Individual characteristics of a child - what is it? What properties do they have? We will try to cover this topical topic.
The individuality of a person, including a child, can be determined by how he looks and what manner of communication he has. It also includes a range of interests, acquired knowledge, existing or acquired abilities and habits, and many other characteristics. Individual characteristics also include cognitive processes such as thinking, perception, memory, attention and imagination.
Each child has its own individual properties and qualities (there are no children alike in the world). They largely determine the development of an individual personality. One of the most important factors for their formation is the social environment. Therefore, the individual characteristics of a child largely depend on the upbringing of the parents, on what principles they adhere to, and what kind of life they lead. This applies to preschool children. Their differences appear from the first months of life.
Individual characteristics of children's development are inextricably linked with their age. The preschool period covers the period from one to six to seven years. Each time period is characterized by certain features:
- abilities are formed;
- temperament manifests itself;
- interests.
Before the school period, parents must create optimal conditions for the development of the child.
Temperament affects the behavior of children (choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic). Individual characteristics of preschool children include certain properties:
- Activity is the intensity with which motor and mental activity manifests itself. It can be low, medium, high level.
- Attitude to the new, manifested in the baby’s reactions, for example, when encountering previously unfamiliar situations, objects, and phenomena. A child can perceive everything new indifferently, negatively or positively.
- Decreased, good or elevated mood.
- Emotional sensitivity: low, medium, high.
- Flexibility is a property that reflects the ability of children to quickly adapt, change goals, and opinions.
- Attention is a property that reflects the ability to focus on something.
Temperament changes over time, but many of the characteristics that appear in children under one to three years of age persist throughout life.
Character is the result of education. It is acquired by children in the process of interaction with the environment. Starting from an early age, it is formed throughout almost the entire life, largely depending on the manner of relationships that are present in the family.
The individual development of a child has another important aspect - the area of interest. It is believed that children's behavioral reactions are largely dictated by their desires and goals, formed on the basis of interests. The latter, in turn, depend to some extent on the child’s abilities. Parents also have a significant impact on them, demonstrating personal preferences in everyday life, encouraging the child in specific activities.
In the process of developing individual characteristics, events, processes, objects, people acquire a certain value in the child. The “uncertain” group includes those aspects that do not cause any emotion or interest, the “rejected” group includes those aspects that are unpleasant and undesirable. Valuable moments are those that are pleasant to the child and evoke positive emotions in him.
Seminar - workshop for teachers
“Taking into account the individual typological characteristics of preschool children.”
Prepared by:
Educational psychologist
Grishina E.M.
2017
Goal: To develop in teachers the skills necessary forcreating conditions for the harmonious mental, physical and intellectual development of children.
Tasks:
Activate teachers’ knowledge on this topic
Encouraging teachers to find ways to take into account the individual typological characteristics of children in their work
Progress of the workshop:
"Tree of Expectations"
A quiet melody sounds, the teachers take their seats. Each person is given a small piece of paper and a pen. The music stops, the presenter greets everyone and voices the purpose and objectives of the workshop seminar. Then teachers are asked to formulate on a piece of paper what they expect from this workshop based on what they heard and their thoughts about it. Next, the presenter suggests going to the “Tree of Expectations” and attaching your piece of paper using a magnet. (The outline of the tree is drawn on whatman paper and attached to the tablet using magnets).
Theoretical part.
Temperament is the individual characteristics of a person that manifest themselves under certain conditions, factors, and activities.
For the development of a child, an individual approach is necessary; knowing the anatomical, physiological and mental characteristics of the child, you can count on a positive result of communication.
The behavior of a child depends on his physical condition and personality. Knowing the child’s temperament, it is easier for the teacher to choose the path to the child’s heart.
When identifying individual typological characteristics, four types of temperament were identified. The first manifestations of temperament are noticeable from birth - these are innate traits. Judging by external behavior, it is possible to determine which of the four known types the child belongs to.
View the presentation: “Individual typological characteristics of the child” Brief content of the presentation:
CHOLERICK - well-moved facial expressions, loud speech, frequent gesticulations with limbs, this type of child always keeps their head straight, as if retracting their neck, their gaze is always directed to the front. In the game, this child is active and annoying, and with great tenacity and confidence believes that he is the one who is right, it is with him that the children are interested, and considers himself a leader. A choleric child has difficulty falling asleep, and upon waking up he quickly becomes more active.
MELANCHOLIC children are very sensitive and vulnerable, children at an early age do not create problems for their parents, it is as if he is neither heard nor seen. The child speaks quietly, hesitantly, quickly gets tired of noise, of comments, passivity, fatigue, slowness, the child often chooses loneliness and peace instead of an interlocutor, such children often complain of headaches, among a group of children they can often be seen sitting on the sofa alone - they are not bored - this is one of the characteristics of a melancholic person, but he has such qualities as responsiveness and affection.
SANGUINE - sociable, cheerful, active - in this way a sanguine person is similar to a choleric person - active facial expressions, often gesticulates, speak loudly and quickly. He falls asleep quickly and wakes up easily, easily switches from an active type of work to a calmer one, and easily completes the task assigned to him. A sanguine child does not have a stable position - behavior and interests; one can say about such a child that he quickly lights up and quickly loses interest. This type lacks persistence.
PHLEGMATIC - sedentary. The child is calm, little emotional, but it is difficult to fall asleep and difficult to wake up, it seems that he can sleep for days, facial expressions are poorly expressed, there are no unnecessary gestures and movements. The positive side of such children is perseverance, conscientiousness, and the negative side is slowness.
Practical part
Game “Guess the temperament of a fairy-tale hero”
Now we have remembered 4 types of temperament. Let's play. Portraits of fairy-tale heroes will appear on the screen in front of you; your task is to determine the type of temperament of these heroes.
(portraits are presented: Carlson, Tortila the turtle, Pierrot, Pinocchio, Baba Yaga, Leopold the Cat, Piglet, Gena the crocodile, etc.).
Brainstorming “way out of conflict”
The presenter invites the teachers to each take out a pebble from the “magic bag” (in an opaque bag there are marbles pebbles of 4 colors (blue, red, yellow and green)). Then the teachers unite into 4 groups according to the color of the stones. Each group is given a sheet with a conflict situation. Teachers need to determine the child’s temperament, identify its positive aspects, and suggest a constructive way out of the conflict. The facilitator announces the time allotted for the discussion. Afterwards, a representative from each team reads out the situation and expresses the team’s opinion. There is a discussion going on.
Knowledge of temperamental traits helps to find an individual approach to education and obtain the desired result, now it becomes clear the importance of different games during the day - didactic, role-playing, outdoor games.
The facilitator invites each group of teachers to develop recommendations for the type of temperament that they identified in the previous game.
Sanguine
Friendly, sociable, cheerful, quite flexible and reasonable, easily compromises, adapts to unusual surroundings, active, mobile, impulsive, unforgiving, lacks patience and perseverance, and therefore often cannot concentrate on any one type of activity.
With improper upbringing, such children often grow up frivolous and frivolous.
Form sustainable interests;
learn to finish what you start;
develop a critical attitude towards the results of your work;
pay attention to the quality of the task;
offer games and exercises that require concentration, precision, and restraint.
