The emotional stability of the child is the task of his parents. And the first year of a baby's life plays a major role here.

Here's what to remember:

• A child is born literally with a "tangle" of emotions that he cannot figure out on his own.
• The emotional background is formed in the first 12 months of life
• The main teacher and support on the way to comprehending human emotions for the baby is the mother.
• The mood of the mother inevitably affects the mood of the child.
• Mirror neurons, responsible for the ability to understand the emotions of others, develop in the process of communicating with adults.
• First, the baby must make sure that they understand him. Then he can learn to understand others.

Emotional background: or why is my child crying all the time?

The emotional background is the basic, predominant mood of the baby. Surely you have seen children who laugh more often and those who throw tantrums for any reason. This is the emotional background.

What does it depend on:

• daily portion of happiness. A child receives such positive emotions by communicating with a loving adult. Mom smiles at him, kisses, hugs, gently talks, plays with him. The child feels the joy of life.
• habit of basic positive perception. Unfortunately, modern mothers are so busy with themselves and their gadgets, communicating with the same girlfriends or other “important” things that they pay attention to children only when they cry. What does a child see in such a situation? That's right, mom can only be attracted by negative emotions. This will quickly become a habit.

To grow a harmonious personality, mom should:

1. remain calm in crisis situations;
2. rid yourself of negative emotions and unnecessary experiences;
3. respond to manifestations of joy in a child, smile in response, have fun with him.

I can't laugh all the time! Or how to introduce a child to different emotions without harm to him

Of course, an adult mother experiences not only joy, but also sadness, anger, irritation, fatigue and fear. It is important to remember that the baby reacts to all the emotional manifestations of the mother.

It's good when he sees his mother different. So the baby learns the variety of human emotions. However, you must always observe the measure and not transfer your negativity to the child.

What are mirror neurons and how do they work?

Psychologists believe that emotional intelligence begins to develop in infancy. A child's ability to empathize or respond to the emotions of others is genetically determined. Mirror neurons are responsible for this. We smile when someone smiles at us, tense up when someone falls.

Mirror neurons are the physiological basis for understanding other people's emotions and situations. In an infant, the set of such cells is the simplest. He needs to actively develop his abilities in order to learn to predict the actions of people and read the mood of others.

Based on this, the mother should give the baby feedback. For example, when he is full and in her arms, mom smiles. The child smiles back. The emotional connection works.

Important! “Adjustment” of the mother to the child is the key to the formation of a positive emotional background. How well do you understand your baby? How quickly can you determine his emotional state?

Emotional stability and its training: is it possible?

How to raise a child emotionally stable, focusing on the knowledge gained? First you need to accept that children up to a year call on loved ones for help by crying. For them, this is the only way to change the situation, to “report” discomfort.

If a mother reacts to a child's crying with negative emotions, this is unlikely to give her points. The child does not cry out of spite. He just wants his needs to be met.

How to work with this knowledge:

• From time to time, you need to give the child the opportunity to switch from the problem that has arisen, to find a way out on their own. For example, if the baby calls for mom, and mom does not come for a long time, he may start sucking on his fist and fall asleep. Find something interesting and play. Children need to learn to take care of themselves. This is a psychological defense mechanism, very important for the future;
• a cold and distant mother will inevitably raise a moral cripple. If no one systematically approaches the child, the protection will be impenetrable;
• if the mother warns any needs of the baby, does not allow him to feel discomfort even temporarily, the child will be deprived of protection altogether. He will not be able to put up with the slightest stress. Such children throw tantrums, stomp their feet, interrupt adults, throw away food.

Why should a mother be calm, or how not to become a source of complexes in a child?

Mother is the stronghold and support for the child. With her, he begins the knowledge of the world and is guided by her in everything. If the mother is irritated by the crying of the child, seeks to get rid of the discomfort caused to her as soon as possible, the child will understand that negative emotions must be kept to oneself.

If the mother understands the needs of her baby, she can calmly respond to them, sympathize with him, he will learn to track his emotions and understand them. The child will not be afraid to anger adults, but will become open. Learning to accept emotions and feelings is the first step towards being able to properly express them and deal with negativity.

