Primary school age covers the period of a child's life from 7 to 10-11 years.

Primary school age is a very important period of school childhood, on the full-fledged living of which the level of intelligence and personality, the desire and ability to learn, and self-confidence depend.

Primary school age is called the pinnacle of childhood. The child retains many childish qualities - frivolity, naivety, looking at an adult from the bottom up. But he is already beginning to lose his childish spontaneity in behavior, he has a different logic of thinking.

As the child enters school, play gradually loses its dominant role in his life, although it continues to occupy an important place in it. Teaching becomes the leading activity of the younger student. which significantly changes the motives of his behavior.

Teaching for a younger student is a significant activity. At school, he acquires not only new knowledge and skills, but also a certain social status. The interests, values ​​of the child, the whole way of his life are changing.

With admission to school changing the position of the child in the family, he has the first serious duties at home related to teaching and work, and the child goes beyond the family, because. his circle of significant persons is expanding. Of particular importance are relationship with an adult. A teacher is an adult whose social role is associated with the presentation of important, equal and mandatory requirements for children, with an assessment of the quality of educational work. The school teacher acts as a representative of society, a bearer of social patterns.

Adults begin to make increased demands on the child. All this taken together forms the problems that the child needs to solve with the help of adults at the initial stage of schooling.

The new position of the child in society, the position of the student is characterized by the fact that he has a mandatory, socially significant, socially controlled activity - educational, he must obey the system of its rules and be responsible for their violation.

The social situation in primary school age suggests the following:

1. Learning activity becomes the leading activity.
2. The transition from visual-figurative to verbal-logical thinking is being completed.
3. The social meaning of the teaching is clearly visible (the attitude of young schoolchildren to marks).
4. Achievement motivation becomes dominant.
5. The reference group is changing.
6. There is a change in the agenda.
7. A new internal position is being strengthened.
8. The system of relationships between the child and other people is changing.

Physiological features of younger students

From a physiological point of view, primary school age is it's time for growth, when children quickly stretch upwards, there is disharmony in physical development, it is ahead of the neuropsychic development of the child, which affects temporary weakening of the nervous system. Increased fatigue, anxiety, increased need for movement are manifested.

The relationship between the processes of excitation and inhibition changes. Inhibition (the basis of restraint and self-control) becomes more noticeable than in preschoolers. However, the tendency to excite is still very high, so younger students are often restless.

The main neoplasms of primary school age
- arbitrariness
- internal action plan
- reflection

Thanks to them, the psyche of a younger student reaches the level of development necessary for further education in secondary school.

The emergence of new qualities of the psyche, which are absent in preschoolers, is due to the fulfillment of the requirements for the student's educational activities.

As learning activity develops, the student learns to control his attention, he needs to learn to listen carefully to the teacher and follow his instructions. Arbitrariness is formed as a special quality of mental processes. It manifests itself in the ability to consciously set the goals of action and find the means to achieve them. In the course of solving various educational tasks, the younger student develops the ability to plan, and the child can also perform actions to himself, in the internal plan.

Irina Bazan

Literature: G.A. Kuraev, E.N. Pozharskaya. Age-related psychology. V.V. Davydov. Developmental and pedagogical psychology. L.Ts. Kagermazova. Age-related psychology. ABOUT. Darvish. Age-related psychology.

Physiological features

At primary school age, the child for the first time realizes the relationship between him and others, begins to understand the social motives of behavior, moral assessments, the significance of conflict situations, i.e. at this age, the formation of personality enters a conscious phase. If earlier the leading activity was the game, now it has become study - the equivalent of labor activity, and the assessment of others depends and is determined by school success.

The two most common parenting mistakes. The first is that parents try to fit the child to an imaginary ideal, regardless of either the innate properties of the nervous system or his inclinations and desires. The second mistake - parents do their best to ensure that the child is "comfortable". School neuroses become a consequence of this.

School neurosis is a diagnosis that refers to peculiar nervous disorders that occur after the child arrives at school. However, it is completely wrong to believe that the only cause of neurosis is the difficulties of schoolwork. The school is only an indicator that reveals the troubles and mistakes of the previous upbringing. It is mistakes in education that cause neurosis.

At early school age, children with a weak type of nervous system (hypochondriacal, suggestible, impressionable) may experience hypochondriacal complaints. For example, children begin to complain of headaches, dizziness, heart pain, etc. Such neuroses are the result of frequent conversations of adults about various diseases, while children do not pretend, do not invent the disease. The disease itself finds them, favorably resolving the painful problem - you can not go to school. The disease becomes, as it were, desirable for children. Hence the use of the terms "conditional desirability", "conditional pleasantness". However, it should be noted that school neuroses do not always develop according to the mechanism of conditional desirability. They can be built according to the mechanism of a pathologically fixed conditional connection. Such a mechanism for the development of neuroses is characteristic of children weakened by long-term illnesses. For example, against the background of nervous vomiting, nerve spasms in the stomach may occur. The treatment of such disorders is much more difficult than the treatment of conditionally desirable nervous diseases.

School neuroses should not be confused with the tricks that children often resort to. Sick or not sick, as determined by the emotional response to permission not to go to school, and by all subsequent behavior of the child. The condescension of parents in this case, firstly, teaches children to lie, and secondly, under adverse circumstances, it can contribute to the emergence of a real school neurosis.

Three ways to get out of parental custody:

1) obey

2) rebel

3) adapt.

In the first case, children become intimidated, wary, timid, cowardly, suspicious, unsure of their abilities. They shun the company of children, fearing ridicule and avoiding participation in common games due to awkwardness and cowardice. At best, they move away from real life into a fantasy world.

The second way out is to rebel (leave home, wander, refuse food or school). Doctors call this rebellion the rejection reaction.

The third way is to adapt. Usually children with a strong type of higher nervous activity adapt. They develop a special behavioral tactic - duality: unquestioning obedience, exemplary behavior in front of adults and, as compensation, bad deeds, sophisticated bullying of the weak in the absence of adults, on the sly. This type of response does not lead to school maladaptation, so these children very rarely come to the attention of doctors and teachers, but there is a negative formation of personality.

Neurotic reactions that develop as a result of purely pedagogical errors: when contact is lost between the student and the teacher, when the teacher treats the child unfairly (didactogeny).

School neuroses are specific only for primary school age. This is due to the fact that at this age for the first time there is awareness of oneself, awareness of one's relationship with the outside world. Since awareness is not yet at a high level, the nervous diseases of these years are not yet of a developed nature. There are no typical adult neuroses at primary school age, but the prerequisites, many symptoms are similar to adults.

Hysterical symptoms - paralysis, numbness, urinary retention, nervous cough, nervous vomiting, imaginary blindness and deafness.

Psychasthenia or psychasthenic symptoms are "mental chewing gum" when a person thinks logically and tediously about any trifle for a long time and ponders every action, every step, every movement.

Neurasthenia (asthenic neurosis) - general weakness, lethargy, fatigue, exhaustion, intolerance to any mental stress, rapid depletion of active attention. Overfatigue is especially dangerous for children weakened by chronic somatic diseases, for children who have suffered trauma or asphyxia at the time of birth. Sometimes these symptoms occur as a result of a temporary weakening of the central nervous system after an infectious disease (measles, scarlet fever, influenza).

Depressive neurosis - children react with depression to illness, death, divorce of parents or to a long separation from them. The occurrence of depressive neurosis may be associated with school failure when high demands are made on the child, the experience of one's own inferiority in the presence of one or another conspicuous physical defect.

L.S. Vygotsky wrote that every defect in a child induces powerful compensatory forces in him, and in some cases the defect becomes a source of unusually strong and rapid mental development. It is necessary to support these forces in every possible way, to rationally direct interests in order to overcome the feeling of one's own inferiority.

According to the age periodization of D.B. Elkonin, each age period is characterized by a certain social situation of development (the child's attitude to reality); the leading activity in which the child masters this reality intensively; the main neoplasm that occurs at the end of each period.

Age from 6 to 7 years is considered in developmental psychology to be extremely important in terms of the emergence of psychological neoplasms that allow the child to move to a new stage of age development, i.e. to become a junior schoolchild, to master a new type of leading activity - study. Cognitive activity is motivated by curiosity and the desire to communicate with smart people, so the main task is to form a cognitive motive by means of objects. The principle of systematic work on the development of all students becomes especially significant when working with 6-year-old children.

The main method of learning during this period is confidential conversations, similar to those that a child has in a family or circle of his peers, educational excursions, observations (for the germination of something, for growth, construction, difference and similarity), practical work, cognitive games.

