program cannot be carried out. At the same time, the diagnosis of psychological readiness for school is carried out in order to create development groups that allow preparing children for schooling.
Conclusion
The psychological readiness of older preschoolers to study at school is a holistic education that implies a high level of development of both the motivational and intellectual spheres. The lag in the development of any component of psychological readiness can lead to a lag in the development of a number of others, which, in turn, determines the peculiar options for the transition from the older preschool age to the younger school age.
The senior preschool age (6-7 years) is traditionally distinguished in psychology as a transitional, critical period of childhood, called the “crisis of seven years”. The formulation and development of the problem of critical ages in Russian psychology was first carried out by L. S. Vygotsky. Based on the logical and methodological analysis of the category of development, consideration of the concepts of mental development that existed at that time and generalization of materials obtained in their own psychological research, L. S. Vygotsky developed a periodization of the mental development of the child, which was based on the concept of central psychological neoplasms.
In children who have passed the crisis of seven years, the generalization of experience is expressed in the loss of immediacy of behavior. The child develops not only individual affective reactions to individual phenomena, but generalized unobjectified affective tendencies.
List of used literature
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The transition to school childhood is characterized by a serious change in the place of children in the system of relations available to them and in the whole way of life. In this regard, it is necessary to emphasize the fact that the situation of schoolchildren creates a special moral direction in the personality of children. For them, learning is not just a way of preparing themselves for the future and not only an activity for the assimilation of knowledge, learning at school is experienced and realized by children as their own labor duties, as their participation in the lives of those around them. In this regard, how young schoolchildren will cope with their duties at school, failure or success in educational activities, has a sharp affective coloring for them. From the foregoing, it follows that the issues of schooling are not just issues of the intellectual development and educational activities of children, but also the formation of their personality and issues of education.
According to Kozlova S.A., there are three main lines along which special preparation for schooling is carried out:
1. General development. By the time an older preschooler becomes a younger student, his general development must be at a certain level. First of all, this concerns the development of attention, memory and especially intelligence. From this point of view, of greatest interest is both the stock of ideas and knowledge already available to the child, and the ability to function in internal plan, or, in other words, carry out some actions in the mind.
2. The development of the ability to voluntarily control oneself. An older preschooler has a vivid perception, easy switching of attention and a well-developed memory, but the child still does not know how to manage them arbitrarily properly. An older preschooler is able to remember in detail and for a long time a certain conversation of adults or an event if it somehow attracted the attention of a child. But it is quite difficult for him to concentrate for a long time on something that does not arouse direct interest in a preschooler. But this ability must be developed by the time he enters the first grade, as well as the ability of a much broader plan - to do not only what he wants, but also what he needs, although, quite possibly, he does not want to at all.
3. Formation of motives that encourage learning. This is not at all the natural interest shown by preschool children in learning at school. This refers to the upbringing of a deep and real motivation that can become an incentive for the desire of children to gain knowledge Kozlova SA Moral education of preschoolers in the process of getting to know the outside world. - M.: 1988.
According to Kozlova S.A., these lines are equally important, and none of them, in any case, should be overlooked, so that the education of children does not go lame at the very beginning.
There are a huge number of different methods that allow you to check the readiness of the child for schooling. But, no matter which method is used to prepare older preschoolers for schooling, and no matter what recommendations they use, and no matter what screening tests they perform in advance, it is not worth training a preschooler for training.
According to S.A. Kozlova, special preparation for school is a painstaking task, and excellent results are possible only with systematic and systematic studies.
Thus, it must be remembered that in education, it is impossible to achieve something with a one-time effort. It follows from this that only constant and systematic activity can provide the necessary results. It is difficult to name certain tests and tasks that are most effective, due to the fact that they are determined depending on the specialization of the class and the school as a whole. Available special schools, in which some subjects are studied in depth, schools where a number of school disciplines do not begin with high school, but already with the first grade of education training in progress children foreign language, or in-depth study of mathematics. There are also special gymnasium classes, the conditions for admission to which are somewhat stricter than in ordinary general education classes.
