Hello dear visitors of our blog! The topic of our next article: "Peculiarities of the psychology of preschool children." Let's talk about the features of the development of the child from the age of three. How does their perception of the surrounding reality change. Find out what parents of a growing baby should pay attention to. Read the full article for details!

Features of the psychology of preschool children

Preschool age is determined by psychologists from three years to seven. At the age of three, the child experiences the first age crisis. Seven years is also a period of crisis. That is preschool age- this is the period of a child's life from the first to the second crisis of life.

A three-year-old baby already feels like a person. For the first time, he begins to understand that he is a person, a full-fledged member of the family. He learns to fulfill family responsibilities, to help adults. Tries to make decisions on his own. This is the age of the greatest perception of the surrounding reality. The development of the child is very fast. During these five years of preschool age, he needs to have time to change from playing activities to learning.

The help of parents is to give the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities.

The main activity in preschool age is play. At the age of three or four, a child masters a role-playing game, but so far at the level of imitation. He takes toys and plays situations that he saw in life or in cartoons. If this does not happen at this age, the task of the parent is to teach how to play.

Psychology of a child of senior preschool age

At the age of five or six, role-playing is no longer imitative. The kid himself comes up with the plot of the game, the names of the characters. These can be both life stories (shopping in a store, a train ride) and fantastic ones. In the game, the child learns to interact with people, socialization takes place. The child tries himself in the role of an adult, learns to make decisions at the level of the game. Therefore, it is very important not to miss this period.

If at a younger preschool age a little man most often plays by himself, then at the age of five or six years, the baby chooses peers with whom he would like to interact. Children gather in small groups of two or three people and play.

At this age, the child begins to be interested in drawing, modeling, listening to fairy tales. He is not interested in studying, although the elements learning activities in the form of a game, you can enter from the age of four. It is important to support the child in all his endeavors. Try all kinds of activities: appliqué, modeling, drawing, and designing. The kid is interested in trying everything. And it's important to support it. This is the future interest in learning, which is the key to success in school.

How the psychology of children of primary preschool age is changing

Thinking at this age is visual-figurative. This is important for parents to know. The kid cannot remember from words, it is important for him to see the picture, to explore the object by touch. Mental representation and fantasy are limited by the knowledge of the child. He cannot imagine what he has never seen. Therefore, it is important to give new sensations, new emotions. What can parents do for the full development of preschoolers?

• Trips to other cities (countries)
• Visiting museums, exhibitions
• Going to the theater
• It is important not just to watch the performance, but to discuss with the child what he learned new, what he was interested in.

At this age, memory develops intensively. The kid remembers everything: from advertising on TV to random phrases spoken by parents.

The development of memory in preschool age plays a huge role. A few recommendations for the development of memory in a playful way.

1. In the evening before going to bed, the parent reads a fairy tale. In the morning he discusses with the child who the main character was, where he went, what he did. You can ask leading questions, but it is important that he remembers himself.

2. Arrange three or four toys on the table. For half a minute, let the baby remember the location of the toys. Then cover them with a scarf and swap two toys in places. Open the handkerchief and ask the child to name what has changed.

3. Discuss after watching any cartoon. What happened in it. What were the names of the main characters?

4. In the evening, remember together with the baby what happened during the day sequentially (provided that the parent was present and knows how the day went).

We examined the issues of the peculiarities of the psychology of preschool children. We also recommend reading the article "Peculiarities of the psychology of preschool children." We will tell you how to deal with the problem of helplessness and develop in a child the ability to make decisions independently. Details in the article!

Preschool childhood. Junior preschool age. Middle preschool age. Senior preschool age. School readiness.

preschool childhood - one of the most milestones child's life, which largely determines all of his subsequent development. During this period, there is an intensive development and maturation of all systems and functions of the child's body: the child's height (by 20–25 cm), body weight and brain volume increase, and nervous system and higher nervous activity develops. All this creates the prerequisites for the further development and formation of cognitive mental processes and the personality of the child, mastering new types of activity.

At the boundary of early and preschool childhood, the nature of the joint activity of the child and the adult changes fundamentally: the child is already capable of a certain degree of independence and is in dire need of realizing this new ability. Satisfaction of the need for independence, which implies a change in the entire system of relations between an adult and a child that had developed by that time, removes the negative symptoms of the period of transition from early childhood to preschool.

In the concept of leading activity (A. N. Leontiev, D. B. Elkonin, A. V. Zaporozhets, etc.), a role-playing game is considered as a leading activity in preschool age, it is in it that neoplasms of preschool age mature, cognitive processes are formed and development of the personality of the child. The role-playing game is heterogeneous - it develops as the child grows up. Of course, in addition to play, preschool age is characterized by various forms of productive activity: designing, drawing, modeling, appliqué, etc. Elements of learning and labor can also be observed, although educational and labor activity not yet in developed form.

The dynamics of development at preschool age is quite high, so it is more reasonable to consider it, in accordance with the national tradition, in three stages: younger (3–4 years), middle (4–5 years) and older (5–7 years) preschool age.

Junior preschool age (3–4 years)

Social situation of development characterized by the increasing independence of the child, the expansion of his acquaintance with the outside world.

undergoes a special change communication: the child tries to influence an adult, the cognitive form of communication comes to replace the business cooperation of an early age, the age of "why-guys" comes. Gradually, communication with an adult acquires an extra-situational character. The main motive for communication is knowledge of the surrounding physical world. It is in this communication with an adult that the habits and standards of the child's behavior are formed.

The adult is still the main communication partner, however, at this age, communication with peers begins to become more complicated: joint actions begin to be discussed and agreed upon, but the child still easily changes peer communication partners without demonstrating affection for any of the children.

Appears role-playing game is the leading activity in preschool age.

At the age of three or four, children in role-playing games imitate adults, imitating objective activities. Absorbed by the process of performing actions, forgetting about the result, actions are not coordinated, roles are changed. The game lasts, as a rule, 10-15 minutes. The main plots are taken from everyday life familiar to the child - family, kindergarten, fairy tales, cartoons.

It is necessary to mention other types of activities that are important from the point of view of the development of the child - this is visual activity, design - a variety of creative activity and, of course, work. At the age of three, the beginnings of labor activity appear; at three or four years, children are able to work side by side; collective forms labor in its essence - with the distribution of duties, etc. - not yet available.

First of all, through the game, the maturation and development of neoplasms, the formation of cognitive processes, personal qualities child.