Choleric
A restless mischief maker and a bully. Attacks of irritation and anger are a common occurrence for him. He easily adapts to unusual surroundings, but due to his hot-tempered nature, he rarely finds a common language with his peers.
He is inclined to play for the audience, constantly needs spectators from whom he expects a response. He assimilates new information quickly, but after a few minutes it flies out of his head. Choleric loves active noisy games and new experiences, and willingly takes risks.
Such children are inattentive, they lack prudence and the ability to calculate their capabilities.
direct energy to useful things;
strengthen the inhibition process through inclusion in quiet activities;
develop restraint;
offer games and exercises that require concentration and precision.
Phlegmatic person
Very calm, reserved, serious. At first glance, he may seem lethargic and unemotional. Not too inquisitive, prefers quiet games and rarely takes a leadership position among other children.
It takes a long time to adapt to a new environment and does not tolerate changes well. He is afraid to take risks and does not like to take initiative. He is slow, it takes him a lot of time to assimilate new information, but once acquired knowledge is firmly fixed in his memory.
A phlegmatic person falls asleep easily, but waking him up is sometimes difficult: the baby is capricious, whines, and then complains of lethargy and drowsiness for half a day.
Gradually develop activity and mobility, including games with low, then medium, and then high mobility;
take into account the low pace of task completion.
Melancholic
Shy, timid, indecisive. Uncertainty is evident in all his movements, gestures, and speech. Such children often withdraw into themselves and adapt very poorly to a new team.
Knowledge is given to a melancholic person with great difficulty, since the baby is constantly distracted by foreign objects and cannot concentrate on the main thing. Melancholic children are very suspicious, they often worry about trifles and react extremely painfully to punishment and negative evaluations.
Give positive feedback and encouragement more often;
create situations of success;
organize joint activities with successful children.
Final part. Reflection.
The task of adults is to create conditions for the full development of specifically children's activities of a child in kindergarten on the basis of developing an individual approach to each child, and for this it is necessary to know and rely on the age and individual characteristics of children.
Remember: there are no bad children, some negative traits are the result of improper upbringing. It is better to emphasize positive qualities and thereby reinforce them, helping to develop a child’s sense of self-esteem.
Using an individual approach, we will find the “key” to each child.
And now I ask you to come to"Tree of Expectations" If you got what you expected from the workshop, you can remove your piece of paper. If not, then leave it. This will help you adjust your further work based on your wishes. (soft music sounds)
Now, anyone who wants to speak out can do so.
List of used literature
Preschool psychology / Uruntaeva G. A. - M., 1998.
Individual approach in raising a child / Kovalchuk Ya. I. - M., 1981.
Organization of activities of the Center for Play Support for Young Children: notes on play days / Yu. A. Afonkina, E. M. Omelchenko. - Volgograd: Teacher, 2012.
Practical seminars and trainings for teachers. - Vol. 1. Teacher and child: effective interaction / author-comp. E. V. Shitova. - Volgograd: Teacher, 2009.
Practical seminars for teachers. Issue 2. Psychological competence of educators / author. S. V. Terpigoreva. - Volgograd: Teacher, 2011.
The full development of children is facilitated by an individual approach, which is impossible without knowledge of the individual anatomical, physiological and mental characteristics of each child.
The characteristics of a child’s behavior and his well-being, to a certain extent, depend on his physical condition and the uniqueness of his temperament. Studying temperament allows the teacher to most accurately choose the right path in the process of interacting with children. B.M. Teplov wrote that proper education does not involve fighting innate properties, but taking into account and relying on them.
The goal of the program proposed below is to identify the individual typological characteristics of preschool children for subsequent consideration in the implementation of the educational process.
From the history of the development of the doctrine of temperaments.
Temperament is the individual characteristics of a person, which are manifested in a certain excitability, emotional sensitivity, balance and speed of mental activity. Since ancient times, scientists, philosophers and doctors have been interested in the question: why people are so different from each other, what are the reasons for these differences.
The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates is considered the creator of the doctrine of temperaments. There were a variety of theories of temperament: physiological, chemical, endocrine. Even the external shape of the body was associated with the characteristics of temperament. A. Geller, G. Wisberg, W. McDougollu, and J. Strelyau had a great influence on the development of theories about temperament. This problem was most fully developed by I.P. Pavlov, who identified 4 types of temperament and gave their characteristics. In the 50s, extensive laboratory studies were undertaken with adults to study the problem in depth. As a result of these studies, conducted under the leadership of B.M. Teplova, V.D. Nebylitsyn and V.S. Merlin's typology I.P. Pavlova was supplemented with new elements.
Features of the manifestation of temperament in childhood.
Features of higher nervous activity (hereinafter referred to as HNA) in preschoolers are more pronounced than in adults. They, as emphasized by I.P. Pavlov, are not yet covered up by individual work and life patterns. With this definition, he emphasized that temperamental traits, although innate, can be influenced by pedagogy and can be changed to some extent. In addition, in adults they can be masked by character traits.
You can judge what type of GNI a child belongs to based on his external behavior.
A child of an excitable type - choleric - has a strong, mobile, unbalanced nervous system with a predominance of the process of excitation over the process of inhibition. All reactions of a choleric child are pronounced. Babies react violently to any inconvenience: a wet diaper, a crumb on the sheet - causing uncontrollable crying until they are blue in the face. Also brightly, a small child exhibits other emotional reactions: he does not just laugh, but laughs, does not get angry, but becomes enraged. Children of this type have expressive facial expressions, sharp, impetuous gestures, fast, loud speech; all behavior is characterized by a pronounced direction - the child strives to influence what he sees, to remake the environment in accordance with his needs and desires, and at the same time shows enviable energy and perseverance. Choleric children love active games and activities in which they can express themselves, they strive to play the main role in the game, organize their comrades and lead them, and try to lead adults. Everything that requires manifestation of activity is easily accomplished by children of this type, and, conversely, situations in which they need to restrain themselves and limit their desires cause them to feel a sense of protest. A child with an excitable nervous system usually has difficulty falling asleep, sleeps peacefully, but wakes up quickly and immediately gets involved in the normal rhythm of life. With rare exceptions, he is mobile and active, endlessly inventing and inventing something, striving to penetrate the most forbidden places. It seems that his energy is inexhaustible: after a hectic day, the child refuses to go to bed, demands to be told a fairy tale, and tries to start a game. It is especially difficult in a group with such children: they are excessively active, noisy, impulsive, quick-tempered, have difficulty obeying established rules, conflict over toys, rules of the game, and are offended by adults’ comments.
