Emotional well-being of a child in preschool educationmaterial on the topic

Emotional well-being of a child in preschool educationmaterial on the topic

Theoretical part

The value of the emotional component as a basic component of human life is beyond doubt. Emotions (from the Latin emovere - shock, excite) are part of the mental life of an individual, determining a person’s attitude towards the surrounding reality and himself. Emotions accompany all events occurring in life, direct the activity of all mental processes: thinking, memory, attention, speech... That is why many psychologists (L.I. Bozhovich, V.K. Vilyunas, A.V. Zaporozhets, V.P. Zinchenko , K. E. Izard, A. N. Leontyev, B. G. Meshcheryakov, N. Y. Semago, etc.) argue that the formation of a person’s emotions is the most important condition for his development as a person.

The most characteristic features of a preschool child are emotional instability, brightness, and impulsiveness in the expression of emotions, which is gradually replaced by greater adaptability. All this determines the main focus of pedagogical work with a preschooler - the emotional filling of the child’s life and assistance in understanding emotions and their regulation.

Obviously, the most important factor for a child influencing his emotional state is the environment. As a rule, the development environment in a preschool educational institution is understood as the organization of space and the use of equipment and other equipment for the purposes of safety, psychological well-being of the child, and his development. When organizing the environment of a preschool educational institution, it is necessary to focus on creating not so much a subject-developing environment (i.e., based on the meaning, developing subjects), but an emotional-developmental environment, i.e. one that promotes the versatile and full development of the child’s emotional and sensory sphere. To accomplish this task, it is necessary to determine the conditions (or components of the environment) that influence the emotional atmosphere of the preschool educational institution. These include: • the teacher’s professional attitude towards organizing an emotionally-developing environment in a preschool group – an emotionally-supporting component of the environment; • external environment (color scheme, comfort of furniture, etc.) – an emotionally tuning component of the environment; • routine moments that determine the process of a child’s stay in a kindergarten group - an emotionally stabilizing component of the environment; • variety of children's activities - games, activities, surprise moments - an emotionally activating component of the preschool environment; • and finally, a condition that is not provided for by the norms of organizing the life activities of preschool educational institutions, but is recommended by psychologists and doctors - conducting psycho-gymnastic exercises with children, or an emotional-training component of the environment. I will describe each of these conditions in more detail.

Emotionally supportive component of the environment To create an optimal emotional atmosphere in a group of young children, the teacher needs to learn to correlate the goals and objectives of his pedagogical actions with the focus on emotional development: excitement, relaxation, worry, organizing emotionally rich communication between the child and adults and others, etc. d. At the first stage - the child’s adaptation to the preschool educational institution: • establishing emotional contact with the child; • involving him in the events happening around him: “(Name), look at me”, “Come to me for a minute”, “Show the toy what it does”, etc.; • creating a positive emotional mood in a group of children in relation to the admitted child; • providing an emotionally warm atmosphere in the group; • developing a positive attitude in children, accepting the situation of being in a preschool group, etc. In the process of organizing the life activities of children over the subsequent period: • creating an atmosphere of emotional safety in the preschool group; • formation in the child of a positive image of his “I”; • encouraging children to share emotional experiences (joy, surprise, etc.) in outdoor games and fun; • development of the ability to pay attention and respond to facial expressions and gestures of an adult, his intonation; • strengthening the desire and readiness for joint activities with adults; • teaching children to address each other by name, say hello, say goodbye, show sympathy, sympathy; • development in children of skills to expressly reflect their emotional state in actions; • assistance in optimizing parent-child relationships, maintaining a good attitude towards mom, dad, loved ones, etc.

