Potential and actual abilities. General and special abilities The results of the study of the presence of abilities in students

Evaluation of a person's abilities is actually the task of predicting the success of the implementation of this type of activity by him. Naturally, this is a statistical task, solved under conditions of a high level of uncertainty, and, therefore, even in principle, it makes mistakes of a methodological nature.

In this case, errors can be of two kinds:

a decision is made about the lack of abilities of a given individual in their objective presence (errors of the first kind);
a decision is made about the presence of abilities in their objective absence (errors of the second kind).

Unfortunately, there are practically no statistics on errors of the second kind. They seem to be random, not instructive and not of public interest. As for the errors of the first kind, they are widely publicized, intrigued by society and analyzed. Among those whose fate was almost changed by mistakes of the first kind and almost blocked the path to world fame were the commander A. Suvorov, the writer A. Chekhov, the mathematician N. Luzin, the physicist A. Einstein, the artist I. Smoktunovsky and many others.

In this regard, speaking strictly mathematically, we can talk not about measuring the ability itself, but only about its statistical assessment. Sources of error in assessing a person's abilities are varied..

Firstly, it is not always possible to take into account the specific conditions in which the subject is located. Even the presence of innate inclinations does not guarantee the manifestation of abilities. The reason may be, for example, a discrepancy between inclinations and abilities due to a lack of interest in activities that require those abilities that they are trying to find in an individual.

Secondly, due to the complex interweaving of innate and socially acquired factors that determine abilities, it is often not the abilities themselves that are evaluated, but the qualities of the individual.

Third, the most common indicator of the manifestation of abilities - the rapid assimilation of knowledge and skills with high performance - is biased. Not the last role in achieving business success is played by will, determination, perseverance, determination and other personality traits. For the practice of training and education, such sources of "interference" in assessing abilities, of course, can be put up with. But in the scientific-theoretical, research plan, where the "purity" of the result is required, this is unacceptable.

Fourth, errors in assessments of abilities can also arise due to the phenomenon of their compensation. As you know, the structure of abilities is a whole set of factors. For example, literary ability cannot rely only on a rich imagination. This requires aesthetic feelings, figurative memory, interest in human psychology, etc. At the same time, the abilities of different people for the same activity can be provided by different qualities. For example, in the structure of mathematical abilities for one person, the leading one is memory for numbers and operations, for others it is logical and analytical thinking. As a result, the same success in activity is achieved due to different components of abilities. Moreover, the insufficient level of development of one component can be compensated for by a more vivid manifestation of the other.

Thus, the structure of abilities provides the individual with the ability to compensate for some abilities by others, based on the strengths of his personality. However, if under these conditions we evaluate the level of development of that -component, which seems to the researcher the most significant in relation to the results of activity, and do not take into account the phenomenon of compensation, then this individual can be recognized as incapable of the requirements of this activity. In this case, the error of the first one is allowed. From the above examples it is clear that the compensation property manifests itself within both one type of activity various kinds. True, the compensation mechanisms turn out to be different: in the first case, they talk about the psychophysiological aspects of compensation, in the second - about social ones.

There are a large number of test procedures designed to assess abilities. However, they, in fact, reveal not the ability, but the fact that a person has a certain level of knowledge, skills, skills and experience, efficiency of thinking, resourcefulness. Moreover, the tests often ignore the dynamics of the individual's acquisition of these elements, which form the basis of human life. At the same time, both slow-witted and "fast" can be equally capable within the framework of a particular activity. They say that in childhood, the Nobel laureate physicist Niels Bohr had great difficulty in solving problems of medium complexity due to the extreme inertia of thinking.

In the activity approach in diagnosing abilities as criteria ability assessments are most often considered:

the pace of progress in mastering this type of activity;
the breadth of the transfer of emerging psychological qualities (the influence of previously formed qualities on acquired ones);
the ratio of neuropsychic costs and performance results.

As a rule, this path makes it difficult to assess the abilities of children who do not yet own one type of professional activity.