A child of a calm type - sanguine - with a strong, mobile, balanced nervous system. Outwardly, they are similar to choleric children in that they are active, have lively facial expressions, use gestures, and speak quickly and loudly. A sanguine child, as a rule, has an even, calm, cheerful mood, without sudden transitions characteristic of choleric people. The child quickly falls asleep and wakes up easily, without any particular difficulties he moves from active games to quiet activities and vice versa. The peculiarity of sanguine people is their easy adaptability to any conditions. The child willingly follows the established daily routine, obeys any orders from adults, and carries out assignments. Children of this type easily come into contact with other children, quickly find friends in any environment, and can both lead and obey. Sanguine people quickly respond to everything they see and hear, ask many questions, and at the same time are interested in a wide variety of phenomena. In a short time, a child easily gets accustomed to a nursery or kindergarten; the period of getting used to the new regime does not last long; In the morning they brought him to kindergarten, and by the evening he feels at home. The sociability, agreeableness, and cheerfulness of children attract adults to them, so sometimes the first manifestations of not very attractive character traits can be hidden behind the external form of behavior. Due to the fact that the nervous system of a sanguine person is characterized by pliability and plasticity, he is able to quickly switch from one activity to another. In some circumstances, this quality plays a positive role: the child easily gets involved in new activities and can, if necessary, refuse attractive activities. At the same time, this child’s plasticity can turn out to be a negative side: the child changes toys one after another, has many comrades, but not a single close friend, takes on everything, but does not complete anything. The main property of a little sanguine person is instability (behavior, interests, attachments). A child quickly develops habits and skills, but they are destroyed just as quickly. Therefore, the main task in working with a sanguine child is to develop perseverance in him. The child is obedient. But can't obedience turn into disaster? He obeys his parents in everything and also willingly listens to the advice of a random passerby, a teenager. The child has varied interests. Okay, but up to certain limits. By endlessly expanding, these interests will inevitably become superficial. It is no coincidence that sanguine children at school sometimes strive to enroll in all existing clubs, but do not achieve noticeable success in any of them - they lack perseverance. The child willingly takes on any task. Wonderful! But does he complete it? No, he strives to stop it quickly in order to take on something else, more interesting. A sanguine person quickly gets tired of monotony. He can engage in an activity that is attractive to him for a long time, but as soon as moments arise that require monotony (and they are inevitable in any activity), he tends to stop this activity.
A phlegmatic child has a strong, balanced, but sedentary nervous system. In early childhood, this is a calm baby who sleeps a lot; when he wakes up, he lies calmly, rarely cries, and rarely laughs. Phlegmatic children fall asleep quickly, but wake up with difficulty and remain lethargic for some time after sleep. All reactions of such children have a vague character: they laugh quietly, cry quietly, facial expressions are poorly expressed, there are no unnecessary movements or gestures. Speech is also special - leisurely, with pauses not only between sentences, but also between words. It is difficult for him to react quickly to any influence, so there is a pause between the question to the child and his answer. Before starting activity, there follows a period of build-up, external inaction. Having started an activity, a phlegmatic person is able to engage in it for a long time without getting tired of monotonous, repetitive actions. But it’s difficult for him to suddenly stop what he started, especially in cases where he has to do a new, unfamiliar thing. The behavior of a phlegmatic child is stable and difficult to anger. Habits and skills take a long time to form, but once formed, they become strong. A child of this type does not immediately perceive everything new and unusual. Entering kindergarten is associated with some difficulties: the baby takes a long time to adapt to the new regime, has difficulty parting with his parents, and does not take part in children’s games. Phlegmatic people feel uncomfortable visiting and are reluctant to meet new people. In a familiar environment, the child follows the rules of behavior without coercion, copes with familiar work, and performs any task carefully and accurately. Like any child, a phlegmatic person has his positive and negative sides associated with the characteristics of the nervous system. Positive aspects are the desire for perseverance, thoroughness, conscientiousness, reliability in all manifestations; negative - lethargy, low activity, slow pace of action.
Children with a weak nervous system - melancholic people - are characterized by increased sensitivity and vulnerability. Weakness of nervous processes does not mean inferiority. These children simply have too strong a reaction to weak stimuli, fatigue of the nerve cells quickly sets in, and weak processes of excitation and inhibition occur. A melancholic person is a type of child about whom they say that “he is neither seen nor heard.” He does not scream, but squeaks, does not laugh, but smiles, does not ask, but plaintively looks at what he wants, is inactive, prefers quiet activities that do not require movement, it is not common for him to actively engage in conversation or demonstrate his knowledge and skills. The child speaks quietly, hesitantly, and stammers. He is inclined to play alone or with a friend whom he knows well; noisy peers tire him. The feelings of a melancholic person are deep and lasting, but they are hardly expressed outwardly, which sometimes misleads adults. Since the nervous system cannot withstand prolonged stimuli, children quickly get tired - from noise, from new people, from comments. Any pressure further increases fatigue. A harsh tone and coercion suppress the already low activity of a melancholic person. Children have difficulty developing skills, and habits do not develop for a long time, but everything that they manage to form is durable, reliable, stable and does not require additional control. Passivity, fatigue, isolation, slowness - the main disadvantages of a child - melancholic. At the same time, they have valuable properties such as sensitivity, responsiveness, stability of interests, attachments, and habits. Children enter the team with great difficulty, they cannot get used to the daily routine in kindergarten for a long time, they cry, refuse games and activities, and sometimes they do not answer questions from adults and children in the institution for a long time.
From the characteristics of temperaments it is clear that children with different temperaments cannot be raised the same way. Obviously, this can explain that different people are brought up in the same family under the same conditions. In such cases, parents often say: “We raise them the same way.” Exactly, in the same way, but it was necessary to educate differently, taking into account the natural type of the nervous system, which could be different, and living conditions that have changed since the birth of the first child.
“In the process of education,” wrote B.M. Teplov, “one should look not for ways to change the nervous system, but for the best forms, ways and methods of education, taking into account the characteristics of the pupil’s nervous system.” Knowing the traits of temperament will make it possible to implement an individual approach to the education of the individual, since there are no identical conditions, there is no identical material on which the personality is formed.
In the book, readers will find a psychological and pedagogical description of the individual uniqueness of the development of each child, the uniqueness of the paths of personality formation. Adults will become familiar with the characteristics of children of early, preschool, primary school, and adolescence, will be able to navigate the pace of maturation of their own sons and daughters, will develop an independent attitude towards difficult, crisis periods of their development, will learn what the direct influence of parental attitudes, expectations, positions on the formation of psychological the sex of the child, the formation of his masculinity or femininity. Special sections of the book are devoted to such important parameters of individuality as temperament and character.
Book:
Home diagnostics of typological characteristics of a child
Newborn. It would seem, what kind of temperament can we talk about at the very beginning of life? But its first manifestations are carefully recorded by adults from the very beginning. Young mothers with strollers on a walk ask each other the same questions: “Does yours scream often?”, “Does it calm down right away or can’t fall asleep for a long time after screaming?”, “How does it suck: greedily or sluggishly?”, “When you undress, bathe, how does he move his arms and legs? Is there already coordination of movements or is it not yet noticeable? This is not idle curiosity, not an attempt to boast about the achievements of your first-born. Or not just parental vanity. This is already the primary diagnosis. “If he screams loudly, demandingly, persistently, he will be active, independent, and if he cries barely audibly, the quiet one will grow up,” says the older mother, and the rest agree, clarify, and argue. Maybe she is too categorical in her predictions, but attentiveness to individual characteristics and the ability to involve other mothers in everyday targeted observation turn out to be timely and useful.