At first glance, it may seem that the development of emotional intelligence is a complex science. In fact, it is simple and interesting for both: mom and baby. Work with your children and your life will be much better.

Emotions play an important role in children's lives: they help to perceive reality and respond to it. Manifested in behavior, they inform the adult that the child likes, angers or upsets him. This is especially true in infancy when verbal communication is not available. As the child grows, his emotional world becomes richer and more diverse. From basic emotions (fear, joy, etc.), he moves on to a more complex range of feelings: happy and angry, delighted and surprised, jealous and sad. The outward manifestation of emotions also changes. This is no longer a baby who cries both from fear and from hunger.

At preschool age, the child learns the language of feelings - the forms of expression of the subtlest shades of experiences accepted in society with the help of glances, smiles, gestures, postures, movements, voice intonations, etc.

On the other hand, the child masters the ability to restrain violent and harsh expressions of feelings. A five-year-old child, unlike a two-year-old, may no longer show fear or tears. He is already able not only to largely control the expression of his feelings, clothe them in a generally accepted form, but also consciously use them, informing others about his experiences, influencing them.

But preschoolers still remain spontaneous impulsive. The emotions that they experience are easily read on the face, in the posture, gesture, in all behavior.

The main methods to identify the features of emotional development are observation and special drawing methods.

Observation is the oldest method of psychological research, “consisting in a deliberate, systematic and purposeful perception of mental phenomena in order to study their specific changes under certain conditions and to find the meaning of these phenomena, which is not directly given” , and when studying emotional characteristics, this method can become informative.

What are the parameters in emotional manifestations that you need to pay attention to first of all? Let's start with the emotional background. It has much in common with mood, but it is a more vague, prolonged and stable form of expressing an emotional state. The emotional background can be positive or negative. A positive emotional background is manifested in high spirits, a smile and gestures expressing openness and relaxation, hands move freely, head is raised, during a conversation the body is directed towards the interlocutor. The child easily enters into communication and games, showing interest. This does not mean that during the examination he will not be shy. There may be some tension, gradualness in establishing contact.

Negative emotional background is characterized by depression, bad mood, confusion. The child almost does not smile or does it ingratiatingly, the head and shoulders are lowered, the arms hang along the body or lie on the table, the facial expression is sad or indifferent. In such cases, there are problems in communication and establishing contact. The child often cries, is easily offended, sometimes for no apparent reason. He spends a lot of time alone, not interested in anything. During the examination, such a child is depressed, not proactive, hardly comes into contact.

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the emotional background from the reaction to the examination situation. It is possible that the child is shy or afraid of the new environment. In this case, it is better to turn to drawing or other projective methods.

In general, the emotional background gives the psychologist information about the degree of emotional well-being of the child.

Another important parameter is the expressiveness of emotions, that is, how much a child can express his feelings, how rich his emotional world is. Often, preschoolers have not yet fully mastered the cultural forms of expressing emotions. They still cannot always restrain such emotional manifestations as screaming, crying, etc. In some cases, children are simply not trained in this, in others they try to use them to influence adults, in others they cannot restrain themselves. It is important to see how rich and diverse the emotional world of the child is, whether they have mastered the shades of emotions, or whether they are flat, one-sided, unexpressed. In the latter case, the child reacts in the same way (smiling or crying) or does not express any feelings at all. This is a signal to the psychologist for a more thorough study of the characteristics of the child, as it may indicate organic lesions, a predisposition to unfavorable personality development.

The next important parameter is emotional mobility. Obviously, the emotions of children are more mobile than those of adults. This is due to incomplete myelination of nerve fibers, which leads to a frequent transition from excitation to inhibition and vice versa, and outwardly expressed in a quick and easy change of emotions from sadness to joy, from grief to fun. However, excessively fast and frequent mood swings indicate increased emotional mobility, instability. Such children in the game are violently happy, emotionally involved in the situation and can immediately burst into tears for an insignificant reason. An abrupt change in mood can be caused by success or failure in a task,joy is replaced by resentment, disappointment by anger, fear by uncontrollable joy.