Characteristics of mental processes:

involuntary attention prevails, which can be maintained for 1-2 hours, the first attempts to organize voluntary attention. The amount of attention is small, the distribution is weak, random selectivity. Attention is controlled by external signs;

during this period, perception becomes more focused. Uncertainty in the differentiation of small details is noted, the child grasps only the general impression, the image of the sign, and the details are not important to him. Categorical perception contributes to the connection of perception with thinking;

memory and imagination should already be formed, because. these mental functions were the main mental new formations of previous periods; the child must have elementary mnemonic techniques. Memory gets a powerful boost, but the strength of the material to remember may not change. Verbal-logical memory develops with appropriate memorization techniques;

by the age of 7, abstract thinking in children is just beginning to form, i.e. the second signaling system is in the stage of development and improvement, at the initial stages of improvement. Physiologically, in children of this age, the first signaling system predominates. The criterion for the development of thinking can be the number of questions asked by the child;

as they grow older, the younger schoolchildren show polarization of the sexes. At the same time, along with polarization, the first signs of attraction to the opposite sex, the first signs of sexuality, appear. In girls, this is usually painted in romantic tones. In boys, attraction to the opposite sex is often expressed in a crude form. Girls, to whom boys do not become attached, sometimes feel left out and often provoke boys to all kinds of rudeness. It is important to ensure at this stage a socially acceptable and encouraged manifestation of the natural tendencies of the child;

a child goes to school during a period of crisis in his own development, this is due to certain characteristics in his behavior. The child moves from focusing on the assimilation of social norms and relations (at preschool age, the development of these norms took place in a role-playing game, as the leading form of activity) to a predominant focus on the assimilation of methods of action with objects (at primary school age, educational activity will be the leading one);

The immediate prerequisite for learning activity is games according to the rules that appear towards the end of preschool age and immediately precede learning activities. In them, the child had to learn to consciously obey the rules, and these rules easily become internal to him, not compulsory;

it is possible to detect the features of a child's readiness for school through the features of the interaction of a first-grader with adults (teachers, parents), peers and himself.

It is in the sphere of communication between a child and an adult that significant changes take place by the end of preschool age. If you try to designate them in one word, then it will be arbitrariness. It is communication with the teacher that can make up the first group of difficulties for the child. Communication acquires a certain context, becomes extra-situational. By the beginning of schooling, in communicating with an adult, children become able to rely not on personal situational experience, but on all the content that creates the context of communication, understanding the adult’s position and the conditional meaning of the teacher’s questions.

It is these features that a child needs to accept a learning task - one of the most important components of learning activity. What does it mean to "be able to accept a learning task"? This means the child's ability to single out a question-problem, subordinate his actions to it and rely not on personal intuition, but on those logical semantic relationships that are reflected in the conditions of the problem. Otherwise, children will not be able to solve problems, not because of their lack of skills and abilities or because of intellectual insufficiency, but because of the underdevelopment of their communication with adults. They will either act chaotically with the proposed, for example, numbers, or replace the learning task with a situation of direct communication with an adult. Thus, teachers working in the first grade should understand that arbitrariness in communication with an adult is necessary for children to accept a learning task. The reason for the emergence of arbitrariness in communication is role-playing games. Therefore, it is necessary to find out whether children in the first grade can play such games. There are special methods (Kravtsova E.E. Psychological problems of children's readiness for schooling - M.: Pedagogy, 1991)

The second group of possible difficulties in the work of teachers with children in the first grade may be associated with insufficient development of communication and the ability of children to interact with each other. Mental functions are first formed in the collective in the form of relations between children, and then become functions of the individual's psyche. Only the appropriate level of development of the child's communication with peers allows one to act adequately in the conditions of collective educational activity. Communication with a peer is closely connected with such an important element of educational activity as a learning action. Mastering learning actions gives the child the opportunity to learn the general way of solving a whole class of problems. Children who do not master the general method, as a rule, can only solve problems of the same content. It has been established that the assimilation of common methods of action requires students to be able to look at themselves and their actions from the outside, requires an internal change of position, an objective attitude to the actions of other participants in the joint work, i.e. collective activity.

To form the proper level of communication with peers (if this was not done before school), you can conduct a whole system of classes within the framework of both the subject "Introduction to school life" and other subjects (Russian language, mathematics, natural science, literature), using the following tricks:

a) joint activity - a game where children must coordinate their actions no longer according to given roles, but according to the subject content and meaning of this activity;

b) "play" of an adult with children, where an adult shows them patterns of interaction as an equal partner;

c) direct teaching children to interact in a situation of a common task, when an adult prompts them, helps them solve the proposed task by joint efforts;

d) the introduction of a "manager" (one of the children) into the collective game, who would "conduct" the game of the other participants and thereby learn to simultaneously take into account the positions of all the players;

e) introduction into the game of two "managers" with mutually opposite positions in such a way that during the whole game they had to learn to achieve a common task, while maintaining competitive relations;

f) a game in which the child simultaneously performs two roles with mutually opposite interests, thanks to which he develops the ability to jointly consider the positions of different sides.

The third group of possible difficulties for children in the early stages of schooling may be associated with a specific attitude towards themselves, their capabilities and abilities, their activities and their results. Self-esteem of a preschooler is almost always overestimated. With the transition to a new age period, serious changes occur in the child's attitude towards himself.

Learning activity involves a high level of control, which should be based on an adequate assessment of their actions and capabilities. It is dangerous to teach children with preschool self-esteem the school way. Inflated self-esteem is characteristic of a child not because of his immodesty and bragging, but because he does not know how to look at himself from the outside and see others from different angles, does not know how to analyze and compare his own and other people's work. Therefore, the task of the teacher, without artificially lowering the child's self-esteem, is to teach his child to "see" others, to show the possibility of moving from one position to another when considering the same situation, to help him take the position of a teacher, mother, educator. This is where special director's games can come in handy. Director's game involves the child's ability to create and embody the plot, requires him to simultaneously perform many roles. Thus, it stimulates the child's imagination and helps him to fit into his "I" many different images and role positions. This leads to a comprehensive and objective assessment of oneself and others. Dramatization is a good way to learn directing. It is a play by children of certain predetermined plots.

The first year of study (especially if the children are six years old) should be devoted to correcting those shortcomings that arise at home or with modern education in kindergarten. A super-subject or inter-subject ENVIRONMENT should be created, in which those prerequisites that are necessary for the transition to a new type of activity - educational activity will be brought to a certain level.

Crisis 7 years

The child becomes more critical of his actions, begins to measure his desires with real possibilities. The range of interests is expanding, the content of games is becoming more complicated. A child may express a desire to go to school in order to learn a profession they like.

The physiological essence of this crisis has not yet been fully elucidated. It is believed that during this period the active activity of the thymus gland ceases, as a result of which the brake is removed from the activity of the sex and a number of other endocrine glands, for example, the pituitary gland, the adrenal cortex, and sex hormones such as androgens and estrogens begin to be produced. There is a distinct endocrine shift, which is accompanied by rapid body growth, an increase in internal organs, and vegetative restructuring. Such changes require the body to exert great tension and mobilize all the reserves of the body, which leads to increased fatigue and neuropsychic vulnerability.

During this period, the higher cortical mechanisms come into play, the child slowly but steadily begins to move from a muscular emotional life to a life of consciousness.

For pedagogically neglected children, this is the last term, the last opportunity to catch up with their intellectually prosperous peers. Later, the Mowgli phenomenon is triggered, because. 3/4 of the total development of a person's mental abilities occur before the age of 7, with 2/4 falling before the age of 4, but this does not mean early learning, because. only by the age of 6-7 years the child's brain reaches the size of the brain of an adult, only by the age of 6-7 years the value of the radius of the cornea of ​​the eye is established, only by the age of 6-7 years does the child develop inner speech, i.e. speech becomes an instrument of thought.

The overload associated with early learning is dangerous because the growing brain has weakened defense mechanisms, which can cause a neurotic reaction.

Crisis neoplasms are:

1) "Involuntary voluntariness" (Bozovic) - The child likes to play like an adult, fulfilling the system of requirements as an adult;

2) Intellectualization of affect - a rational component is introduced into the experience of emotions. If earlier the child spontaneously expressed his feelings, now he is trying to analyze whether the manifestation of his feelings is appropriate here. As a result of this, naturalness in their expression is violated, forms appear that adults take for antics and grimaces.

3) Subordination of motives - the ability to prioritize, place emphasis, "should" can win over "want".

The crisis of 7 years is not very difficult. The desire to be an adult, underlying the crisis, can be satisfied through the inclusion of the child in the system of work operations, help at home, and also through the earlier start of education.

Ya. A. Comenius was the first who insisted on strict consideration of the age characteristics of children in educational work. He put forward and substantiated the principle of natural conformity, according to which training and education should correspond to the age stages of development (41).

Accounting for age characteristics is one of the fundamental pedagogical principles. Based on it, teachers regulate the teaching load, establish reasonable volumes of employment with various types of work, determine the most favorable daily routine for development, the mode of work and rest of the child.

