General and special preparation for school, their relationship. Readiness for school as an integrative education of a child’s personality

Institution and family

Plan

2. Development of children of senior preschool age. Features of the organization of the pedagogical process in senior groups of preschool educational institutions.

3. General and special preparation of children for school, their relationship.

4. Readiness for schooling as a result of the educational process in a preschool educational institution.

5. Continuity in the “family – preschool – primary school” system.

6. The family is in the process of preparing children for school.

7. Psychological and pedagogical problems of preparing children for school.

1. The content of the concepts “preparation”, “preparation for school”, “readiness for school”, “school maturity”, “continuity”

Forming children's readiness for schooling is one of the significant and logical results of the pedagogical activities of preschool educational institutions specialists. Readiness for school is a complex result of targeted preparation and spontaneous activities of participants in the pedagogical process.

Preparation – formation and enrichment of attitudes, knowledge, skills necessary for an individual to adequately perform specific tasks. In our case, to fulfill the social role of a schoolchild and master a new type of activity.

Preparation for school is the organization of educational work in preschool educational institutions, which ensures a high level of general comprehensive development of preschool children and special preparation of children for mastering academic subjects.

Ready for school in the psychological and pedagogical dictionary it is defined as the result of the upbringing and education of children in preschool educational institutions and the result of targeted systematic preparation for school. Readiness for school is a set of morphophysiological and psychological characteristics of a child of senior preschool age, ensuring a successful transition to systematic, organized schooling. It is determined by the maturation of the child’s body, his nervous system, the level of development of mental processes, and the formation of the child’s personality. The terms “preparation” and “readiness” are connected by cause-and-effect relationships: readiness directly depends and is determined by the quality of preparation.

In preschool pedagogy, there is another term associated with the result of preparing children for school - school maturity. Different authors present ambiguous interpretations of the content of this concept. Some authors consider it synonymous with school readiness, while others share the concepts of “school maturity” and “school readiness.” More often, school maturity is understood as a level of morphological and functional development at which a child can cope with the requirements of systematic learning at school (biological, functional maturity, development of physiological functions, health status). School maturity combines the mental and physical aspects of a child’s development. This is the basis on which all other types of readiness (personal, moral, social, intellectual) are superimposed. School maturity reflects the psychophysiological aspect of organic maturation.

When revealing the goals, content and methods of preparing children for school, another term is used - “continuity”. Continuity – a specific connection between different stages of development, the essence of which is the preservation of the elements of the whole when the whole as a system changes.

The continuity of the work of the preschool educational institution and the school in the process of preparing children for school is a meaningful, two-way connection, which presupposes, on the one hand, the focus of the activities of the preschool educational institution on the requirements of the school, on the other hand, the teacher’s reliance on the level of development achieved by older preschoolers, the active use of the child’s experience in further school education .

2. Development of children of senior preschool age. Features of the organization of the pedagogical process in senior groups of preschool educational institutions

Senior preschool age is a special period of preschool childhood. This is the stage of preparation and transition to a new age level, to a new education system, new types of social relations. This period in psychology is characterized as a crisis. This crisis is correlated with new formations in physiology and psyche, changes in personality, social status, intellectual, emotional-volitional, moral, and motor spheres.

G.S. Abramova, Ya.L. Kolominsky, E.A. Panko, V.S. Mukhina note that children of this age have a good sense of language; they know a lot of words and love to talk. Since in life children are both realists and dreamers, in their imagination, which has great variability, they create fictional situations about themselves, about their family, recreating the social conditions in which they find themselves. Gradually, the child learns to control his imagination, experiments (pretends, pretends to make-believe, etc.). We can say that although these are involuntary actions, they are already actions that are based on effort.

And over time, six-year-old children lose spontaneity of behavior in relationships with other people. The secret of one’s own “I” appears, so the child becomes more closed and less understandable to an adult. In behavior, this is expressed in avoiding the influence of adults (we will listen, but we will do it our own way). The state of “I am a secret” requires protection, so the child begins to invent his own world that belongs only to him. Children's lies appear, both intentional (an attempt to protect their world from uninvited guests), unintentional (the child really cannot separate reality and his own fiction), or imaginary. It is with this personal feature that the emergence of productive and directed imagination is associated.

Children of senior preschool age are characterized by cognitive activity, which is expressed in their endless “why?” and organizes their attention. They can already voluntarily regulate their behavior, focus attention on what attracts them, although they are characterized mainly by involuntary attention. They easily remember what is important for realizing their own aspirations (success in a game, reading poetry at a holiday, etc.), although in general, involuntary memorization is the most productive for them.

In the productive activity of any type of children of senior preschool age, they are more attracted to the procedural side and less to the result, which is very important to use in teaching them all types of skills (labor, organizational).

As noted by V.S. Mukhina, in the consciousness of a child of senior preschool age all the main links in the structure of self-awareness are represented: the claim to recognition, awareness of one’s gender (awareness of oneself as a boy or as a girl), awareness of oneself in time, attitude to one’s rights and responsibilities. Children know many norms and rules of behavior, know how to follow them, and more easily perceive the assessment of their actions by adults and peers; It is more difficult for them to evaluate themselves.

