Attending kindergarten for a child at times can be stressful, despite the fact that there are much less demands and burdens placed on children, and all classes are held in a playful way.
School is another matter. There the requirements are much higher, and for the first time a very tangible responsibility is imposed on the child, so it is important that the children be ready for learning.
Topic child's psychological readiness for school Many psychologists have repeatedly raised, and for a long time there are standards that all children must meet when they enroll.
The problem of readiness for school
Let us examine the concept of child readiness for school in psychology.
When the preschool age ends, the child should be ready to psychologically move to another level interaction with society, which is expressed in the desire and willingness to go to school.
To transition to schooling was the least painful, and the child could learn the knowledge put into his head in full and develop the necessary skills, he must meet certain criteria.
In short, the main school readiness criteria following:
- socio-psychological readiness;
- psychophysiological readiness;
- intellectual readiness;
- motivational readiness;
- personal readiness.
The most acute question of the child's readiness for school arose when in Russia and some other countries there was a transition to learning from the age of six, and not from seven, as it was before.
The problem of psychological readiness children to school were engaged in such specialists as:
- K.N. Polivanova;
- T. A. Nezhnova;
- A.L. Wenger;
- V.S. Mukhina;
- N.I. Gutkina;
- E. E. Kravtsova.
They investigated the connection of components of readiness and gave their own interpretation to some of them, conducted their own experiments.
Their research work allows you to improve the process of teaching childrenbecause it provides an opportunity to understand exactly how the child’s mind and intellect should work, so that he can learn productively immediately after entering the first grade.
You can learn about the concept of a child’s psychological readiness for school from the video:
Reasons pedagogical immaturity
When the degree of development of the child’s mind and intellect does not meet the requirements put forward by the school, can talk about school immaturity.
This is a complex social problem that has many causes.
Tactics of training a child with school immaturity individually developed depending on the reasons that caused it, and may include not only work with a psychologist, but also with a speech therapist, tutor, psychotherapist.
Also, a child who is considered not sufficiently ready for school often needs to undergo a series of medical examinations to rule out diseases of the brain and nervous system.
School immaturity - common problembecause it occurs in 10-12% of first graders.
Biological causes of school immaturity:
- Disorders that occur during the prenatal development of the child, and the consequences of birth injuries. During fetal development, many negative factors affect the fetus, especially if the mother does not adhere to the doctor's recommendations. Infectious diseases, transferred during pregnancy, bad habits of the mother, taking medications that are not intended for pregnant women, injuries during childbirth - all this can lead to disturbances in the development of the child. At the same time, in a preschool age, a child can develop in about the same way as other children, and problems will be discovered when he starts schooling.
- Acquired somatic disorders. Complications of infectious diseases can affect the brain activity of the child, so it is important not to refuse vaccination and take into account the recommendations of the doctor during treatment. Weakened, often ill children with chronic diseases of internal organs develop more slowly than their peers, so they may need additional time to prepare for school.
In such cases, parents are usually offered to send the child to school not at the age of six, but at the age of seven.
Psychosocial causes of school immaturity:
- Adverse social conditions, asocial family. Children of parents who are addicted to alcohol or drugs usually do not receive enough attention, they are practically not trained, they can be beaten, and life in dirty, poorly ventilated rooms negatively affects the functioning of the child’s body.
- Stress, mental illness, psycho-emotional trauma. Each child has individual characteristics of the psyche. Some children are more susceptible to the negative events occurring in their lives. They easily have fears and do not pass for a long time, and serious stresses, which even adults have difficulty with (death of dear people, acute episodes of mental, physical or sexual violence), can significantly undermine their ability and desire to develop.
- Wrong approach of parents to education: cruelty by one or both parents, the presence of domestic violence, excessive care.
With correct and timely correctional work, school immaturity can be smoothed over or completely eliminated.
If a child has somatic disorders in the course of a medical examination, he needs undergo specialized treatment.
Psychological attitude
Psychological readiness for schooling - a holistic characteristic of a child of six or seven years old, which includes features that enable him to study productively at school with his peers, interact productively with them and with the teacher, and take on the social and psychological role of the student.
It includes a number of components that are taken into account when assessing a child’s readiness for school.
Social
The main socio-psychological skills, in the presence of which the child is ready for school, are:
- The ability to communicate. An older preschooler should be able to interact with both peers and teachers, take into account the instructions of the teacher, control their behavior in accordance with the norms adopted in this educational institution and in society as a whole.
- Ability and desire to fulfill the social role of the student. It is important to be able to be included in the learning process, take into account the needs of peers and work productively with them in a team if circumstances so require.
If there is no socio-psychological readiness, the child does not know how to properly interact with peers or with teachers, violates school discipline, and does not feel an expressed need for communication with others.
Aspects of psychological preparation for school:
Intellectual
Basic skills and abilities associated with intellectual readiness:
- The development of verbal-logical and figurative thinking sufficient for age. The child is able to find similarities and differences between objects, the ability to group objects depending on their characteristics, the ability to find a logical relationship between phenomena and objects.