Biologically, younger schoolchildren are going through a "period of the second rounding" (48, p. 136): in comparison with the previous age, their growth slows down and their weight noticeably increases; the skeleton undergoes ossification, but this process is not yet completed. There is an intensive development of the muscular system. With the development of the small muscles of the hand, the ability to perform subtle movements appears, thanks to which the child masters the skill of fast writing. Significantly increases muscle strength. All tissues of the child's body are in a state of growth. At primary school age, the nervous system improves, the functions of the cerebral hemispheres are intensively developed, and the analytical and synthetic functions of the cortex are enhanced. The weight of the brain at primary school age almost reaches the weight of the brain of an adult and increases to an average of 1400 grams. The mind of the child develops rapidly. The relationship between the processes of excitation and inhibition is changing: the process of inhibition becomes stronger, but the process of excitation still predominates, and younger students are highly excitable. Increases the accuracy of the senses. Compared to preschool age, color sensitivity increases by 45%, joint-muscular sensations improve by 50%, and visual sensations by 80% (48).

Intensive sensory development at preschool age provides the younger student with a level of perception sufficient for learning - high visual acuity, hearing, orientation to the shape and color of an object.

At the same time, syncretism, as well as high emotionality, remain features of the perception of younger students. Syncretism is manifested in the perception of “lumps”, which is characteristic of a preschooler and persists at primary school age. This feature makes it difficult to perform the analysis operations required in educational activities.

The initial period of school life occupies the age range from 6 to 10 years (grades 1-4). At primary school age, children have significant reserves of development. Their identification and effective use is one of the main tasks of developmental and educational psychology (58, p. 496). With the child entering school, under the influence of education, the restructuring of all his conscious processes begins, they acquire the qualities characteristic of adults, since children are included in new types of activity and a system of interpersonal relations. The general characteristics of all cognitive processes of the child are their arbitrariness, productivity and stability.

In order to skillfully use the reserves available to the child, it is necessary to adapt children to work at school and at home as soon as possible, teach them to study, to be attentive, diligent. By entering school, the child must have sufficiently developed self-control, labor skills, the ability to communicate with people, and role-playing behavior.

At primary school age, those basic human characteristics of cognitive processes are fixed and further developed: attention, perception, memory, imagination, thinking and speech.

In the initial period of educational work with children, one should, first of all, rely on those aspects of cognitive processes that are most developed in them, not forgetting, of course, the need for parallel improvement of the rest.

The attention of children by the time they enter school should become arbitrary, possessing the necessary volume, stability, and switchability. Since the difficulties that children face in practice at the beginning of schooling are connected precisely with the lack of attention development, it is necessary to take care of its improvement in the first place, preparing the preschooler for learning.

Attention at primary school age becomes voluntary, but for quite a long time, especially in the primary grades, involuntary attention in children remains strong and competes with voluntary attention. The volume and stability, switchability and concentration of voluntary attention to the third grade of school in children are almost the same as in an adult. Younger students can move from one type of activity to another without much difficulty and internal effort.

In a younger student, one of the types of perception of the surrounding reality can dominate: practical, figurative or logical.

The development of perception is manifested in its selectivity, meaningfulness, objectivity and a high level of formation of perceptual actions. The memory of children of primary school age is quite good. Memory gradually becomes arbitrary, mnemonics is mastered. From 6 to 10 years old, they actively develop mechanical memory for unrelated logical units of information. The older the younger student becomes, the more advantages he has of memorizing meaningful material over meaningless. Even more important than memory for children's learning is thinking. When entering school, it must be developed and presented in all three main forms: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical. However, in practice, we often encounter a situation where, having the ability to solve problems well in a visually effective way, a child copes with them with great difficulty when these tasks are presented in a figurative, let alone verbal-logical form. It also happens vice versa: a child can reasonably conduct reasoning, have a rich imagination, figurative memory, but is not able to successfully solve practical problems due to insufficient development of motor skills and abilities.

During the first three to four years of schooling, progress in the mental development of children can be quite noticeable. From the dominance of a visual-effective and elementary way of thinking, from a pre-conceptual level of development and thinking poor in logic, the student rises to verbal-logical thinking at the level of specific concepts. The beginning of this age is connected, using the terminology of J. Piaget and L. S. Vygotsky, with the dominance of pre-operational thinking, and the end - with the predominance of operational thinking in concepts. At the same age, the general and special abilities of children are revealed quite well, which make it possible to judge their giftedness.

Primary school age contains a significant potential for the mental development of children. The complex development of children's intelligence in primary school age goes in several different directions:

• - assimilation and active use of speech as a means of thinking;
• - connection and mutually enriching influence on each other of all types of thinking: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical;
• - allocation, isolation and relatively independent development in the intellectual process of two phases: the preparatory phase (problem solution: an analysis of its conditions is carried out and a plan is developed); executive phase - this plan is implemented in practice.

Visual-active and visual-figurative thinking dominates among first-graders and second-graders, while students of the third and fourth grades rely more on verbal-logical and figurative thinking, and they equally successfully solve problems in all three plans: practical, figurative and verbal -logical (verbal).

Deep and productive mental work requires perseverance from children, restraining emotions and regulating natural motor activity, focusing and maintaining attention. Many of the children quickly get tired, tired. A particular difficulty for children of 6-7 years of age, who begin to study at school, is the self-regulation of behavior. They do not have enough willpower to constantly keep themselves in a certain state, to control themselves.

Until the age of seven, children can only find reproductive images - ideas about events known to them that are not perceived at a given moment in time, and these images are mostly static. Productive images-representations of the result of a new combination of some elements appear in children in the process of special creative tasks. This creates an opportunity for children to develop the distribution of attention and, as a consequence, the development of polyphonic musical abilities.

The main activities that a child of this age is mostly engaged in at school and at home are teaching, communication, play and work. Each of the four types of activity characteristic of a child of primary school age: teaching, communication, play and work - performs specific functions in his development.

Teaching contributes to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities, the development of abilities (including musical ones).

Of no small importance for success in learning are the communicative traits of the child's character, in particular, his sociability, contact, responsiveness and complaisance, as well as strong-willed personality traits: perseverance, purposefulness, perseverance and others.

A particularly important positive role in the intellectual development of younger schoolchildren is played by labor, which represents a relatively new type of activity for them. Labor improves the practical intellect necessary for various types of future professional creative activity. It should be quite varied and interesting for children. It is advisable to make any task at school or at home interesting and creative enough for the child, giving him the opportunity to think and make independent decisions. In work, the child's initiative and creative approach to work should be encouraged, and not only the work performed by him and its specific result.

Expansion of the scope and content of communication with other people, especially adults, who act as teachers for younger students, serve as role models and the main source of various knowledge. Collective forms of work that stimulate communication are nowhere so useful for the general development and mandatory for children as in primary school age. Communication improves the exchange of information, improves the communicative structure of the intellect, teaches how to correctly perceive, understand and evaluate children.

The game improves objective activity, logic and methods of thinking, forms and develops the skills of business interaction with people. Children's games also become different at this age, they acquire more perfect forms. Changes, enriched by newly acquired experience, their content. Individual object games acquire a constructive character, they widely use new knowledge, especially from the field of natural sciences, as well as the knowledge that children have acquired in labor classes at school. Group, collective games are intellectualized. At this age, it is important that the younger student is provided with a sufficient number of educational games at school and at home and has time to practice them. The game at this age continues to take second place after the educational activity (as the leading one) and significantly influence the development of children.

Of great interest to younger students are games that make you think, provide a person with the opportunity to test and develop their abilities, including them in competitions with other people. The participation of children in such games contributes to their self-affirmation, develops perseverance, the desire for success and other useful motivational qualities that children may need in their future adult life. In such games, thinking is improved, including the actions of planning, forecasting, weighing the chances of success, choosing alternatives, and the like.

Speaking about the motivational readiness of children to learn, one should also keep in mind the need to achieve success, the corresponding self-esteem and level of claims. The need to achieve success in a child, of course, must dominate over the fear of failure. In learning, communication and practical activities related to testing abilities, in situations involving competition with other people, children should show as little anxiety as possible. It is important that their self-assessment is adequate, and the level of claims is consistent with the real opportunities available to the child.

At primary school age, the child’s character is mainly formed, his main features are formed, which later influence the child’s practical activities and his communication with people.

The abilities of children do not have to be formed by the beginning of schooling, especially those that continue to develop actively in the learning process. Another thing is more significant: that even in the preschool period of childhood, the child should form the necessary inclinations for the development of the necessary abilities.

Almost all children, playing a lot and in various ways at preschool age, have a well-developed and rich imagination. The main questions that in this area may still arise before the child and the teacher at the beginning of training relate to the connection between imagination and attention, the ability to regulate figurative representations through voluntary attention, as well as the assimilation of abstract concepts that it is enough to imagine and present to a child, as well as an adult. difficult.

In this age period, there are also changes in the structure of the relationship "child - adult", it becomes differentiated and is divided into substructures: "child - teacher" and "child - parents".

The "child-teacher" system begins to determine the relationship of the child to parents and the relationship of the child to children. B. G. Ananiev, L. I. Bozhovich, I. S. Slavitsa showed this experimentally. Good behavior and good grades are what construct a child's relationship with adults and peers. The “child-teacher” system becomes the center of a child’s life; the totality of all favorable conditions for life depends on it.