In the first months of life, such an innate property as anxiety is diagnosed. At first it manifests itself in the form of increased excitability of the baby, who experiences fear of everything new and unfamiliar. Excessively high anxiety subsequently negatively affects the performance of difficult tasks, causing excessive stress. Instead of acting, the child constantly tries to imagine failures, possible obstacles, complications, disapproval from loved ones. This constant expectation of trouble seems to paralyze activity and inhibit the development of curiosity and initiative.
It is known that for highly reactive children there are many more stimuli that cause a fear response than for low-reactive children. If low-reactive children, that is, children with low anxiety, show only natural indicative reactions or mild anxiety when they see a man in a white coat, then high-reactive children are clearly frightened. When a doctor, during a routine examination, accidentally inflicts even minor pain on a baby, his anxiety gives way to persistent fear; he screams for many months at the sight of any white coat, not allowing doctors to come near him.
Anxiety is not always a bad thing. Everyone should have a certain, optimal level of it. If a child’s anxiety is too low, his carelessness requires constant supervision from adults. Such a kid is not afraid of anything, constantly experiments with everything that comes into his hands, does not draw proper conclusions from his numerous falls, burns, various injuries and failures.
At the beginning of the second year of life, mothers begin to detect in their babies such an individual characteristic as impulsiveness. Which children are considered impulsive? Those who act under the influence of momentary impulses, impatient, frivolous, carefree.
Children who are very different from each other in this parameter can grow up in the same family. “The eldest always agreed with my arguments, could come to terms even if he didn’t like something, knew how to patiently wait for what was promised, but there was no sweetness with the younger one,” says the father who came to the psychological consultation. – The younger one demands attention to himself immediately; if something doesn’t suit him, he immediately gets offended, leaves, withdraws. But his grievances are not serious, short-term. As soon as you turn on the TV, when there are cartoons on, he has already forgotten about everything and rushes to watch. He has no restraint. What should I do? Of course, a calm, constantly equal state of mind will never be characteristic of a child like the youngest son of a father who came to a psychologist; it is unlikely that it will be possible to form it. However, it is possible and necessary to teach a child some individual methods of self-regulation.
In this regard, one classic experiment comes to mind. A five-year-old child was offered a choice: either eat one candy right away, or wait until an adult who is writing something at the table is free, and then get candy, a tangerine, and a Pepsi-Cola. An adult is called from the room, and he watches the baby so that he is not visible. All the promised treats are in plain sight. Some children, of course, can’t stand it and start eating. Others are waiting. To make the wait easier, some children invent ways to distract themselves from temptations. They begin to sing songs, recite poems, engage in role-playing games and thus distract themselves from the temptation and restrain the impulsive desire to get to the treats.
Only those parents who do not rush to fulfill all his wishes at the moment when they arise in their son or daughter can teach a child to wait. It is important to understand that impulsivity as a temperamental trait comes in very different degrees of severity. Therefore, there is no point in punishments and complaints.
To reduce impulsiveness, it is advisable to develop a strategy for correctional work in a timely manner, which should be based on incentives, rewards for attempts to restrain yourself, not to cry, to be patient, to compare your desires and the needs of others, and to take into account not only your own interests.
In cases of mildly expressed impulsiveness, it is important to help the child, especially if he is already a schoolchild, to learn artificial methods of inhibiting excessively strong affects and preventing rash reactions. One helps to count to ten, another remembers what was good yesterday, and only then allows himself to react to the unpleasant news, the third first calls his grandmother on the phone, the fourth looks for nuts in the kitchen and only after eating them makes a decision.
After two and a half years, the first manifestations of aggressiveness that worry parents usually appear, which are important to recognize in time and not ignore. A child who deliberately seeks to harm another does not necessarily demonstrate an attack of anger, an outburst of rage, and does not always get into a fight with peers. Aggression can also be verbal, when he shouts offensive phrases that insult another, causing pain. A common example of early manifestations of aggressiveness in a family is children’s stubbornness, so familiar to parents, when a child objects to adults out of the sole desire to insist on his own, to obstruct someone else’s will.
As in the case of anxiety, we emphasize that excessively low aggressiveness, like excessively high one, is not ideal. Parents will be surprised: why is low aggressiveness bad? Yes, because a child with very low aggressiveness will passively adapt to more active children and will be afraid to show independence and express his own opinion. He will not defend himself in a childish conflict, nor will he object to an adult, even if he is completely wrong. He will not be able to gain authority in a group of peers, because inexpressive quiet people are simply not noticed. As a result, his self-esteem will be quite low, and self-doubt will gradually become a character trait.
If aggressiveness is higher than normal, expect conflicts both at home and in kindergarten. An aggressive child does not know how to give in or take into account the needs of other children. It is difficult for him to cope with his own impulsiveness, irritability, and capriciousness.
However, everyone needs a healthy dose of aggressiveness, just as salt is needed when preparing delicious dishes. Of course, if you oversalt a dish, it becomes inedible, and if you undersalt it, it becomes bland and tasteless. So it is important for a child to have a certain optimal level of aggressiveness in order to build his own boundaries and defend his own opinion. With an optimal amount of aggressiveness, the child will be active, courageous, decisive, independent, and prone to leadership.
When children's aggressiveness is too high or low, it is impossible to do without the systematic influence of adults. How to increase the level of aggressiveness in children who are too insecure, passive and submissive? It is important to provide your child with constant emotional support, to show respect for his opinions, tastes, needs, and interests. When a child learns to talk about his desires and defend his opinion in a safe home environment, he will gradually begin to succeed with his peers.
Security presupposes the ability of a child not only to ask an adult for something, but also to demand what he needs. I remember three-year-old Maryanka, who in the evening asks her mother, who has returned from work, to play with her. Mom says she’s tired and invites her daughter to play with her sister. But Maryanka insists, giving ironclad arguments: “No, you play! You’ve degenerated – that means you can play!” And the mother, laughing and realizing that the child is right, finds the strength to communicate with the baby.
Well, what if such liberties are not allowed with parents? It turns out that a family in which there are excessively tough, harsh relationships not only achieves unquestioning obedience. At the same time, it creates conditions for increased aggressiveness, which the child suppresses and hides when he is at home, but actively displays it among his peers. Under the daily influence of parents, temperamental properties can become more or less intense, expressed, and acquire socially acceptable or unacceptable forms.
To humiliate and punish a child, demanding from him humility and unquestioning obedience, means to develop and cultivate with one’s own hands the very aggressiveness that will bring both parents and their child a lot of trouble in the future.
Parents can judge whether an excitable or inhibitory process predominates in the child’s nervous system, reflected in the structure of his temperament, by his motor activity and motor skills. An excitable preschooler moves quickly, the force of his impact and jump is quite strong, but prolonged muscular tension is difficult because his endurance is low. The inhibitory type manifests itself in slow movements, which are more coordinated and correct than those of the excitable type. A child in whom the inhibitory process predominates is more resilient. He doesn’t get tired longer, for example, during outdoor games or walking.
One of the informative indicators of the strength or weakness of the nervous system of children is their speech. When talking about his experiences, the owner of a strong nervous system uses polar expressions from “nightmarish” and “terrible” to “super”, “cool”, “best of all”. The owner of the weak type avoids extremes and prefers moderate assessments such as “different”, “so-so”. True, the younger the child, the more often he uses superlatives. Remember, “the weather was beautiful, the princess was terrible”? In this rather long children's poem by Genrikh Sapgir, there are only two epithets that can be freely swapped, causing delight in the little ones.