Emotionally tuning component of the environment When arranging the emotionally tuning component of the environment, the following circumstances are taken into account. The color scheme in the group should be calm for perception, but not monotonous. It is imperative to take care of the aesthetics of the environment - in the bedrooms, in the dressing room, when eating, etc. The musical background in the group is created by the corresponding music - not only the usual children's songs, but also classical works and folk music. Taking care that each child feels comfortable in the atmosphere of the kindergarten, the teacher thinks through the organization of the child’s life: is it convenient to use the locker for undressing, is the tap in the washroom not too tight, are there a variety of toys, etc. In this case, it is worth keeping two circumstances in mind. The first is the acquisition of equipment for the group that helps optimize the emotional and sensory development of the child. And the second is to review the existing interior and equipment in order to strengthen their emotional and developmental orientation. Thus, the pedagogical task of ensuring emotional relaxation and relieving emotional stress is solved in the zone of children’s motor activity, the corner of fine art activities. Carrying out the task of stimulating a child’s emotional response to a gaming activity and the desire to participate in a joint game, the teacher can use gaming motor modules, a gaming “living room”, a center for educational games, etc. Thus, an emotionally tuning environment stimulates a variety of emotions in the child and helps relieve emotional stress, since the child himself has practically no control over his state. But it is equally important that the environment gives the child a feeling of stability and security. Emotional-stabilizing component of the environment It is no coincidence that in the well-known pyramid of A. Maslow, the second level of satisfaction of basic human needs is called the need for security and protection, understood as the organization of stability, predictability of events, freedom from threats such as illness, fear and chaos. Maslow believed that the need for safety and protection is most easily observed in young children. Preschoolers experience anxiety, which turns into affects, if the situation around them changes. It is no coincidence that everyone knows the difficulties of adaptation periods for children in preschool educational institutions. A certain guarantee of satisfaction of the need for safety for a preschool child is the presence of certain routine moments. The daily routine is a certain duration and alternation of various activities, sleep, rest, regular and high-calorie meals, and compliance with personal hygiene rules. Systematic fulfillment of the necessary conditions for the proper organization of the daily routine contributes to the well-being of children, maintaining a high level of the functional state of the nervous system, and has a positive effect on the processes of growth and development of the body. At the same time, repeatability must be observed in form: the presence of routine moments - nutrition, sleep, walks, classes - but in content they must differ from each other. The degree of these differences depends on the intensity of the events taking place and on the state of the children: if the latter are excited, it is worth conducting even less impressive activities that will help reduce the growing emotional intensity. However, the presence of a regime can make a child’s stay in a preschool educational institution more than traditional, routine, then one of the most important characteristics of the emotional and developmental environment is violated - the variety of experienced emotions.

Emotionally activating component of the environment Activation of emotional states occurs when the “joy of recognition” occurs, or when encountering something new, unusual (but not frightening for the child). Most often, the emotional activation of a child’s experiences occurs in play activities. Play is the leading activity for a preschooler. It is in this activity that mental processes are actively formed or restructured, ranging from simple to the most complex; Here imagination develops as the psychological basis of creativity, making the subject capable of creating something new; The game lays the foundation for other activities. Therefore, the teacher must purposefully include games and play activities aimed at activating and optimizing the child’s emotional and sensory sphere.

These include: • games with children to accumulate emotions; • games for the child’s emotional communication with peers and adults; • games to overcome negative emotions; • games to relieve emotional stress and relaxation; • games to develop empathy in children and others. So, it is obvious that it is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of play in the development of a preschooler’s emotionality. However, as mentioned above, it is necessary to teach the child not only to experience, but also to be aware of the modality and intensity of these experiences, which brings us to the next condition of the emotional-developmental environment.

Emotional training component of the environment Psycho-gymnastics is special classes aimed at developing and correcting various aspects of the child’s psyche (his cognitive and emotional-personal spheres). These activities are especially needed for children with excessive fatigue, exhaustion, restlessness, a hot-tempered or withdrawn character, etc. But it is no less important to perform these sets of exercises with healthy children as a form of psychophysical relaxation and prevention. You also need to include a psycho-gymnastic complex on days when you are planning classes with high intellectual or psycho-emotional stress. The main goal of psychogymnastics classes is to master the skills of managing one’s emotional sphere: developing in children the ability to understand, be aware of their own and other people’s emotions, express them correctly and fully experience them. To do this, it is necessary for each teacher to solve the following methodological tasks: • fix the child’s attention on other people’s manifestations of emotions; • imitatively reproduce other people's emotions; • fix attention on your muscle sensations as manifestations of these emotions; • analyze and verbally describe muscular manifestations of emotions; • repeated reproduction of emotions in given exercises; • control of sensations. To summarize, we note the following. First of all, taking into account the time a child spends in a preschool institution, it becomes obvious that experiencing joy and inducing positive emotions in early childhood should become one of the dominant directions in organizing the life of a preschool educational institution. In addition, when creating an emotionally-developing environment in a group, the teacher must be aware of the versatility of this work and, as the determining conditions for his activity in this direction, focus on organizing in the space of the preschool educational institution emotionally-adjusting, emotionally-stabilizing, emotionally-activating and, finally, emotionally- training components of the environment. So, each stage of the child’s development as an individual and personality must be lived fully, without unjustified acceleration, so that a solid basis is laid for the next stage of development. In the preschool period in general, and in early preschool childhood in particular, it is the emotional component that is dominant and determining. Accepting this fact helps to more optimally and purposefully design the environment of a preschool institution.