Adults often induce in a child a state of “learned helplessness,” which is expressed in his refusal of his own activity and initiative. The danger is that, manifesting itself in one type of activity, it spreads to the entire life of the child.

Children of senior preschool age are characterized by close emotional ties with their parents and loved ones (grandparents, grandfather, etc.), in which they are immersed and which, unfortunately, they do not yet know how to analyze. Children are highly emotionally dependent on adults, so the relationship style chosen by adults determines the mental health of children. They are prone to deep experiences of both grief and joy, so their feelings should not be underestimated.

Children strive for positive relationships with adults. This organizes their behavior. Earning approval is one of the main motives for the behavior of older preschool children. The desire to assert oneself is sometimes the cause of children’s whims, especially when the child cannot cope with one or another assignment. The negative behavior of adults further aggravates the whims of children. Children of six or seven years old are constantly worried about one thing or another, being prisoners of their emotions. They are very expressive - their feelings flare up quickly.

Children of this age lack willpower. The motives “want” and “need” come into combat. And the moral motive does not always win. A child sometimes deliberately lies in order to maintain good relationships with adults. He needs positive emotions - the primary human need. The ability to reflect, which is already quite well developed in children of this age, gives them the opportunity to navigate relationships with adults and deliberately adjust their actions and behavior, sometimes to please the adult.

Unfortunately, some children of senior preschool age are not spared from mental disorders such as neuroses of all kinds. The main cause of neuroses, as a rule, is fear arising from a lack of love on the part of adults, therefore, the development of negative mental states in children can be prevented only by creating an appropriate atmosphere based on the goodwill of the teacher, peers, and parents.

Children are characterized by gullibility and cheerfulness, based on concrete, imaginative thinking. Despite all the “adultness”, the child lives in the world of those generalizations that are accessible specifically to his experience, correspond precisely to his experiences and intellectual capabilities, therefore the child’s world is full of details and colors, sometimes simply invisible to an adult, as G.S. notes. Abramova.

By the age of seven, the child becomes ready to accept a new social role for him as a schoolchild, to master new (learning) activities and a system of specific and generalized knowledge. However, it cannot be said that the formation of this readiness does not occur spontaneously. A child’s school readiness is formed in the process of long and focused work, which lasts more than one year and is carried out by both preschool teachers and the preschooler’s parents.

By the end of preschool age, a restructuring occurs in the general development of the child, which gives reason to consider this stage as a turning point. General physical development becomes more harmonious. All body systems develop intensively: cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal system. In this regard, motor functions and physical qualities are improved. The dynamics of the development of the nervous system are more pronounced, especially in the morphology and physiology of the brain. In older preschoolers, the psychophysiological resources necessary for complex and long-term activities increase. Changes occur in the course of nervous processes, and the possibility of inhibitory reactions increases. This creates the precondition for voluntary regulation of behavior, emotions, and activities. A weak side of the development of older preschoolers is the rapid depletion of energy reserves in the nervous tissues, which should be taken into account when constructing the pedagogical process. This developmental feature persists in the first stages of children’s education in the first grade of primary school. An essential feature of this age stage is a strong emotional connection with close adults.

Thus, when preparing children of senior preschool age for school, you need to pay attention to the following features of children’s development: preschoolers at this age actively use their imagination and gradually learn to control it; lose spontaneity of communication, behavior in relationships with other people; Children at this age are characterized by cognitive activity; arbitrariness appears in the regulation of behavior and attention; involuntary memorization is most developed; Children are very expressive and emotionally connected to close adults.

Entering school is a turning point, a crisis moment in a child’s life, which is associated with:

– with a change in habitual lifestyle;

Analyzing the content of pedagogical work in the preparatory group of a preschool educational institution, a number of features can be identified:

– the organization of children’s activities is aimed at nurturing the personal qualities necessary in school education - independence, responsibility, voluntariness, activity, individuality, discipline and organization, curiosity, sociability, creativity;

– mastering new forms of cooperation in free and regulated activities with peers, teachers, and younger schoolchildren;

– promoting the social orientation of activities and presenting requirements for achieving its results;

– the emergence of requirements for independence, organization of children, the ability to independently manage activities, regulate their manifestations;

– the time for performing routine processes is reduced, the transition from one activity to another is carried out faster, and the requirements for the pace of activity increase;

– the style of communication between the teacher and children changes – requirements and relationships characteristic of the school are introduced;

– the time of classes and their number increases. A special study area is created in the group. Children are introduced to school supplies, the rules of behavior at school, and use them in their learning in the classroom;

– learning in the classroom is aimed at preparing children for mastering school subjects, new classes appear (learning to read and write);

– during classes, the teacher sets goals for the formation of elements of educational activity. Motivation for learning, the ability to plan, construct and evaluate the process of solving educational problems develops. Children learn to listen to the teacher, carry out his tasks, ask and answer questions, set or accept an educational task, plan the course of its solution, evaluate the activity;

– a different approach is taken in assessing the results of children’s activities: the teacher ensures that each child completes the task and achieves the result. Accuracy, quality of task completion, ability to maintain pace of work, and self-control are assessed;

– work is being done to develop the cognitive interests of children, their cognitive activity, the habit of active mental work is being formed, the area of social phenomena with which children are introduced is expanding;

– the content of the activity and the methods of its implementation are enriched. The teacher develops the ability to collectively plan activities, collaborate in the process, and achieve results through joint efforts;

– purposeful work is being carried out to solve general and specific problems of preparing children for school;

– parallel work is carried out with parents in order to solve training problems, consolidate acquired knowledge, skills, attitudes, abilities in a family environment.