Among the cognitive processes that develop most at this age, L. S. Vygotsky called memory. It is she who largely influences the development of the entire cognitive sphere of a 3–4-year-old child. Memory is still involuntary, but the child easily remembers poems, fairy tales, new words that are read to him, is prone to repetition - he likes to listen to the same fairy tales several times. In most children, visual-emotional memory dominates during this period; children with a developed auditory memory are less common. The child begins to repeat and comprehend the stories that he heard or saw (in cartoons, in his environment), the beginnings of arbitrariness of memorization appear.

Feeling and Perception gradually lose their affective character, by the age of four, perception acquires the features of arbitrariness - the child is able to purposefully observe, consider, search, although not for a long time. The age of three or four years is the age of the formation of sensory standards - ideas about the shape, colors, sizes, however, sensory standards are still subject, i.e. exist in close connection with the subject, they are not abstract.

Actively developing speech child. At this age, the passive vocabulary significantly exceeds the active one - the child can understand well the words of an adult addressed to him, but is not yet able to fully support the dialogue, his answers, as a rule, are monosyllabic, repeat the words of an adult, speech is situational. Gradually, generalizing words are formed in the dictionary that are close to the child's experience - clothes, toys, and he begins to actively use them, agreeing in gender, number, hope. This age is sensitive for the development of children's speech - they easily grasp words and speech patterns, copy accents and pronunciation, so it is important that an adult pronounce words correctly when communicating with a child. Children in bi-ethnic families during this period begin to speak two languages, their speech development because of this, it may lag behind children from mono-ethnic families. During this period, the language spoken by the child and his immediate environment (family) begins to take root in the child's psyche as a leading one. If the same language is spoken at home, then by the age of three or four, the structure and pronunciation of this language becomes native for the child.

Formed in speech and communication thinking , up to three and a half - four years, visual-effective thinking is the leading one, and the foundations of visual-figurative thinking are gradually laid in it. They are laid due to the separation of the image from the object and the designation of the image with the help of a word.

The child's thinking is self-centered, he is not able to put himself in the place of another, this is a kind of internal position, which by the end of preschool age is overcome in connection with growing up.

cognitive imagination develops in close relationship with thinking and is the basis for the appearance of visual-figurative thinking: the child begins to separate the image from the object, using it in the process of thinking and imagining. Affective imagination calls for help in a situation of negative emotional experiences of the heroes of fairy tales, using which the child in his imagination builds situations that remove threats from his "I". During this period, you can hear fantasy stories when the child talks about himself as a positive hero.

Attention becomes more and more concentrated and stable, the child for the first time after an early age begins to control his attention and tries to consciously direct it to objects.

Emotional world a child of this age is very labile, his well-being depends on the situation and the immediate environment. The more favorable the environment, the more fully the relatives understand and accept the child, the better the general situation of development is, the child positively evaluates himself, he develops adequate self-esteem and trust in the world of adults. During this period, the consequences of the crisis of three years may appear: negativism, stubbornness, aggressiveness, but they are easily overcome with the right attitude towards the child.

central mechanism personal development during this period is imitation, the child copies the actions of adults, not yet realizing their meaning. Already at the age of three, the child reacts to the assessment of his behavior by adults, he is pleased with praise. He cannot yet evaluate the act, but simply focuses on the opinions of adults and experiences emotional satisfaction from recognizing his successes. By the age of three and a half, children can adequately feel their capabilities - achieving success in learning, receiving support, praise from an adult, the child develops as a person. The first ideas about oneself as a person, distinguished by independence of actions, appear, gradually there is an awareness of oneself. The development of self-awareness begins at this age with the separation of oneself from others, the emergence of a sense of "I" and with a positive attitude towards one's name. It is important for a child to know that he is valuable, that his name is recognized, so the basic setting of self-consciousness is gradually formed: I am Vasya (Masha) good (ay).

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1. Psychology of preschool age: subject and tasks.

Psychology is the science of the soul. The soul is in principle observable and immeasurable. It is very difficult to understand the soul of a child. Child psychology is a science that studies the characteristics of a child's mental life and the patterns of mental development in childhood. The subject of child psychology is the individual development of a person, or ontogenesis, which always takes place in a certain historical and cultural situation, at a certain stage of phylogenesis (historical and cultural development.) All children go through certain stages in their development, or stages that are characterized by specific features of their mental life. The study of the patterns of the mental development of the child is the main subject of child psychology. Its main task is to describe and explain the features of the child's mental life at each age stage. Therefore, child psychology is an integral part of developmental psychology, that is, a science that studies the age-related patterns of human mental development. But if developmental psychology covers all stages of life, including maturity and old age, then children's psychology deals only with early ages (from 0 to 7 years), when development occurs most rapidly and intensively. What determines this development? The main question that arises here is the question of the relative role natural property organism and human conditions of child upbringing.

2. Principles of studying the child's psyche

The specificity of the methods of child psychology is determined by the specificity of its object. This is the development of the child's psyche from birth to seven years, which during this period is the most vulnerable and subject to external adverse influences. Rough intervention on the part of adults can slow down or distort the course of a child's mental development. Therefore, the main principle of the study of child psychology is the principle of humanism and pedagogical optimism, which consists in the requirement not to harm. The psychologist should feel a special responsibility and not rush, the main thing is to understand the true causes of the child's behavior, highlight psychological features and patterns, while showing tactful, sensitive, careful attitude to the baby.

The principle of efficiency and scientific character implies the study of psychological development, its mechanisms and patterns in terms of child psychology, and not from the point of view of other sciences. Before starting to study this world of a child, it is necessary to master special psychological knowledge, concepts, to master the basic ideas of psychological science .

The principle of determinism proceeds from the fact that the formation of mental functions and properties, as well as the features of their manifestation, are associated with both external and internal causes. These reasons are due to the conditions of life, upbringing of the child, the characteristics of his social environment, the nature of the communication of the baby with adults and peers, the specifics of his activities and activity. Initially, there are no "good" or "difficult" children, there is only a variety of reasons that subsequently influence the appearance of one or another trait inherent in this particular child. The task of the researcher is to understand the cause of a psychological fact, and therefore to explain it.

The principle of the development of the psyche, consciousness in activity shows that activity acts as a condition for the manifestation and development of the child's psyche. Therefore, to study his mental characteristics, it is necessary to organize appropriate activities, for example, creative imagination can be fixed in drawing or when writing a fairy tale.

The principle of the unity of consciousness and activity (developed by S.L. Rubinshtein) means the mutual influence of consciousness and activity. On the one hand, consciousness is formed in activity and, as it were, “leads” it. On the other hand, the complication of activity, the development of its new types enriches and changes consciousness. Therefore, consciousness can be studied indirectly, through the study of the child's activity. Thus, the motives of behavior become clear from the analysis of actions.