In order not to confuse age and typological speech characteristics, it is better to compare the speech of peers, preferably of the same gender, since girls and boys have their own specifics. In the afternoon, all employees with schoolchildren take turns calling home and asking the routine question: “Well, how are you?” One sixth-grader daily cheerfully reports: “It’s normal!” The other calmly says: “Nothing.” The third one today shouts joyfully and loudly: “Okay! Cool!”, and the next day sadly and quietly says: “It can’t get any worse.” He even manages to answer his mother’s greeting “Good afternoon”: “Nothing is and cannot be good.” The greater the range, the difference between plus and minus, the more resilient the nervous system is, which allows such fluctuations. The weak type, as it were, insures himself in advance, protects himself and therefore responds more evenly, rejoices less recklessly and falls into despair less quickly.
Let's not forget that there are typical manifestations of temperament for a particular age level, which can complicate diagnosis. Thus, anxiety and impulsivity develop quite early, since they are associated with the protective functions of the nervous system. They leave the greatest imprint on temperament in older preschool and primary school age. Direction outward, toward the world around us (extroversion), or inward, toward ourselves (introversion), finally takes shape only during adolescence, revealing a connection with the strength of the nervous system. It is in a teenager that these qualities turn out to be the most significant in the structure of temperament.
The future of their child depends on what properties of temperament and at what age parents notice, evaluate, support, and their attitude towards these qualities. If the baby cries for a long time, cannot calm down in response to any external changes, and chronically does not allow the mother to get enough sleep, then her way of communicating with him will be completely different from her interaction with her calm eldest son. The mother will involuntarily be more afraid for the baby’s health, will show anxiety, irritation, annoyance, feel like a victim of unbearable circumstances and at the same time will take care of, patronize with all her might, drop all her affairs and rush to the crib. And the child will definitely feel what kind of behavior ensures a 100% opportunity to see his mother all the time.
Another baby who shows curiosity instead of fear in response to new stimuli will also receive a lot of parental attention. But the quality of communication and its fullness will be different. Parents will rejoice at their son's smiles, enjoy his next achievements, and support his attempts to explore the world. Sometimes they will have to protect their active and courageous baby from unsafe attempts to experiment with surrounding objects, but in general they will be calm, balanced, and positive in their interactions with him. And such an attitude will undoubtedly activate his curiosity, openness to the world, trust in others, and creativity.
We always not only diagnose certain properties of the temperament of our children, but also at the same time influence them, stimulate or, conversely, inhibit their development. Any contact with a little daughter or son is our assessments, expectations, hopes, even if they are not formulated, not shown, not expressed. We reinforce or do not reinforce certain behavior of our child with facial expressions, intonations, speed of response, readiness to communicate, support, help, even if we do not notice or realize it.
Parents will say that they always promote favorable qualities and try to prevent the development of negative traits. In fact, often we are talking simply about qualities that are convenient or inconvenient. For tired, busy adults who have come home from work, dismissed the nanny, want to have a quiet dinner and discuss joint affairs, it is important that their child is not capricious and does not require attention. Therefore, they will try to purchase more interactive talking toys and will try in every possible way to replace with them the full contact between the baby and mom and dad. If such practices become everyday, they will deprive the child of emotionally rich communication with the people closest to him. And then initiative, trust, the ability to attach, the development of empathy and many other qualities will suffer significantly.
Of course, the child also influences the parents. The properties of his temperament, to some extent, themselves determine how to treat him. We can say that temperament in a certain way modifies external influences, attracts some parental practices and repels and rejects others.
What happens if a teenager is an introvert, that is, a silent person, focused primarily on his own inner world, and his family (mother and sister) are extroverts, sociable, outward-oriented people?
Reaching mutual understanding is often difficult. It seems to the mother that her son is too withdrawn, that he needs to be bothered, entertained, taken into noisy companies, otherwise he will never achieve anything in life. His sister is doing well, has a lot of friends, and constantly hangs out, but his brother still strives to be alone, sit at the computer, read a book. And he has only one friend, and his interests are somehow incomprehensible, and he talks little about himself. Maybe the child is depressed? And it seems to the son that his loved ones are too noisy, fussing, and do not give anyone peace. He is happy when his mother and sister go to relatives for the weekend. Only in solitude can you concentrate, solve chess problems, learn to play the guitar, and compose words to a melody you like.
Introverted children can feel no less prosperous than extroverted ones. They do not need constant external stimuli or a stream of entertainment, so they are much less likely to get bored than extroverts. Introverts also know how to have fun, but to do this they need a small group of very close people who are on the same wavelength as them. They are uncomfortable in a large company, they quickly get tired of uninteresting, superficial contacts, and do not see the point in chatting about anything.
Extroverted parents should not worry about the future of introverted children. Success in life is equally accessible to both. It’s just that the understanding of what a successful, comfortable, happy life is is different for extroverts and introverts. In addition, introverts eventually learn to imitate sociability if their work requires it, although such imitations, of course, quickly exhaust them and require even more solitude to recuperate.
Among the phenomenally successful introverts are, for example, Bill Gates, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg, Audrey Hepburn. There are also many equally successful extroverts: for example, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Sergei Yesenin, Sharon Stone. The advantages of introverts are that they are more independent in their decisions, they are better at listening, understanding the needs and moods of those around them. And the advantages of extroverts are their sociability, activity, and positivity.
It has been proven that from 30 to 50% of individual differences associated with introversion-extraversion indicators are due to heredity. Introverts always have a higher level of excitation processes in the cerebral cortex than extroverts, so they get tired faster and are overloaded both intellectually and emotionally. And when exhausted, introverts are more likely to experience anxiety and, for minor reasons, may even fall into despair. On the other hand, the excitability of cortical processes in extroverts is low, and therefore they constantly need new people, new impressions, unfamiliar and even dangerous situations, portions of adrenaline. The lack of external stimuli leads extroverts to despondency, apathy, and depression.
Extraversion and introversion are, to a certain extent, the poles of temperament. Their severity varies, which has a different impact on the mutual understanding of children and parents who have these individual characteristics. According to Marty Laney, author of The Introvert Advantage, extroverts replenish their energy by connecting with others and new experiences, while introverts need peace, solitude, and quiet to recover. There are always more extroverts at football, while there are more introverts at an art exhibition or at the Philharmonic.
It is important that parents are able to correlate their own individual typological characteristics and the traits of their children that are not always similar to them. If a mother is an extrovert and her son is an introvert, the main thing is not to try to change the child. He's different, and that's good in his own way. A mother who is tired and has encountered some problem at work needs to talk it out in the evening and discuss everything, but her son, on the contrary, needs to be silent after a noisy school. This means that it is better for her to talk it out with a daughter who is similar to her or with one of her friends, giving her son the opportunity to be alone.
How many conflicts in the family simply would not arise if we clearly understood what the specifics of a strong and weak, mobile and inert nervous system are! How much more environmentally friendly would the climate in families be if we took into account how differently people with a large supply of vitality, internal energy and people who get tired easily, who need a gentle regime, rest, solitude perceive the world around them, how different they are and should not be The ways of life of a choleric person and a phlegmatic person, a sanguine person and a melancholic person are similar.