Thus, the specifics of the pedagogical process in the preparatory group of a preschool educational institution are determined by the need to prepare children for a new stage of education, to soften the process of adaptation to new conditions and requirements of the school. The pedagogical process continues to fulfill its traditional functions - educational, didactic, developmental. At the same time, it is aimed at solving specific training problems. The directions of preparation for schooling and its tasks will be revealed in the next question.

3. General and special preparation of children for school, their relationship

The effectiveness of schooling and the success of adaptation to the conditions of a new educational level are largely determined by the level of preparation of children in preschool educational institutions. Preparing for school is a specific role for older groups, one of the important tasks and results of the entire pedagogical process.

The issues of preparing children for school in domestic preschool pedagogy were dealt with by Sh.A. Amonashvilli, R.S. Bure, L.A. Wenger, N.I. Gutkina, Z.M. Istomina, R.I. Zhukovskaya, A.V. Zaporozhets, E.E. Kravtsova, G.G. Kravtsova, V.I. Loginova, V.G. Nechaeva, R.B. Sterkina, D.V. Sergeeva, T.V. Taruntaeva, U. Ulienkova, A.P. Usova and others. In foreign pedagogy, the issues of preparation for school and the formation of school maturity were discussed by G. Getzer, J. Jirasek, A. Kern, S. Strebel.

Special studies show that the number of children unprepared for school decreases with age: at the age of five there are about 80% of them; among six-year-olds – 51%; Among children six and a half years old, there are already significantly fewer “not ready” – 32%. Among seven-year-old children, 13% of children are not ready for school.

Special training to school - a process during which a child acquires knowledge and skills that ensure the success of mastering the content of educational material in the first grade in basic subjects (mathematics, reading, writing, the outside world).

Purpose general training is the harmonious all-round development of the child. The result of this process is the formation of the physical, motivational, moral-volitional, intellectual, communicative spheres of the personality and the development of all types of activities of the child.

These two directions must be seen in unity. The division of the holistic preparation process into two logical parts is justified not only by the goals and time frame for their implementation in the pedagogical process of the preschool educational institution.

General training is carried out throughout preschool childhood. In all age groups, the teacher works on the development of different areas of personality, on the development of children's activities. The result is the diversified development of children in accordance with their age and individual capabilities.

Specific preparation for mastering academic subjects occurs in older preschool age when studying material that is the basis for further mastering academic subjects at school. This preparation is carried out in special classes. Children receive the basics of knowledge and skills necessary for development earlier. However, in older preschool age, special attention is paid to teaching literacy, mastering the concepts and patterns of existence of the world around us, and clear requirements are imposed on the quality of the learning process and results. The goals and content of special preparation for school are clear, and in preschool pedagogy there are practically no discrepancies in the understanding of its significance and timing of implementation.

General training as a subject of research is considered in preschool pedagogy and psychology. In determining the components of general preparation of children for school, in contrast to special preparation, a variety of positions can be seen. Hence, there are different approaches to determining the areas of general training.

Summarizing the views on general training, we find that it is aimed at:

– physical development of the child;

– development of the intellectual sphere, cognitive processes, mental actions and operations, speech;

– social and moral education of the individual;

– development of communication and interaction skills with adults and children;

– formation of knowledge about school, educational, cognitive and social motivation for learning, the internal position of the student;

– development of important personality traits of the future schoolchild: development of gross and fine motor skills, graphic skills, development of mental processes, arbitrariness, learning motivation, learning ability;

– development of voluntariness in behavior and activity;

– formation of components of educational activities.

Goals determine the results of preparing children for school. The result is readiness for school as a synthetic result of a holistic process.

4. Readiness for schooling as a result of the educational process in a preschool educational institution

Formation of school readiness is a complex problem that requires increased attention of specialists and parents of preschool children. The school has recently undergone serious changes, new programs have been introduced, and the structure of the school has changed. Increasingly high demands are placed on children entering first grade. The development of alternative methods at school allows children to be taught according to a more intensive program.

The most important task of the preschool education system is the comprehensive development of the child’s personality and preparing him for school. The high demands of life for the organization of education and training intensify the search for new, more effective psychological and pedagogical approaches aimed at bringing teaching methods into line with the requirements of life.

The question of the criteria for the readiness of children of senior preschool age for school was considered and studied by many famous teachers and psychologists. They continue to study and develop new systems and methods for preparing children for school. Humanity does not stand still with the development of science and technology, new opportunities for the development of children appear. But as L.S. said. Vygotsky that learning should be ahead of development “not trail in its tail, lead it along with you.” Let's consider the definitions and those psychological components that famous educators, psychologists and teachers give in their works.