Kozlova S.A. argues that the basis of any knowledge is the knowledge, skills and abilities that a preschooler masters in order to successfully study in school after entering school.
Special preparation for school is a multifaceted process. And it should be noted that starting to work with children, as mentioned above, should not only be immediately before entering school, but far before that, from early preschool age. And not only in special classes, but also in the independent activities of the children - in games, in work, in communication with adults and peers.
Kozlova S.A. identifies the following types of readiness for school:
psychological readiness;
physical readiness: state of health, physical development, development of small muscle groups, development of basic movements;
special mental readiness: the ability to read, count, write
moral and volitional readiness;
Personal readiness.
Let's consider these types in more detail.
Not infrequently, various aspects that relate to the development of various mental processes, including motivational readiness, are united by the term psychological readiness.
According to Kozlova S.A. it lies in the fact that by the time the child enters school, the psychological traits inherent in a schoolboy should be formed. The child should have a desire to become a schoolboy, to perform serious activities, to study. But this appears in children only towards the end of preschool age and is associated with another crisis of mental development. The child psychologically outgrows the game, and the position of a schoolboy acts for him as a stepping stone to adulthood, and study is a responsible matter, to which everyone treats with respect.
And on present stage it is important that parents, who are an authority for their child in everything, both in actions and in words, do not allow negative conversations in the presence of the child about school, about schooling, about how difficult it is for children to study now. Such conversations may have a negative impact in the future.
But if the school is described only in rosy tones, then a collision with reality can cause such strong disappointment that an older preschooler may have a sharply negative attitude towards school. Therefore, it is important to find the edge that will be for the benefit of the child.
An important aspect of psychological readiness for school is also emotional-volitional readiness:
The ability to manage one's behavior
· Ability to organize the workplace and maintain order
The desire to overcome difficulties
· Desire to achieve the result of their activities.
Kozlova S.A. claims that the general physical readiness of the child for school includes: height, normal weight, muscle tone, chest volume, proportions and other indicators that correspond to the standards of physical development of school-age children. The state of hearing, vision, motor skills (especially small movements of the fingers and hands). The state of the nervous system of the child: the degree of its balance and excitability, mobility and strength. General health.
According to Kozlova S.A., the future first-grader must have the following moral-volitional qualities:
persistence,
hard work,
perseverance,
Discipline
· Attention
curiosity, etc.
It depends on these qualities whether the child will study with pleasure or study will turn into a heavy burden for him. And just at preschool age it is necessary to develop these qualities Kozlova S.A. "I am a Man": A program for introducing a child to the social world. - M.: 1996.
An important task for parents is to teach the child to complete the work that has been started, whether it be work or drawing, it does not matter. This requires certain conditions: nothing should distract him. Much depends on how the children have prepared their workplace. For example, if a child sat down to draw, but did not prepare everything necessary in advance, then he will be constantly distracted: he needs to sharpen pencils, pick up the appropriate sheet. As a result, the child loses interest in the idea, wastes time, and even leaves the case unfinished.
The attitude of adults to the affairs of children is of great importance. If a child sees an attentive, benevolent, but at the same time demanding attitude towards the results of his activity, then he himself treats it with responsibility.
Readiness for school also implies a certain level mental development. The child needs a store of knowledge. According to S. A. Kozlova, parents should remember that the amount of knowledge or skills alone cannot serve as an indicator of development. The school is waiting not so much for an educated child, as for a child psychologically prepared for academic work. Much more important is not the knowledge itself, but how children know how to use it. Parents are sometimes pleased that the child memorized the text of the poem, fairy tale. Indeed, children have a very good memory, but it is more important for mental development to understand the text, to be able to retell it without distorting the meaning and sequence of events.
One of the most important tasks of preparing children for school, according to S.A. Kozlova, is the development of the child’s “manual skill” necessary for writing. It is necessary to give the child more to sculpt, collect small mosaics, paint pictures, but at the same time pay attention to the quality of coloring. Every year, a seminar on the problem of continuity between kindergarten and school is held at the 15th gymnasium, and teachers highlight the following difficulties that they face when children enter school: first of all, insufficiently developed motor skills of the hand, organization of the workplace, independence in everyday life, the level of self-regulation.