Practical part.

Goal: to identify pedagogical means that stimulate the emotional development of a preschooler.

Tasks:

1. Consider the features of communication between a preschooler and adults.

2. Determine the specifics of the emotional development of a preschooler.

3. Conduct an analysis of the teacher’s communication styles with children.

Hypothesis: the emotional development of a preschooler will be a condition for the formation of a holistic personality of a preschooler when the following pedagogical conditions are created:

· The teacher’s choice of communication style that matches the child’s personal expectations.

· Taking into account the child’s emotional experiences in various situations of activity and communication with others.

· Teaching the child various means of self-expression when experiencing various emotional states.

Topics for discussion:

1. The state of the child’s health while attending kindergarten as a condition of emotional comfort/discomfort.
2. Emotional well-being of the child during the period of adaptation to kindergarten.
3. Emotional well-being of a child in a peer group (reveal the structure of relationships between children in the group, difficulties in communicating with peers, methods for studying children’s relationships).
4. The influence of the teacher’s attitude on the emotional well-being of a preschooler in a kindergarten group: features of the teacher’s emotional attitude to the child, forms of pedagogical communication, the influence of the individual style of teaching on the child’s emotional well-being.
5. Tactics of educational actions to overcome the emotional distress of a child in a kindergarten group.
6. Peculiarities of interaction between the teacher and the family in ensuring the emotional well-being of a preschool child.

Organization of the seminar

Discussion of a problem involves performing a number of tasks during the lesson (a thesis presentation of the material followed by proof of one or another theoretical position, analysis of various points of view on the problem under discussion, analysis of pedagogical situations).

Main content

1. The state of the child’s health while attending kindergarten as a condition of emotional comfort/discomfort.

The problem of the emotional well-being of children in a preschool educational institution is one of the most pressing, since a positive emotional state is one of the most important conditions for the development of a child’s personality. Modern scientific data convincingly show that the result of positive childhood experiences - trust in the world, openness, willingness to cooperate - provides the basis for positive self-realization of the growing personality.

An emotional state is a special state of consciousness, a state of subjective emotional comfort-discomfort, an integral feeling of well-being or ill-being in certain subsystems of the body or the whole organism as a whole.

Kindergarten teachers and psychologists should be aware of the impact of various types of diseases on the emotional well-being of children and inform parents about this. The attitude towards a sick child in kindergarten should be extremely favorable. It is necessary to be attentive to a child whose illness has become protracted. Children with neuropsychic health disorders require special attention.

1. Emotional well-being of the child during the period of adaptation to kindergarten.

The adaptation period proceeds differently depending on the psychophysiological and personal characteristics of the child, the nature of family relationships and upbringing, and the conditions of stay in the nursery and kindergarten. Children with a strong attachment to their mother and little social experience are the most emotionally vulnerable.

A child, coming to kindergarten, strives to fulfill the need for emotional reinforcement, which can be objective or subjective. From these positions, according to the nature of the adaptation period, three groups of children can be distinguished: “doers”, “nominators”, “maximalists”.

The end of the adaptation period can be judged after 4-6 months of the child’s stay in kindergarten.

1. Emotional well-being of a child in a peer group (reveal the structure of relationships between children in the group, difficulties in communicating with peers, methods for studying children’s relationships).

A child’s emotional well-being is largely determined by the nature of his relationships with peers. Levels of relationships in the children's group: “like-antipathy” relationships (early and junior preschool age), “business” relationships, “evaluative” relationships (second half of preschool age). Stages of status differentiation of children: “stars”, preferred”, “accepted”, “not accepted”, “isolated” (Ya. L. Kolominsky).