In his book I.V. Dubrovina writes that in the psychological dictionary the concept of “readiness for schooling” is considered as a set of morpho-physiological characteristics of a child of senior preschool age, ensuring a successful transition to systematic, organized schooling.(7)

V.S. Mukhina argues that readiness for schooling is the desire and awareness of the need to learn, arising as a result of the social maturation of the child, the appearance of internal contradictions in him, which set the motivation for educational activities. (10)

D.B. Elkonin believes that a child’s readiness for schooling presupposes the “incorporation” of a social rule, that is, a system of social relations between a child and an adult. (17, p.73)

The concept of “readiness for school” is most fully given in the definition of L.A. Wenger, by which he understood a certain set of knowledge and skills, in which all other elements must be present, although the level of their development may be different. The components of this set are, first of all, motivation, personal readiness, which includes the “internal position of the student,” volitional and intellectual readiness. (17, p.103-105)

A child’s new attitude to the environment that arises upon entering school, L.I. Bozhovich called “the internal position of the student,” considering this new formation a criterion of readiness for learning.(3)

In his research T.A. Nezhnova points out that a new social position and the activity corresponding to it develop insofar as they are accepted by the subject, that is, they become the subject of his own needs and aspirations, the content of his “inner position.” (14, p. 34) .

In their work “Psychological readiness of children,” authors G.G. Kravtsov and E.E. Kravtsova cites research data from foreign psychologists: F.L. Ilg, L.B. Ames conducted a study to identify parameters of school readiness. As a result, a special system of tasks arose that made it possible to examine children from 5 to 10 years old. The tests developed in the study are of practical importance and have predictive ability. In addition to test tasks, the authors suggest that if a child is unprepared for school, take him away from there and, through numerous training sessions, bring him to the required level of readiness. However, this point of view is not the only one. So, D.P. Ozubel suggests, if the child is unprepared, to change the curriculum at school and thereby gradually equalize the development of all children. A lot has been written and said about preparing for school, and this problem arises not only in our country. It is also dealt with by specialists from different countries, and often approaches and views on this problem differ. It’s not for nothing that they say, “There are so many people, so many opinions,” but no one denies the need to prepare children for entering school.(9)

L.A. Wenger wrote: “Being ready for school does not mean already being able to do everything that is required for school life. To be ready for school means to be ready to learn it all.” (4, p.30-35)

From the above definitions of children’s readiness for school, it is clearly seen that comprehensive preparation for school includes five main components: motivational, intellectual, social, volitional, and physiological readiness.

The components of a child’s psychological readiness for school are:

motivational (personal),

intellectual,

emotionally - strong-willed.

Motivational readiness is the child’s desire to learn. In the studies of A.K. Markova, T.A. Matis, A.B. Orlov shows that the emergence of a child’s conscious attitude towards school is determined by the way information about it is presented. It is important that information about school communicated to children is not only understood, but also felt by them. Emotional experiences are provided by engaging children in activities that stimulate both thinking and feeling.(12)

I. V. Dubrovina V.V. Zatsepin distinguishes two groups of teaching motives in terms of motivation:

Broad social motives for learning or motives associated with the child’s needs for communication with other people, for their evaluation and approval, with the student’s desire to take a certain place in the system of social relations available to him.

Motives related directly to educational activities, or the cognitive interests of children, the need for intellectual activity and the acquisition of new skills, abilities and knowledge.

Motivational readiness is considered as the motivation to study, the child’s desire to study at school. The child’s initial motive is to ascend to a new level of relationship. (7, p.64-79)

L.I. Bozhovich considers motivation from a slightly different perspective, complementing the characterization given by I.V. Dubrovina and V.V. Zatsepin. The author distinguishes between external and internal motivation. Most children of senior preschool age dream of becoming schoolchildren, but of course, almost none of them have any idea what school is in reality; many children have a completely idealized attributive idea of school; if you ask them who a schoolchild is, they will certainly answer that this is a child, who carries a large briefcase, sits at his desk with his hand raised, writes, reads, and good children get A's, and bad children get D's. And I want the same, and everyone will praise me.

Internal motivation is associated with a direct desire to learn, expressed in cognitive interest, manifested in the desire to learn new things, to find out the incomprehensible. A very difficult situation arises, because not all children are ready to fulfill the teacher’s demands and do not get along in the new social environment due to the lack of an internal motive. A child’s cognitive need exists from birth, and the more adults satisfy the child’s cognitive interest, the stronger it becomes, so parents need to devote as much time as possible to the development of children, for example, reading books to them, playing educational games, etc. (2)

The child's intellectual readiness for school. In his work, I.V. Dubrovina V.V. Zatsepin write that this component of readiness presupposes that the child has an outlook and a stock of specific knowledge. The child must have systematic and dissected perception, elements of a theoretical attitude to the material being studied, generalized forms of thinking and basic logical operations, and semantic memorization. However, basically, the child’s thinking remains figurative, based on real actions with objects and their substitutes. Intellectual readiness also presupposes the development in a child of initial skills in the field of educational activity, in particular, the ability to identify an educational task and turn it into an independent goal of activity. (7, p.64-79)

Discussing the school readiness dilemma, D.B. Elkonin put the formation of the necessary prerequisites for educational activities in the first place. (17)

Another component of school readiness is volitional readiness. Volitional readiness implies the child’s readiness to have to fulfill the teacher’s demands. This is the ability to act according to the rules, in accordance with the established pattern. Fulfillment of the rule underlies the social relations of a child and an adult. D.B. Elkonin conducted an experiment. First grade children were asked to draw four circles, and then color three yellow and one blue; the children painted all the circles in different colors, claiming that it was more beautiful this way. This experiment perfectly demonstrates that not all children are ready to accept rules.