In the functional approach, it is proposed to diagnose abilities through indicators of the number and severity of innate inclinations. However, even here difficulties arise with the selection of those inclinations that are included precisely in the assessed ability. Moreover, errors in assessment appear due to the uneven process of development of the personality itself. For example, the presence of age sensitive periods, puberty lead not only to a shift in time of the constituent abilities, but also to a variation in severity. All this indicates that the problem of abilities is far from over and science has to make a lot of efforts not only in terms of theory, but also in the organizational aspect, gathering together all the information obtained in various areas of research.

Of course, the comprehensive development of a person is not limited to the development of his abilities. Big role the development of needs, interests, emotions, etc., plays a part in this. In this work, an attempt is made to understand all-round development only in terms of the development of abilities that constitute, as it were, its core.

2. Potential and actual abilities

To understand the comprehensive development of the individual, it is necessary to start from the division of the abilities themselves not according to the types of activity in which they are manifested, but into potential and actual ones. As already noted, potential abilities are those that can be defined as the possibilities for the development of an individual, which make themselves felt whenever new problems arise before him, new tasks that need to be solved. They characterize the individual, as it were, in his potentialities, by virtue of his psychological properties and characteristics. But since the development of personality depends not only on its psychological features, but also from those social conditions, in which these potentialities may or may not be realized, then the so-called problem of actual abilities arises, that is, those abilities that are realized and developed in given specific conditions, depending on the requirements of a particular type of activity.

In other words, the objective conditions of an individual's life are sometimes such that not every individual can realize his potential abilities in accordance with his psychological nature. Under all conditions, actual abilities will differ from potential ones, constituting only a part of the latter.

At the same time, some social conditions stand in the way of the development of potential abilities, while others provide them with great scope.

Socialism, and even more so communism, overcoming the limitations of the antagonistic division of labor, providing everyone with material benefits, opportunities to engage in social activities etc., change the ratio between potential and actual abilities in favor of the greatest development of potential ones. In other words, they lead to the creation of such social conditions under which potential abilities will have great scope for their development, and the nature of social reality will be such that at some stage of personality development many potential abilities will turn into actual ones.

Good day, dear readers healthy blog! In this article, we will figure out what the development of human abilities depends on, and also touch on the question of how talented and gifted people are born.

General characteristics and principles of development of human abilities

Capabilities - This individual characteristics person who are related to the success of any activity. Therefore, abilities are considered as the main personality traits. In domestic psychology, the following classification of the levels of development of human abilities is presented (see the picture below).

What determines the development of human abilities

Any ability in its development goes through a series of stages. The first stage can occur even before birth, during the formation of inclinations. Developing, abilities move from level to level. In this case, such a transition is usually made under a number of conditions related to the completeness of the development of the ability at a given level.

Makings are anatomical and physiological features nervous system which form the natural basis for the development of abilities. For example, certain physical conditions or features of the development of various analyzers can act as innate inclinations.

Thus, certain characteristics of auditory perception can act as the basis for the development of musical abilities. Intellectual abilities are determined by the functional activity of the brain, its greater or lesser excitability, the mobility of nervous processes, the speed of formation of temporary connections, etc.

Congenital features of the nervous system
are the following:

strength of the nervous system in relation to excitation, i.e. its ability to withstand for a long time, without revealing prohibitive braking, intense and often repetitive loads;
strength of the nervous system in relation to inhibition, i.e. the ability to withstand prolonged and frequently repeated braking effects;
balance of the nervous system in relation to excitation and inhibition, which manifests itself in the same reactivity of the nervous system in response to excitatory and inhibitory influences;
lability of the nervous system, assessed by the rate of occurrence and termination of the nervous process of excitation or inhibition.

Domestic psychologist, doctor of pedagogical sciences Nebylitsyn V.D. offered 12-dimensional model of the properties of the human nervous system. This model includes eight primary properties (strength, mobility, dynamism and lability in relation to excitation and inhibition) and four secondary properties (balance in these basic properties).