Positive relationships with peers shape the child’s kindness, responsiveness, sincerity, and truthfulness; conflict - alienation, rudeness, secrecy, elements of aggression.

Classification of conflicts in relationships between children and peers (A. Royak):

a) conflicts caused by the child’s insufficient development of the performing side of play activity, as well as methods of cooperation with children:

- conflicts between a child and children due to his lack of development of the required level of gaming skills and abilities;

- conflicts that arise due to the child’s lack of development of ways to cooperate with children;

- conflicts that arise as a result of the child’s insufficient development of ways to cooperate with peers and play skills (low level).

b) conflicts caused by changes in the motivational side of gaming activity:

- avoidance of contacts with peers due to insufficient development of communication motives (direct conflict is not observed in such cases);

- conflicts associated with the predominance of selfish motives in the child;

- conflicts that arise due to the fact that the child’s motives for communication in the game are crowded out by other motives and goals that are not inherent to the rest of the children in the group.

Regardless of which aspect of play activity (performing or motivational) is disrupted, the preschooler “suffers” trouble among his peers.

In order to determine the emotional well-being of a child, it is necessary not only to identify the external picture of the relationships between children in the group, but also to record the meaningful side of the relationships.

Methods for studying children's relationships: systematic observations of children in conditions of communication and joint activities, creating problem situations; variants of the sociometric method: the game “Secret”, “Sticks”, sociometric conversation, the situation “choice in action”, the method of one-time slices, the “Two Houses”, “Captain of the Ship” methods; expert assessments of educators.

1. The influence of the teacher’s attitude on the emotional well-being of a preschooler in a kindergarten group: features of the teacher’s emotional attitude to the child, forms of pedagogical communication, the influence of the individual style of teaching on the child’s emotional well-being.

In a preschool educational institution, the teacher’s attitude towards him is of exceptional importance for the child’s emotional well-being. The teacher’s attitude towards the child is a system of various feelings towards the child, behavioral stereotypes, peculiarities of understanding and perception of the child’s character, his actions.

Components of an emotional attitude towards children: the actions of the teacher, the general emotional background in the work of the teacher, the characteristics of accepting the child, the presence and nature of the distance between the teacher and the child.

Violations of the relationship between a child and an adult, inattention, negative influence on the part of an adult - have a negative impact on the nervous system of preschoolers, causing in some rudeness and aggressiveness towards others, in others - isolation, unsociability, and a decrease in general tone.

The most favorable for the emotional development of children and the formation of their activity, positive experience of experiences is the democratic style of pedagogical activity, based on the child’s needs for positive emotions and claims for recognition.

1. Tactics of educational actions to overcome the emotional distress of a child in a kindergarten group.

In each specific situation, the teacher needs to understand the cause of the child’s emotional discomfort and choose the form of communication with him that is adequate to the child’s type of behavior and unmet need (V. Lisina):

- if children strive to be as close as possible to the teacher, it is necessary to choose a direct emotional form of communication and gradually move to a situational business form;

- children who want to communicate at any cost with group leaders need personal and business communication with the teacher;

- for children who are unable to establish long-term contact with peers in the presence of a friendly attitude towards them, a business form of communication, assistance in establishing contacts with peers, approval is preferable;

- if children do not feel the need to communicate with adults and peers, a personal form of communication is preferable (emphasizing interests, attention to successes).

The main directions of providing assistance to a preschooler in kindergarten (G. Figdor): providing assistance in experiencing separation from his mother; in building independent internal relationships; in expressing feelings in games, drawings, words; in acquiring confidence in one’s gender and cultural identification.

Rules for helping anxious children: avoid competition; don't compare; accept a child; express confidence in the child’s success; address by name; demonstrate examples of confident behavior; develop the child’s confidence and independence; do not make high demands; Use punishment as a last resort.

Rules for helping aggressive children: teach children ways to express anger in an acceptable form; teach children self-regulation techniques; practice communication skills in possible conflict situations; build empathy. Ways to control a child’s behavior: positive - requests, gentle physical manipulation; neutral - behavior modification (reward and punishment).

1. Peculiarities of interaction between the teacher and the family in ensuring the emotional well-being of a preschool child.