And, of course, a special place for children in school is occupied by mastering some special knowledge and skills - literacy, counting, solving arithmetic problems. Appropriate classes are held in kindergarten.
S.A. Kozlova refers to intellectual readiness not only horizons, vocabulary, special skills, but also the level of development of cognitive processes, namely their orientation to the zone of proximal development, the highest forms of visual-figurative thinking; the ability to single out a learning task, turning it into an independent goal of the work.
Under socio-psychological and personal readiness, according to S. A. Kozlova, is understood:
Formation of the social position ("internal position of the student");
formation of a group of moral qualities that are necessary for teaching;
creation of arbitrariness of behavior, as well as the qualities of communication with adults and peers.
Emotional-volitional readiness is considered to be formed if children are able to make a decision, set a goal, outline an action plan, making certain efforts to implement it, overcoming obstacles. Children develop arbitrariness of mental processes.
Depending on the choice of a certain concept of readiness of children for systematic education at school, it is necessary to choose its main criteria, as well as to select the necessary methods for their diagnosis.
Kozlova S.A. cites the following indicators as criteria for identifying the level of readiness of children for schooling:
1. desire to learn;
2. normal physical development and coordination of movements;
3. managing your behavior;
4. manifestation of independence;
5. possession of methods of mental activity;
6. attitude towards comrades and adults;
7. ability to navigate in space and notebooks;
8. attitude to work.
Readiness according to the first criterion implies the presence of motives for learning, namely, the attitude towards it as a rather important and significant matter, interest in certain training sessions and children's desire to acquire knowledge.
The second criterion presupposes a sufficient degree of development of muscles, accuracy of movements, readiness of the hand to perform precise, small and various movements, consistency of the eye and hand movements, the ability to hold a pencil, pen, brush.
The content of the third criterion is reduced to the arbitrariness of external motor behavior, which provides an opportunity to withstand the school regime and organize oneself in the lesson; arbitrary control of internal mental actions for the purpose of purposeful observation of phenomena and concentration of attention in order to memorize the information contained in the textbook or presented by the teacher.
The fourth criterion reflects the manifestation of independence, it can be considered as a desire to look for certain ways of explaining and solving everything amazing and new, an incentive to use different ways, to give a variety of solutions, managing in one's own way. practical work without the help of strangers.
The fifth criterion is the possession of certain techniques in mental activity, which implies a specific level of development of children's cognitive processes. This is a differentiation of perception, which allows you to observe phenomena and objects, highlighting certain aspects and properties in them, mastering logical operations, as well as ways of meaningful memorization of material.
The sixth criterion includes the formation in the child of the habit and desire to work both for himself and for others, awareness of the importance and responsibility of the assignment he is performing.
The seventh criterion includes orientation in time and space, knowledge of units of measurement, the presence of sensory experience and an eye.
The eighth criterion is the ability to work in a team, take into account the desires and interests of comrades, and also have the skills to communicate with adults and peers. Kozlova S. A., Artamonova O. V. How to introduce a child to the creative activity of an adult / / Preschool education. - M .: 1993
When accepting older preschoolers to school, in the process of their adaptation to learning and in organizing the educational process, it is necessary to take into account knowledge about psychological characteristics children of primary school age.
In connection with the above criteria, according to Kozlova S.A., parents of future first-graders should adhere to the following recommendations:
Develop perseverance, diligence of the child, the ability to bring things to the end
· Form his thinking abilities, observation, inquisitiveness, interest in learning about the environment. Make riddles for your child, make them together with him, conduct elementary experiments. Let the child talk aloud.
If possible, do not give the child ready-made answers, make him think, explore
· Put the child in front of problem situations, for example, invite him to find out why yesterday it was possible to sculpt a snowman out of snow, but not today.
Talk about the books you read, try to find out how the child understood their content, whether he was able to understand the causal connection of events, whether he correctly assessed actions actors, whether he is able to prove why he condemns some heroes, approves others Kozlova S. A. "I am a Man": A program for introducing a child to the social world. - M.: 1996.