The principle of the age-related individual and personal approach implies that the general laws of mental development are manifested in each child individually, including regular and special features. Each child masters speech, learns to walk, act with objects, but the path of his development is individual.

The principle of complexity, consistency and systematicity suggests that a single study does not complete picture mental development of the child. It is necessary to analyze not disparate facts, but to compare them, to trace all aspects of the development of the child's psyche in the aggregate.

3. Research methods of psychology of preschool age

Method - this is a general strategy, a general way of obtaining facts, which is determined by the task and subject of research, as well as the theoretical ideas of the researcher. Observation is the main method when working with children (especially preschool children), since tests, experiments, and surveys are difficult to study children's behavior. It is necessary to start observation with setting a goal, drawing up an observation program, and developing an action plan. The purpose of observation is to determine why it is carried out and what results can be expected from the output.

In order to obtain reliable results, monitoring must be carried out regularly. This is due to the fact that children grow up very quickly and the changes that occur in the behavior and psyche of the child are just as fleeting. For example, the behavior of an infant changes before our eyes, therefore, by missing one month, the researcher is deprived of the opportunity to obtain valuable data on his development during this period.

The younger the child, the shorter the interval between observations should be. In the period from birth to 2-3 months, the child should be monitored daily; at the age of 2-3 months to 1 year - weekly; from 1 to 3 years - monthly; from 3 to 6-7 years - once every six months; at primary school age - once a year, etc.

The method of observation when working with children is more effective than others, on the one hand, because they behave more directly and do not play the social roles characteristic of adults. On the other hand, children (especially preschoolers) have insufficiently stable attention and can often be distracted from their work. Therefore, whenever possible, covert surveillance should be carried out so that children do not see the observer.

The survey may be oral or written. When using this method, the following difficulties may arise. Children understand the question they are asked in their own way, that is, they put a different meaning into it than an adult. This is because the system of concepts in children differs significantly from that used by adults. This phenomenon is also observed in adolescents. Therefore, before getting an answer to the question being asked, it is necessary to make sure that the child understands it correctly, explaining and discussing the inaccuracies, and only after that interpret the answers received.

The experiment is one of the most reliable methods of obtaining information about the behavior and psychology of the child. The essence of the experiment is that in the process of research the mental processes of interest to the researcher are evoked in the child and the conditions necessary and sufficient for the manifestation of these processes are created.

Child entering experimental game situation, behaves directly, emotionally responding to the proposed situations, does not play any social roles. This allows you to get his true reactions to the influencing stimuli. The results are most reliable if the experiment is carried out in the form of a game. At the same time, it is important that the direct interests and needs of the child are expressed in the game, otherwise he will not be able to fully demonstrate his intellectual abilities and the necessary psychological qualities. In addition, being included in the experiment, the child acts momentarily and spontaneously, so throughout the experiment it is necessary to maintain his interest in the event.

Slicing is another research method in developmental psychology. They are divided into transverse and longitudinal (longitudinal).

The essence of the method transverse sections consists in the fact that in a group of children (class, several classes, children different ages, but students in the same program) with the help of certain methods, some parameter is investigated (for example, the intellectual level). The advantage of this method is that in a short time it is possible to obtain statistical data on age-related differences in mental processes, to establish how age, gender, or another factor affects the main trends in mental development. The disadvantage of the method is that when studying children of different ages it is impossible to obtain information about the process of development itself, its nature and driving forces.

When using the method longitudinal (longitudinal) sections the development of a group of the same children for a long time is traced. This method allows you to establish qualitative changes in the development of mental processes and personality of the child and identify the causes of these changes, as well as to study development trends, minor changes that cannot be covered by cross sections. The disadvantage of the method is that the results obtained are based on the study of the behavior of a small group of children, so it seems incorrect to extend such data to a large number of children.

Testing reveals the level intellectual abilities and personality traits of the child. It is necessary to keep children interested in this method in ways that are attractive to them, such as encouragement or some kind of reward. When testing children, the same tests are used as for adults, but adapted for each age, for example children's version Cattell's test, Wechsler's test, etc.

Conversation is obtaining information about the child in direct communication with him: the child is asked targeted questions and expect answers to them. This method is empirical. An important condition for the effectiveness of the conversation is a favorable atmosphere, goodwill, tact. Questions must be prepared in advance and the answers recorded, if possible without attracting the attention of the subject.

Questioning is a method of obtaining information about a person based on his answers to pre-prepared questions. Questioning can be oral, written, individual or group.

Activity product analysis is a method of studying a person by analyzing the products of his activity: drawings, drawings, musical works, essays, study books, personal diaries, etc. Thanks to this method, you can get information about the inner world of the child, his attitude to the surrounding reality and people, about the peculiarities of his perception and other aspects of the psyche. This method is based on the principle unity of consciousness and activity, according to which the child's psyche is not only formed, but also manifested in activity. Drawing or creating something, the child provides researchers with the opportunity to reveal aspects of his psyche that would be difficult to learn with the help of other methods. Based on the drawings, one can study cognitive processes (sensations, imagination, perception, thinking), Creative skills, personality manifestations children's attitude towards the people around them.

4. Psychological characteristics of preschool age

Thinking. Mastering the standards, changing the types and content of the child's activity leads to a change in the nature of the child's thinking. By the end of preschool age, there is a transition from egocentrism (centration) to decentration, which also leads to the perception of the surrounding world from the standpoint of objectivity.

The child's mind is shaped by pedagogical process. The peculiarity of the development of the child lies in the active mastery of the methods and means of practical and cognitive activity that have a social origin. According to A.V. Zaporozhets, mastery of such methods plays a significant role in the formation of not only complex types of abstract, verbal and logical thinking, but also visual-figurative thinking, characteristic of preschool children.

Thus, thinking in its development goes through the following stages: 1) improvement of visual-effective thinking on the basis of developing imagination; 2) improvement of visual-figurative thinking on the basis of arbitrary and mediated memory; 3) start active formation verbal-logical thinking through the use of speech as a means of setting and solving intellectual problems.

In his research, A.V. Zaporozhets, N.N. Poddyakov, L.A. Wenger and others confirmed that the transition from visual-active to visual-figurative thinking occurs due to a change in the nature of orienting-research activity. Orientation, based on the method of trial and error, is replaced by a purposeful motor, then visual and, finally, mental orientation.