Working with parents, the teacher is interested in: the child’s position in the family; the attitude of close people towards him; relationships characteristic of adults in a given family; the prevailing mood when family members communicate with each other; content of the child’s communication with adults. The teacher tactfully draws parents' attention to the children's physical disabilities, which can make it difficult to communicate with peers and lead to the development of isolated behavior; pays great attention to the peculiarities of the neuropsychic development of children, their emotional individual characteristics.

Considering the existing dependence of the child’s one-way type of communication with peers on the value orientations of parents, the teacher should draw their attention to the significance of the child’s interaction with peers, since the child’s inability to communicate with peers leads to the underdevelopment of his emotional and moral foundations of social behavior.

The teacher needs to evoke and support a sensitive emotional attitude of parents towards the child, awaken interest in his inner world, emphasize his merits, the importance of warmth and meaningful communication with him. Working with a family, the educator invites parents to get to know their child, develop him comprehensively, and purposefully and systematically educate his emotions and feelings.

Analysis of pedagogical situations: indicate the cause of the child’s emotional discomfort, the most adequate tactics of the teacher’s behavior.

Situation No. 1. Boys are building multi-story garages from large cubes and blocks. Kolya has poor construction skills and his garage is destroyed. He is embarrassed and upset, but again gets down to business - and again fails. Now there is annoyance on his face. The other boys start laughing at him. Kolya lowers his head, collects the scattered cubes... The teacher approaches the child and, smiling, says: “Is something not working out for you today? Try again". Kolya, already with caution, takes up the construction again, but after a few minutes it crumbles again. The boys laugh loudly. Kolya, crying, destroys their garages. A fight breaks out. The teacher, after listening to the boys' explanations, irritably tells Kolya that he is dissatisfied with him and sits him on a chair. Kolya clearly looks unkindly at the teacher and the children and remains aggressive until the end of the day (Lisina V. On the influence of pedagogical communication on the emotional well-being of a preschooler // Preschool education. - 1994. - No. 3. - P. 5).

Situation No. 2. The teacher invited the children to listen to a fairy tale. Vanya, who sympathized with Seryozha, wanted to sit next to him, but he did not let him. Vanya tried to put his chair next to Serezhin on the other side, but he pushed him away again. The teacher, looking sternly at both, demanded an explanation. Vanya, with tears in his eyes, said that he wanted to sit next to Seryozha, but he wouldn’t let him. Seryozha replied with irritation that he wanted Misha to sit next to him. The teacher invited Vanya to sit in another place, but then one of the children called him, he was distracted, and Vanya again tried to put his chair next to Seryozha. A fight started, Vanya began to cry. The teacher forcibly put him in another place. Until the end of the day, the boy was restless and aggressive towards all the children (Lisina V. On the influence of pedagogical communication on the emotional well-being of a preschooler // Preschool education. - 1994. - No. 3. - P. 6).

Conclusions:

Ensuring the psychological comfort of children in preschool educational institutions is one of the most important tasks of the teaching staff. The effectiveness of teaching activities, the development of knowledge, skills and abilities in children, which contribute to further success in school education, largely depend on this. All changes in cognitive activity that occur throughout childhood must be associated with profound changes in the motivational and volitional sphere of the child’s personality. Education involves not only teaching children a certain system of knowledge, skills and abilities, but also the formation of an emotional attitude towards the activity performed and the people around them. The effectiveness of raising and educating children in preschool educational institutions, their psychological well-being depends on what feelings are evoked by this or that activity, routine moment, situation, how the child experiences his successes and failures, and the attitude of adults and peers towards him. Emotions affect all components of cognition: sensation, perception, imagination, memory and thinking.

To ensure the psychological comfort of a child in a preschool educational institution, his mental health, a balance of emotions is necessary, therefore it is important to introduce children to the emotional world of a person. Currently, not enough attention is paid to the development of the child’s emotional sphere, especially in comparison with intellectual development. When cultivating emotions, it is important not only to teach children to stimulate themselves in the process of volitional action with the help of positive emotions, but also not to be afraid of negative ones that inevitably arise in the process of activity and creativity, because it is impossible to imagine any activity without failures and mistakes. Frequently occurring negative situations, inattentive people around, and inability to cope with the problem that has arisen lead to disruption of the child’s emotional state and internal discomfort. And if you do not pay attention to the problems that have arisen in time, this can lead not only to a reluctance to attend a preschool educational institution, but also to deviations in the child’s personal sphere and disruption of social contacts. Since the child spends most of his time in kindergarten, we need to ensure their psychological comfort. When building the educational process, it is important to take into account the individual characteristics of children and age-related capabilities. When communicating and interacting with children, it is advisable to follow the rule of the three “Ps”: - Understanding – the ability to see the child “from the inside”, to look at the world simultaneously from two points of view - your own and the child’s, to see the motivations that drive children. — Acceptance is an unconditional positive attitude towards the child and his individuality, regardless of whether he is happy at the moment or not. “I treat you well, whether you succeed or not.” — Recognition is, first of all, the child’s right in solving certain problems. The child should have the feeling that he is the one who chooses.

Following the above rules, the coordinated functioning of the development of the emotional sphere and intellectual development will ensure the psychological comfort of the child in the preschool educational institution, and therefore his full development.

Main literature

1. Belkina V. N. Psychology of early and preschool age. - M., 2005.
2. Belkina V. N. Psychology and pedagogy of social contacts. - Yaroslavl, 2004. Ch. 2. Interaction of children in terms of their communication with peers. Ch. 4. Relationships between children and peers as one of the important aspects of their interaction.
3. Karelina I. O. The problem of the emotional well-being of a child during childhood // Towards the wisdom of the stage: materials of the international conference “Ushinsky Readings” of the pedagogical faculty of Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University. - Yaroslavl: Publishing House YAGPU im. K. D. Ushinsky, 2008. - P. 351-358.
4. Karelina I. O. Psychological and pedagogical conditions for the development of children’s perception, understanding and verbalization of emotional states. — Yaroslavl, 2008 (style features of interaction between an adult and a child).
5. Kosheleva A. D. et al. Emotional development of preschool children / Ed. O. A. Shagraeva, S. A. Kozlova. - M., 2003. Ch. 2. Emotional well-being of the child in kindergarten.
6. Emotional development of a preschool child / Ed. A. D. Kosheleva. - M., 1985. Section: features of the work of a teacher with families of emotionally dysfunctional children.
7. Yudina E. G. Pedagogical diagnostics in kindergarten / E. G. Yudina, G. B. Stepanova, E. N. Denisova. - M., 2002. Ch. 3. Emotional states of a preschool child and their pedagogical assessment. — P. 83-85 (studying the relationships of preschool children); — P. 85-90 (helping a child overcome a negative emotional state).

“The influence of the family atmosphere on the emotional state of a preschooler”

«Family - the third wheel

“This family arises in cases where the personal characteristics of the spouses and the style of their relationships are of particular importance to them; parenthood is unconsciously perceived as an obstacle to marital happiness. This usually occurs when one or both parents are psychologically immature, when they are unprepared to perform parental functions. Then a style of relationship with the child is formed according to the type of hidden rejection. Cases of rivalry between a still young mother and a growing daughter, unconscious struggle and competition for the love and affection of a fairly young father, are not so rare for such families.

In such families, parents often tend to instill in their children a feeling of inferiority; the children's attention is constantly fixed only on shortcomings and imperfections. This leads to the child developing self-doubt, lack of initiative, fixation on weaknesses, and low self-esteem. Children growing up in such families are characterized by painful experiences of their own inferiority with increased dependence on their parents and subordination to them. The increasing dependence of children burdens parents, which provokes an increase in their hidden rejection of their children.

«Family with an idol

“This type of family resembles the “sanatorium family” type. Only here it is not the anxiety of one of the parents about the other parent or child that dominates, but the overprotection of the child himself, who is by no means suffering from a lack of health. Relationships between family members lead to the creation of a “family idol,” when raising a child is the only thing that holds marital relationships together, when caring for a child turns into the only force that can keep parents together.

Parents show exaggerated attention to the child and transfer their own unrealized feelings onto him. The child himself turns out to be the object of parents’ high expectations. Many of his actions are perceived without due criticism, the slightest whims are immediately satisfied. Real and imaginary advantages are exaggerated, as is any, even the most minor, ailment of the child. He is brought up in pampering, caressing, with universal admiration and tenderness.

The child grows up dependent and inactive. Children growing up in such families are characterized by painful experiences of their own inferiority with increased dependence on their parents and subordination to them. The increasing dependence of children burdens parents, which provokes an increase in their hidden rejection of their children.