The emergence of will leads to the fact that the child begins to consciously control himself, manage his internal and external actions, his cognitive processes and behavior in general. He gradually masters the ability to subordinate his actions to motives.(17)

R.S. Nemov argues that no less important is the development of speech as a means of communication and a prerequisite for mastering writing. Particular care should be taken about this function of speech during middle and senior preschool childhood, since the development of written speech significantly determines the progress of the child’s intellectual development. By the age of 6-7 years, a more complex independent form of speech appears and develops - an extended monologue utterance. By this time, the child’s vocabulary consists of approximately 14 thousand words. He already knows the word measurement, the formation of tenses, the rules for composing sentences. (15)

Social readiness for school represents readiness for a new form of relationships in a schooling situation. Going to school is, first of all, a student gaining a new social status. He enters into new social relationships, the child-teacher model. In a lesson situation, there are strict rules that the student must adhere to, for example, only subject communication.

Physiological readiness is determined by three criteria: physiological, biological and health status. At school, a child faces a lot of problems, for example, an incorrect position can lead to curvature of the spine, or deformation of the hand due to heavy loads on the hand. Therefore, this is as significant a sign of development as the others.(23)

Preparing for school is a multifaceted and consistent process of influencing a child. The main goal of preparing for school is the comprehensive development of the child: mental and aesthetic, moral and physical. Elkonin D.B. and Wenger L.A. noted that developing readiness for school means creating the prerequisites for children to successfully master the curriculum and join the student body. This is a long and complex process, the purpose of which is the comprehensive development of preschool children. (18)

A child’s readiness for modern school education acts as the cumulative result of an education system aimed at the full personal development of each preschooler. A child’s full readiness to study at school acts, on the one hand, as a unique indicator of the achievements of his personal development in the preschool period, and on the other hand, as a basic level for mastering the school curriculum and as an indicator of readiness to accept the position of a subject of educational activity (T.I. Babaeva , L.I. Bozhovich, L.A. Wenger, L.S. Vygotsky, E.E. Kravtsova, etc.).

Modern research shows that 30-40% of children enter the first grade of a public school unprepared for learning, that is, they have insufficiently developed the following components of readiness:

Social

Psychological

Emotionally-volitional.

N.I. Gutkina draws attention to the fact that going to school is the most important step in a child’s development, requiring a very serious approach and preparation. It has been established that a child’s readiness for school is a holistic phenomenon, and for complete readiness it is necessary that each of the signs be fully developed; if at least one parameter is poorly developed, this can have serious consequences.

When preparing a child for school, it is also necessary to consult with a child psychologist and teachers.(6)

Summarizing the views on general training, we find that it is aimed at:

– physical development of the child;

– development of the intellectual sphere, cognitive processes, mental actions and operations, speech;

– social and moral education of the individual;

– development of communication and interaction skills with adults and children;

– formation of knowledge about school, educational, cognitive and social motivation for learning, the internal position of the student;

– development of voluntariness in behavior and activity;

– formation of components of educational activities.

Goals determine the results of preparing children for school. The result is readiness for school as a synthetic result of a holistic process.

Whether a child is ready for a new school life or not is determined by a combination of the following features:

morphological;
psychological;
personal.

The degree of their formation depends on:

proper maturation of the preschooler’s body (especially the central nervous system);
the level of development of his mental processes;
the social environment in which the baby was raised;
personal qualities that he developed;
availability of basic universal educational skills.

Let's present the main types of readiness for school and their characteristics in the table.

Physical	Level of physical and biological development, health status.
Psychological	Intelligent	Availability of the necessary knowledge base, willingness to perceive and assimilate new information.
	Social	Willingness to interact with the surrounding society.
	Personal	A formed internal position, which is the basis for conscious entry into the role of a schoolchild.
	Emotionally-volitional	The ability to manage your motives, desires, mood. Availability of moral principles.
Special	Basic Study Skills

According to experts, readiness for schooling is formed in children between the ages of six and seven. However, each child has an individual pace of development. The decision about whether to send him to school should be made based on an assessment of the entire list of necessary qualities.

Physical fitness

This type of readiness for school learning, such as physical readiness, is determined on the basis of compliance of the level of development of the child’s body with basic age standards. A number of criteria need to be taken into account.

Level of biological development:

height;
weight;
performance;
system of conditioned verbal reactions;
maturity of the digestive and urinary system.

State of health and analysis systems. To determine the state of health, before entering school, the child must undergo a medical examination and receive a conclusion that he is healthy and can study in a general education institution. Particular attention is paid to testing vision and hearing, which are of paramount importance for the perception of information.

If there are any medical deviations or contraindications, it is necessary to delay enrollment in first grade, undergo a course of treatment, or take care of creating special learning conditions for the child.