For the first time the relation "child - teacher" becomes the relation "child - society". Within the framework of relationships in the family, there is an inequality of relations, in kindergarten an adult acts as an individual, and at school the principle “everyone is equal before the law” operates. The teacher embodies the requirements of society, he is the bearer of the system of standards and measures for evaluation. Therefore, often, the student tries to imitate his teacher, thus approaching a certain "standard".

The situation "child - teacher" permeates the whole life of the child. If it’s good at school, then it’s good at home, which means it’s good with children too.

The malleability and well-known suggestibility of schoolchildren, their gullibility, tendency to imitate, the enormous authority enjoyed by the teacher, create favorable conditions for the formation of a highly moral personality. The foundations of moral behavior are laid precisely in elementary school; its role in the process of socialization of the individual is enormous.

From the foregoing, we can conclude: primary school age is a period of absorption, assimilation, accumulation of knowledge. This is the period of childhood most favorable for educational influences. It is characterized by trusting obedience to the authority of an adult, increased susceptibility, attentiveness. The main mental functions during this period reach a fairly high level, which becomes the basis for subsequent qualitative acquisitions of the psyche. Children at this age are receptive and impressionable, which ensures the dynamic cognitive and personal development of the child and creates the possibility of developing polyphonic musical abilities.

• 1. A teacher who stimulates the development of voluntary interest will have a formative effect on the mental development of the child.
• 2. At primary school age, imitation is based on imitation of the teacher.
• 3. The process of mastering analysis in children of primary school age begins with an emotional-sensory experience.
• 4. The education of a younger student leads to the development of his emotional and volitional abilities.
• 5. Awareness of the age characteristics of children of primary school age allows the music teacher to identify the forms, methods of his professional pedagogical activity aimed at developing the musical abilities of children of this age. Among them, a special place is occupied by the game.
• 6. The educational activity of younger students contributes to the development of cognitive abilities.
• 7. At primary school age, the arbitrariness and awareness of all mental processes and their intellectualization, their internal mediation, which occurs due to the assimilation of a system of scientific concepts, sets in.

Considering the features of the development of children of primary school age, we came to the main conclusion that in the development of polyphonic musical abilities, the teacher must be especially sensitive, proceed from the age characteristics of children, as well as a humane-personal approach, stand on the positions of a differentiated approach. The teacher should know the age characteristics of children, but the approach to each child should be individual. A sensitive teacher, using an individual approach, is able to influence the development of all parameters of attention in children, - “By managing attention, we take into our own hands the key to education and to the formation of personality and character”, - L.S. Vygotsky (68, p. 173). A differentiated approach to play activity involves the teacher's involvement in the game of each child, regardless of his age characteristics, type of temperament, knowledge, skills, etc.

Introduction

The problem of the mental development of younger schoolchildren is one of the fundamental problems of modern child psychology. The study of this problem, along with scientific significance, is also of practical interest, since it is ultimately aimed at solving many pedagogical issues related to the organization of effective education and upbringing of younger schoolchildren. Knowledge of these features and capabilities is important for improving educational work with children.

Entering school sums up preschool childhood and becomes the launching pad for primary school age (6-7 - 10-11 years old). Primary school age is a very important period of school childhood, on the full-fledged living of which depends the level of intelligence of the individual, the desire and ability to learn, self-confidence.

At primary school age, in connection with the subordination of motives and the formation of self-consciousness, the development of the personality continues, which began in preschool childhood. The younger student is in other conditions - he is included in socially significant educational activities, the results of which are evaluated by close adults. The development of his personality during this period directly depends on school performance, assessment of the child in the role of a student.

The younger student is actively involved in various activities - playing, working, sports and art. However, teaching takes on a leading role in primary school age. In primary school age, learning activity becomes the leading one. Educational activity is an activity directly aimed at the assimilation of knowledge and skills developed by mankind. This is an unusually difficult activity, which will be given a lot of time and effort - 10 or 11 years of a child's life. Educational activity, having a complex structure, goes through a long path of formation. Its development will continue throughout the years of school life, but the foundations are laid in the first years of study. A child, becoming a junior schoolchild, despite the preparatory period, more or less experience of training sessions, finds himself in fundamentally new conditions. School education is distinguished not only by the special social significance of the child's activity, but also by the mediation of relations with adult models and assessments, by following the rules common to all, and by the acquisition of scientific concepts. These moments, as well as the specifics of the child's educational activity, affect the development of his mental functions, personality formations and voluntary behavior.

Thinking becomes the dominant function in primary school age. Due to this, the mental processes themselves are intensively developed, rebuilt, and, on the other hand, the development of other mental functions depends on the intellect. In the learning process, cognitive processes change - attention, memory, perception. In the foreground is the formation of the arbitrariness of these mental functions, which can occur either spontaneously, in the form of a stereotyped adaptation to the conditions of the activity of learning, or purposefully, as the interiorization of special control actions.

The motivational sphere, according to A.N. Leontiev, - the core of personality. Among the various social motives, the main place is occupied by the motive of getting high grades. High grades are a source of other rewards, a guarantee of his emotional well-being, a source of pride. Other broad social motives are duty, responsibility, the need to get an education, and so on. - are also realized by students, give meaning to their educational work. They correspond to the value orientations that children learn mainly in the family.

The object of the study is a junior schoolchild, the subject of the study is the features of the psychological development of a junior schoolchild.

The purpose of the study is a theoretical analysis of the characteristics of psychological development in primary school age.

The main objectives of the study:

.give a general description of primary school age;

.analyze the social situation of development, the leading activity of primary school age;

.to analyze the development of mental functions and personal development in primary school age.

1. General characteristics of the psychological characteristics of primary school age

1.1 The social situation of development in primary school age

In domestic psychology, the specificity of each age, each age stage is revealed through the analysis of the leading activity, the features of the social situation of development, and the characteristics of the main age-related neoplasms.

As soon as a child enters school, a new social situation of development is established. The change in the social situation of development consists in the child's going beyond the family, in expanding the circle of significant persons. Of particular importance is the allocation of a special type of relationship with an adult mediated by a task ("child - adult - task").

The teacher becomes the center of the social situation of development. A teacher is an adult whose social role is associated with the presentation of important, equal and mandatory requirements for children, with an assessment of the quality of educational work. The school teacher acts as a representative of society, a bearer of social patterns.

The new position of the child in society, the position of the student is characterized by the fact that he has a mandatory, socially significant, socially controlled activity - educational, he must obey the system of its rules and be responsible for their violation. The main neoplasm of primary school age is abstract verbal-logical and reasoning thinking, the emergence of which significantly restructures other cognitive processes of children; thus, memory at this age becomes thinking, and perception becomes thinking. Thanks to such thinking, memory and perception, children are subsequently able to successfully master truly scientific concepts and operate with them. I.V. Shapovalenko points to the formation of intellectual reflection - the ability to comprehend the content of one's actions and grounds - a neoplasm that marks the beginning of the development of theoretical thinking in younger students.

Another important new formation of this age is the ability of children to arbitrarily regulate their behavior and control it, which becomes an important quality of the child's personality.

According to the concept of E. Erickson, in the period from 6 to 12 years, the child is introduced to the working life of society, diligence is developed. The positive outcome of this stage brings the child a sense of his own competence, the ability to act on an equal footing with other people; the unfavorable outcome of the stage is an inferiority complex.

At the age of 7-11 years, the motivational-need sphere and self-awareness of the child are actively developing. One of the most important is the desire for self-affirmation and the claim to recognition from teachers, parents and peers, primarily associated with educational activities, its success. In the personality of the child, a hierarchical system of motives and motives is built, in contrast to the amorphous, one-level system at preschool age.

From the beginning of the child's admission to school, his interaction with other children is carried out through the teacher, who gradually accustoms the children to direct interaction with each other. The motives for communication with peers coincide with the motivation of preschoolers (the need for playful communication, the positive qualities of the personality of the chosen one, the ability for a particular type of activity).

In grades 3-4, the situation changes: the child has a need for peer approval. The requirements, norms, expectations of the team are formed. Children's groups are formed with their own rules of conduct, secret languages, codes, ciphers, etc., which is one of the manifestations of the tendency to separate from the world of adults. As a rule, such groups are formed from children of the same sex.

J. Piaget argued that the emergence of a child's ability to cooperate can be detected by the age of 7, which is associated with the development of his ability to decenter, the ability to see the world from the perspective of another person.

By the age of 6-7, the child has moral instances leading to changes in the motivational sphere. The child develops a sense of duty - the main moral motive that encourages specific behavior. At the first stage of mastering moral norms, the leading motive is the approval of an adult. The child's desire to follow the requirements of adults is expressed in a generalized category, denoted by the word "must", which appears not only in the form of knowledge, but also experience.