Let us consider the process of development of thinking in more detail. The emergence of role-playing games, especially with the use of rules, contributes to the development visual-figurative thinking. Its formation and improvement depend on the imagination of the child. First, the child mechanically replaces some objects with others, giving the substitute objects functions that are not characteristic of them, then the objects are replaced by their images, and the need to perform practical actions with them disappears.

Verbal-logical thinking begins its development when the child knows how to operate with words and understands the logic of reasoning. The ability to reason is found in the middle preschool age, but is very clearly manifested in the phenomenon of egocentric speech, described by J. Piaget. Despite the fact that the child can reason, there is illogicality in his conclusion, he is confused when comparing size and quantity.

The development of this type of thinking takes place in two stages:

1) first, the child learns the meaning of words relating to objects and actions, and learns to use them;

2) the child learns a system of concepts denoting relationships and learns the rules of the logic of reasoning.

With the development logical thinking is the process of forming an internal plan of action. N.N. Poddyakov, studying this process, identified six stages of development:

1) first, the child manipulates objects with the help of his hands, solves problems in a visual-effective way;

2) continuing to manipulate objects, the child begins to use speech, but so far only for naming objects, although he can already verbally express the result of the performed practical action;

3) the child begins to mentally operate with images. There is a differentiation in the internal plan of the final and intermediate goals of the action, i.e., he builds a plan of action in his mind and, when executed, begins to reason aloud;

4) the task is solved by the child according to a pre-compiled, thought-out and internally presented plan;

5) the child first thinks out a plan for solving the problem, mentally imagines this process, and only then proceeds to its implementation. The purpose of this practical action is to reinforce the answer found in the mind;

6) the task is solved only internally with the issuance of a ready-made verbal solution, without subsequent reinforcement by actions.

N.N. Poddyakov made the following conclusion: in children, the stages passed and achievements in the improvement of mental actions do not disappear, but are replaced by new, more advanced ones. If necessary, they can again join in solving the problem situation, i.e., visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking will begin to work. It follows that in preschoolers the intellect already functions according to the principle of systemicity.

At preschool age, they begin to develop concepts. At 3-4 years old, the child uses words, sometimes not fully understanding their meanings, but over time, a semantic awareness of these words occurs. J. Piaget called the period of incomprehension of the meaning of words the stage of the speech-cogitative development of the child. The development of concepts goes hand in hand with the development of thinking and speech.

Attention. At this age, it is involuntary and is caused by outwardly attractive objects, events and people. Interest comes first. The child fixes attention on something or someone only during the period of time in which he retains a direct interest in the person, object or event. The formation of voluntary attention is accompanied by the appearance of egocentric speech.

At the initial stage of the transition of attention from involuntary to voluntary, the means that control the child's attention and reasoning aloud are of great importance.

Attention during the transition from younger to older preschool age develops as follows. younger preschoolers consider pictures of interest to them, they can engage in a certain type of activity for 6-8 seconds, and older preschoolers - 12-20 seconds. At preschool age, different degrees of stability of attention are already noted in different children. Perhaps this is due to the type of nervous activity, physical condition and living conditions. It has been observed that nervous and sick children are more likely to be distracted than calm and healthy ones.

Memory. The development of memory goes from involuntary and direct to voluntary and mediated memorization and recall. This fact was confirmed by Z.M. Istomina, who analyzed the process of formation of voluntary and mediated memorization in preschoolers.

Basically, in all children of early preschool age, involuntary, visual-emotional memory predominates, only in linguistically or musically gifted children does auditory memory prevail.

The transition from involuntary to voluntary memory is divided into two stages: 1) the formation of the necessary motivation, i.e., the desire to remember or recall something; 2) the emergence and improvement of the necessary mnemonic actions and operations.

Various memory processes develop unevenly with age. Thus, voluntary reproduction occurs earlier than voluntary memorization, and involuntarily precedes it in development. The development of memory processes also depends on the interest and motivation of the child in a particular activity.

The productivity of memorization in children in play activities is much higher than outside the game. At the age of 5-6 years, the first perceptual actions aimed at conscious memorization and recall are noted. These include simple repetition. By the age of 6-7, the process of arbitrary memorization is almost completed.

As a child grows older, the speed of retrieving information from long-term memory and transferring it to operational memory increases, as well as the volume and duration of operative memory. The child's ability to assess the possibilities of his memory is changing, the strategies for memorizing and reproducing the material used by him become more diverse and flexible. For example, a four-year-old child from 12 presented pictures can recognize all 12, and reproduce only two or three, a ten-year-old child, having recognized all the pictures, is able to reproduce eight.

Many children of primary and secondary preschool age have a well-developed direct and mechanical memory. Children easily remember and reproduce what they saw and heard, but on condition that it aroused their interest. Thanks to the development of these types of memory, the child quickly improves his speech, learns to use household items, and is well oriented in space.

At this age, eidetic memory develops. This is one of the types of visual memory that helps to clearly, accurately and in detail, without much difficulty, restore visual images of what has been seen in memory.

Imagination. At the end of early childhood, when the child first demonstrates the ability to replace some objects with others, the initial stage of imagination development begins. Then it gets its development in games. How developed the child's imagination can be judged not only by the roles that he plays during the game, but also by crafts and drawings.

O.M. Dyachenko showed that imagination in its development goes through the same stages as other mental processes: involuntary (passive) is replaced by arbitrary (active), direct - mediated. Sensory standards become the main tool for mastering the imagination.

In the first half of preschool childhood, the child is dominated by reproductive imagination. It consists in the mechanical reproduction of the received impressions in the form of images. These can be impressions from watching a TV show, reading a story, a fairy tale, direct perception of reality. The images usually reproduce those events that made an emotional impression on the child.

In the older preschool age, the reproductive imagination turns into an imagination that creatively transforms reality. Thinking is already involved in this process. This type of imagination is used and improved in role-playing games.

The functions of the imagination are as follows: cognitive-intellectual, affective-protective. Cognitive-intellectual imagination is formed by separating the image from the object and designating the image with the help of a word. Role affective-protective function is that it protects the growing, vulnerable, weakly protected soul of the child from experiences and traumas. The protective reaction of this function is expressed in the fact that through an imaginary situation, a discharge of the emerging tension or conflict resolution can occur, which is difficult to provide in real life. It develops as a result of the child's awareness of his "I", the psychological separation of himself from others and from the actions performed.

The development of imagination goes through the following stages.

1. "Objectification" of the image by actions. The child can manage, change, refine and improve his images, i.e., regulate his imagination, but is not able to plan and mentally draw up a program of upcoming actions in advance.