It was shown that these properties can apply to both the entire nervous system (to be its common properties), and to individual analyzers (partial properties of the nervous system).

These congenital anatomical and physiological features largely determine the natural basis of individual differences between people in their behavior and abilities. The basis of individual differences is determined by the predominant type of higher nervous activity and the peculiarities of the correlation of signal systems.

Russian scientist, Nobel Prize winner in medicine and physiology Pavlov I.P. put forward the assumption that all people can be divided into three types according to the predominance of the first or second signaling system:

"artistic type" (the predominance of the first signal system),
"thinking type" (the predominance of the second signal system, i.e. words),
"middle type" (equal representation).

According to the type, one can also assume the presence of certain innate inclinations. The fact is that the main differences between the artistic type and the thinking type are manifested in the sphere of perception, where the “artist” is characterized by a holistic perception, and the “thinker” is analytical, operating with concepts. Following perception, differences also appear in imagination and thinking. The first type has better developed visual-effective and visual-figurative thinking. The second is abstract-logical.

It is also important to understand that, following the peculiarities of perception and thinking, personal characteristics can also take on a different character. "Artists" to a greater extent they have a habit of contemplating things as they really are, they are easily carried away by the situation, they can act on impulses, contrary to common sense.

"Thinkers" are more critical of reality, tend to form a single and (usually) scientific picture of the world, perceive the environment not only through the categorical apparatus, but also through the filter of pragmatism. IN emotional sphere persons of the artistic type are distinguished by increased emotionality, and for representatives of the thinking type, rational, intellectual reactions to events are more characteristic.

The presence of certain inclinations, however, does not mean that the development of human abilities will be carried out. For example, an essential prerequisite for the development of musical abilities is a keen ear. But the structure of the peripheral (auditory) and central nervous apparatus is only a prerequisite for the development of musical abilities.

The structure of the brain does not provide for what professions and specialties related to musical ear may arise in human society. Nor is it foreseen what area of activity a person will choose for himself and what opportunities will be provided to him for the development of his inclinations. Moreover, the development of the auditory analyzer can contribute to the development of not only musical abilities, but also abstract-logical ones: human speech and logic are closely related to the activity of the auditory analyzer.

To what extent the inclinations of a person will be developed depends on the conditions of his individual development. At the same time, it should be noted that there are no guarantees that the inclinations (even if well expressed) will find their manifestation in abilities. The development of inclinations is a socially and activity-driven process that is associated with the conditions of upbringing, training, the characteristics of the development of society, technology, the moral and psychological climate, and many other circumstances.

In relation to professional abilities, it is important to understand that inclinations develop and transform into abilities, provided that there is a need in society for these professions and for certain results of labor. If there is a need in society for new knowledge, then there will be brilliant scientists; if there is a need for new and original architecture, there will be great architects.

It is very important to understand that makings are non-specific. Contrary to a very popular belief, people are not born "teachers from God", "miners like a father", "talented doctors", etc. There are no genes in DNA molecules that are responsible for being a teacher (miner, doctor ...) or not being. Even if a child has excellent hearing and a sense of rhythm, it is not at all necessary that he will become (can become) a good musician.

This deposit can also be used in the career of a singer, conductor, music critic or teacher, composer, director, tuner. To a lesser extent, this deposit can be useful in many other professions. That is, on the basis of the same inclinations, different abilities can develop depending on the nature of the requirements imposed by the activity.

Abilities are largely social and are formed in the process of specific human activity. In many respects, the development of human abilities depends on this.

Development of human abilities: potential and actual abilities

Depending on whether there are or are not conditions for the development of abilities, they can be potential and actual. Potential abilities are those that are not realized in a particular type of activity, but are able to be updated when the relevant social conditions change. Actual abilities are those that are needed at the moment and are realized in a particular type of activity.