In elementary school social motives of teaching prevail. First-graders are mainly attracted by the very process of learning as a socially valuable activity. Motivation by the content is mediated at first by the orientation towards the teacher. In the first grade, the status or positional motive “to be a student” dominates. Leading is also the motive of "good mark". Often there is a motive for approval in the class team, striving for excellence and recognition by peers. The presence of this motive testifies to the egocentric position of the child (“to be better than everyone else”). Studies by American psychologists have shown that rivalry between children increases between 3.5 and 5.5 years; as the dominant model of interaction, the motive of rivalry is established by the age of 5; from the age of 7, rivalry acts as an autonomous motive. With the dominance of this motive in a situation of choice, an action is carried out that increases one's own benefit and reduces the benefit of another child.

Structure of motives:

A) Internal motives: 1) cognitive motives - those motives that are associated with the content or structural characteristics of the educational activity itself: the desire to acquire knowledge; the desire to master the ways of self-acquisition of knowledge; 2) social motives - motives associated with factors that affect the motives of learning, but not related to learning activities (social attitudes in society change -> social motives for learning change): the desire to be a literate person, to be useful to society; the desire to get the approval of senior comrades, to achieve success, prestige; the desire to master ways of interacting with other people, classmates. Achievement motivation in primary school often becomes dominant. Children with high academic performance have a pronounced motivation to achieve success - the desire to do the task well, correctly, to get the desired result. Motivation for avoiding failure: children try to avoid the "deuce" and the consequences that a low mark entails - teacher dissatisfaction, parental sanctions (they will scold, forbid walking, watching TV, etc.).

B) External motives - to study for good grades, for material reward, i.e. the main thing is not getting knowledge, some kind of reward.

The development of learning motivation depends on the assessment, it is on this basis that in some cases there are difficult experiences and school maladaptation. School assessment directly affects the formation of self-esteem. Assessment of progress at the beginning of schooling is, in essence, an assessment of the personality as a whole and determines the social status of the child. High achievers and some well-performing children develop inflated self-esteem. For underachieving and extremely weak students, systematic failures and low grades reduce their self-confidence, in their abilities. The full development of the personality involves the formation of a sense of competence, which E. Erickson considers the central neoplasm of this age. Educational activity is the main one for a younger student, and if the child does not feel competent in it, his personal development is distorted.

Primary school age is associated with the child's transition to systematic schooling. The beginning of schooling leads to a radical change in the social situation of the child's development. He becomes a “public” subject and now has socially significant duties, the fulfillment of which receives public assessment. The whole system of the child's life relationships is rebuilt and is largely determined by how successfully he copes with the new requirements.

1.2 Leading activity in primary school age

Primary school age is the period of childhood, in which educational activity becomes the leading one. From the moment the child enters school, it begins to mediate the entire system of his relations. One of its paradoxes is the following: being social in its meaning, content and form, it is at the same time carried out purely individually, and its products are the products of individual assimilation. In the process of educational activity, the child masters the knowledge and skills developed by mankind.

The second feature of this activity is the child's acquisition of the ability to subordinate his work in various classes to a mass of rules binding on all as a socially developed system. Obedience to rules forms in the child the ability to regulate his behavior and thus higher forms of arbitrary control of it.

When a child enters school, his whole way of life, his social position, position in the team, and family change dramatically. From now on, his main activity is teaching, the most important social duty is the duty to learn, to acquire knowledge. And teaching is a serious work that requires a certain organization, discipline, and considerable volitional efforts on the part of the child. More and more often you have to do what you need, and not what you want. The student is included in a new team for him, in which he will live, study, develop and grow up.

From the first days of schooling, the main contradiction arises, which is the driving force behind development in primary school age. This is a contradiction between the ever-growing demands that educational work and the team place on the personality of the child, on his attention, memory, thinking, and the current level of mental development, the development of personality traits. Demands are constantly growing, and the current level of mental development is continuously drawn up to their level.

Learning activity has the following structure: 1) learning tasks, 2) learning activities, 3) control action, 4) evaluation action. This activity is associated primarily with the assimilation of theoretical knowledge by younger students, i.e. those in which the main relations of the studied subject are revealed. When solving educational problems, children master the general ways of orientation in such relationships. Educational activities are aimed at the assimilation of these methods by children.

An important place in the overall structure of educational activity is also occupied by control and evaluation actions, which allow students to carefully monitor the correct implementation of the learning actions just indicated, and then identify and evaluate the success of solving the entire educational task.

Learning activity is a special form of student activity aimed at changing himself as a subject of learning. This is an unusually difficult activity, which will be given a lot of time and effort - 10 or 11 years of a child's life. Educational activity is the leading one at school age because, firstly, through it the main relations of the child with society are carried out; secondly, they form both the basic personality traits of a school-age child and individual mental processes. An explanation of the basic neoplasms that arise at school age is impossible without an analysis of the process of formation of educational activity and its level. The study of the patterns of formation of educational activity is the central problem of developmental psychology - the psychology of school age. Assimilation is the main content of educational activity and is determined by the structure and level of development of educational activity in which it is included.

The basic unit of learning activity is the learning task. The main difference between a learning task and any other tasks is that its goal and result is to change the acting subject itself, i.e. in mastering certain modes of action, and not in changing the objects with which the subject acts. The learning task consists of the main interrelated structural elements: learning goals and learning activities. The latter include both learning activities in the narrow sense of the word, and actions to control the actions performed and evaluate them.

The learning task is a clear idea of ​​what is to be mastered, what is to be mastered. Learning activities are methods of learning work. Some of them are of a general nature and are used in the study of various academic subjects, while others are subject-specific. Actions of control (indication of the correctness of execution) and self-control (actions of comparison, correlation of one's own actions with the model). The activities of assessment and self-assessment are associated with determining whether the result has been achieved, how successfully the learning task has been completed. Self-assessment as an integral part of the activity of teaching is necessary for the formation of reflection.

In the formed learning activity, all these elements are in certain relationships. By the time the child enters school, the formation of learning activities is just beginning. The process and effectiveness of the formation of educational activity depend on the content of the material being assimilated, the specific teaching methodology and the forms of organization of schoolchildren's educational work.

Due to the spontaneity of the process, educational activity is often not formed until the transition to the middle classes of the school. The lack of formation of educational activity leads to a drop in academic performance that is sometimes observed during the transition to the middle classes of the school. The formation of learning activities should be included in the system of tasks carried out in the process of learning in the primary grades of the school. The central task of the elementary school is the formation of the “ability to learn”. Only the formation of all components of educational activity and its independent implementation can be a guarantee that the teaching will fulfill its function as a leading activity.

In the 60-80s. 20th century under the general supervision of D.B. Elkonin and V.V. Davydov developed the concept of developmental education for schoolchildren, an alternative to the traditional illustrative and explanatory approach. In the system of developmental education, the main goal is the development of the student as a subject of learning, able and willing to learn. To achieve it, the need for a radical change in the content of education is postulated, the basis of which should be a system of scientific concepts. And this, in turn, entails a change in teaching methods: the learning task is formulated as a search and research task, the type of student's learning activity, the nature of the interaction between the teacher and the student and the relationship between students change. Developing education makes high demands on the level of professional training of the teacher.

The subject of integral educational activity owns the following actions: spontaneous formulation of an educational problem, in particular by transforming a specific practical task into a theoretical one; problematization and redesign of the general way of solving the problem where it loses its "permissive power" (and not just the rejection of the old and the subsequent choice of a new way of solving, which is already set through a ready-made model); various types of initiative acts in educational cooperation, etc. All these actions give educational activity a self-directed character, and the subject of educational activity acquires such attributive characteristics as independence, initiative, consciousness, etc.

Features of the construction of the educational process have a significant impact on the formation of student teams and the development of the personality of students. The classes of developmental education are generally more cohesive, to a much lesser extent divided into isolated groups. In them, the orientation of interpersonal relations towards joint educational activities is more clearly manifested. The type of formation of educational activity has a noticeable influence on the individual psychological characteristics of the personality of younger students. In developing classes, a much larger number of students showed personal reflection and emotional stability.

The end of primary school age under the conditions of the traditional education system is marked by a deep motivational crisis, when the motivation associated with taking a new social position is exhausted, and the meaningful motives for learning are often absent and not formed. Symptoms of the crisis, according to I.V. Shapovalenko: a negative attitude towards the school as a whole and the obligation to attend it, unwillingness to complete educational tasks, conflicts with teachers.

In early school age, a child experiences many positive changes and transformations. This is a sensitive period for the formation of a cognitive attitude to the world, learning skills, organization and self-regulation. In the process of schooling, all spheres of a child's development are qualitatively changed and restructured.

Educational activity becomes the leading activity in primary school age. It determines the most important changes taking place in the development of the psyche of children at this age stage. Within the framework of educational activity, psychological neoplasms are formed that characterize the most significant achievements in the development of younger students and are the foundation that ensures development at the next age stage.

The central neoplasms of primary school age are:

a qualitatively new level of development of arbitrary regulation of behavior and activity;

reflection, analysis, internal action plan;

development of a new cognitive attitude to reality;

peer group orientation. The profound changes taking place in the psychological make-up of the younger schoolchild testify to the broad possibilities for the development of the child at this age stage. During this period, at a qualitatively new level, the potential for the development of the child as an active subject, learning about the world around him and himself, acquiring his own experience of acting in this world, is realized.