2. Children's affective imagination at preschool age develops as follows: at first, negative emotional experiences in a child are symbolically expressed in the heroes of fairy tales he heard or saw; then he begins to build imaginary situations that remove threats from his "I" (for example, fantasy stories about himself as supposedly possessing especially pronounced positive qualities).

3. Appearance of substitutive actions, which, if implemented, are able to relieve the emotional stress that has arisen. By the age of 6-7, children can imagine an imaginary world and live in it.

Speech. In preschool childhood, the process of mastering speech is completed. It develops in the following directions.

1. There is a development of sound speech. The child begins to realize the peculiarities of his pronunciation, he develops phonemic hearing.

2. Vocabulary is growing. It is different for different children. It depends on the conditions of their life and on how and how much his relatives communicate with him. By the end of preschool age, all parts of speech are present in the child's vocabulary: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, numerals and connecting words. The German psychologist W. Stern (1871-1938), speaking about the richness of the vocabulary, gives the following figures: at three years old, the child actively uses 1000-1100 words, at six years old - 2500-3000 words.

3. The grammatical structure of speech develops. The child learns the laws of the morphological and syntactic structure of the language. He understands the meaning of words and can construct phrases correctly. At the age of 3-5 years, the child correctly captures the meanings of words, but sometimes uses them incorrectly. Children have the ability, using the laws of grammar of their native language, to create statements, for example: “From mint cakes in the mouth - a draft”, “A bald head is barefoot”, “Look how the rain has poured” (from the book by K.I. Chukovsky " two to five").

4. There is an awareness of the verbal composition of speech. During pronunciation, the language is oriented towards the semantic and sound aspects, and this indicates that the speech is not yet understood by the child. But over time, the development of a linguistic instinct and the mental work associated with it occurs.

If at first the child treats the sentence as a single semantic whole, a verbal complex that denotes a real situation, then in the process of learning and from the moment the reading of books begins, an awareness of the verbal composition of speech occurs. Education accelerates this process, and therefore, by the end of preschool age, the child already begins to isolate words in sentences.

In the course of development, speech performs various functions: communicative, planning, symbolic, expressive.

Communicative function - one of the main functions of speech. In early childhood, speech for a child is a means of communication mainly with loved ones. It arises out of necessity, about a specific situation in which both an adult and a child are included. During this period, communication plays a situational role.

situational speech clear to the interlocutor, but incomprehensible to an outsider, because when communicating, the implied noun drops out and pronouns are used (he, she, they), there is an abundance of adverbs and verbal patterns. Under the influence of others, the child begins to rebuild situational speech to a more understandable one.

In older preschoolers, the following tendency can be traced: the child first calls the pronoun, and then, seeing that they do not understand him, pronounces the noun. For example: "She, the girl, went. He, the ball, rolled." The child gives a more detailed answer to the questions.

The range of interests of the child grows, communication expands, friends appear, and all this leads to situational speech being replaced by contextual speech. Here, more than detailed description situations. Improving, the child often begins to use this type of speech, but situational speech is also present.

Explanatory speech appears at the senior preschool age. This is due to the fact that the child, when communicating with peers, begins to explain the content of the upcoming game, the device of the machine, and much more. This requires a sequence of presentation, indication of the main connections and relationships in the situation.

planning the function of speech develops because speech turns into a means of planning and regulating practical behavior. It merges with thinking. In the speech of the child, many words appear that seem to be addressed to no one. These may be exclamations reflecting his attitude to the action. For example, "Knock-knock... scored. Vova scored!".

When a child turns to himself in the process of activity, then they speak of egocentric speech. He pronounces what he is doing, as well as the actions that precede and direct the procedure being performed. These statements are ahead of practical actions and are figurative. By the end of preschool age, egocentric speech disappears. If a child does not communicate with anyone during the game, then, as a rule, he does the work silently, but this does not mean that egocentric speech has disappeared. It simply passes into inner speech, and its planning function continues. Consequently, egocentric speech is an intermediate step between the child's external and internal speech.

Iconic the function of the child's speech develops in the game, drawing and other productive activities, where the child learns to use objects-signs as substitutes for missing objects. The sign function of speech is the key to entering the world of human socio-psychological space, a means for people to understand each other.

Expressive function - the most ancient function of speech, reflecting its emotional side. The speech of the child is permeated with emotions when something does not work out for him or he is denied something. The emotional immediacy of children's speech is adequately perceived by surrounding adults. For a child who reflects well, such speech can become a means of influencing an adult. However, the "childishness", specially demonstrated by the child, is not accepted by many adults, so he has to make an effort on himself and control himself, to be natural, not demonstrative.

5. The history of the emergence of psychology of preschool age

child psychology longitudinal cut

As an independent, fundamental science, child psychology has close and mutual ties with other disciplines. On the one hand, it is based on philosophy, cultural studies, developmental psychology and general psychology and provides empirical material for them, on the other hand, it is the scientific foundation for educational psychology, pedagogy and practical psychology.

Child psychology as a science of the mental development of a child originated at the end of the 19th century. The beginning of this was the book of the German scientist-Darwinist W. Preyer "The Soul of a Child" (St. Petersburg, 1891). In it, Preyer described the results of daily observations of the development of his daughter, paying attention to the development of the senses, motor skills, will, reason and language. Preyer's merit lies in the fact that he studied how the child develops in the earliest years of life, and introduced into child psychology method of objective observation, developed by analogy with the methods of natural sciences. He was the first to make the transition from an introspective study of the child's psyche to an objective one.

The objective conditions for the formation of child psychology, which prevailed at the end of the 19th century, should first of all include the rapid development of industry and, accordingly, qualitatively new level public life. This entailed the need to reconsider approaches to the upbringing and education of children. Parents and teachers stopped counting physical punishments effective method upbringing - more democratic families and teachers appeared. The task of understanding the child has become one of the priorities. In addition, scientists came to the conclusion that only through the study of the psychology of the child is the way to understand what the psychology of an adult is.

Like any field of knowledge, child psychology began with the collection and accumulation of information. Scientists simply described the manifestations and further development of mental processes. The accumulated knowledge required systematization and analysis, namely:

* search for relationships between individual mental processes;

* understanding the internal logic of holistic mental development;

* determining the sequence of stages of development;

* study of the causes and ways of transition from one stage to another.

In child psychology, knowledge of related sciences began to be used: genetic psychology, studying the emergence of individual mental functions in an adult and a child in history and ontogenesis, and educational psychology. Increasing attention has been paid to the psychology of learning. An outstanding Russian teacher, the founder of scientific pedagogy in Russia, K.D. Ushinsky (1824-1870). In his work "Man as an Object of Education", he wrote, addressing teachers: "Study the laws of those mental phenomena that you want to control, and act in accordance with these laws and those circumstances to which you want to apply them."