A neighbor complains about her daughter: “Antonina is so incompetent, so slow! By the time the cups are washed, my patience will be exhausted a hundred times over. I’ll drive you away from the kitchen, I’ll say in the heat of the moment that she’s lazy, her mother doesn’t regret it, that no one will marry someone so armless, but she stands there, silent, then she asks for forgiveness, but the next day it’s the same thing.” The reason for these everyday conflicts is that the mother is an active, fast woman, who has everything on fire in her hands, and the daughter inherited her father’s individual psychological characteristics and grows up calm, thorough, unhurried, and balanced. The mother does not see that the positive qualities of her husband, which she perceives as reliability, responsibility, sedateness, and lack of conflict, are also manifested in her daughter’s behavior. Where has it been seen that a future woman grows up so clumsy? How will she manage everything? And this mother has no idea that behind her daughter’s slowness lies endurance, tirelessness, and diligence.
There are other ways of activity that are not similar to the maternal one and at the same time no less effective. The mother, energetically rushing to redo all the household chores in half a day, falls off her feet in the evening, complains of insomnia and the next day, exhausted, does not want anything, does not go anywhere, preferring the saving TV. And her supposedly lazy daughter, who distributes her energy more economically, calmly and consistently, without rushes or downturns, does no less volume of work both today and tomorrow.
Another example. A thirteen-year-old teenager with a rather unbalanced nervous system, poorly developed inhibition, impatient, excitable, constantly conflicts with his father, a rather phlegmatic person. From my father’s point of view, my son is constantly in a hurry to get somewhere, fidgets, fusses, has no tact or patience, and is fickle in his hobbies. It seems to the son that there is nothing you can do to move dad, every question must be asked three times before he answers, it is completely impossible to ask for something, you have to wait so long for this request to be fulfilled.
When determining temperament, one should not lose sight of this circumstance. The properties of the nervous system, especially in childhood, depend on the influences of the environment, the child’s surroundings, and the family atmosphere. When, by nature, active children live a monotonous life, deprived of positive emotions, they may ultimately grow up not as cheerful sanguine people, but as insecure, fearful, indecisive people, more reminiscent of melancholic people. The opposite statement is also true.
A soft, friendly family microclimate, approving, supportive assessments from close adults help children with initially high anxiety, suspiciousness, absent-mindedness, and fatigue to become more confident, calmer, and smoother.
Do individual typological characteristics depend on the attitudes of the growing person himself, his own attitude towards the properties and qualities that determine temperament? Without a doubt. Already preschoolers clearly prefer active to passive, sociable to withdrawn, active to inhibited, bold to timid, regardless of what traits they themselves are endowed with. During adolescence, these preferences become more and more categorical. Those who do not correspond to them become outsiders and fully experience the pros and cons of loneliness. In fairness, we note that many creative abilities require solitude and autonomy to develop.
Gender stereotypes also leave their mark on the manifestation and consolidation of certain temperament traits. Thus, it is generally accepted that it is more forgivable for girls to be fearful, anxious, inconsistent, and overly impressionable. And for young men, stereotypes allow more pressure, aggression, hot temper, and impulsiveness. Remember how from a very tender age you heard from adults: “Boys don’t cry, they get their way,” “Girls should be compliant and patient.” This is how stereotypes sank into our souls, became not always conscious beliefs, influenced and still influence our reactions and actions.
But there are still stereotypes that exist in your family. Who hasn’t been told at one time: “All the men in our family do this” or “All the women of our family can do this.” And try not to conform here. For example, I was convinced that we really had no relatives who were not excellent students. Like it or not, I had to become a perfectionist and get excellent grades even in those lessons that I absolutely did not like. Including in such a hated subject as solfeggio at a music school. As a result, the exhaustion of the not very strong nervous system grew, and it was impossible to fully recover, but there was simply no choice.
Let's not forget about religious, racial, and ethnic stereotypes, which also affect temperament. If we compare the peoples of Northern and Southern Europe, it becomes obvious that in Norway or Finland there are more phlegmatic people, and in Italy or Greece there are more choleric people. Even if we accept that the majority of northern and southern children are born this way, one cannot help but take into account social expectations, habitual forms of interaction with a child, and accepted methods of reward and punishment.
Society is always not indifferent to a person’s temperament. And in one society he favors talkative, emotional, fidgety people who gesticulate a lot, and in another - to silent, detailed big guys who are very difficult to anger.
There come times in the life history of each of us when our own ideas about the valuable and unvaluable, good and bad properties of temperament turn out to be especially significant. Starting from adolescence, we all more or less actively and consciously begin to remake ourselves, and take up self-education. We have idols, ideal objects with which we constantly compare ourselves and whom we so want to become like.
What kind of temperaments do you think are held in high esteem? It turns out that much more people consider themselves choleric or sanguine than is actually the case. We are less willing to admit that we have a phlegmatic disposition, and we very rarely agree that we at least in some way resemble melancholics. Why? Apparently, there is still an opinion that the most talented and successful people are those with a strong, balanced and mobile nervous system, who show sociability, goodwill, and good performance.
However, temperament, which is based on the properties of the nervous system, as we have seen, does not in itself uniquely determine the individual style of life, does not program the type of character. As for talents, there are representatives of all temperaments. Among the choleric people are Peter the Great and Pushkin, the sanguine people - Lermontov, Napoleon, the phlegmatic people - Krylov, Kutuzov, the melancholic people - Gogol, Tchaikovsky. So, as we see, creative abilities and life successes were never limited by temperament. It is important that a person correctly perceives his own individual characteristics and, in accordance with them, develops a lifestyle that is comfortable for himself and acceptable to others.
Having set themselves the task of understanding the temperamental traits of their children, it is important for parents to remember that in each specific case the motivation of the activity, the child’s mood, his attitude to what is happening, gender and age characteristics, and even health status leave their mark. Only long-term daily observations carried out by all family members, followed by a comparison of conclusions and a discussion of different points of view, can provide truly reliable and useful information.
It is advisable to pay special attention to the assessments of strangers, whose opinions are free from parental subjectivity associated with attachment to the child. Thus, an attentive mother listens to the value judgments of neighbors watching their children play in the yard, asks the kindergarten teacher about first impressions of the new child, finds time to talk with the sports section coach or music school teacher not only about immediate successes, but also about positive and negative ones. qualities, typological characteristics of her child.
In order for a child’s individuality to develop in a non-one-sided way, for creative inclinations to emerge, health to improve, and life satisfaction to grow, you need to understand what kind of temperament your child is endowed with. Even if this temperament is far from yours and has not aroused much sympathy until now, it is important to study all its pros and cons and accept the individual characteristics of your baby as a whole. It is absolutely necessary that your expectations correspond to the child’s capabilities, determined by the properties of his nervous system.
It is important to remember that temperament to some extent determines the range of behavioral reactions, communication style, and preferred activities. Knowing the capabilities of the type of nervous system of a son and daughter, taking them into account, creating conditions for the most favorable development of positive traits and compensation for negative ones is a real, although not always easy, task.