Primary school age is sensitive for the formation of learning motives, the development of sustainable cognitive needs and interests; development of productive methods and skills of educational work, the ability to learn; disclosure of individual characteristics and abilities; development of skills of self-control, self-organization and self-regulation; the formation of adequate self-esteem, the development of criticality in relation to oneself and others; assimilation of social norms, moral development; developing communication skills with peers, establishing strong friendly contacts.

2. Mental development in primary school age

2.1 Development of mental functions in primary school age

The most important new formations arise in all spheres of mental development: the intellect, personality, social relations are transformed. Thinking becomes the dominant function in primary school age. The transition from visual-figurative to verbal-logical thinking, which was outlined in preschool age, is being completed. School education is structured in such a way that verbal-logical thinking is predominantly developed. If in the first two years of schooling children work a lot with visual samples, then in the next classes the volume of this kind of work is reduced. Figurative thinking is becoming less and less necessary in educational activities. At the end of primary school age (and later), individual differences appear: among children, psychologists distinguish groups of “theorists” or “thinkers” who easily solve learning problems verbally, “practitioners” who need reliance on visualization and practical actions, and “ artists" with bright figurative thinking. In most children, there is a relative balance between different types of thinking. An important condition for the formation of theoretical thinking is the formation of scientific concepts. Theoretical thinking allows the student to solve problems, focusing not on external, visual signs and connections of objects, but on internal, essential properties and relationships.

At the beginning of primary school age, perception is not sufficiently differentiated. Because of this, the child “sometimes confuses letters and numbers that are similar in spelling (for example, 9 and 6 or the letters d and b). Although he can purposefully examine objects and drawings, he is distinguished, as well as at preschool age, by the most striking, “conspicuous” properties - mainly color, shape and size. In order for the student to more subtly analyze the qualities of objects, the teacher must carry out special work, teaching him to observe. If preschoolers were characterized by analyzing perception, then by the end of primary school age, with appropriate training, a synthesizing perception appears. Developing intellect creates an opportunity to establish connections between the elements of the perceived. This can be easily seen when children describe the picture. Stages: 2-5 years - the stage of listing objects in the picture; 6-9 years old - description of the picture; after 9 years - interpretation (logical explanation).

Memory in primary school age develops under the influence of learning in two directions - the role and specific weight of verbal-logical, semantic memorization (compared to visual-figurative memorization) is enhanced, and the child masters the ability to consciously control his memory and regulate its manifestations (memorization, reproduction, recall).

Children involuntarily memorize educational material that arouses their interest, presented in a playful way, associated with bright visual aids, etc. But, unlike preschoolers, they are able to purposefully, arbitrarily memorize material that is not interesting to them. Every year, more and more training is based on arbitrary memory. Younger schoolchildren, like preschoolers, have a good mechanical memory. Many of them mechanically memorize educational texts throughout their education in elementary school, which leads to significant difficulties in the middle classes, when the material becomes more complex and larger in volume. Improving semantic memory at this age will make it possible to master a fairly wide range of mnemonic techniques, i.e. rational methods of memorization (dividing the text into parts, drawing up a plan, methods of rational memorization, etc.).

At the early school age, attention develops. Without sufficient formation of this mental function, the learning process is impossible. At the lesson, the teacher draws the attention of students to the educational material, holds it for a long time. A younger student can focus on one thing for 10-20 minutes. The volume of attention increases 2 times, its stability, switching and distribution increase. According to V.A. Krutetsky, educational activity in primary school stimulates, first of all, the development of mental processes of direct knowledge of the surrounding world - sensations and perception. Possibilities of volitional regulation of attention, management of it at primary school age are limited. In addition, the voluntary attention of a younger student requires a short, in other words, close, motivation.

Significantly better in primary school age developed involuntary attention. The beginning of schooling stimulates its further development. An age-related feature of attention is also its relatively low stability (this mainly characterizes students in grades 1 and 2). The instability of the attention of younger schoolchildren is a consequence of the age-related weakness of the inhibitory process. First-graders, and sometimes second-graders, do not know how to concentrate on work for a long time, their attention is easily distracted.

The child begins to study at school, having concrete thinking. Under the influence of learning, there is a gradual transition from cognition of the external side of phenomena to cognition of their essence, reflection in thinking of essential properties and signs, which will make it possible to make the first generalizations, the first conclusions, draw the first analogies, build elementary conclusions. On this basis, the child gradually begins to form concepts called by L.S. Vygotsky scientific (in contrast to everyday concepts that develop in a child on the basis of his experience outside of purposeful learning).

E.I. Turevskaya identifies risk groups in primary school age associated with the level of development of mental functions.

Children with attention deficit disorder (hyperactive): excessive activity, fussiness, inability to concentrate. It is more common in boys than in girls. Hyperactivity is a whole complex of disorders.

Left-handed child (10% of people). Decreased ability of hand-eye coordination. Children draw images poorly, have poor handwriting, and cannot keep a line. Distortion of form, specular writing. Skipping and rearranging letters when writing. Errors in the definition of "right" and "left". Special strategy of information processing. Emotional instability, resentment, anxiety, reduced performance.

Violations of the emotional-volitional sphere. These are aggressive children, emotionally disinhibited, shy, anxious, vulnerable. Reasons: features of family education, type of temperament, teacher's attitude.

Primary school age is a period of intensive development and qualitative transformation of cognitive processes: they begin to acquire a mediated character and become conscious and arbitrary. The child gradually masters his mental processes, learns to control perception, attention, memory.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, with the beginning of schooling, thinking moves to the center of the child's conscious activity, becomes the dominant function. In the course of systematic training aimed at the assimilation of scientific knowledge, the development of verbal-logical, conceptual thinking takes place, which leads to the restructuring of all other cognitive processes. Assimilation in the course of educational activity of the foundations of theoretical consciousness and thinking leads to the emergence and development of such new qualitative formations as reflection, analysis, and an internal plan of action.

During this period, the ability to voluntarily regulate behavior changes qualitatively. The “loss of childish spontaneity” (L.S. Vygotsky) that occurs at this age characterizes a new level of development of the motivational-need sphere, which allows the child to act not directly, but be guided by conscious goals, socially developed norms, rules and ways of behavior.

2.2 Personal development in middle childhood

The foundation is laid in early childhood moral behavior, there is an assimilation of moral norms and rules of behavior, the social orientation of the individual begins to form.

Z. Freud called middle childhood the latent stage. He believed that for most children, the age of 6 to 12 is the time when their jealousy and envy (as well as sexual impulses) recede into the background. Therefore, most children can redirect their emotional energy to peer relationships, creativity, and fulfilling culturally prescribed responsibilities in school or society.

However, Erickson focused on the psychosocial factors of personality development. Erickson came to believe that the central event of middle childhood is psychosocial conflict - industriousness versus feelings of inferiority. In middle childhood, thanks to school and other forms of education, a significant part of the time and energy of children is directed to acquiring new knowledge and skills.

The second theoretical perspective, cognitive developmental theory, is increasingly being used to explain personality and social development. For example, Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg paid great attention to the development of children's ideas about their personality and morality.

Finally, social learning theory has made a major contribution to understanding how specific behaviors are learned in families and peer groups. During middle childhood, peers increasingly act as models of behavior, accepting or condemning this or that behavior, which has a strong influence on personality development.

None of the three theories mentioned can adequately explain all the lines of a child's social development in middle childhood, but together they help to see a more complete picture. The self-concept helps to understand the development of a child during middle childhood, as it permeates his personality and social behavior. Children form increasingly stable self-images, and their self-concept also becomes more realistic. As children get older, they gain a broader view of the physical, intellectual, and personality characteristics of themselves and others. The child constantly compares himself with his peers. Susan Harter put it aptly, pointing out that the emergence of children's self-concept creates a "filter" through which they evaluate their own behavior and the behavior of others. During their years in elementary school, children continue to develop and develop gender stereotypes and at the same time become more flexible in their interactions with other people.

With the advent of self-esteem (self-esteem) some evaluation component is introduced. Self-esteem is laid down in early childhood, it is influenced both by the child's experiences of successes and failures, and by his relationship with his parents.

Entering school significantly expands the circle of social contacts of the child, which inevitably affects his "I-concept". The school promotes the independence of the child, his emancipation from his parents, provides him with ample opportunities to explore the world around him - both physical and social. Here he immediately becomes an object of evaluation in terms of intellectual, social and physical capabilities. As a result, the school inevitably becomes a source of impressions, on the basis of which the rapid development of the child's self-esteem begins. As a result, the child is faced with the need to adopt the spirit of this evaluative approach, which will henceforth permeate his entire school life. If in learning situations a student receives predominantly negative experience, then it is quite possible that he will form not only a negative idea of ​​himself as a student, but also a negative general self-esteem, which dooms him to failure.