Literature

Abramenkova V.V. Social psychology of childhood: The development of child relations in children's subculture. - M., 2000

Aries F. Ages of life //Philosophy and methodology of history. -M., 1997

Galperin P.Ya., Zaporozhets A.V., Karpova S.N. Actual problems of developmental psychology. -M., 1978

Zagvyazinsky VI, Atakhanov R. Methodology and methods of psychological and pedagogical research. -M., 2001

Kon I.S. Child and society (Historical and ethnographic perspective). -M., 1988

Kudryavtsev V.T. The meaning of human childhood and the mental development of the child. -M., 1997

Mid M. Culture and the world of childhood. -M., 1988

Mikhailenko M., Korotkova N., Grigorovich L. To the portrait of a modern preschooler // preschool education. - 1993. - No. 1. - p. 27-36

Rybinsky E.M. The phenomenon of childhood modern Russia//Pedagogy. -1996. - No. 6. - p. 14-18

Elkonin D.B. Introduction to child psychology // Selected. psychol. works. -M., 1989. - p. 26-59

Elkonin D.B. On the problem of periodization of mental development in childhood // Izbr.psihol.trudy. -M., 1989. - p. 60-77

Elkonin D.B. Problems of psychodiagnostics // Selected psychological works. -M., 1989. - p. 281-305

Erickson E. Childhood and society. -SPb., 1996

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The development of the child's psyche in preschool age (3 years - 6-7 years)

The child transcends his family circle and established relationships with the adult world. Center social situation is an adult as a carrier of a social function (an adult is a mother, a doctor, etc.). At the same time, the child is not able to really participate in the life of adults. This contradiction is resolved in the game, as in the leading activity. This is the only activity that allows you to simulate the life of adults and act in it.

2. Game as a leading activity of preschool age. Other child activities

The game is the leading activity of a preschool child. The subject of gaming activity is an adult as a carrier of certain social functions, entering into certain relationships with other people, using certain rules in his activities. The main change in behavior is that the desires of the child fade into the background, and the clear implementation of the rules of the game comes to the fore.

Structure role-playing game: Each game has its own game conditions - children participating in it, dolls, other toys and objects.

The plot is that sphere of reality that is reflected in the game. At first, the child is limited by the framework of the family, and therefore his games are mainly connected with family, everyday problems. Then, as he masters new areas of life, he begins to use more complex plots - industrial, military, etc.

In addition, the game on the same plot gradually becomes more stable, longer. If at 3-4 years old a child can devote only 10-15 minutes to it, and then he needs to switch to something else, then at 4-5 years old one game can already last 40-50 minutes. Older preschoolers are able to play the same game for several hours in a row, and some of their games stretch over several days.

Role (main, secondary);

Toys, play material;

Game actions (those moments in the activities and relationships of adults that are reproduced by the child)

Younger preschoolers imitate objective activities - cut bread, rub carrots, wash dishes. They are absorbed in the very process of performing actions and sometimes forget about the result - for what and for whom they did it.

For middle preschoolers, the main thing is the relationship between people, they perform game actions not for the sake of the actions themselves, but for the sake of the relationships behind them. Therefore, a 5-year-old child will never forget to put "sliced" bread in front of the dolls and will never mix up the sequence of actions - first dinner, then washing dishes, and not vice versa.

For older preschoolers, it is important to obey the rules arising from the role, and the correct implementation of these rules is strictly controlled by them. Game actions are gradually losing their original meaning. Actually objective actions are reduced and generalized, and sometimes they are generally replaced by speech ("Well, I washed their hands. Let's sit down at the table!").

There are 2 main phases or stages in the development of the game. The first stage (3-5 years) is characterized by the reproduction of the logic of people's real actions; the content of the game are objective actions. At the second stage (5-7 years), real relations between people are modeled, and the content of the game becomes social relations, the social meaning of the activity of an adult.

The role of play in the development of the child's psyche.

1) In the game, the child learns to fully communicate with peers.

2) Learn to subordinate your impulsive desires to the rules of the game. There is a subordination of motives - "I want" begins to obey "it is impossible" or "it is necessary".

3) In the game, all mental processes develop intensively, the first moral feelings (what is bad and what is good) are formed.

4) New motives and needs are formed (competitive, game motives, the need for independence).

5) New types of productive activities are born in the game (drawing, modeling, appliqué)

3. Development of mental functions in preschool age

1) Perception at preschool age becomes more perfect, meaningful, purposeful, analyzing. Arbitrary actions are distinguished in it - observation, examination, search Children know the main colors and their shades, they can describe the object in shape and size. They learn a system of sensory standards (round like an apple).

2) Memory. Preschool childhood is the most favorable (sensitive) age for the development of memory. In younger preschoolers, memory is involuntary. The child does not set himself the goal of remembering or remembering something and does not own special methods of memorization. Events that are interesting to him, if they cause an emotional response, are easily (involuntarily) remembered. In the middle preschool age (between 4 and 5 years), arbitrary memory begins to form. Conscious, purposeful memorization and recall appear only sporadically. Usually they are included in other activities, since they are needed both in the game, and when carrying out instructions from adults, and during classes - preparing children for schooling.

3) Thinking and perception are so closely related that they speak of visual-figurative thinking, which is most characteristic of preschool age. Despite such a peculiar children's logic, preschoolers can reason correctly and solve rather complex problems. Correct answers can be obtained from them under certain conditions. First of all, the child needs to have time to remember the task itself. In addition, he must imagine the conditions of the problem, and for this he must understand them. Therefore, it is important to formulate the problem in such a way that it is understandable to children. The best way achieve the right decision - so organize the actions of the child so that he draws the appropriate conclusions based on his own experience. A.V. Zaporozhets asked preschoolers about physical phenomena little known to them, in particular, why some objects float while others sink. After receiving more or less fantastic answers, he suggested that they throw various things into the water (a small carnation that seemed light, a large wooden block, etc.). Previously, the children guessed whether the object would float or not float. After a sufficiently large number of trials, having checked their initial assumptions, the children began to reason consistently and logically. They have acquired the capacity for the simplest forms of induction and deduction.