2.5.1. CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIVIDUAL-TYPOLOGICAL FEATURES OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
Among the individual characteristics of a person, which clearly characterize the dynamic features of his behavior, activity, communication, mental processes, a special place belongs to temperament.
The physiological basis of temperament is the type of higher nervous activity, its properties such as strength, mobility, balance. Studies of temperament have led to the identification of the following series of its properties: sensitivity (sensitivity), reactivity, activity, emotional excitability, plasticity and rigidity, extroversion and introversion, the pace of mental reactions.
About sensitivity or sensitivity, is judged by what the smallest force of external influence is necessary for a person to have one or another mental reaction. In other words, what should be the force of influence in order for a person, as they say, to “get it”.
Property reactivity manifests itself in the strength and energy with which a person reacts to a particular influence. It’s not for nothing that they say about some: “He’s quick-tempered”, “Starts up with a half-turn”, and about others: “You don’t understand whether you’re happy or upset.”
Plastic and its opposite quality rigidity manifest themselves in how easily and quickly a person adapts to external influences. The flexible person quickly adapts behavior when circumstances change, while the rigid person has great difficulty.
An essential indicator of temperament is extroversion and introversion. Research shows that these qualities of temperament are very clearly manifested, first of all, in the process of communication, not only in adults, but also in children. For example, sociable extroverts are more proactive in the initial, organizing phase of the game, the meeting when choosing a topic, distributing roles and choosing their own role. Introverted preschoolers more often “communicate” with game attributes, “address” a toy, more often say what they are going to do, what game actions they perform. Of course, sociability in itself does not provide a person with a favorable position in the team. Most likely, it has a positive effect at first, when a person just enters a new group. Then other important human qualities begin to “work.” However, it has been noticed: among the “preferred” preschoolers, “stars” are most often extroverts. Their sociability helps them adapt to a new social environment, make friends, and overcome uncertainty.
About activity judged by the energy with which a person influences the world around him, by his persistence, concentration of attention...
About such quality of temperament as emotional excitability, learn by how much force is needed to trigger an emotional reaction.
The properties of temperament are linked into certain structures that form different types of temperament. The main ones are: choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic. Thus, choleric people are characterized by such qualities as reactivity, activity, emotional excitability, high rate of mental reactions, plasticity, and extroversion. Among introverts, as a rule, are melancholic and phlegmatic people. The latter are characterized by rigidity, slow pace of movement, speech, weak emotional excitability, low sensitivity...
However, “pure” temperaments are quite rare. Most often, a person has a combination of traits of different types, although the temperament properties of one type predominate.
2.5.2. METHODS FOR STUDYING INDIVIDUAL-TYPOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
The most acceptable for a teacher studying the temperament of his students is observation method. It helps the teacher, based on vital signs, determine the basic properties of the nervous system that underlie the temperament of a particular child. Let us recall: there are three main properties of the nervous system (strength, balance, mobility and four main combinations of these properties (I.P. Pavlov): strong, unbalanced, mobile - the “unrestrained” type; strong, balanced, mobile - the “living” type; strong, balanced, sedentary - “calm” type; “weak” type.
The “uncontrollable” type underlies the choleric temperament, the “lively” - sanguine, the “calm” - phlegmatic, the “weak” - melancholic.
These properties! nervous system, which constitute the physiological basis of temperament, are manifested in a person’s everyday behavior.
So, to vital indicators of the strength of the nervous process of excitation include maintaining a high level of performance under prolonged stress at work, stable and fairly high positive emotional tone, courage in diverse and unusual conditions, sustained attention in both quiet and noisy environments. Let's watch the child, take a closer look at him. The strength (or weakness) of his nervous system will be evidenced by such vital indicators as sleep (does he fall asleep quickly, is his sleep restful, is he sound), is there a rapid (slow) recovery of strength, how does he behave in a state of hunger if he is not caught in time feed (screams, cries or shows lethargy, calmness).
Towards vital indicators of balance include the following: restraint, perseverance, calmness, uniformity in the dynamics of mood, the absence of periodic sharp declines and rises, clarity and fluency of speech, etc.
Life indicators of mobility of nervous processes include such indicators as a quick response to everything new in the environment, easy and quick development and change of life stereotypes (habits, skills), quick adaptation to new people, to new conditions, the ability to move from one activity to another without hesitation, from sleep to wakefulness, etc., speed of memorization and ease of reproduction, speed of emergence and flow of feelings, manifestation of lability in speech, motor skills, and the pace of activity.
The program used in the study by L. I. Umansky will help to study the individual typological characteristics of preschoolers.
PROGRAM FOR STUDYING INDIVIDUAL-TYPOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
Does he show perseverance in all activities or only when he is interested?
Can I play for a long time?
Does he strive to complete the work? Is it easy or difficult to distract from the work or game you have started?
Is he initiative in games, does he need pushing from adults and other children?
Are you sociable and easy to get along with children, or unsociable and difficult to get along with?
Are you responsive? Does it provide assistance?
What is your typical mood (cheerful, cheerful, calm, emotionally depressed)?
What is more typical: constant or changeable mood?
10. How do you feel about failures and insults?
11. Is he irritable: does interference or objections cause annoyance, or does he react to them calmly?
How impressionable?
After a failure, does he quickly calm down or does he worry for a long time?
Can he study, play, while listening to others, talking?
Is he able to distribute attention?
Are you often absent-minded?
How quickly does attention switch from one activity to another?
What is your normal pace of movement (fast, medium, slow, jerky, smooth)?
Brave or cowardly?
Does he quickly switch to a new situation in a game of physical exercises?
Characteristics of external forms of speech: speaks quickly, slowly, smoothly, abruptly, with facial expressions?
How long can one remain silent, be inactive, when one wants to say, do?
How does one cope with having to wait?
How quickly does one get used to an unfamiliar environment?
How often do you fall asleep and wake up?
Is he sleeping peacefully?
How quickly does one move from a state of rest to active activity and vice versa?
How does he react to a medical procedure?
How often does he complain about the illness?
What are the characteristics of behavior in case of cuts, bruises, bleeding?
To diagnose temperament and its individual properties, they are widely used. tests. We offer three of them.
The first is to identify anxiety (as one of the essential properties of temperament), developed by V. S. Merlin.
An hourglass is pre-prepared for 3 minutes, material for classes at the first and second tables.
Subjects - three children of senior preschool age; observation is carried out over one of them.
An indicator of anxiety is the child’s behavior in a frustrated situation, which is created by a lack of time to complete a task.
Organization, the child must complete tasks at two tables: at the first with a clock, at the second without a clock. The task should last 10-15 minutes (for example, at the first table there is a task with building materials, at the second table - with a mosaic pattern)
The instructions are general: “You will perform tasks at two tables. First at this (the experimenter shows what the child should do), then at the second (shows what needs to be done at the second table), then again at the first, etc. You will work at each table for 3 minutes until you finish all the work."
Instructions for the first table: “On my command, you will start working at the first table. You will work for exactly 3 minutes. You will not have time to do all the work during this time, but as soon as the three minutes are up, you will get up and move to the second table. You will work there for the same amount of time ( 3 minutes) and you will return to this table again. You will find out the time by the hourglass (the child is shown how the hourglass works). You must complete the task carefully, well. If you do it poorly, the work will not be counted and you will have to do it all over again."