General physical development. Determined by the presence of basic physical qualities:

dexterity;
speed;
force;
coordination of movements.

Level of development of main types of movements:

jumping;
bends;
squats;
crawl.

Development of fine motor skills of the hands:

hold a pen or pencil;
draw clear lines;
move small items;
fold a sheet of paper.

Hygiene skills, self-care skills. The child must independently:

wash;
brush your teeth;
to wash hands;
use the toilet;
dress;
fasten and tie shoelaces;
take care of your appearance;
use cutlery;
clean up after yourself;
organize the workplace;
collect, fold and put away your things.

Knowledge of basic health. The child has knowledge about:

the importance of being healthy;
the need to protect health;
daily routine;
the importance of sports.

A physically healthy and prepared child, a changed daily routine and level of stress.

Psychological readiness

Let's consider the types of psychological readiness for school, which covers several aspects.

Mental readiness includes:

sufficient knowledge about the world around us;
ability to operate with existing knowledge to solve various problems;
curiosity, the need to gain new knowledge;
level of mental activity that will ensure the assimilation of new knowledge;
the presence of verbal, logical and figurative thinking;
developed speech, sufficient vocabulary;
developed sensory skills;
sustained attention;
strong memory.

Intellectual preparation for entering school is a necessary condition for successful mastery of the curriculum.

Social readiness is based on the following components:

communication;
the desire to communicate with peers and establish friendly relations with them;
the ability to listen to the interlocutor;
willingness to take turns;
willingness to follow the leader or demonstrate leadership qualities yourself;
understanding of social hierarchy, willingness to obey the demands of elders.

The foundations of a child’s relationship with the outside world are laid in the family and develop during the process of attending a preschool institution. Children at home find it more difficult to adapt to the conditions of the school community.

Personal readiness to enter school is associated with the degree of formation of the child’s internal attitude towards the fact that his role in society is changing, the attitude of adults and their system of requests towards him are changing. A first-grader must consciously take the position of a schoolchild and have. It is important that his positive motivation is not based on external aspects (purchasing new clothes, having office supplies, etc.), but on the fact that by attending school he will become smarter and be able to develop his abilities and skills.

In addition, the child must be prepared that the family will consider him more mature and independent. Therefore, the number of demands and family responsibilities will increase. In this regard, the situation is especially difficult in families where there are still children of preschool age.

Emotional-volitional readiness implies the presence of the following aspects:

joyful anticipation of going to school;
acceptance of the goals of educational activities and a positive attitude towards them;
the ability to subordinate one's motives to collective ones;
the ability to consciously manage one’s behavior in accordance with moral principles;
desire to overcome difficulties;
desire to achieve high results in their activities;
conscious identification of some positive and negative qualities of one’s character and willingness to change;
the presence of restraint, perseverance, independence, perseverance, discipline and organization.

A high level of emotional and volitional readiness for school is the key to successful learning. Indeed, in this case, even having problems at the initial stage of school adaptation, the child will be able to overcome them and will not experience difficulties in the future.

Special readiness

Special readiness for schooling lies in the fact that the child has some universal learning skills:

name letters;
read syllables or words;
count, add and subtract within 10;
write individual elements;
draw simple objects;
perform simple physical exercises.

This is just a sample list. Typically, such skills are developed during special classes held in kindergarten. Their presence is necessary for studying school subjects provided for by the curriculum.

It is important that all basic types of a child’s readiness for school are formed at a sufficient level. Only in this case, in the conditions of systematic education, the child’s health will not deteriorate, he will cope with the requirements, successfully master the school curriculum and adapt socially and psychologically to school life.

Until now, in psychology there is no single and clear definition of the concept of “child’s readiness for school” or “school maturity”. Evidence of this is the definition of these concepts by various and very authoritative specialists in this field.

Let's list some of them.
A child’s readiness for school is “mastery of skills, knowledge, abilities, motivation and other behavioral characteristics necessary for an optimal level of assimilation of the school curriculum,” says Anna Anastasi.

The readiness of a child for school is the achievement of such a degree in development when the child becomes able to take part in school education, according to the famous Czech psychologist J. Švancara.

Both definitions are as broad as they are vague. They rather give some general idea of the concept than offer specific directions in determining the psychological determinants of a child’s readiness to learn at school. Perhaps, an indication of such determinants is present in the definition of readiness given by L. I. Bozhovich.

A child’s readiness for school consists of a certain level of development of mental activity, cognitive interests, and readiness for voluntary regulation of behavior. In our opinion, it is the arbitrariness of the behavior of a junior schoolchild that is the central point that determines his readiness to learn, since it manifests itself both in the arbitrariness of cognitive processes and in the system of his relationships with adults (teachers), peers and himself.

In this regard, the characteristics of a child’s readiness for school include 3 aspects: physical, special and psychological.

Physical readiness for learning primarily characterizes the child’s functional capabilities and his state of health. When assessing the health status of children when they enter school, the following indicators should be taken into account: the level of physical and neuropsychic development; level of functioning of the main body systems; presence or absence of chronic diseases; the degree of resistance of the body to adverse influences, as well as the degree of social well-being of the child. Based on the totality of identified indicators, the health status of children is judged. There are five groups of children.