Potential and actual abilities are an indirect indicator of the nature of the social conditions in which a person's abilities develop. The nature of social conditions hinders or promotes the development of potential abilities, ensures or does not ensure their transformation into actual ones.

general and special abilities

No single ability can usually by itself ensure the successful performance of an activity. The success of an activity almost always depends on a number of abilities. Some of these abilities are general (inherent in many types of activity), others are special (inherent only in this type of activity).

A good writer, for example, needs: observation (to judge life not by other books or films), figurative memory, logic, the quality of written speech, the ability to concentrate, and a number of other abilities.

However, a person significantly “simplifies life” by the fact that the same abilities can be used in different types of activity. The same observation can be useful not only to a writer, but also to a good half of other professions: a doctor, a law enforcement officer, a driver, a teacher, a builder, and many others.

Development of human abilities: giftedness

When someone is said to be "capable" it usually means that the person is excelling in a particular ability. As a rule, diligent students deserve this epithet, and these abilities relate to academic subjects and disciplines. But it is one thing to be capable in the field of physical education, and another thing is to be the champion of a district (city, region ...) in boxing.

Giftedness is a kind of combination of abilities that provides a person with the opportunity to successfully perform any activity. It is not the successful performance of the activity that depends on giftedness, but only the possibility of such successful performance. Successful performance of any activity requires not only the presence of an appropriate combination of abilities, but also the acquisition of the necessary knowledge and skills.

In other words, if the common physical ability the child will be superimposed on particular (for example, very high endurance, highly developed muscles), plus a good reaction speed, concentration and distribution of attention, then one can already assume giftedness in the field of boxing. And if the experience gained in the boxing sections and various competitions is superimposed on this giftedness, then a champion can grow out of a child.

It is important to understand that giftedness is almost always based on the orientation of a person's interests. In a sense, interest is also a capacity: the ability long time to keep attention on something without apparent effort. Interest in a particular subject can help or hinder the development of inclinations. It often happens that people without noticeable inclinations are engaged in a certain type of activity only because of their interest in it.

Development of giftedness:

The development of giftedness occurs in a specific activity. However, it would gross mistake argue that in itself, engaging in one or another type of activity entails the development of giftedness in this area. As practice shows (and with all evidence), one can speak Russian for fifty years and still not learn how to correctly place stresses, observe grammatical subtleties, not to mention the full development of Russian vocabulary. You can, for example, drive a car, teach at school or engage in social activities for the same fifty years - and continue to make gross mistakes.

Therefore, it should be concluded that even a gifted person in one area or another must be demanding of himself, constantly take care of his own growth, self-improvement. You need to be self-critical. It's good when a personal trainer (teacher, guru, master ...) is nearby (“above you”). In everything, try to use rationalism, a scientific approach.

In other words, in the development of any giftedness, it is important never to stop educational (scientific) activity.

Development of abilities in humans: leading and auxiliary abilities

In the structure of abilities, two groups of components can be distinguished - according to the degree of importance for the activity. Some occupy a leading position, while others are auxiliary.

For example, in the structure of the artist's abilities, the leading properties will be: high natural sensitivity of the visual analyzer, sensorimotor qualities of the artist's hand, highly developed figurative memory, representation. Auxiliary qualities of the artist: properties of artistic imagination, emotional mood, emotional attitude to the depicted.

ability diagnostics

The manifestation of abilities is individual and most often unique. It is difficult, and usually impossible, to reduce the giftedness of people, even those engaged in the same activity, to a set of specific indicators.

With the help of various psychodiagnostic methods, it is possible to establish the presence of certain (well-studied in psychology) abilities and determine the relative level of their development. A typical example is the diagnosis of intelligence. After passing the IQ test, a person gets "his place" in the universal ranking.

Development of human abilities: talent

Talent - a high level of development of special abilities (musical, literary, etc.). Like giftedness, talent manifests itself and develops mainly in activity. The activity of a talented person is distinguished by a fundamental novelty, originality of approach.

Talent is a certain combination of abilities, their totality. A single isolated ability, even a very highly developed one, cannot be called a talent. Among outstanding talents one can, for example, find many people with both good and bad memory: V creative activity human memory is only one of the factors on which success depends. But the result will almost certainly not be without the flexibility of the mind, rich imagination, strong will, deep interest.

Development of human abilities: genius

This is the highest level of ability development. Genius leaves a noticeable trace in the life of society, in the development of culture. There are very few people of genius, and there are no "brilliant positions" in society. That is, one cannot become a genius only by one's social status. The king or the president also leaves a mark on the life of society, but if it were not for him, another king or president would come. And "instead" of one genius there will be no other. At least for a while.

Examples of geniuses: V. Lomonosov, D. Mendeleev, I. Pavlov, A. Kolmogorov, V. Bekhterev, K. Tsiolkovsky, the great commander Svyatoslav Igorevich and many, many others. Without each of these people, the history of our Great Motherland and all of humanity would have been somewhat different. It is characteristic that many geniuses achieved outstanding results in completely different areas (for example, K. Tsiolkovsky or V. Lomonosov).

Who knows, maybe some of you also have abilities and talents hidden today, but which will be revealed in the future and will glorify your name for many centuries. Wait and see!

That's all! It was an article on the topic of what determines the development of human abilities.

Development of abilities. A child's abilities are formed by mastering the content of material and spiritual culture, technology, science, and art that a growing person masters in the learning process.

The initial prerequisite for this development of abilities are those innate inclinations with which the child is born. At the same time, the biologically inherited properties of a person do not determine his abilities. The brain contains not one or another specifically human abilities, but only the ability to form these abilities (216, p. 652; 146, p. 94).

The level of development of abilities depends: 1) on the quality of available knowledge and skills (true or incorrect, solid or unstable, etc.), on the degree of their integration into a single whole;

2) from the natural inclinations of a person, the quality of the innate nervous mechanisms of elementary mental activity; 3) from the greater or lesser "training" of the brain structures themselves involved in the implementation of cognitive and psychomotor processes (74, p. 42).

Potential and actual abilities. Potential abilities are the possibilities for the development of an individual, which manifest themselves whenever new tasks arise in front of him that need to be solved. But since the development of a personality depends not only on its psychological characteristics, but also on those social conditions in which these potentialities can be realized (or not realized), they speak of actual abilities that are realized and developed depending on the requirements of a particular type. activities.

The objective conditions of an individual's life are sometimes such that not every individual can realize his potential abilities in accordance with his psychological nature. Therefore, actual abilities make up only a part of potential ones (21, pp. 166-169).

Ability and makings. Inclinations - hereditary properties of the peripheral and central nervous apparatus - are essential prerequisites for human abilities, but they only condition them, without predetermining them. From inclinations to abilities - this is the path of personal development. Developing from inclinations, abilities are nevertheless a function not of inclinations in themselves, but of the development of the individual, into which inclinations enter as prerequisites, as a starting point.

The inclinations are ambiguous, they can develop in different directions, turning into different abilities.

Being a prerequisite for the successful course of human activity, his abilities are, to one degree or another, the product of his activity. This is the circular interdependence of a person's abilities and his activities (217, pp. 141-142).

Makings are different types. Some of them do not determine either the content of abilities or the level of possible achievements, their significance is limited to the fact that they only give originality to the process of developing abilities, facilitate or hinder their development. This category of inclinations includes, for example, the typological properties of the nervous system. Other inclinations, while not narrowly and rigidly defining the content of abilities, apparently still have a greater influence on their content side.

Only with good inclinations can abilities develop very quickly even under adverse life circumstances. However, even excellent inclinations in themselves do not automatically ensure high achievements. On the other hand, even in the absence of good inclinations (but not in their complete absence), a person can, under certain conditions, achieve significant success in the relevant activity.

Ability and confidence. The difficulties of many underachieving children are not the result of their mental or physical disability, but rather the result of their self-image as incapable of serious learning. We can say that success in school, at work and in life in general depends no less on a person's idea of \u200b\u200bhis abilities than on these abilities themselves. When a student says, "I'll never be able to do this," that says a lot more about the student than about the subject being studied. Such a child is likely to really fail, mainly because he does not feel confident in his abilities. Nothing contributes to success more than confidence in it, and nothing portends failure so much as knowingly expecting it (26a, p. 26).

Learnability. Learning is a set of intellectual properties of a person, from which - in the presence and relative equality of other initial conditions (the initial minimum of knowledge, positive attitude learning, etc.) depends on the productivity of learning activities. These properties are: 1) generalization mental activity- its focus on abstraction and generalization of the essential in educational material; 2) awareness of thinking, determined by the ratio of its practical and verbal-logical sides; 3) flexibility of mental activity; 4) stability of mental activity; 5) independence of thinking, susceptibility to help.

The nature of the combination of these properties determines individual differences in learning ability, is its qualitative indicator. The level of development of these properties of thinking is an indicator, which consists in the ease, brevity of the path to achieving a high level of assimilation of knowledge; it is designated as "economical thinking" and is a quantitative indicator of learning (99, pp. 17-18).

In general, learning is a susceptibility to the assimilation of knowledge and methods of learning activities. It is a relatively stable personality trait. This concept is narrower in its content than the concept of "ability", defined as a property of the individual, which is a condition for the successful implementation of certain types of activities. Ability includes high learning ability in certain activities. Just as general and special abilities are distinguished, general and special learning should be distinguished. The second manifests itself only when teaching a particular academic subject.

Learning is closely related to mental development, but these concepts are not identical. High learning ability contributes to more intensive mental development, however, relatively lower learning ability can be combined with high mental development, which is compensated by high working capacity. The level of mental development increases with age, while learning ability can remain relatively constant over a long period, and in some cases, which is especially pronounced when mastering speech, in earlier age periods it can even be higher. To determine the level of learning, it is not so much the productive side (which is typical for mental development) that matters, but the very process of forming knowledge and techniques - the degree of ease and speed of acquiring knowledge, organizing them into systems, mastering the techniques of mental activity. It is no coincidence, therefore, that in order to identify learning ability, a learning experiment is needed that reveals the potential possibilities for the development of the student, and not his current state (172, pp. 28-30).

Suitability for activity. Suitability (readiness) for a particular activity is determined by the presence of appropriate abilities and general psychological conditions necessary for the successful implementation of the activity: a) a positive attitude towards this activity, interest in it, turning into a passionate enthusiasm at a high level of development; b) the presence of diligence, organization, independence, purposefulness, perseverance, as well as stable feelings of satisfaction from hard work, the joy of creativity, discovery, etc.; c) the presence during the implementation of the activity of mental states favorable for its implementation, for example, interest, concentration, good mental health, etc .; d) a certain fund of knowledge, skills and abilities in the relevant field; e) certain individual psychological characteristics in the sensory and mental spheres that meet the requirements of this activity (127, pp. 89-90).

General and special abilities. It should be borne in mind that a relative predominance of either general or special abilities is possible. There is general giftedness without pronounced special abilities, as well as relatively high special abilities, which do not correspond to the corresponding general abilities (99, pp. 16-17).

The age-related development of general abilities does not exclude, but involves the identification of data for engaging in certain areas of activity. The school faces a two-pronged task: to provide a general education, to ensure the growth of general abilities, and at the same time to support in every possible way the sprouts of special talents, to prepare for the choice of a profession. High development of general abilities is a true guarantee of the identification and all special talents (139, pp. 251-259 ).

Features of students capable of mathematics. The characteristics of such students are expressed in the following.

1. Capable students can independently generalize mathematical objects, relations, actions “from the spot”, without special exercises and instructions from the teacher, based on the analysis of only one phenomenon in a series of similar phenomena. Each specific task is immediately recognized by them as a representative of a certain class of tasks of the same type and is solved in a general form, i.e., a general algorithm (method) for solving problems of a given type is developed.

Able students generalize mathematical material not only quickly, but also widely. They also generalize the solution methods, the principles of approach to solving problems, so the ability to generalize also affects the efficiency of solving non-standard mathematical problems.

2. Students capable of mathematics quickly move in the process of solving problems to thinking in “folded” structures. This transition usually begins immediately after the solution of the first task of this type and quite quickly reaches its maximum development, when the intermediate links of reasoning “fall out” and a kind of direct association is established between the awareness of the task and the performance of a certain system of actions, and often even between the awareness of the task and the awareness of the result.

3. Students capable of mathematics are distinguished by great flexibility, mobility of thought processes when solving mathematical problems. It is expressed in easy and free switching from one mental operation to a qualitatively different one, in a variety of approaches to solving problems, in freedom from the constraining influence of template methods of solving, in the ease of restructuring the existing patterns of thinking and action,

4. It is very typical for capable schoolchildren to strive for the most rational decisions tasks, the search for the clearest, shortest and most elegant path to the goal. This looks like a peculiar tendency towards economy of thought.

5. Students capable of mathematics are distinguished by the ability to quickly and sharply change the direction of the thought process from direct to reverse, and the reversibility of reasoning.

6. In solving difficult problems by capable students, the samples were often not so much direct attempts to solve the problem as a means of comprehensively studying it with the extraction of additional information from each sample.

7. Capable students in most cases remember for quite a long time the type of problem they solved in their time, the general nature of the actions, but they do not remember the specific data of the problem (127, pp. 288-329).

Students with a delay mental development. A significant part of underachieving schoolchildren (about half) are children with mental retardation. Mental retardation is associated with residual conditions after suffering in utero, or during childbirth, or in early childhood, mild organic damage to the central nervous system, as well as genetically determined brain failure. Mild organic insufficiency of the brain leads to a significant slowdown in the rate of mental development. As a result, by the beginning of schooling, such children have an unformed readiness for schooling, not only psychological, but also physical and physiological.

Psychological aspect readiness for learning implies the formation of a certain level of knowledge and ideas about the world around; mental operations, actions and skills;

speech development; cognitive activity; behavior regulation. Children with mental retardation are not ready for schooling in all these respects. Difficulties in learning associated with the unpreparedness of children are exacerbated by the weakened functional state of their central nervous system, leading to low performance, fatigue and easy distractibility. All these features of children with mental retardation lead to the fact that the individual assistance provided to them in a general education school in most cases does not lead to overcoming the developmental lag. Due to the accumulating gaps in knowledge, children learn new material to a lesser extent and actually drop out of the educational process.

Insufficient knowledge of children of this category and misunderstanding of their characteristics by teachers in a regular school, inability to cope with them lead to a negative attitude towards them by teachers and, as a result, classmates who consider such children “stupid”, “stupid”. All this leads to the emergence in children of a negative attitude towards school and learning and stimulates their attempts at personal compensation in other areas of activity, which finds expression in violations of discipline, up to antisocial behavior. As a result, such a child not only does not receive anything from school, but also has a negative impact on his classmates.

Education, which is more effective when it is carried out in special, especially favorable conditions, creates the best opportunities both for correcting shortcomings, melting and for achieving a high level. social adaptation(158, pp. 6-8, 18).

The second level of personality, which depends both on innate qualities and on their training, development and improvement, and influencing the success of a person's activities, is considered using the concept "capabilities". The term "abilities", despite its long and widespread use in various fields of practice, the presence in the psychological literature of many of its definitions, is ambiguous.

A significant contribution to the development of the general theory of abilities was made by the Russian scientist B. M. Teplov. According to him, The concept of ability includes the following ideas:

1) abilities are understood as individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another;

2) abilities are not called any general individual characteristics, but only those that are related to the success of performing any activity or many activities;

3) the concept of ability is not limited to the knowledge, skills and abilities that have already been developed by a given person.