Brief psychological goods / Comp. L.A. Karpechko; under total ed. A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky, - M., 1985. P. 195.

I would like to reiterate an important fact. The objectivity of observation is fundamentally unattainable, since the results obtained depend entirely on the subjectivity of the observer. The latter is determined by an unusually wide range of factors determined by the personality (in the broad sense of the word) of a specialist.
Since it is impossible to avoid subjectivity in observation, one should at least minimize its contribution to the results obtained. The only way to do this is a clear organization of the observation process itself. This is not an easy task, requiring at least the development of a professional attitude towards oneself (the subject).
An important assistance in developing such a professional attitude towards oneself is provided by the observation scheme, which gives the psychologist the opportunity to improve the accuracy and completeness of observation, to use the professional experience of other specialists. The recommendations on technology and exemplary observation schemes presented in this series of articles, in our opinion, will help educational psychologists achieve the main goal of observation: to identify children at risk for certain parameters of school maladaptation. At the same time, in order to identify the causes, mechanisms and specifics of the observed manifestations, it is necessary to conduct an individual in-depth psychological examination of students.

AFFECTIVE AND EMOTIONAL
CHILD FEATURES

Assessing the emotional characteristics of the child in the process of observation, first of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the prevailing emotional background, or the prevailing background of the child's mood.
So, for example, a child can be mostly tense, anxious in the process of classes (at the lessons), but at the same time overly excitable (cannot relax) at breaks and in communication with children. In this case, the child's high level of anxiety will prevail, and not his excitability (at breaks).
In other cases, the background of the child's mood can be constantly elevated, including due to non-criticality. At the same time, as a rule, an increased level of general mental and speech activity is also noted. Such a state of the emotional background can be characterized as inadequate, in particular, in the above example, we can talk about euphoria - an increased inadequate-joyful mood, combined with motor and general mental excitement.
However, a psychologist can also observe a reduced background of mood, which will more often manifest itself not so much in the lessons themselves as in other situations (at breaks, in the canteen, in the free communication of children). Such a child and in terms of communication is likely to have low activity.
In some cases, the decrease in the background of mood can reach a strong degree up to complete indifference (apathy). Then the psychologist will see in the child a complete loss of interest in life in all observed situations, although this may not affect the quality of mastering the program material and may not be a subject of concern for the teacher.
Thus, analyzing the prevailing emotional background, we focus on the emotional state of the child in one case - in the classroom, and in the other - outside of them.
The next parameter for assessing the emotional characteristics of the child is the adequacy of the observed affective reactions. We do not believe that with this kind of screening diagnosis, a psychologist needs to qualify specific emotional states - anger, joy, surprise, sadness, fear, etc. To solve the problems of identifying children with insufficient adaptive capabilities, it is logical to speak about the presence of inadequate emotional reactions.
In terms of assessing the adequacy of emotional reactions, one can speak of adequacy in sign and adequacy in terms of the strength of reactions. In the first case, the correspondence of the child's affective reaction to the force of influence from adults or peers is analyzed. For example, a teacher can benevolently and calmly invite the child to think more about the answer to a question, and the child in response can either cry or be offended and withdraw into himself. In extreme cases, in response to such comments, inadequate protest reactions are also possible. And vice versa, the teacher can express his claims in a rather sharp form, and the child can demonstrate variants of positive emotions. Especially often the situations described can arise in communication with peers, when a child reacts to obvious rejection and teasing from children with joyful excitement, laughter, etc., unnatural in this situation.
Difficulties in recognizing the emotional mood of other people will primarily be observed in children with distorted developmental variants. Along with this, the children of the described group will also have completely specific behavioral characteristics (especially when interacting with other people). Also, the features of motor skills, general motor activity and the specifics of speech statements will be manifested.
The inadequacy of affective reactions in terms of strength is most often observed in cases where the child, as they say, is emotionally vulnerable and “thin”. But not only. From our point of view, this kind of affective inadequacy will manifest itself if we are dealing with insufficient maturity of regulatory mechanisms that allow the child, as it were, to “meter out” his emotional expression in accordance with a particular situation. Then we will observe excessive joy or grief, which does not at all characterize the emotional vulnerability of the child. Such a child will also stand out in terms of regulatory immaturity. It is the combination of emotional inadequacy of reactions to the force of influence and regulatory immaturity that will distinguish such a child from a child with true emotional vulnerability.
Also, in the process of observation, one can note such an indicator of emotional distress as excessive emotional lability, which in the observed situations will manifest itself in very quick changes in both the mood background and its severity, and the adequacy of the response to the situation.
Many of the features of the emotional status of children observed by a specialist can be analyzed from the point of view of the level theory of basic affective regulation by O.S. Nikolskaya. From this point of view, such features as cockiness, timidity, timidity, difficulties in contacts with peers, omnivorous communication, difficulties in obeying a routine, difficulties in maintaining distance with adults, indifference, subordination, emotional passivity, understanding and the possibility of infection with an emotional state, the ability to explain the emotional state of another child will serve as an external manifestation of the insufficiency or excessive functioning of one or another basic level of affective regulation.
It is convenient to record the features of the emotional-affective sphere in a table (see Table 1).
This table is intended only to fix the observed features of a particular child. It is quite natural that in the presence of a pronounced specificity of the affective-emotional state of the child, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth psychological examination of him in order to identify and analyze the causes that led to this state, as well as to find ways to help the child.
Emotional characteristics can be present in a particular child in various combinations. For example, often a reduced mood background is combined with anxiety, and an increased mood background - with emotional lability, inadequacy in sign. Also, a child can have “advantages” not only in terms of an aggressive mood background, but also stand out from their peers in terms of inadequacy of emotional reactions and regulatory immaturity.