4) Speech. In preschool childhood, the long and complex process of mastering speech is basically completed. By the age of 7, the language for the child becomes really native. The sound side of speech develops. Younger preschoolers begin to realize the peculiarities of their pronunciation. The vocabulary of speech is growing intensively. As in the previous age stage, there are great individual differences: some children have a larger vocabulary, while others have a smaller one, which depends on their living conditions, on how and how much close adults communicate with them. We present the average data for V. Stern. At 1.5 years old, the child actively uses about 100 words, at 3 years old - 1000-1100, at 6 years old - 2500-3000 words. The grammatical structure of speech develops. Children learn the patterns of morphological order (word structure) and syntactic order (phrase construction). A child of 3-5 years old correctly captures the meanings of "adult" words, although he sometimes uses them incorrectly. The words created by the child himself according to the laws of the grammar of the native language are always recognizable, sometimes very successful and certainly original. This children's ability for independent word formation is often called word creation. K.I. Chukovsky, in his wonderful book "From Two to Five", collected many examples of children's word creation (From mint cakes in the mouth - a draft; A bald head is barefoot; Look how it rained; I'd rather go for a walk, not eaten; Mom is angry, but quickly fertilizes ; crawler - worm; mazeline - vaseline; mokres - compress).

4. Personality characteristics of a preschooler

emotional sphere. Preschool childhood is characterized by a generally calm emotionality, the absence of strong affective outbursts and conflicts on minor occasions. But this does not at all lead to a decrease in the saturation of the emotional life of the child. The day of a preschooler is so filled with emotions that by the evening he can, tired, reach complete exhaustion.

During this period, the structure of the emotional processes themselves also changes. In early childhood, vegetative and motor reactions were included in their composition (when experiencing resentment, the child cried, threw himself on the sofa, covering his face with his hands, or moved chaotically, shouting out incoherent words, his breathing was uneven, his pulse was frequent; in anger he blushed, shouted, clenched his fists, could break a thing that turned up under his arm, hit, etc.). These reactions are preserved in preschool children, although the outward expression of emotion becomes more restrained in some children. The child begins to rejoice and grieve not only about what he is doing at the moment, but also about what he has yet to do.

Everything that a preschooler engages in - playing, drawing, modeling, designing, preparing for school, helping his mother with household chores, etc. - must have a bright emotional coloring, otherwise the activity will not take place or will quickly collapse. A child, due to his age, is simply not able to do what he is not interested in.

Motivational sphere. The subordination of motives is considered the most important personal mechanism that is formed in this period. It appears at the beginning of preschool age and then gradually develops. If several desires arose simultaneously, the child found himself in a situation of choice that was almost insoluble for him.

The motives of a preschooler acquire different strength and significance. Already at a younger preschool age, a child can relatively easily make a decision in a situation of choice. Soon he may already suppress his immediate urges, for example, not responding to an attractive object. This becomes possible due to stronger motives that act as "limiters".

Interestingly, the most powerful motive for a preschooler is encouragement, receiving a reward. Weaker is the punishment, even weaker is the child's own promise. Demanding promises from children is not only useless, but also harmful, since they are not kept, and a series of unfulfilled assurances and vows reinforces such personality traits as optionality and carelessness. The weakest is the direct prohibition of some actions of the child, not reinforced by other, additional motives, although adults often place great hopes on the prohibition.

The preschooler begins to learn the ethical norms accepted in society. He learns to evaluate actions from the point of view of moral norms, to subordinate his behavior to these norms, he has ethical experiences. Initially, the child evaluates only other people's actions - other children or literary heroes without being able to evaluate their own. In the middle preschool age, the child evaluates the actions of the hero, regardless of how he relates to him, and can justify his assessment based on the relationship between the characters in the fairy tale. In the second half of preschool childhood, the child acquires the ability to evaluate his own behavior, tries to act in accordance with the moral standards that he learns.

Self-consciousness is formed by the end of preschool age due to intensive intellectual and personal development, it is generally considered the central neoplasm of preschool childhood.

Self-esteem appears in the second half of the period on the basis of the initial purely emotional self-esteem ("I am good") and a rational assessment of someone else's behavior. The child first acquires the ability to evaluate the actions of other children, and then - their own actions, moral qualities and skills. By the age of 7, the majority of self-assessment of skills becomes more adequate.

Another line of development of self-consciousness is awareness of one's experiences. At the end of preschool age, he orients himself in his emotional states and can express them in words: "I am glad," "I am sad," "I am angry."

This period is characterized by gender identification, the child is aware of himself as a boy or a girl. Children acquire ideas about appropriate styles of behavior. Most boys try to be strong, brave, courageous, not to cry from pain or resentment; many girls are neat, businesslike in everyday life and soft or coquettishly capricious in communication.

Self-awareness begins in time. At 6-7 years old, a child remembers himself in the past, is aware of the present and imagines himself in the future: "when I was small", "when I grow up big."

5. Crisis 6-7 years old, the problem of the child's readiness for school

On the basis of the emergence of personal consciousness, a crisis of 7 years appears.

Main features:

1) loss of immediacy (between desire and action, the experience of what significance this action will have for the child is wedged);

2) mannerisms (the child builds something out of himself, hides something);

3) a symptom of "bitter candy" - the child feels bad, but he tries not to show it.

Psychological readiness for school is a complex formation that implies a fairly high level of development of the motivational, intellectual and arbitrariness spheres. Usually, two aspects of psychological readiness are distinguished - personal (motivational) and intellectual readiness for school.

Intellectual readiness includes: - orientation in the environment; - stock of knowledge; - development of thought processes (the ability to generalize, compare, classify objects); - development different types memory (figurative, auditory, mechanical, etc.); - development of voluntary attention;

Motivational readiness for school includes:

Intrinsic motivation (i.e. the child wants to go to school because it is interesting and he wants to know a lot), and not because he will have a new satchel or parents promised to buy a bicycle (extrinsic motivation).

1. The crisis of three years: the seven-star of symptoms…………………………………….4

2. The social situation of personality development in the preschool period………….13

3. Leading activity of a preschooler……………………………………………17

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….20

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….21

Introduction

Childhood, as a sociocultural phenomenon, is of a concrete historical nature and has its own history of development. The nature and content of individual periods of childhood are influenced by specific socio-economic and ethno-cultural characteristics of the society where the child grows up, and, first of all, by the system of public education. Within the successively changing types of children's activities, the child's appropriation of historically developed human abilities takes place. modern science has numerous data that psychological neoplasms that develop in childhood are of enduring importance for the development of abilities and the formation of personality.

Preschool age is a stage in the mental development of children, covering a period from 3 to 6-7 years, characterized by the fact that the leading activity is the game, it is very important for the formation of the child's personality. It includes three periods:

1) younger preschool age - from 3 to 4 years;

2) average preschool age - from 4 to 5 years;

3) senior preschool age - from 5 to 7 years.

During the period of preschool age, the child discovers for himself, not without the help of an adult, the world of human relationships, different types activities.