- The required level of development of voluntary attention. The child is able to concentrate on the implementation of certain activities for 15-20 minutes.
- Ability to comprehend informationthat the teacher gives out, and use it when performing assignments.
- The presence of a certain amount of knowledge about the world, phenomena, present in it, sufficient development of cognitive skills, ability to operate with basic information that is important for schooling (related to mathematics, speech).
Intellectual readiness - one of the important, but not a priority element of school readiness, since there are cases when a child has an impressive amount of knowledge for his age, but he does not know how to control his behavior, he hardly interacts with others.
On intellectual school readiness in this video:
Psychophysiological
Skills and abilities related to psycho-physiological readiness:
- Enough development of fine motor skills. The ability to use pencils, pens, scissors.
- Developed coordination of movements, the ability to navigate in space. The child knows where the right is, where is left, where is the top, and where is the bottom, can show.
- Hand-eye coordination. A child can coordinate visual images with movements; able to redraw an elementary figure from an image located in the distance.
Personal
For personal readiness include:
- Motivational readiness. The child has a social motivation, it is aimed at acquiring a high position in the team, striving for knowledge and learning, and capable of controlling momentary desires in order to achieve a higher priority goal.
- The presence of self-esteem and I am an image. The child is able to assess their own achievements and the degree of development of skills.
- Psycho-emotional maturity. Awareness of the importance of adhering to social norms and rules, the ability to control feelings and emotions, the ability to enjoy the contemplation of the beautiful and the acquisition of new knowledge.
How to prepare a child for school? Parents' mistakes:
Criteria of readiness of the preschool child with oligophrenia
Children with intellectual disabilities able to develop, can absorb certain knowledge, improve skills.
Their psyche is also capable of qualitative changes, especially in the presence of full-fledged training and education.
Therefore, it is important to increase their psychological readiness for schooling as much as the individual situation allows.
The psychological readiness of a mentally retarded child to school has approximately the same criteria as are used in assessing the skills and abilities of a child without intellectual defects, and includes:
- intellectual readiness. This is the ability to perform the task using instructions issued by the teacher, the presence of basic training skills. The child’s brush should be sufficiently developed to hold the handle and use it;
- motivational. The presence of interest in cognitive activity, attempts to show cognitive activity;
- emotional and volitional. The child must be able to control his own behavior, know the rules and resolve difficulties arising from the performance of tasks.
- Socio-psychological (mainly communicative sphere). The ability to build communication with unfamiliar adults and peers, the ability to concentrate on the lesson.
Also important is the ability to serve themselves and perform simple household activities.
Teaching children with mental retardation (oligophrenia) at school, at home, boarding school:
Training
To get an older preschooler ready for school, he parental support required. Observe a child, see how he communicates with unfamiliar peers, how he reacts to adults, how he holds a pen and a pencil.
Ask him to take a few simple tests that demonstrate the level of development of his intellect and cognitive skills, and depending on the result, try to help him improve his performance.
It is also worth asking the caregivers working with the child about whether he has any difficulties in the process of completing the tasks.
- Fine motor skills develops sorting out small objects (for example, buttons), braiding of rope braids, modeling from plasticine, and so that a child can hold a pencil more confidently, you can buy him a coloring with your favorite characters, more often suggest drawing.
- Hone knowledge of numbers and improve orientation skills in space help graphic dictations for preschoolers.
- To develop mental abilities regular practice will help: offer your child to lay out objects, depending on their characteristics, play with him in simple games like “Find the superfluous”, “Tell me in one word”.
- Memory can be developed by memorizing poems, counts, songs. The game "Listen and Describe": an adult calls the word for an object, and the child describes its features from memory: smell, color, shape. For example, an adult says the word "lemon", and the child says that the lemon tastes sour, has a yellow color and a rounded shape.
In the process of training, it is important to take into account the needs of the child and not to make fun exercises into hard labor.
If the baby feels bad, does not look interested, lessons are better to postpone. And do not forget to praise him for his success.
The essence of the method of Kern-Jirasek
Test developed Kern Yirasek in the late 70s of the 20th century, allows you to quickly assess the degree of preparedness of the child to school.
It includes an assessment of speech abilities, intellectual development, ability to draw, volitional qualities. It can be held both with a group of children, and with one child.
It includes three tasks:
- The child is asked to draw a man. When the drawing is ready, an adult evaluates its quality according to the criteria defined in the test, and puts points - from 1 to 5. The better the result, the less points are awarded.
- Preschooler asked to turn the sheet. A short phrase is written on its reverse side, and an adult asks to copy it as if it were a drawing. After also puts points, depending on the legibility of the resulting text.
- Dots are drawn on the sheet in a certain order, and the child is asked to copy them exactly. Points, as in the previous tasks, are set depending on the result. At the end, the sum of points is calculated, and the adult draws conclusions.
This test is active used in kindergartens to assess children's readiness for school.
But even if the child has shown unsatisfactory results in him, this can be corrected if you work diligently with him for several months.
If the child is psychologically ready for school, it will be easier for him to adapt to it, and his success will please both his parents and himself. Only important try to support him in the process of development.
School readiness tests:
