Features of the emotional sphere of a preschool child

Features of the emotional development of a preschool child

The problem of our time is that many children have problems in emotional development, namely, they do not know how to respond to the feelings and states of others, and react inadequately to many things. Today, a child’s best friends are a TV and a computer, a smartphone and a tablet, and his favorite activities are watching cartoons and computer games. As a result of this lifestyle, children communicate less with both adults and peers; Preschoolers are not attentive and insensitive to others, they do not know how to control and show emotions appropriately. But communication significantly enriches life, making it bright, filled with emotions and impressions.

The preschool period is a fairly short period of human life. Therefore, it is important to lay good personality foundations at this time. Equally important is the emotional development of the child, which has its own special characteristics.

When a child is 1-3 years old, his emotional sphere is characterized by:

lack of empathy
characteristic emotional reactions associated with his desires
inability to choose and make decisions
egocentrism
the emergence of self-awareness (the baby begins to recognize his reflection in the mirror, respond to his name, tries to be independent, begins to use the pronoun “I”
high self-esteem (I am good)
inability to see the consequences of actions
the importance for the child of an adult’s assessment and reaction.

At the age of 4-6 years, the emotional sphere of the child is characterized by:

a calmer emotional background of perception
manifestation of emotions along the chain “desire, idea, action, emotion”
more controlled emotional processes
development of emotional anticipation (the child tries to anticipate the future result and how it will be evaluated)
the appearance of affective reactions
the emergence of new motives for activity
the ability to evaluate one's behavior.

A 4-5 year old child is a small person with a fairly diverse range of emotions. His feelings and experiences are connected, to a large extent, with the atmosphere in the family circle. New skills and interests contribute to the emergence of a whole range of different emotions of the child, as well as needs and motives. A preschooler's range of emotions and feelings gradually becomes more complex: he can already feel not only joy or fear, but also jealousy, sadness, pity, anger, cheerfulness, tenderness, shyness, surprise, pleasure, etc. A preschooler can already express feelings using different intonation and facial expressions.

Features of the development of the emotional sphere of preschool children:

they still cannot control their emotions and experiences
they master social forms of expressing feelings
their feelings and emotions become more reasonable and voluntary
preschoolers begin to develop higher feelings (aesthetic, moral, intellectual).

Watch a video about the importance of emotional and sensory education of a person

If you want to find out to what extent your child has developed certain emotions and feelings, we recommend that you resort to methods for diagnosing the child’s emotional sphere.

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

Features of the development of the emotional sphere of preschool children

Preschool childhood is a very short period in a person’s life, only the first seven years. But they have lasting significance. During this period, development is more rapid and rapid than ever. From a completely helpless being who can do nothing, the baby turns into a relatively independent, active person. All aspects of the child’s psyche receive a certain development, thereby laying the foundation for further growth. One of the main directions of mental development in preschool age is the formation of the foundations of personality.

The emotional life of a preschooler becomes more complicated: the content of emotions is enriched, higher feelings are formed. A small child does not know how to control emotions. His feelings arise quickly and disappear just as quickly. With the development of the emotional sphere in a preschooler, feelings become more rational and subordinate to thinking. But this happens when the child learns moral standards and correlates his actions with them.

The development of the emotional sphere is facilitated by all types of child activities and communication with adults and peers.

A preschooler learns to understand not only his own feelings, but also the experiences of other people. He begins to distinguish emotional states by their external manifestation, through facial expressions and pantomime. A child can empathize, sympathize with a literary character, act out, convey various emotional states in a role-playing game.

Emotion as a process is the activity of evaluating information entering the brain about the external and internal world. Emotion evaluates reality and communicates its assessment to the body in the language of experiences. Emotions are difficult to regulate by will; they are difficult to evoke at will. [3]

The emotional process has three main components:

The first is emotional arousal, which determines mobilization shifts in the body. In all cases, when an event that is significant for an individual occurs, and such an event is stated in the form of an emotional process, there is an increase in excitability, speed and intensity of mental, motor and vegetative processes. In some cases, under the influence of such events, excitability may, on the contrary, decrease.

The second component is the sign of emotion: a positive emotion occurs when an event is assessed as positive, a negative emotion - when it is assessed as negative. A positive emotion encourages actions to support a positive event, a negative emotion encourages actions aimed at eliminating contact with a negative event.

The third component is the degree of emotion control. It is necessary to distinguish between two states of strong emotional arousal: affects (fear, anger, joy), in which orientation and control are still preserved, and extreme excitement (panic, horror, rage, ecstasy, complete despair), when orientation and control are practically impossible. [5]

Emotional arousal can also take the form of emotional tension, which occurs in all cases where there is a strong tendency towards certain actions. But this tendency is blocked (for example, in situations that cause fear, but exclude flight, cause anger, but make it impossible to express it, excite desires, but prevent their implementation, cause joy, but require maintaining seriousness, etc.).

A negative emotion disorganizes the activity that leads to its occurrence, but it organizes actions aimed at reducing or eliminating harmful effects.

Another source of emotional processes are anticipations: signals of pain, severe and prolonged deprivation, causing fear; signals of possible need dissatisfaction, causing anger; signals of satisfaction of needs that cause hope; signals that anticipate an uncertain, new event, causing curiosity.

The adult helps the child create the necessary positive image of a future event.

The physical and speech development of a child is accompanied by changes in the emotional sphere. His views on the world and relationships with others change. A child's ability to recognize and control their emotions increases as does their understanding of behavior, for example in areas where adults' opinions about what constitutes “bad” and “good” behavior are important. [1] Adults need to have a good idea of what to expect from children, otherwise incorrect assessments will appear that do not take into account the age characteristics of the child. The ideal attitude of an adult towards a child is a gradual adjustment to the emotional development and formation of the child’s personality.

By the age of three, a child’s emotional development reaches such a level that he can behave in an exemplary manner. Just because children are capable of so-called “good” behavior does not mean that it will always be that way.

Children often display dissatisfaction in the form of tears, hysterics and screaming. Although tantrums are not as common for older people as for younger ones, their sense of self and desire for independence are strong. If a four-year-old child argues using speech, there is no need for him to become hysterical. But if the adult does not answer the child’s question: “Why should I?” - then a breakdown may occur. If a four-year-old child is very tired or has had a stressful day, his behavior will be more likely to resemble that of a younger child. This is a signal to the adult that at the moment the child has too much to bear. He needs affection, comfort and the opportunity to act for a while as if he were younger.

A preschooler's feelings are involuntary. They flare up quickly, are brightly expressed and quickly fade away. Stormy fun often gives way to tears.

The whole life of a child of early and preschool age is subject to his feelings. He still cannot control his experiences. Therefore, children are much more susceptible to mood swings than adults. They are easy to amuse, but even easier to upset or offend, since they have almost no self-knowledge and do not know how to control themselves. That is why they are able to experience a whole range of feelings and emotions in an unusually short period of time. A child who is rolling on the floor laughing may suddenly burst into tears or despair, and a minute later, with still wet eyes, laugh contagiously again. This kind of behavior in children is completely normal.

Plus, they have good days and bad days. A child can be calm and thoughtful today or capricious and whining, and the next day he can be lively and cheerful. Sometimes we can explain his bad mood by fatigue, disappointments in kindergarten, malaise, jealousy of his younger brother, etc. In other words, his long-term bad mood is caused by an anxious state due to some specific circumstance, and although we try our best to help the child get rid of it, it often happens that the baby’s feelings cause complete bewilderment.

If the bad mood does not last long - for example, for several days - and does not cross any boundaries, there is no need to worry. But if a child is in a depressed mood for a very long time or sudden and unexpected changes occur, a consultation with a psychologist is needed.

But in most cases, it is better not to attach too much importance to the child’s mood changes, which will allow him to independently gain emotional stability.

A child’s mood largely depends on relationships with adults and peers.

If adults are attentive to the child and respect him as an individual, then he experiences emotional well-being. The child’s positive qualities and friendly attitude towards other people are revealed and reinforced.

If adults bring grief to a child, then he acutely experiences a feeling of dissatisfaction, transferring, in turn, a negative attitude to the people around him and his toys.

With the development of the emotional sphere of a preschooler, the subjective attitude is gradually separated from the object of experience. [4]

The development of a child’s emotions and feelings is associated with certain social situations. A disruption to the usual situation (a change in the child’s routine or way of life) can lead to the appearance of affective reactions, as well as fear. Failure to satisfy (suppress) new needs in a child during a crisis period can cause a state of frustration. Frustration manifests itself as aggression (anger, rage, desire to attack the enemy) or depression (passive state).

When a child begins to draw himself in difficult situations or simply draws terrible dreams, this is a signal of a dysfunctional emotional state.

Emotions and feelings are formed in the process of a child’s communication with peers.

Certain aspects of the psyche of children at different age stages are unequally sensitive to the conditions of upbringing. The younger the child and the greater his helplessness, the more significant his dependence on the conditions in which he is brought up is revealed.

With insufficient emotional contacts, there may be a delay in emotional development, which can last a lifetime.

Relationships with other people and their actions are the most important source of a preschooler’s feelings: joy, tenderness, sympathy, anger and other experiences.

The feelings that arise in a child in relation to other people are easily transferred to the characters of fiction - fairy tales, stories. Experiences can also arise in relation to animals, toys, and plants.

In a family, a child has the opportunity to experience a whole range of experiences. Friendly relationships are very important.

Improper communication in the family can lead to:

to one-sided attachment, often to the mother. At the same time, the need to communicate with peers weakens
to jealousy when a second child appears in the family, if the first child feels deprived
to fear when adults express despair at the slightest reason that threatens the child. And in an unusual situation, anxiety may arise. Fear can be instilled in a child. For example, fear of the dark. If a child is afraid of the dark, then the darkness itself will frighten him. [2]

An adult needs to help identify and understand the child’s own states and experiences. As a rule, preschoolers, especially those growing up with a lack of personal communication, do not notice their moods, feelings, and experiences. An adult can highlight these experiences for the child and prompt them.

Depending on the current situation, any qualitatively diverse feelings and emotions (love, hatred, joy, anger) can be positive, negative, or indicative.

In general, children have an optimistic attitude towards life situations. They are characterized by a cheerful, cheerful mood.

Education through emotional influence is a very delicate process. The main task is not to suppress and eradicate emotions, but to channel them appropriately. True feelings - experiences - are the fruit of life. They do not lend themselves to arbitrary formation, but arise, live and die depending on the relationship to the environment that changes during a person’s activity. It is impossible, and not necessary, to completely protect a child from negative experiences. Their occurrence in children’s activities can also play a positive role, encouraging them to overcome them.

Emotions and feelings are difficult to regulate by will. It is useful for adults to remember this when faced with unwanted or unexpected children's emotions. It is better not to evaluate the child’s feelings in such acute situations - this will only lead to misunderstanding or negativism. You cannot demand that a child not experience what he experiences and feels; You can only limit the form of manifestation of his negative emotions. [3]

If you begin to develop the emotional sphere in childhood, develop and train the ability to foresee, take responsibility and manage your actions, then in adulthood you can achieve greater agreement and perfection in managing yourself.

Bibliography

Averin V.A. Psychology of children and adolescents / M.: Pedagogika, 2004. – 25 p.
Belkina V.N. Psychology of early and preschool childhood / M.: Academy 2006. – 18 p.
Zakharov A.I. Psychotherapy for children and adolescents / M.: Linka-Press, 2007. – 20 p.
Dubrovina I.V. Practical psychology of education / M.: Pedagogika, 2008. -12 p.
Zenkovsky V.V. Psychology of childhood. Ekaterinburg, 2011. -87 p.

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Diagnostics

Basic diagnostic methods for the emotional sphere of children:

testing
observation
survey
conversation
survey
analysis of samples of children's creativity (drawings).

When observing a preschooler, pay attention to factors such as emotional background, mood, degree of expression of emotions, level of emotional mobility. By observing, you can easily notice how rich the child’s emotional background is, whether the child knows how to control his emotions, and whether he is characterized by emotional instability.

Using one of the diagnostic methods or in combination, you can find out:

How adequate is the preschooler’s reaction to phenomena?
how he perceives and interprets the states and moods of other people
the breadth of the range of emotions that the child understands and experiences, the depth of his experiences, ways of conveying emotions through speech;
Is it appropriate to display emotions during communication?

These methods can be used by both professional child psychologists and kindergarten teachers.

Rules of emotional education

Emotional education of a child does not require large physical and time expenditures. You just need to follow some rules.

1. Voluntariness of expression. Teach your child to show his emotions, name them, and understand his feelings. This is especially important for young children who need to let out everything that has accumulated inside. Discuss his feelings with your child, giving him the opportunity to cope with the emotions that arise on his own.

2. The power of expression. Older children should learn to control their emotions: laugh quietly, collect their thoughts, restrain anger, cope with excitement. Teach your children simple self-control skills and monitor your own behavior.

3. Empathy. Children should not be indifferent. If your child does not worry about cartoon characters or other people, then he needs to be taught empathy. Ask him how he feels, whether he feels sorry for the hero, whether the child wanted to help. Discuss life situations with your child. Offer to describe the feelings and sensations of the participants in the events. Think about how you can show your concern towards another person: congratulate, express sympathy, help in something. Free your children from envy and gloating from childhood, this will make them happy

Empathy in children

The most important component of the emotional development of a preschool child is the development of empathy, namely the ability to sympathize and understand the experiences and emotions of other people. A child who has developed empathy will always put himself in the position of this or that person and offer him his help.

"This is interesting. The author of the theory of emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman, is convinced that success in life depends not only on the level of intelligence, but also on a good ability to manage one’s own emotions. And by understanding one’s own emotions, a person will feel and be aware of the emotions of others.”

Forming empathy in a preschooler is the key to successful schooling, easy socialization, and problem-free communication. If only for this reason, parents should definitely pay attention to the development of empathy along with the development of the child’s intellectual, communication, cognitive, creative and other abilities.

Tips for developing empathy:

Create a warm atmosphere in the family where love and mutual understanding will reign.
Discuss different life situations with your child.
Introduce your child to the principles of existence in society.
Explain how to properly deal with people in different situations.
Explain what consequences this or that behavior of people may have.
Develop positive social character traits in your child: optimism, trust, forgiveness, solidarity.
Teach your child to do useful things and help others. Don't forget about praise.
Empathize with the child, communicate with him about how he feels.
Develop your child emotionally: discuss thematic images and photographs, depict emotions in front of the mirror, play emotional games.
Be a role model for your child: adhere to the same principles that you teach your child.

Features of the organization of the pedagogical process in a preschool institution

Preschool age is a bright, unique page in the life of every person. At this time, the process of socialization begins, which establishes the child’s connection with the leading spheres of life: the human world, nature and the material world. The child is introduced to culture and universal values. The child lays the foundation for his health. Preschool childhood is the time of the first formation of personality, the formation of the foundations of self-confidence and individuality of the child.

The goal of such upbringing is not to accelerate the child’s development as much as possible, not to force the timing and pace of his transition to the “rails” of school age, but, first of all, to create conditions for the fullest development of the age-related capabilities and abilities of each preschooler.

In preschool age, the process of cognition occurs in the child in an emotional and practical form. Every preschool child is a little explorer who explores the world around him with joy and surprise. The child strives to be active, and it is important not to let this desire fade in order to promote his further development. The more complete and varied the child’s activity, the more significant it is for him and corresponds to his nature, the more successful his development, the more his potential and initial creative development are realized.

It is rightly noted that the main task of the educator is to fill the daily life of preschoolers with interesting activities, problems and ideas, to involve each child in meaningful activities, to promote the realization of children’s interests and their vital activity. By organizing children's activities, the teacher develops in each child the desire to take initiative and find a reasonable and worthy way out of various life situations.

When organizing the pedagogical process in kindergarten, the question of the specifics of pedagogical and educational work with preschool children is of great importance.

Preschool education contains tasks that have not only educational, but also pedagogical value. These tasks include the formation of correct ideas about the world around us, the development of language, arithmetic and the acquisition of drawing, modeling skills, etc.

A significant number of forms and resources have been developed for pedagogical work with preschoolers, including activities, didactic games and materials. Each of these resources has different capabilities in terms of educational and educational tasks.

Preschool pedagogy selectively approaches the means of educational work with children, in accordance with the tasks of the kindergarten, based on the requirements of active management of the development of each child to ensure a high level of comprehensive development of all children in kindergarten.

Among the means of educational work in a preschool institution, teaching has a great advantage, since it provides an organized teaching role for an adult, which makes teaching very effective.

Teaching applied to a range of educational contents, namely: environmental studies, language learning, development of mathematical concepts, musical skills, movement development, drawing, sculpting and so on, has a profound educational impact on children, develops their abilities and interests, expands horizons, enriches skills in various activities and improves attention. Education makes it possible to raise the development of all children in a group to a higher level and significantly contributes to mitigating the uneven development of children observed in practice.

Emotional impact

The secret of raising a preschooler with the help of emotional influence is not to suppress the child’s emotions, but to direct them in the right direction.

If a child attends kindergarten, then his emotional development will be more effective, since he will be in the company of peers and, together with them, comprehend new things, learn to communicate with them.

Work on the emotional improvement of preschoolers should be carried out in two directions:

developing the ability to recognize and compare emotions: fun, boring, sad, calm, scary, interesting, etc.
developing the ability to correctly express emotions and identify the emotions experienced by others.

The emotional impact on the child is carried out by the following means:

role-playing games
psycho-gymnastic games
outdoor games
communication games
games and tasks to develop arbitrariness
games for developing imagination
game exercises
mimic sketches
listening to music and discussing it
reading fairy tales and stories
acquaintance with painting.

During classes, the child will experience different emotional states, will try to talk about what he feels, will get acquainted with the experiences of the same children, thanks to which he will begin to better understand himself and those around him.

Mistakes on the part of parents

The main problem with a child’s negative emotions is that parents do not understand how to ensure that they develop positive ones. A common mistake parents make when trying to please their children is a huge number of different gifts and toys. This contributes to the fact that the child ceases to experience the joy of receiving new toys and owning them; this seems to him a natural process.

Advice for parents on behavior with children

This incorrect approach on the part of the parents directly affects the development of an irresponsible attitude towards things in the child, who will not value what he has and will take all signs of attention for granted. In the future, this attitude will extend to other people's and public things. A small number of toys brings a lot of joy from their possession, and the child takes care of and appreciates them. Subsequently, this develops not only accuracy and thrift as personal qualities, but also instills respect for work.

Formation of the emotional sphere

The formation of emotions and feelings in preschoolers depends on the following conditions :

A preschooler must communicate with peers: it is in communication that feelings and emotions are formed.
It is necessary to organize purposeful activities that promote the development of emotions and feelings (listening to music, music lessons, reading).
It is best to develop emotions and feelings in preschoolers through their main activity - play.
Labor and creative activity helps to form emotional experiences: joy from success, inspiration, sympathy for the efforts of peers, a feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the result.

“Did you know that if a person is emotionally well, then he has high self-esteem, he is goal-oriented, has no communication problems, and can easily build and maintain relationships. That is, emotional well-being is a guarantee of a child’s success in the future. The emotional well-being of a child depends not on his innate characteristics, but on the optimal system of upbringing in the family.”

Components of successful formation of the emotional sphere of a preschooler:

Proper organization of the child’s routine, comfortable for him.
Activation of the baby’s motor activity, his physical development (morning exercises, outdoor games, physical education sessions).
Games (role-playing, story-based, didactic, communicative, etc.).
Introduction to art and independent creativity.
Reading and discussing fairy tales.
Psycho-gymnastics (emotional sketches, facial expressions, pantomime).
Organization of joint activities of children.
Tasks using visual aids.

Emotions are the basis for a child’s successful mental state, his successful communication, development and future life. The baby reacts to the world around him through emotions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the emotional sphere of a child from an early age using different types of influence, giving preference to play methods.

Stages and methods of experimental research

To confirm the theoretical provisions of the study in practice, we organized experimental work. Conventionally, it can be divided into three main stages.

The first stage is research.

At this stage, based on the analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature and data from our own experience of working in preschool institutions, the following was done:

Formation of a research hypothesis;
Determination of research tools;
Selection and study of the experimental group.

The methodological apparatus of the research is a combination of methods: Questioning, testing, observation, analysis of activity products.

The testing method is the most important. We used tests published in the psychological literature. In particular, we used a special drawing test “Family Drawing”.

This test can be administered to children as young as five years old. It is based on the recognition that children evaluate the behavior of their parents in their own way, seem different to adults, perceive events differently than we do, and make conclusions different from us. Children's special observations cause emotional reactions that adults do not understand or accept. In the child’s inner world, seemingly incompatible, random things are woven together, fantastic images, their own “theories” and versions arise. Children use them as a basis for their original behavior.

Historically, the use of the Family Drawing technique is associated with the general development of “projective psychology.” The growth of interest in drawing techniques was fueled by the publication of fundamental monographs on this technique by K. Machover (1949) and J. Buck (1948). Drawing techniques became very popular among psychological practitioners in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 60s, this technique quickly spread among clinical psychologists, and in different geographical regions different names (in the USA - V. Hulse, in France - I. Minkowski, M. Moreau, etc.) are associated with priority in its use . E. Hamer (1958) puts it this way: “It was probably, like many worthwhile inventions, born simultaneously in the minds of different people.” However, R. Burns and S. Kaufman (1972) note that the earliest mention in the literature of the use of a family drawing belongs to W. Hume (1951). Without going into details, it should only be used for these purposes before. We can talk about a developed system of analysis and interpretation of family drawings, starting with the work of V. Wolf (1947). This researcher attached exceptional importance to the influence of the family on personality development in preschool age and developed a set of techniques for assessing intrafamily relationships. While drawing, he analyzed:

(a) the order of drawing family members, their spatial arrangement, omission of family members in the drawing;

(b) differences between graphic images in shapes, proportions.

V. Wulf notes that the order in drawing may indicate the importance of the role of the persons drawn in the family. The child draws from more significant to less significant. The author notes that the omission of family members is a rare occurrence and that there is always some motive behind it. Often this expresses a desire to reduce an emotionally unacceptable family member, to get rid of him. As for the characteristics of the characters, the author emphasizes their scale. If the actual situation does not match the size ratio in the picture, this indicates that the size is determined by mental factors rather than reality. Differences in the pattern of individual body parts can also be indicative.

In general, W. Wolf (1947) developed those features of the drawing that would later become the subject of interpretation by other authors.

The novelty of V. Hulse's work (1951, 1952) lies in the analysis of the drawing process (use of pencils, erasing drawings, crossing out, doubts, emotional reactions, spontaneous comments). These data provide additional information about the child’s attitude to the drawn details and his general emotional state.