Table 1. Affective and emotional characteristics of the child

Ordinal room

Surname, child's name

Desk number

Affective and emotional features

Emotional mood background

Adequacy of emotional reactions

Difficulties in recognizing the emotional mood of other people (by sign and by strength)

Specific emotional features

predominance reduced background

Increased background predominance

The predominance of an anxious background (dysphoricity)

The predominance of the aggressive (evil)

Pronounced emotional lability of reactions by sign

The presence of inadequate emotional force reactions

The presence of inadequate emotional

emotional vulnerability

1

...

30

COMMUNICATION OF THE CHILD WITH CHILDREN AND ADULTS
(COMMUNICATION FEATURES)

When evaluating the characteristics of a child’s communication in various situations (at a lesson, recess, in a canteen, on a walk, etc.), it must be taken into account that almost all the characteristics and features assessed using the observation method are closely woven into the structure of communication (communications). It is quite natural that the features of speech development, affective-emotional reactions, regulatory maturity, intellectual features and even motor skills - all of them cannot but influence the communicative process. Therefore, the assessment of all these indicators is closely related to the assessment of the specifics of the child's communication with children and adults.
In this section, we highlight the most general characteristics of communication that can be assessed by a psychologist in the process of direct observation of the child's behavior and his interaction with others, namely:
communicative activity;
communicative adequacy;
conflict;
indirect assessment of the sociometric position of the child.
To some extent, communicative activity intersects with speech activity. At the same time, it is obvious that, first of all, the focus on interaction with another person and on the process of exchanging information in the general information field created by communication partners is evaluated.
When assessing the level of communicative activity, the observer captures only the quantitative side of communications, since its qualitative features (characteristics of adequacy, conflict, social perception, etc.) should be noted separately. As an example, we can cite a child who constantly turns to other children in a lesson (either behind a ruler, then behind a pencil, or just chatting, that is, he constantly requires not only attention to himself, but also an answer to his communicative messages). In this case, we can talk about high communicative activity, albeit somewhat formal.
In another case, one can observe a child who constantly mumbles something under his breath, as if talking to himself, not expecting responses from others. Such behavior cannot be called communication.
It is possible to quantify communicative activity by observing children not so much in the process of classes (at the lessons), but in a situation of free communication (at breaks, during walks).
With low communicative activity, a child can be quite mobile and motor active, but at the same time not strive to interact with other children. The child does not initiate communication himself, but only responds with greater or lesser adequacy to the communicative messages (requests) of others. As a rule, the speech activity of children with low communicative activity is also low. The exceptions are children with variants of disharmonious development (mainly of an extrapunitive plan) and children with variants of distorted development.
To some extent, a qualitative assessment of the child's interaction with other children can be made when assessing indicators of communicative adequacy.
The child's interaction with others can hardly be adequate if he has difficulties in assessing communicative messages (expectations) from other people. Outwardly, this may look like a misunderstanding of the appeal (or rather, even a misunderstanding of the subtext component of this or that appeal). This is especially true for understanding humor (both for children and adults), jokes, etc.
However, with low communicative activity, the child may not respond verbally, but only affectively. Very often, children achieve just such inadequate affective reactions, which is literally the goal of this kind of interaction. However, inadequate communicative reactions may not necessarily manifest themselves during tests “for lice”, which is quite natural, but they can also characterize a high level of conflict in a child.
Communicative inadequacy in situations of everyday, everyday interaction is an important marker of options for disharmonious or even distorted development of a child's personality and should be noted by a psychologist.
One of the indicators of communicative inadequacy is the presence of so-called communicative barriers. The concept of a communicative barrier includes a prosaic situation when information (both verbal and non-verbal) is transmitted by one child to another (adult child or adult child) in a complex and unusual form for the recipient. This is not a psychological barrier: the message as a whole may be interesting to the recipient (or at least neutral), but there are some obstacles (strokes, nuances of the situation and the child's condition) that prevent adequate perception of information. Obstacles can include, firstly, the developmental features of the child himself (underdevelopment of speech perception, ethnic, cultural, intellectual or other features of his existence), secondly, the peculiarities of the situation, thirdly, sociocultural, ethnic, religious or even intellectual features of the person transmitting information (it does not matter - an adult or a peer). At the same time, the presence of classical communication barriers cannot be denied.
One of the most common barriers is the difficulty of understanding a complex speech statement addressed to a child. This may be a consequence of insufficient speech development of the child, as well as a violation of physical hearing.
The presence of communication barriers can often be observed if a child from a different ethno-social environment enters the children's team. In this situation, there is a conglomerate of communication barriers, which, as already mentioned, have an ethnic, sociocultural, and linguistic nature.
It is clear that the purpose of observation, as already mentioned, is only to identify children at risk of personal maladjustment in the educational environment. For a more qualified and in-depth assessment of all the parameters and causes of the observed difficulties in the communication of the child (however, as well as other indicators of development), his individual in-depth psychological examination is necessary.
Another parameter of the adequacy of interaction, which, although difficult, can be assessed through observation, is an integral assessment of the formation of communication skills. The lack of formation of these skills (often combined with the poverty of the dictionary, the inability to formulate one's speech statement) is expressed in the inability to interact purely technically with other children, in the narrowness, poverty of the very repertoire of interaction methods. Such a child, in response to any appeal from other people, may begin to cry, and in some cases conflict (which can also be considered as the inadequacy of communicative reactions).
In general, the lack of formation (narrowing of the repertoire) of communication skills will be expressed in stereotyping, low modulation of communicative responses.
Also, the lack of formation of communication skills can be attributed to the difficulties of interaction in the dialogue mode (both verbal and non-verbal). Naturally, the reasons for such difficulties will be, first of all, regulatory and speech problems.
The parameter of conflict is also important in assessing the communicative characteristics of the child. Conflict, as a rule, is combined with the peculiarities of the emotional background and the presence of inadequate emotional reactions.
When observing, one should distinguish between a general high level of conflict, in which the “zone” of conflict does not depend on the communication partner and extends to most communication situations. Such a child is equally conflicted with both adults and children in various life situations. At the same time, an increased aggressive mood background is often noted. Often such a child himself provokes conflicts in relation to himself other communication partners.
With another variant of conflict behavior, namely selective conflict, there may be no problems of aggressiveness and changes in the general background of mood, and the child’s conflict manifests itself only when interacting with a specific person or in a specific situation.
Of all the above parameters, according to which communicative features are evaluated, an indirect assessment by the psychologist of the sociometric position of the child is formed. It can be viewed as an integral assessment of the nature of interactions and adaptation of the child to the surrounding communication partners. It shows how interesting the child is for communication with other children and adults, what is his authority, how much children strive for friendship with him, how much he is interesting to them both in terms of play and in terms of learning. The sociometric position (without any quantitative measurements) reflects the social role that the child performs in the group. These can be the roles of “excellent student”, “my boyfriend”, “touchy”, “scapegoat”, “soul of society”.
To assess and record the characteristics of a child's communication with children and adults, it is convenient to use the following table (see Table 2).