«Masquerade family

“The inconsistency of the life goals and plans of the spouses gives rise to a type of family that can be given the metaphorical name “masquerade.” “Serving different gods,” parents place the child in a situation of different demands and inconsistent assessments. Education becomes inconsistent, the world for the child is filled with a mass of insoluble contradictions. The flickering of “masks” increases the feeling of anxiety. The inconsistency of the parents’ actions, their obvious inconsistency and unhealthy competition, for example, the inappropriately high demands of the father and, as a counteraction to it, the overprotection and forgiveness of the mother, give rise to confusion in the child, the beginnings of a split in his personality. Inflated claims coupled with insufficient capacity for volitional efforts contribute to the emergence of internal conflict and stagnant centers of nervous overexcitation.

Article. Emotional states of children in preschool settings.

Article. Emotional states of children in preschool settings

Emotions play an important role in a child's life, especially at an early age. They help the child adapt to a particular situation. Emotions are situational and have no motivational basis. They are more related to a person’s reactivity than to his activity. Activity is purposeful behavior mediated by a person’s desires, needs, and aspirations. Reactivity is an immediate reaction to a situation or stimulus.

There is also a “unifying” category - emotional states. Emotional states are such mental states of an individual that are associated with stable experiences of the individual, influencing his thoughts, actions and the general nature of behavior and relationships with people.

When studying emotional phenomena, psychologists divide them depending on the place they occupy in the regulation of behavior and activity. The first group includes moods - more or less long-term emotional states that form the initial background of life. The second is feelings - relatively stable human experiences that have a motivational basis and are associated with the satisfaction of needs. The third group includes emotions themselves - subjective reactions of humans and animals to the influence of internal and external stimuli, manifested in the form of pleasure or displeasure, joy, fear, etc. Thus, unlike emotions, feelings are more stable.

Children 3-5 years old are already able to recognize their internal emotional state, the emotional state of their peers and express their attitude towards them. Thanks to this, emotions are involved in the formation of social interactions and attachments. Emotions contribute to social and moral development. Emotions are the source of joy and suffering, and life is impossible without emotions, without emotional experiences. Research by many scientists (T.A. Danilina, V.Ya. Zedgenidze, V.A. Kozhevnikova) has shown that for our prosperous existence it is necessary that three types of stimuli act on the brain: those that cause positive emotions (35%), those that cause negative emotions (5%), emotionally neutral, or ballast (60%).

From the first days of life, a child is faced with the diversity of the surrounding world: people, objects, events. Parents not only introduce the baby to everything that surrounds him, but always in one form or another express their attitude towards things and phenomena with the help of intonations, facial expressions, gestures, and speech. Getting acquainted with the various properties and qualities of things, a small child also receives some standards of relationships and human values: some objects, actions, and actions acquire the sign of being desirable, pleasant, while others, on the contrary, are rejected. Thus, while learning about the world around us, a child already in early childhood exhibits a pronounced, subjective, selective attitude towards objects.

A.I. Barkan describes the process of adaptation of a young child to kindergarten in the following way: “The adaptation of a child to a preschool institution is usually difficult with a lot of negative changes in the child’s body. These shifts occur at all levels, in all systems. Parents usually only see the tip of the iceberg, and it is the child's behavior that often leads to confusion. But changes occur both in the body and in the soul of the child. In a children's group, the baby is constantly, as if under a current of strong neuropsychic stress, which does not stop for a minute. He is on the verge of stress or fully experiencing stress. Stress provokes the child's separation from his mother. After all, the baby is inextricably linked with the mother; for a long time, only with the help of the mother did the child receive everything necessary for life.

And suddenly... his mother betrayed him. I took it and “exchanged” it for work. His beloved, his unique and most beautiful mother in the world found some kind of work for herself and left him to the mercy of fate among a terrible new situation and children previously unknown to him, who do not care about him. The child does not know how to behave in this new environment, because everything here is not the same as at home. But he does not know this new form of behavior and suffers from it, fearing that he will do something wrong. And fear maintains stress, and a vicious circle is formed, which, unlike all other circles, has an exact beginning - separation from the mother, separation from the mother, doubts about her love.