Modern scientific data allow us to assert that the relationship between the academic performance of schoolchildren and their ideas about their learning abilities is in the nature of mutual influence. Academic success contributes to the growth of self-esteem, and self-esteem, in turn, affects the level of academic success through the mechanisms of expectations, claims, standards, motivation and self-confidence. However, many children who do not excel academically manage to develop high self-esteem nonetheless. If they belong to a culture where education is not given much importance or where it is simply absent, their self-esteem may not be related to academic achievement at all.

Some researchers point out that at the age of nine, children's self-esteem drops sharply, which indicates the presence of stressful factors for the child in school life and that the school organization as a whole is in no way focused on creating a favorable emotional atmosphere for students.

The central place in the course of socialization in middle childhood belongs to social cognition: thoughts, knowledge and ideas about the world of one's social interactions with others. Throughout middle childhood and adolescence, social cognition becomes an increasingly important determinant of children's behavior. They begin to look closely at the world of people and gradually comprehend the principles and rules by which it exists. Children try to make sense of their experience as an organized whole. Understanding the world of preschoolers is limited by their egocentrism. In middle childhood, they gradually develop a less egocentric attitude, which allows them to take into account the thoughts and feelings of other people.

The first component of social cognition is social inference - guesses and assumptions about what the other person feels, thinks or intends to do. By the age of 10, children are able to imagine the content and train of thought of another person, at the same time assuming that this other person is doing the same with their own thoughts. The process of developing accurate social inferences continues well into late adolescence.

The second component of social cognition is the child's understanding of social responsibility. Children gradually build up knowledge about the existence of such friendship obligations as honesty and loyalty, respect for authority, as well as about such concepts as legality and justice, while deepening and expanding their understanding.

The third aspect of social cognition is the understanding of social precepts such as customs and conventions. As children get older, most of them learn to distinguish between good and bad, kindness from cruelty, generosity from selfishness. A mature moral consciousness is more than just the rote memorization of social rules and conventions. It involves making independent decisions about what is right and what is wrong.

According to Piaget, a sense of morality arises in children as a result of the interaction of their developing cognitive structures and gradually expanding social experience. The moral development of children goes through two stages. At the stage of moral realism (beginning of middle childhood) children believe that it is necessary to follow all the rules, following each of their letters. Toward the end of middle childhood, children enter the stage of moral relativism. . Now they realize that the rules are the agreed product of different people and, as the need arises, can change.

Piaget's theory of two stages of moral development was supplemented and expanded by Kohlberg, who identified six stages (Appendix B). Kohlberg identified three main levels of moral judgment: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Kohlberg's theory has been supported by a number of studies showing that men, at least in Western countries, usually go through these stages in this way.

During the period of education in primary school, the nature of the relationship between children and parents changes. At primary school age, children's behavior requires more subtle guidance, but parental control continues to be important. Modern research points to the single most important goal of parents - to encourage the development of self-regulatory behavior in their children. , in fact, their ability to control, direct their actions and meet the demands placed on them by their families and society. Discipline based on parental authority is more effective than others in developing self-regulation in children. When parents resort to verbal arguments and suggestions, the child tends to negotiate with them. Parents are more likely to succeed in developing self-regulatory behavior in their children if they gradually increase the degree of their participation in family decision-making. In a series of studies on parental dialogue and parenting methods, E. Maccoby concluded that children are best adapted when parents demonstrate what she called co-regulation in their behavior. . Such parents encourage their children to cooperate and share responsibility with them. Parents are already trying to discuss various problems with their children more often and have conversations with them. They are aware that they are creating a structure for responsible decision-making.

During primary school age, a new type of relationship with the surrounding people begins to take shape. The unconditional authority of an adult is gradually lost, peers begin to acquire more and more importance for the child, and the role of the children's community increases.

Relationships with peers during middle childhood become increasingly important and have almost the main impact on the social and personal development of children. The ability to draw conclusions about the thoughts, expectations, feelings, and intentions of others is central to understanding what it means to be a friend. Children who can see things through the eyes of others have a better ability to form strong close relationships with people.

Children's understanding of friendships goes through a number of separate stages during middle childhood, although researchers have different points of view regarding the foundations of these stages. Robert Selman studied the friendships of children between the ages of 7 and 12. Based on the children's answers to these questions, Selman described four stages of friendship (Appendix B). In the first stage (ages 6 and under), a friend is simply a playmate, someone who lives nearby, goes to the same school, or has interesting toys. In the second stage (from 7 to 9 years), the realization begins to appear that the other person also experiences some feelings. At the third stage (9-12 years old), the idea appears that friends are people who help each other, and the concept of trust also arises. In the fourth stage, occasionally observed in the 11-12-year-old children studied by Selman, a perfect ability to see the relationship from the perspective of another person was manifested.

Selman argued that a key factor in change in the development of children's friendships is the ability to accept the position of another person. However, the friendships that unfold in the real world are far more subtle and fluid than Selman's model would allow. They may at one point in time involve reciprocity, trust, and reversibility, and at another, competition and conflict.

Both children and adults benefit from close, trusting relationships with each other. Through friendship, children learn social concepts, acquire social skills, and develop self-esteem. The nature of friendship changes throughout childhood. The egocentric nature of friendship at the first stage of its development according to Selman, characteristic of preschoolers and students of 1-2 grades, changes during middle childhood, when children begin to establish closer relationships and they have true friends. At the end of childhood and adolescence, group friendships become most common.

Finally, although research shows that virtually all children are in at least one-way friendship relationships, many of them lack reciprocal friendships characterized by mutual exchange and mutual assistance.

peer group is more than just a collection of children. It is a relatively stable entity that maintains its unity, whose members regularly interact with each other and share common values. Peer groups remain important to the child throughout middle childhood, but between the ages of 6 and 12 there are significant changes in both their organization and meaning. The peer group becomes significantly more important to its members when they reach the age of 11-12. Conformity to group norms becomes of exceptional importance for the child, and group influence now becomes much more difficult to overcome. In addition, the group structure is made more formal. Gender division becomes very important. Circumstances constantly bring children together - at school, at summer camp, at the place of residence. Under these conditions, groups form quickly. From the moment of acquaintance in the group, the process of role differentiation begins, as well as common values ​​and interests appear. Mutual expectations and the influence of its members on each other are growing, group traditions are taking shape.

With the beginning of entering school, younger students are undergoing a process of intensive formation of those personality traits that ensure the process of communication. Its complexity in the school period increases, and this is due to the increase in the variety of social situations and groups in which the student finds himself, with qualitative changes in the very forms and methods of communication. The ever-increasing diversity of the main determinants of mental development leads to uneven and heterochronous development of subjective and personal properties of a person, to their complex and, among other things, contradictory relationships with each other.

Primary school age is a qualitatively new stage in the mental development of a person. At this time, mental development is carried out mainly in the process of educational activity and, therefore, is determined by the degree of involvement of the student himself in it. This is the stage of intensive social development of the psyche, its main substructures, expressed both in the process of socialization of individual formations, and in new formations in the personal sphere and in the formation of the subject of activity. Mental development in school conditions is carried out in the process of socially significant, complexly organized, multi-stage and multi-subject activity and, thus, acquires a socially pronounced character.

Conclusion

Junior school age is the beginning of school life. Entering it, the child acquires the internal position of the student, educational motivation. Educational activity becomes the leading one for him. During this period, the child develops theoretical thinking; he receives new knowledge, skills, skills - creates the necessary basis for all his subsequent training. But the significance of educational activity is not exhausted by this: the development of the personality of a junior schoolchild directly depends on its effectiveness. School performance is an important criterion for evaluating a child as a person by adults and peers. The status of an excellent student or underachiever is reflected in the child's self-esteem. Successful work, awareness of one's abilities and skills to perform various tasks qualitatively lead to the formation of a sense of competence - a new aspect of self-awareness, which, along with theoretical reflective thinking, can be considered the central neoplasm of primary school age. If a sense of competence in educational activities is not formed, the child's self-esteem decreases and a feeling of inferiority arises; compensatory self-esteem and motivation may develop.

At this age, self-knowledge and personal reflection develop as the ability to independently set the boundaries of one's capabilities, an internal plan of action, arbitrariness, self-control. Norms of behavior turn into internal requirements for oneself. Higher feelings develop: aesthetic, moral, ethical (sense of camaraderie, sympathy, experience of injustice). Nevertheless, the instability of the moral character, the inconstancy of experiences and relationships are quite typical for the younger schoolchild.

According to L.M. Obukhova, the main psychological neoplasms of primary school age are:

cognitive motivation and purposefulness of educational activity;

fundamentals of theoretical thinking;

arbitrariness of educational and cognitive actions and mental functions (mental operations, memory, attention, imagination, perception, speech);

internal plan of consciousness and mental activity.

Due to conscious discipline, strict requirements for joint actions, the emotions of children change. The causes, conditions and consequences of emerging emotions are comprehended. Restraint and awareness in the manifestation of emotions is growing, the stability of emotional states is increasing. The ability to control mood and even mask it is formed.