Natalya Semago,
candidate of psychological sciences,
PPMS Center SAO,
Moscow

Table 2. Communication of the child with children and adults (communicative features)

Ordinal room	Surname, name child	№ desks	Characteristics of the interaction of the child
			Communicative activity		Communicative adequacy				Conflict		Indirect grade sociometric position
			Excessive activity	Low activity	Difficulties estimates communicative messages	inadequate reactions	Presence of barriers communication	Formation skills	Tall level	selectively high conflict
1	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r
...	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r
30	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r

Information provided by Associate Professor of the Department of Psychotherapy and Medical Psychology of BelMAPO, Candidate of Medical Sciences, doctor of the highest qualification category Tarasevich Elena Vladimirovna

Emotional disorders in children - what is it?

A change in the emotional background may be the first sign of mental illness. Various brain structures are involved in the realization of emotions, and in young children they are less differentiated. As a result, their manifestations of experiences affect various areas, including: motor activity, sleep, appetite, bowel function, and temperature regulation. In children, more often than in adults, there are various uncharacteristic manifestations of emotional disorders, which in turn makes it difficult to recognize and treat them.

A change in the emotional background can be hidden behind: behavioral disorders and a decrease in school performance, disorders of autonomic functions that mimic certain diseases (neurocirculatory dystonia, arterial hypertension).

Over the past decades, there has been an increase in negative phenomena in the health of children and adolescents. The prevalence of disorders of psycho-emotional development in children: on average for all parameters is about 65%.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mood disorders are among the top ten most significant emotional problems in children and adolescents. According to experts, already from the first months of life to 3 years, almost 10% of children have a clear neuropsychiatric pathology. At the same time, there is a negative trend towards an annual increase in this category of children by an average of 8-12%.

According to some data, the prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders among high school students reaches 70-80%. More than 80% of children need some form of neurological, psychotherapeutic and/or psychiatric care.

The widespread prevalence of emotional disorders in children leads to their incomplete integration into the general developmental environment, problems of social and family adaptation.

Recent studies by foreign scientists indicate that both infants, preschool children and schoolchildren suffer from all types of anxiety disorders, as well as mood changes.

According to the Institute of Developmental Physiology, about 20% of children entering school already have borderline mental health disorders, and by the end of the 1st grade they already become 60-70%. School stress plays a leading role in such a rapid deterioration in the health of children.

Outwardly, stress in children passes in different ways: one of the children “withdraws into himself”, someone is too actively involved in school life, and someone needs the help of a psychologist, psychotherapist. The psyche of children is thin and vulnerable, and they often have to experience no less stress than adults.

How to determine that a child needs the help of a psychotherapist, neurologist and / or psychologist?

Sometimes adults do not immediately notice that the child is ill, that he experiences severe nervous tension, anxiety, fears, his sleep is disturbed, his blood pressure fluctuates ...

Experts identify 10 main symptoms of childhood stress that can develop into emotional disorders:

It seems to the child that neither family nor friends need him. Or he gets the strong impression that "he is lost in the crowd": he begins to feel awkward, guilty in the company of people with whom he previously had good relations. As a rule, children with this symptom answer questions shyly and briefly.