Instructions for the second table: “Start working. You will work for exactly 3 minutes. You won’t have time to do all the work, but after 3 minutes you will move to the first table, then you will return here. I will close the clock and you must guess yourself, without a reminder, when you overslept.” sand. You have to work carefully, exactly on time. If you do it poorly, the work will not be taken into account and you will have to start all over again." After a minute and a half, you need to remind: “Have you forgotten about the clock?”
Indicators of anxiety are working at the second table without a watch, showing anxiety at the first and second tables (looking at the clock, in a hurry).
The nature of the subject's actions and work time are recorded. The “anxious” ones include subjects who worked at the second table for less than 3 minutes; among the “carefree” ones - more than 3 minutes.
The second test is used to study intro-extroversion (Cattell's version). Material - 8 cards, one of them is a trial one.
Instructions: “I will give you a card on which different objects are drawn. You must combine them into groups according to one attribute so that the group includes as many objects as possible. Then you must explain by what attribute you combined them into one group." Picture presentation time is 45 seconds. The test picture is presented without a time limit. 10 cards are offered.
Processing: The largest group of items is highlighted on each card. The number of items in this group is counted. The indicator of extra-introversion is the number of highlighted items divided by the number of cards.
Diagnosis: introverts - 3.6 or less selected items, extroverts - 4 or more.
In diagnostic work, you can also use O. Chernikova’s tapping test (modified by A.I. Vainshtein, V.P. Zhur, L.V. Karmanova).
The teacher (psychologist) draws 6 squares on a sheet of paper. They are numbered as follows (Fig. 4):
(This is done so that the child does not lose time in the process of completing the test task when moving to work from the 3rd to the 4th square.) Before the test, children are allowed to play the game “Pour grains into the birds’ cages” several times in order to so that they develop the skill of putting dots as much as possible fast pace. Then the test itself is carried out. Each child has a sheet of paper with squares and a pencil. At the teacher’s signal, the children begin to place dots in 1 square at the maximum pace (“sprinkle grains to the bird”). At the second signal, the child proceeds without stopping to work in the second square, etc. Continuous placing of dots in each square for 10 seconds. In general, testing lasts 1 minute. The test reveals the dynamics of the child’s abilities. The teacher analyzes the data obtained for each child.
The strong type of nervous system includes children in whom there is no difference between the 1st and 6th squares or an increase in points in the 6th square is observed. A strong type of nervous system is characterized by the absence of peaks. A peak is considered to be an increase of more than 10% in the number of points in one square relative to the average number of points. The average is calculated by adding the number of dots in all 6 squares and dividing by the number of squares, i.e. 6. These indicators indicate that the child maintains high performance without significant fluctuations over a given time. A weak type of nervous system is characterized by a significant decrease in the number of points in the last squares and the presence of several peaks. This is an indicator that the period of the child’s working capacity is short and characterized by changes.
To study temperament it is also used experiment. Let us present an experimental technique developed by Yu. A. Samarin. The experiment is carried out in the form of the game "Carrying Cubes". The subject receives a small spatula, on which cubes are placed one on top of the other (3, 4, 5, etc.). The child must carry these cubes, holding a spatula in his right hand, from one table to another at a distance of 3 m, then turn 180۫ (while continuing to hold the spatula in his hand), bring the cubes back, place the spatula with the cubes on the table without dropping a single cube. For a child, this is a test of dexterity and an exciting game. For the experimenter, it does not matter how many cubes the child has carried; he records the child’s reactions to successes and failures, the strength of nervous processes and performance are taken into account (how long the child can successfully complete a task, both without the experimenter’s stimulation and with his stimulation). Based on the child’s behavior in a gaming situation, one can identify the balance of nervous processes (the extent to which the child can restrain dissatisfaction in the event of failures and not express it either in motor or speech forms). The mobility of nervous processes is also studied - how quickly the child gets involved in a given work, adapts to it, and whether there are distractions when performing a task.
Here is a description of the typical behavior of children of different temperaments during the experimental game “Carrying Cubes.”
Sanguine children are very willing to join the game and are eager to complete tasks among the first. The first failures do not bother them. They are energetic and cheerful, filled with excitement, confident of success. After 2-3 unsuccessful attempts, the excitement disappears, and with it the desire to continue the fight disappears. The child loses interest, further participation in the game seems unnecessary and pointless to him.
Choleric children are more persistent in achieving their goals. They try to achieve success for a long time and do not give up, no matter what. Failures cause irritation and aggression, but the persistent diligence of the most dexterous leads to victory, and those who have not achieved success again and again ask the experimenter to allow them one more try.
Phlegmatic children do not immediately join the game. They are calm, look closely, move slowly, do not fuss, and do not make sudden movements. They hardly pay attention to failures; they continue to make new attempts with the same diligence and concentration.
Melancholic children hesitate for a long time. They are afraid to even touch the shoulder blade. Encouraging the teacher does not relieve trembling excitement. They anticipate failure before they even get into the game. After the first failures, they leave the game without giving in to any persuasion. For many, the entire procedure ends with insurmountable embarrassment and tears.
"Tip" technique(V. A. Gorbachev).
The experimental game "Tip" has several options. In the first, the teacher, in the presence of children, hides the tip of a fountain pen in his right or left hand. Children must unclench their fist to find it. After 30-45 seconds of “resistance,” the teacher-experimenter relaxes his hand and the children master the tip. The game continues for a certain time until the children lose interest in it. The game process itself brings pleasure. Most children willingly take part in it.
Sanguine and choleric people are the most persistent and passionate. They are the first to join the game, but persistent choleric people stay in it the longest. Phlegmatic people are calm, waiting for their moment, they can give in and wait in silence. The melancholic person should be helped to get involved in the game. He is hampered by timidity and shyness; he does not strive to achieve success in such a situation.
The second option is to study the mobility of the nervous system. There is no tip in the experimenter's hand. While the children are examining the fist, he puts the tip into the pocket of one of the children. When children discover that the tip is not in the teacher’s hand, you can invite them to guess who has it. The owner of the tip must try not to give himself away, and the children must determine who has the tip by their facial expression and behavior.
When studying individual typological differences, not one, but several methods, particular techniques, are used. The data obtained in the process of testing, experiment, conversation must be compared with the results of everyday observations of preschoolers. This approach will provide a more reliable conclusion regarding the child’s temperament. It is difficult to notice all the properties of temperament at once, and age leaves an imprint on its manifestations.
The entire composition of temperamental properties does not appear in a person’s life path immediately, but unfolds in a certain sequence. It is determined both by the general patterns of maturation of higher nervous activity and the child’s psyche as a whole, and by the specific patterns of maturation of each type of nervous system. Specific age-related characteristics of the nervous system of early and preschool children include weakness of excitatory and inhibitory processes, their imbalance, very high sensitivity, and faster recovery of strength compared to adults. In this regard, during the preschool years, typological properties are more clearly revealed in representatives of the balanced, inert (phlegmatic) and weak (melancholic) types, since in them the manifestation of a type of temperament contrasts with age-related characteristics of behavior.