The child has a sense of satisfaction, curiosity, admiration in the course of educational activities. It is also possible the manifestation of negative, angry reactions, the cause of which is most often the discrepancy between the level of claims and the possibilities of its satisfaction.

The school develops a fairly stable status of the student. During the transition from primary to secondary school, unresolved, unresolved in time learning difficulties caused by an insufficient level of knowledge, skills, and an undeveloped ability to learn, become aggravated. The child faces new tasks, problems that he is forced to solve (testing himself and comparing with others, adapting to new learning conditions, etc.).

The main psychological content of the preadolescent crisis is, according to K.N. Polivanova, reflexive “turn on oneself”. The reflexive attitude to the measure of one's own capabilities in educational activity, formed in the previous stable period, is transferred to the sphere of self-consciousness.

During the restructuring of the entire social situation of the development of the child, a “orientation to oneself”, to one’s qualities and skills, arises as the main condition for solving various kinds of problems. The behavior of children not only loses its direct character, many aspects of personal development begin to be determined by communication with peers.

Primary school age is a period of positive changes and transformations. Therefore, the level of achievements made by each child at this age stage is so important. If at this age the child does not feel the joy of learning, does not acquire the ability to learn, does not learn to make friends, does not gain confidence in himself, his abilities and capabilities, it will be much more difficult to do this in the future (outside the sensitive period) and will require immeasurably higher mental and physical costs.

school junior personality psychological

List of sources

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6.Rean, A.A. Human psychology from birth to death [Text] / Ed. A.A. REANA. - St. Petersburg: prime-EVROZNAK, 2002. - 656 p. - (Series "Psychological Encyclopedia").

.Stolyarenko, L.D. Fundamentals of psychology [Text]. Third edition, revised and enlarged. Series "Textbooks, Teaching Aids" / L.D. Stolyarenko. - Rostov-on-Don, "Phoenix", 1999. - 672 p.

8.Turevskaya, E.I. Developmental psychology [Text] / Turevskaya E.I. - Tula, 2002. - 165 p.

9.Feldstein, D.I. Reader on developmental psychology [Text]: Textbook for students: Comp. L.M. Semenyuk. Ed. DI. Feldstein. - Edition 2, supplemented. - M.: Institute of Practical Psychology, 1996. - 364 p.

10.Specificity and conditions of development of children in preschool and primary school age. Unit 2 [Text]. - Moscow, Modern Humanitarian Academy, 2006. - 66 p.

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Age features of children of primary school age

The initial period of school life occupies the age range from 6-7 to 10-11 years (grades 1-4). At primary school age, children have significant reserves of development. Their identification and effective use is one of the main tasks of developmental and educational psychology. With the child entering school, under the influence of education, the restructuring of all his conscious processes begins, they acquire the qualities characteristic of adults, since children are included in new types of activity and a system of interpersonal relations. The general characteristics of all cognitive processes of the child are their arbitrariness, productivity and stability.

In order to skillfully use the reserves available to the child, it is necessary to adapt children to work at school and at home as soon as possible, teach them to study, to be attentive, diligent. By entering school, the child must have sufficiently developed self-control, labor skills, the ability to communicate with people, and role-playing behavior.

During this period, the further physical and psychophysiological development of the child takes place, providing the possibility of systematic education at school. First of all, the work of the brain and nervous system is improved. According to physiologists, by the age of 7 the cerebral cortex is already largely mature. However, the most important, specifically human parts of the brain, responsible for programming, regulating and controlling complex forms of mental activity, have not yet completed their formation in children of this age (development of the frontal parts of the brain ends only by the age of 12), as a result of which the regulatory and inhibitory influence of the cortex on subcortical structures is insufficient. The imperfection of the regulatory function of the cortex is manifested in the peculiarities of behavior, organization of activity and the emotional sphere characteristic of children of this age: younger students are easily distracted, incapable of prolonged concentration, excitable, emotional.

Primary school age is a period of intensive development and qualitative transformation of cognitive processes: they begin to acquire a mediated character and become conscious and arbitrary. The child gradually masters his mental processes, learns to control perception, attention, memory.

From the moment the child enters school, a new social situation of development is established. The teacher becomes the center of the social situation of development. In primary school age, learning activity becomes the leading one. Learning activity is a special form of student activity aimed at changing himself as a subject of learning. Thinking becomes the dominant function in primary school age. The transition from visual-figurative to verbal-logical thinking, which was outlined in preschool age, is being completed.

School education is structured in such a way that verbal-logical thinking is predominantly developed. If in the first two years of study, children work a lot with visual samples, then in the next classes the volume of such activities is reduced. Figurative thinking is becoming less and less necessary in educational activities.

At the end of primary school age (and later) there are individual differences: among children. Psychologists single out groups of "theorists" or "thinkers" who easily solve learning problems verbally, "practitioners" who need reliance on visualization and practical actions, and "artists" with vivid imaginative thinking. In most children, there is a relative balance between different types of thinking.

An important condition for the formation of theoretical thinking is the formation of scientific concepts. Theoretical thinking allows the student to solve problems, focusing not on external, visual signs and connections of objects, but on internal, essential properties and relationships.

At the beginning of primary school age, perception is not sufficiently differentiated. Because of this, the child "sometimes confuses letters and numbers that are similar in spelling (for example, 9 and 6 or the letters I and R). Although he can purposefully examine objects and drawings, he is distinguished, as well as at preschool age, by the brightest, "conspicuous" properties - mainly color, shape and size.

If preschoolers were characterized by analyzing perception, then by the end of primary school age, with appropriate training, a synthesizing perception appears. Developing intellect creates an opportunity to establish connections between the elements of the perceived. This can be easily seen when children describe the picture. These features must be taken into account when communicating with the child and his development.

Age stages of perception:

2-5 years - the stage of listing objects in the picture;

6-9 years old - description of the picture;

after 9 years - interpretation of what he saw.

Memory in primary school age develops in two directions - arbitrariness and meaningfulness. Children involuntarily memorize educational material that arouses their interest, presented in a playful way, associated with bright visual aids, etc. But, unlike preschoolers, they are able to purposefully, arbitrarily memorize material that is not very interesting to them. Every year, more and more training is based on arbitrary memory. Younger schoolchildren, like preschoolers, usually have a good mechanical memory. Many of them mechanically memorize educational texts throughout their education in elementary school, which most often leads to significant difficulties in secondary school, when the material becomes more complex and larger in volume, and solving educational problems requires not only the ability to reproduce the material. Improving semantic memory at this age will make it possible to master a fairly wide range of mnemonic techniques, i.e. rational ways of memorizing (dividing the text into parts, drawing up a plan, etc.).

It is in early childhood that attention develops. Without the formation of this mental function, the learning process is impossible. At the lesson, the teacher draws the attention of students to the educational material, holds it for a long time. A younger student can focus on one thing for 10-20 minutes. The volume of attention increases 2 times, its stability, switching and distribution increase.

Junior school age- the age of a fairly noticeable formation of personality.

It is characterized by new relationships with adults and peers, inclusion in a whole system of teams, inclusion in a new type of activity - a teaching that imposes a number of serious requirements on the student.

All this decisively affects the formation and consolidation of a new system of relations with people, the team, teaching and related duties, forms character, will, expands the range of interests, develops abilities.

At primary school age, the foundation of moral behavior is laid, the assimilation of moral norms and rules of behavior takes place, and the social orientation of the individual begins to form.

The nature of younger students differs in some features. First of all, they are impulsive - they tend to act immediately under the influence of immediate impulses, motives, without thinking and weighing all the circumstances, for random reasons. The reason is the need for active external discharge with age-related weakness of volitional regulation of behavior.

An age-related feature is also a general lack of will: the younger student does not yet have much experience in a long struggle for the intended goal, overcoming difficulties and obstacles. He can give up in case of failure, lose faith in his strengths and impossibilities. Often there is capriciousness, stubbornness. The usual reason for them is the shortcomings of family education. The child is accustomed to the fact that all his desires and requirements are satisfied, he did not see a refusal in anything. Capriciousness and stubbornness are a peculiar form of a child's protest against the firm demands that the school makes on him, against the need to sacrifice what he wants for the sake of what he needs.

Younger students are very emotional. Emotionality affects, firstly, that their mental activity is usually colored by emotions. Everything that children observe, what they think about, what they do, evokes an emotionally colored attitude in them. Secondly, younger students do not know how to restrain their feelings, control their external manifestation, they are very direct and frank in expressing joy. Grief, sadness, fear, pleasure or displeasure. Thirdly, emotionality is expressed in their great emotional instability, frequent mood swings, a tendency to affect, short-term and violent manifestations of joy, grief, anger, fear. Over the years, the ability to regulate their feelings, to restrain their undesirable manifestations, develops more and more.

Great opportunities are provided by the primary school age for the education of collectivist relations. For several years, the younger schoolchild accumulates, with proper education, the experience of collective activity, which is important for his further development - activities in a team and for a team. The upbringing of collectivism is helped by the participation of children in public, collective affairs. It is here that the child acquires the basic experience of collective social activity.

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