The 2nd symptom is attention problems and memory impairment.

The child often forgets what he just talked about, he loses the “thread” of the dialogue, as if he is not at all interested in the conversation. The child has difficulty collecting his thoughts, the school material in him "flies in one ear, flies out the other."

The 3rd symptom is sleep disturbance and excessive fatigue.

You can talk about the presence of such a symptom if the child constantly feels tired, but, despite this, he cannot easily fall asleep, and wake up in the morning.

"Conscious" waking up the 1st lesson is one of the most frequent types of protest against the school.

4th symptom - fear of noise and / or silence.

The child painfully reacts to any noise, shudders from sharp sounds. However, there may be an opposite phenomenon: it is unpleasant for a child to be in complete silence, so he either talks continuously, or, remaining alone in the room, always turns on music or a TV.

The 5th symptom is a violation of appetite.

An appetite disorder can be manifested in a child by a loss of interest in food, a reluctance to eat even previously favorite dishes, or, conversely, a constant desire to eat - the child eats a lot and indiscriminately.

The 6th symptom is irritability, irascibility and aggressiveness.

The child loses self-control - for the most insignificant reason at any moment he can “lose his temper”, flare up, respond rudely. Any remark of adults is met with hostility - aggression.

7th symptom - violent activity and / or passivity.

The child develops feverish activity: he fidgets all the time, pulls something or shifts. In a word, he does not sit still for a minute - he makes "movement for the sake of movement."

Often experiencing internal anxiety, a teenager plunges headlong into activities, subconsciously trying to forget himself and switch his attention to something else. However, it is worth noting that stress can also manifest itself in the opposite way: a child can shy away from important things and engage in some aimless activities.

The 8th symptom is mood swings.

Periods of good mood are abruptly replaced by anger or a whiny mood ... And this can happen several times a day: the child is either happy and carefree, or begins to act up, get angry.

The 9th symptom is the absence or excessive attention to one's appearance.

The child ceases to be interested in his appearance or turns around in front of the mirror for a very long time, changes clothes many times, restricts himself in food in order to reduce weight (danger of developing anorexia) - this can also be caused by stress.

The 10th symptom is isolation and unwillingness to communicate, as well as suicidal thoughts or attempts.

The child loses interest in peers. Attention from others causes him irritation. When he gets a phone call, he thinks about whether to answer the call, often asking to tell the caller that he is not at home. The appearance of suicidal thoughts, threats.

Emotional disorders in children are quite common, they are the result of stress. Emotional disorders in children, both in very young and older children, are more often caused by an unfavorable situation, but in rare cases they can occur spontaneously (at least, the reasons for the changed state are not observed). Apparently, in the tendency to such disorders, a genetic predisposition to fluctuations in the emotional background is of great importance. Conflicts in the family and school are also a cause of the development of emotional disorders in children.

Risk factors - a long dysfunctional family situation: scandals, parental cruelty, divorce, death of parents ...

In this state, the child may be prone to alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse.

Manifestations of emotional disorders in children

With emotional disorders in children, there may be:

Treatment of emotional disorders

Emotional disorders in children are treated in the same way as in adults: a combination of individual, family psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy gives the best effect.

Basic rules for prescribing medications in children and adolescents:

• any prescription should balance possible side effects with clinical need;
• among relatives, a person responsible for taking medications by the child is selected;
• family members are encouraged to be alert to changes in the child's behavior.

Timely diagnosis of psycho-emotional disorders in childhood and adolescence and adequate treatment is a priority for psychotherapists, neurologists, psychiatrists and doctors of other specialties.

Zakhar, 4.5 years old

Zakhar has an attention deficit.

Zakhar manifests himself as an inquisitive and intelligent child. It is characterized by a stable interest in the course of the lesson, the absence of distractions and a low level of fatigue. At the same time, he is not hyperactive, assiduous, calm, and does not indulge in class.

Always listens attentively to the proposed instruction, never interrupts.