The first group consists of healthy children who have no deviations in all signs of health, have not been ill during the observation period, and also have minor isolated deviations that do not affect their health status. The number of such children entering first grade is decreasing from year to year and now averages about 20%.

The second group is or “threatened children”, i.e. children at risk of developing chronic pathology and prone to increased morbidity, having various functional abnormalities due to the degree of morphological maturity of organs and systems. Children included in this group represent the most difficult and alarming category, since even minor stress can lead to a sharp deterioration in their health and the development of chronic diseases. On the other hand, it is these children who, as a rule, fall out of systematic medical supervision, as well as teachers and parents, since a student with functional impairments is considered “virtually healthy.” Children classified in the second health group make up the absolute majority - 66%, and in connection with the above, this further aggravates the problem.

The third group includes children suffering from various chronic diseases in the period between exacerbations, and the fourth and fifth groups include children with serious, gross health problems that are incompatible with the child’s education in a public school. The total number of such children is 16%. In general, the health status of children, as well as their mental health and psychological well-being, according to N. G. Veselov, is assessed by doctors as unsatisfactory - 2.1 - 2.2 points on a 5-point scale. It is no coincidence that the term “frequently ill children” appeared. Most of these children (75%-80%) are classified as health group 2 based on health status, while the rest are classified as health groups 3 and 4. Unfortunately, their number is growing from year to year and the approximate proportion of these patients in older preschool age is 25%. Frequent illnesses lead to exhaustion not only physical, but also mental. As a result of a psychological study of frequently ill children, 31% of children with mental retardation, 17% of children with a low level of intellectual development, 24% of children with an average level and 28% with a high level of intellectual development were identified. Thus, frequently ill children are not only a medical problem, but also a psychological and pedagogical one. The study of factors influencing the health of preschool children showed that the greatest influence is exerted by social and hygienic (housing conditions, mother's education) and regime (hardening) factors.

As for the special aspect of a child’s readiness for school, it refers to a certain level of the child’s skill in reading, writing and counting.

A child’s psychological readiness for school presupposes intellectual, personal, and emotional-volitional readiness.

Intellectual readiness should be understood as the required level of development of certain cognitive processes. E.I. Rogov believes that for a comprehensive assessment of intellectual readiness for learning, it is necessary to assess:
- degree of differentiation of perception,
- analytical thinking (the ability to establish connections between basic features and phenomena, the ability to reproduce a pattern),
- the presence of a rational approach to reality (weakening the role of fantasy),
- logical (random) memory,
- development of fine hand movements and hand-eye coordination,
- mastery of spoken language by ear and the ability to understand and use symbols,
- interest in knowledge, the process of obtaining it through additional efforts."

Diagnosing a child’s personal readiness for school is the most difficult, since it is necessary to assess the level of the child’s relationships with adults, peers and himself. Personal readiness presupposes a certain level of development of the motivational sphere (a system of subordinate motives of behavior). In short, it is necessary to assess how capable the child is of voluntary regulation of his activities and behavior in general.

The last aspect of psychological readiness is the diagnosis of the development of the emotional-volitional sphere, or more precisely the level of emotional tension. It has been shown that emotiogenic factors have a powerful effect on the mental performance of a child.

Most often, emotional tension affects the child’s psychomotor skills (82% of children are susceptible to this effect), his volitional efforts (70%); it leads to speech disorders (67%) and reduces the efficiency of memorization in 37% of children. Along with this, emotional tension has a strong influence on internal changes in the mental processes themselves. The greatest changes occur (in decreasing order) in memory, psychomotor skills, speech, speed of thinking and attention. Thus, we see that emotional stability is the most important condition for the normal educational activities of children.

Children react differently to the action of emotiogenic factors, but there is not a single child who would not react to them. In conditions of emotional tension, some children practically do not change the productivity of their activities, while others are generally incapable of any activity. This condition affects the entire system of his relationships with others. Unfortunately, today almost half of children (48%) experience tension in their relationships with their parents. It should be borne in mind that the nature of these relationships may be different for different children. Thus, 26% of children are characterized by a generally passive-defensive type of relationship with their parents. Typically, this type of relationship arises in response to the parents’ formal, pedantic approach to the child, when his inner world is closed to adults, when the child lacks faith in the possibility of establishing emotional closeness with them.

Another type of child’s reaction to emotional tension in the family can be called active-defensive. Such families are characterized by an atmosphere of emotional incontinence, conflicts and scandals. Children adopt this style and treat their parents in a mirror manner. They do not count on support from their parents; they are ready to accept reproach, reproaches, punishment and threats. They give aggressive responses to accusations. They are characterized by an inability to restrain their emotional reactions; their behavior itself is characterized by excessive excitability, conflict, and aggressiveness.

Finally, a third group of children experiencing family tension react completely differently. They are distinguished by the weakness of their nervous processes and, in response to sudden and, in fact, overwhelming influences, even react with physiological disorders, such as tics, enuresis or stuttering.

Without revealing the psychological content of the reactions of children experiencing emotional tension in relationships with teachers and peers (it is very similar to what was described above), let’s say that 48% of children experience it in relationships with teachers, and 56% of children experience it in relationships with peers. It is interesting to note that if educators adequately assess the relationships between the children themselves, then neither they themselves nor the parents are able to adequately assess their relationships with their children.