The purpose of the study is the psychology of a preschooler.

The object of the study is a child of preschool age.

The subject of the study is the human psyche, the psyche of a preschool child.

1. Crisis of three years: the seven-star of symptoms

The first symptom that characterizes the onset of a crisis is the emergence of negativism. We must clearly understand what is at stake here. When talking about children's negativism, it must be distinguished from ordinary disobedience. With negativism, all the behavior of the child is contrary to what adults offer him. If a child does not want to do something because it is unpleasant for him (for example, he is playing, but he is forced to go to sleep, he does not want to sleep), this will not be negativism. The child wants to do what he is drawn to, to which there is a desire, but he is forbidden; if he still does it, it will not be negativism. This will be a negative reaction to the demand of adults, a reaction that is motivated by the strong desire of the child.

Negativism refers to such manifestations in the child's behavior when he does not want to do something just because it was suggested by one of the adults, i.e. this is a reaction not to the content of the action, but to the suggestion of adults itself. Negativism includes, as a distinguishing feature from ordinary disobedience, what the child does not do because he was asked to do so. The child is playing in the yard and does not want to go into the room. He is called to sleep, but he does not obey, despite the fact that his mother asks him to. And if she asked for something else, he would do what pleased him. In the negative reaction, the child does not do something precisely because he is asked to do it. There is a shift in motivation here.

Let me give you a typical example of behavior that I will take from observations in our clinic. A girl in her 4th year of life, with a protracted crisis of three years and pronounced negativism, wants to be taken to a conference where children are discussed. The girl even intends to go there. I invite a girl. But since I call her, she won't come for anything. She pushes with all her might. "Well, then go to your place." She doesn't go. "Well, come here" - she does not come here either. When left alone, she begins to cry. She's sad that she wasn't accepted. Thus, negativism forces the child to act contrary to his affective desire. The girl would like to go, but because she was offered to do it, she will never do it.

With a sharp form of negativism, it comes to the point that you can get the opposite answer to any proposal made in an authoritative tone. A number of authors beautifully describe such experiments. For example, an adult, approaching a child, says in an authoritative tone: “This dress is black,” and receives in response: “No, it is white.” And when they say: "It is white", the child answers: "No, it is black." The desire to contradict, the desire to do the opposite of what is said to him, is negativism in the proper sense of the word.

A negative reaction differs from ordinary disobedience in two significant ways. First, here the social attitude, the attitude towards another person comes to the fore. In this case, the reaction to a certain action of the child was not motivated by the content of the situation itself: whether or not the child wants to do what he is asked to do. Negativism is an act of a social nature: it is primarily addressed to a person, and not to the content of what the child is asked for. And the second essential point is the new relation of the child to his own affect. The child does not act directly under the influence of passion, but acts contrary to his own tendency. Regarding the attitude to affect, let me remind you of early childhood before the crisis of three years. Most characteristic of early childhood, from the point of view of all studies, is the complete unity of affect and activity. The child is entirely in the power of affect, entirely within the situation. At preschool age, a motive also appears in relation to other people, which directly follows from the affect associated with other situations. If the child refuses, the motivation for refusal lies in the situation, if he does not do it because he does not want to do it or wants to do something else, then this will not yet be negativism. Negativism is such a reaction, such a tendency, where the motive is outside the given situation.

The second symptom of the three-year crisis is stubbornness. If one must be able to distinguish negativism from ordinary stubbornness, then one must be able to distinguish stubbornness from perseverance. For example, a child wants something and is persistent in getting it done. This is not stubbornness, it occurs even before the crisis of three years. For example, a child wants to have a thing, but cannot immediately get it. He persistently seeks that this thing be given to him. This is not stubbornness. Stubbornness is such a reaction of a child when he insists on something, not because he really wants it, but because he demanded it. He insists on his demand. Let's say a child is called from the yard to the house; he refuses, he is given arguments that convince him, but because he has already refused, he does not go. The motive for stubbornness is that the child is bound by his original decision. Only this will be stubbornness.

Two points distinguish stubbornness from ordinary perseverance. The first point is common with negativism and has to do with motivation. If a child insists on what he wants now, this will not be stubbornness. For example, he loves sledding and therefore will strive to be in the yard all day.

And the second point. If negativism is characterized by a social tendency, i.e. the child does something opposite to what adults tell him, then here, with stubbornness, a tendency towards himself is characteristic. It cannot be said that the child freely passes from one affect to another; no, he does so only because he said so, and he keeps to it. We have a different relation of motivations to the child's own personality than before the onset of the crisis.

The third point is usually called the German word "trotz" (Trotz). The symptom is considered so central to the age that the entire critical age is called trotz alter, in Russian - the age of obstinacy.

Obstinacy differs from negativism in that it is impersonal. Negativism is always directed against the adult who is now inciting the child to this or that action. And obstinacy, rather, is directed against the norms of upbringing established for the child, against the way of life; it is expressed in a kind of childish dissatisfaction, causing "yes!", with which the child responds to everything that is offered to him and what is being done. Here the obstinate attitude affects not in relation to a person, but in relation to the whole way of life that has developed up to 3 years, in relation to the norms that are offered, to the toys that were previously of interest. Obstinacy differs from stubbornness in that it is directed outward, in relation to the external and is caused by the desire to insist on one's own desire.

It is quite understandable why obstinacy acts as the main symptom of the crisis of three years in the family authoritarian bourgeois upbringing. Before that, the child was caressed, obedient, he was led by the hand, and suddenly he becomes an obstinate creature who is dissatisfied with everything. It is the opposite of a silky, smooth, soft baby, something that goes on resisting what is being done to it.

Obstinacy differs from the usual insufficient compliance of a child by its tendentiousness. The child rebels, his dissatisfied, defiant "yes!" tendentious in the sense that it is really imbued with a hidden rebellion against what the child has dealt with before.

There remains a fourth symptom, which the Germans call Eigensinn, or self-will, willfulness. It lies in the tendency of the child to independence. This didn't happen before. Now the child wants to do everything himself.

Of the symptoms of the analyzed crisis, three more are pointed out, but they are of secondary importance. The first is a protest riot. Everything in the child's behavior begins to take on a protesting character in a number of separate manifestations, which could not have happened before. All the child's behavior takes on the features of protest, as if the child is at war with those around him, in constant conflict with them. Frequent children's quarrels with parents are commonplace. Associated with this is the symptom of depreciation. For example, in a good family, the child begins to swear. S. Buhler figuratively described the horror of the family when the mother heard from the child that she was a fool, which he could not even say before.