Always happy to respond to new toys and exercises. Never refuses to exercise. Easily switches from one activity to another. All this helps Zakhar to achieve significant success in the classroom, although some tasks he does not succeed, or is still difficult. Such games and exercises include those that are aimed at the interhemispheric interaction of the brain. However, when faced with difficulties, Zakhar does not lose interest, but always completes the task to the end, showing his efficiency and desire to finish what he started. At the same time, he does not turn to adults for help, which characterizes him as an independent and purposeful child.

In the classroom, he does not pronounce his actions and the actions of others.

Demonstrates a stable emotional background: always smiling, polite, never showing aggression, negativism, not capricious.

He tries once again not to attract too much attention to himself, but at the same time, Zakhar cannot be characterized as a closed, withdrawn, trying to appear inconspicuous child.

At the same time, he gives the impression of a somewhat withdrawn child, which is actually a manifestation of Zakhar's politeness.

Emotionally, he reacts with restraint to praise or to an indication of a mistake: when praised, he smiles modestly, when pointing out a mistake, he silently tries to correct it.

In general, he gives the impression of a well-mannered, polite, curious, intelligent and positive child who is always ready to make contact and take part in any activity, but due to his modesty, does not always show initiative.

Psychological and pedagogical characteristics.

Sofia, 6 years old (whistle parasigmatism)

Sofya gives the impression of a self-critical and self-demanding child: in the classroom it is felt that she controls her activities, emotions and words. He always tries to bring things to the end, in the classroom he absolutely does not interfere with the teacher. Practically does not get tired, works slowly, but thoughtfully, not chaotically. He tries not to accept help from adults, but he does not reject it either. When faced with difficulties in completing tasks and exercises, at the beginning, silently, he thinks, and intently tries to find a solution to the task. If this fails, then immediately, firmly, admits that he cannot fulfill it. At the same time, he closes, often gets upset (once even to tears), but most often he agrees to the proposal to repeat the exercise, already with the help of an adult. This well shows the character of the girl and her self-marked clear boundaries “I can - I can’t”.

As a rule, he does not pronounce his actions and the actions of adults.

He is not distracted in class, listens to the task to the end, often shows purposefulness in their implementation. It can easily occupy itself with some kind of game, while not feeling abandoned.

Sophia's personality traits include some emotional isolation, alertness, lack of initiative in the classroom, slight irritability, passivity in communication, and timidity. The mood during classes is mostly calm, adequate to the situation.

Sophia quickly makes contact, including with adults, but it seems that this communication is somewhat burdensome for her.

Sophia is demonstrative and principled. Can get upset if her brother was started earlier than her. She likes to be calmed down, she is not afraid to express her opinion, although she does it in a quiet, calm voice.

In general, Sophia can be described as a somewhat reserved child, prone to attracting attention, but at the same time capable of diligence, self-discipline and control of her actions.

Psychological and pedagogical characteristics.

Vladislav, 5 years old (paralambdacism)

Vlad gives the impression of a cheerful and diligent child. He has a calm character, without any pronounced aggressive traits. The mood during all classes is usually positive. There are no sharp mood swings. It is clearly visible that he is trying to control his behavior, he thinks before saying something. Attentively, from the first words, listens to the proposed instruction and immediately executes it. On the other hand, it can easily give in to the mood, get distracted, sometimes it does not concentrate enough.

Always happy to respond to new toys and exercises. Never refuses to exercise. Easily switches from one activity to another. Calmly follows all the instructions, but at the same time, quickly gets tired. Difficulties or failures when performing exercises are not afraid. Vlad's mood does not fall when difficulties arise. Vlad is always open for communication, very easy to get in touch with others, demonstrates good progress in the classroom, and is always emotionally positive. All this is his main character traits.

Sociable. Always ready to make contact, including with strangers. Happy to answer questions. But he answers without detailed answers, “essentially”, without additional details.

In general, Vlad can be described as a child who easily makes contact. He is quickly distracted, does not listen to the task to the end, rarely copes on his own, because he cannot organize himself, accepts any help. He behaves adequately to the situation, is friendly, however, throughout the entire time of classes, he can fiddle with something in his hands, be distracted.