And about two more important points
The effectiveness of correctional measures will be directly proportional to how comprehensive the effect of emotional tension is on various aspects of the child’s mental activity and his relationships with others. It turned out that in only 26% of children, emotional tension negatively affects 1-3 parameters of mental activity. In 45% of children, 4-5 parameters change, in 29% of children, 6-8 parameters.

As for the psychocorrectional measures themselves, this is a topic for a separate discussion. It is clear that the best form of preventive and psychocorrective measures is the normal living conditions of the child, the correct position of parents and educators towards the child. However, for this you need not only to love children, but also to know them!

Psychological diagnostics of a child’s readiness for school
Ultimately, it is desirable to predict the learning ability of a child based on the degree of readiness for learning. Learning ability acts as a manifestation of general abilities that express the cognitive activity of the subject and his ability to learn. In turn, the most significant qualities of cognitive processes and personality that provide learning opportunities are:
- level of arbitrariness of attention, memory, thinking, etc.,
- human speech capabilities, the ability to understand and use various types of sign systems (symbolic, graphic, figurative).

Unfortunately, in the practice of psychodiagnostic activity, there has been a clear bias towards assessing the child’s own intellectual development and underestimating the level of speech activity. But the number of children with speech disorders at the beginning of school is 33% of the total number. From this point of view, the subject of psychological diagnostics when a child enters school in order to predict his learning ability should be:
reading, writing and imaginative thinking as the main components of learning. These preliminary remarks seem necessary before characterizing the most popular psychodiagnostic procedures for determining school maturity.

The most widely used test for diagnosing a child’s psychological readiness for school is the Kern-Jirasek School Maturity Test, which allows one to get an idea of the level of arbitrariness of mental activity, the degree of maturity of hand-eye coordination and intelligence. It includes three tasks: drawing a man's figure from an idea, copying written letters, and copying a group of dots. J. Jirasek introduced an additional fourth task in the form of a questionnaire of 20 questions, the answers to which make it possible to judge the level of development of social qualities associated with general awareness and the development of mental operations.

1. A drawing of a man is an old diagnostic test proposed in 1926 by F. Goodenough to assess the level of intellectual development. In 1963, student F. Goodenough D. Harris standardized this task and formulated 10 informative signs used to evaluate the drawing made by the child according to the idea:
1) body parts, facial details;
2) three-dimensionality of the image of body parts;
3) quality of connections of body parts;
4) compliance with proportions;
5) correctness and detail of the clothing image;
6) correct depiction of the figure in profile;
7) quality of pencil mastery: firmness and confidence of straight lines;
8) the degree of arbitrariness in using a pencil when drawing forms;
9) features of drawing technique (only for older children, for example, the presence and quality of shading);
10) expressiveness in conveying the movements of the figure.

Research by P. T. Hometauskas made it possible to formulate the following indicators for assessing a drawing:
1. Number of body parts. Are there: head, hair, ears, eyes, pupils, eyelashes, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, mouth, neck, shoulders, arms, palms, fingers, legs, feet.
2. Decoration (clothing details and decorations):
hat, collar, tie, bows, pockets, belt, buttons, hairstyle elements, complexity of clothing, jewelry.
The dimensions of the figure can also be informative:
children who tend to dominate and are self-confident draw large figures; Small human figures are drawn by children as anxious, insecure, and feeling a sense of danger.

If children over five years of age miss some parts of the face (mouth, eyes) in the drawing, this may indicate serious communication disorders or the child’s autism. A high level of detail in the drawing indicates a higher level of intellectual development of the child.

There is a pattern that with age, a child’s drawing is enriched with new details: if at three and a half years old a child draws a “cephalopod” (arms and legs seem to grow from the body), then at seven years old it is a drawing with a large number of details. Therefore, if at the age of 7 a child does not draw one of the body parts (head, eyes, nose, mouth, arms, torso or legs), then you should pay attention to this.

2. Copying letters. The child is asked to copy a simple three-word sentence written in cursive (7 letters). The distance between the words of the sample is approximately half a letter.

3. Copying points. It is proposed to copy 9 points, placed 3 points in 3 horizontal rows;
the second row of dots is shifted to the right by one dot. It should be noted that the Kern-Jirasek test provides only a preliminary indication of the child’s level of readiness for school. However, if the child shows a high result with an average of 3 to 6 points, then no additional psychological research is carried out. In the case of an average, or even lower, result, an individual psychological study of the child is required. For a comprehensive assessment of a child’s readiness for school, E. A. Bugrimenko et al. suggest assessing the level of development of the prerequisites for educational activity:
- the ability to carefully and accurately follow the teacher’s sequential instructions, act independently according to his instructions, focus on the system of task conditions, overcoming the distracting influence of side factors - the “graphic dictation” method by D.B. Elkonin and the “pattern and rule” by A.L. Venger;
- level of development of visual-figurative thinking - “labyrinth” technique.

A list of diagnostic methods used to assess a child’s readiness for school can be found in the book by T. V. Cherednikova, “Tests for preparing and selecting children for schools.”