Social psychologists and teachers (A.I. Barkan, G. Stepanova) identified signs of a child’s stressful state. They may appear:

- difficulty falling asleep and restless sleep;

- in fatigue after a load that recently did not tire him;

- in causeless touchiness, tearfulness or, conversely, increased aggressiveness;

- absent-minded, inattentive;

- restlessness and restlessness;

- lack of self-confidence, which is expressed in the fact that the child increasingly seeks approval from adults and literally clings to them;

- showing stubbornness;

- that he constantly sucks a pacifier, finger or chews something, eats too greedily indiscriminately, swallowing food (sometimes, on the contrary, there is a persistent disturbance of appetite);

- fear of contacts, desire for solitude, refusal to participate in games of peers (often the child wanders aimlessly around the group, unable to find something to do);

- playing with the genitals;

- twitching of shoulders, shaking of head, trembling of hands;

- loss of body weight or, on the contrary, symptoms of obesity beginning to appear;

- increased anxiety;

- in daytime and nighttime urinary incontinence, which had not previously been observed, and in some other phenomena.

So: separation - fear - stress - failure of adaptation - illness... But all this is usually characteristic of a child with severe or unfavorable adaptation to kindergarten. Very often, such adaptation leads to neuroses, which are much more difficult to cure.

A.I. Barkan painted an emotional portrait of a child entering a regular kindergarten for the first time. It is dominated by negative emotions, although, of course, there are also positive ones.

Negative emotions Usually their manifestations are different: from barely perceptible to depression, reminiscent of captivity. Quite often, children express their negative emotions with a palette of crying: from whimpering to constant roaring. But the most informative is paroxysmal crying, indicating that, at least for a while, all negative emotions in the baby suddenly recede into the background due to the fact that they are pushed aside by positive ones. But, unfortunately, all this is only temporary. Most often during the indicative reaction, when the baby is at the mercy of novelty.

The palette of crying also includes “crying for company”, with which your child, already almost adapted to the kindergarten, supports the “newcomers” who have come to the group, and makes up a “crying duet” or simply sings along in the choir. Usually, the longest-lasting negative emotion in a child is the so-called whining, with which he seeks to express protest when parting with his parents, who are running off to work.

Fear This is a common companion of negative emotions. It is unlikely that you will be able to meet a child who has not experienced it at least once during adaptation to kindergarten. After all, a child, coming to a children’s group for the first time, only sees in everything a hidden threat to his existence in the world. Therefore, he is afraid of many things, and fear literally follows him on his heels, nesting in him. The baby is afraid of an unknown situation and meeting unfamiliar children, the baby is afraid of new teachers, and most importantly, that you will forget about him when you leave the kindergarten for work.

Anger Sometimes, against a background of stress, a child’s anger flares up and breaks out, written literally on the face. At such a moment, the child is ready to furiously rush at the offender, defending his innocence.

During the adaptation period, the child is like an “Achilles heel” and is therefore so vulnerable that anything can serve as a reason for anger. Therefore, anger and the aggression it engenders can flare up even if there is no spark, as if there were a powder keg inside the child himself.

Positive emotions They act as a counterbalance to all negative emotions and the main switch for them. Usually in the first days of adaptation they do not appear at all or are slightly expressed at those moments when the “charm of novelty” affects the child. The easier a child adapts, the sooner positive emotions appear, signaling the completion of his adaptation process. Joy is especially favorable. In general, a smile and a cheerful laugh are perhaps the main “medicines” that cure most of the negative changes in the adaptation period.

One of the problems that is solved in a preschool institution is the problem of children’s adaptation. As mentioned earlier, during the adaptation period the child experiences a reworking of previously formed dynamic stereotypes and, in addition to immune and physiological withdrawal, psychological barriers are overcome. Stress can cause a defensive reaction in a child in the form of refusal to eat, sleep, communicate with others, withdraw into oneself, etc. For the optimal adaptation period, the child’s transition from family to preschool institution must be made as smooth as possible.

The child’s emotional problems require resolution in the very first days of his stay in the group. The future life of the child, and not only in kindergarten, depends on the success of the teacher’s activities in this direction. Negative adaptation experiences can also play a negative role in the first grade of school.

Thus, creating a psychological atmosphere in children's groups. It is one of the main components of the successful adaptation of younger preschoolers to kindergarten.