Capabilities- individual psychological characteristics of a person, which determine the success of an activity (a number of activities), which determine the ease and speed of learning new ways and methods of activity, but not reducible to knowledge and skills.

In psychology, it is customary to distinguish:

- general abilities- abilities that determine the success of a person in a variety of activities ( mental capacity, developed memory, perfect speech, subtlety and accuracy of manual movements, ability to interact with people);

- special abilities - abilities that determine the success of a person in specific activities, for the implementation of which the inclinations of a special kind and their development are necessary (musical, mathematical, linguistic, technical, operational, etc.).

The presence of general abilities in a person does not exclude the development of special ones and vice versa, and they mutually complement each other. The success of any activity does not depend on any one, but on a combination of different abilities, and this combination, which gives the same result, can be provided in different ways.

Capabilities exist only in a constant process of development. An ability that does not develop, which a person ceases to use in practice, is lost over time. A prerequisite for the development of abilities are makings.

Makings- morphological and functional features of the structure of the brain, sensory organs and movement, which act as natural prerequisites for the development of abilities.

The following can act as inclinations: the general activity of the nervous system and its balance, increased sensitivity of nervous structures, a special predisposition to the perception of sounds, colors, spatial forms, to the establishment of temporary connections and relationships, to generalizations, etc.

The presence of certain inclinations in a person does not mean the presence of appropriate abilities. In the absence of the necessary inclinations for the development of some abilities, their deficiency can be made up for by a stronger development of others. Development of makings- This is a socially conditioned process that is associated with the conditions of education and the characteristics and development of society.

Depending on whether there are or are not conditions for the development of abilities, they can be potential and current.

Potential Abilities- these are abilities that are not realized in a particular type of activity, but are able to manifest themselves when the corresponding social conditions change.

Actual abilities- these are the abilities that are needed at the moment and are realized in a particular type of activity.

Abilities not only jointly determine the success of the activity, but also interact with each other, exerting mutual influence. The combination of various highly developed abilities is called giftedness.

giftedness- the level of development of general and special abilities, which determines the range of various activities in which a person can achieve high success.

A separately taken isolated ability cannot be an analogue of giftedness, even if it is pronounced and has reached a high level of development.

As a result of the study of gifted children (N.S. Leites), it was possible to identify some essential abilities that together form structure of mental endowment:

1) attentiveness, composure, constant readiness for hard work;

2) industriousness (willingness to work develops into a propensity to work);

3) features of thinking (speed of thought processes, increased possibilities of analysis and synthesis, systematic mind).

The manifestation of abilities is always strictly individual and unique, therefore it is impossible to reduce the giftedness of people engaged in the same activity to a set of specific indicators.

Characterizing the special abilities of a person, they distinguish such a level of their development as skill - excellence in a particular activity; the next level of development and combination of human abilities - talent . The activities of a talented person are distinguished by their fundamental novelty, originality of approach..

The highest level of development of abilities called genius. One speaks of genius when a person's creative achievements constitute an entire epoch in the life of society, in the development of culture. Genius, as a rule, has its own "profile", some side dominates in it, some abilities are manifested brighter.

On ability development have a beneficial effect:

1) enriched environment;

2) high emotional tone (positive);

3)sensitive periods (lat.sensus- feeling, feeling) - periods of ontogenetic development in which a developing organism is especially sensitive to certain kinds of influences of the surrounding reality; periods of optimal terms for the development of certain aspects of the psyche;

4) own activity, enthusiasm, motivation.

Interfere with the development of abilities:

1) depleted external environment (lack of impressions);

2) frequent mental trauma.

3) improper handling of motivation (coercion).

Ability Development(S.L. Rubinshtein) going in a spiral : the realization of an opportunity, which is an ability of one level, opens up new opportunities for further development.