The main factors are:

1. Heredity - the transfer from parents to children of certain qualities and abilities. The carrier is the genes that provide the hereditary program of human development. Some scientists, including N.M. Amosov, P.K. cruelty.

The environment can be considered both the natural conditions, the political system, the material conditions of life, and the immediate objective and human environment of the child. Also in preschool pedagogy, the concept of "developing environment" is used - a set of pedagogical, psychological and socio-cultural conditions for building the pedagogical process.

3. Education - efficiency depends on the child's readiness for pedagogical influence.

Opportunities for preschoolers in the field of learning a foreign language

The possibilities of preschoolers are directly related to their readiness for learning and directly depends on the age of the student. Most parents believe that it is necessary to start teaching a child as early as possible, for better assimilation. the opportunities of an early age in mastering a foreign language are truly unique. More K.D. Ushinsky wrote: ""A child learns in a few months to speak a foreign language in a way that he cannot learn in a few years"". So what is the right age to start learning a foreign language?

Both in domestic (L. S. Vygotsky, S. I. Rubinshten) and in foreign psychology (B. White, J. Bruner, V. Penfield, R. Roberts, T. Eliot) there is evidence that the child learns a foreign language more easily than an adult. The duration of the sensitive period is characterized differently by different authors: Penfield and Roberts define it from 4 to 8 years, Eliot - from 1.5 to 7 years. Physiologists believe that “there is a biological clock of the brain, just as there are stages in the development of the endocrine glands of a child in time. A child up to nine years old is a specialist in mastering speech. After this period, the brain mechanisms of speech become less flexible and cannot easily adapt to new conditions. After the age of 10, there are many obstacles to overcome. The child's brain has a specialized ability for a foreign language, but it decreases with age.” ((Penfield V., Roberts L. Speech and brain mechanisms. - L .: Medicine, 1964. - S. 217.).

It is known that too early start of learning does not contribute to the rapid acquisition of the language. Experimental confirmation of the inexpediency of starting teaching a foreign language at the age of four, according to the author of the book, was obtained by Z.Ya. Futerman, who compared the success in learning of two groups of children, one of which began to study at the age of four, and the other at the age of five. Four-year-olds not only lagged behind five-year-olds in the first year of study, but also advanced more slowly in the second year than five-year-olds in the first, which allowed the teacher to conclude that "" some negative impact of early learning a foreign language on the further course of education "". The optimal age to start classes Z.Ya. Futerman counts five; E.I. comes to the same conclusion on the basis of his practical experience. Negnevitskaya. As for the age of three, there is no need to talk about success in learning. At this age, the child is just beginning to master his native grammatical speech, and dialogic speech is still in its infancy. The vocabulary is small, attention is scattered, a child of this age is not yet ready for educational and collective play activities. At this age, the child learns something only in direct contact with the parents.

E.A. Arkin singles out the age of five as the most suitable (both physiologically and psychologically) for the start of any educational activity. At this age, the child is capable of more or less prolonged concentration of attention, he has the ability to purposeful activity, he masters a sufficient vocabulary and vocabulary of speech patterns to meet his communication needs. Five-year-old children develop a sense of humor, role-playing games are developed and complex. Obviously, the prerequisites for conscious mastery of a language are usually created by the age of five.

Parents' belief in their children's exceptional ability for early learning often turns out to be counterproductive in working with a child. Unconscious, spontaneous assimilation occurs only in the conditions of the child's constant presence in the language environment. So he learns his native language. The same thing happens with bilinguals - children growing up in a bilingual environment. For example, when a family communicates in one language, and in a kindergarten, on the street - in another. Also, there may be cases when one of the parents communicates with the child in one language, and the second in another. Parallel teaching of several languages ​​involves many hours of daily communication with a child in a foreign language.

In addition, not all children are able to successfully engage in conditions of involuntary memorization. Research by M.K. Kabardov revealed the existence of two types of students: communicative and non-communicative. If those belonging to the first type are equally successful in both voluntary and involuntary memorization, then those belonging to the second (and this is 30%, regardless of age) are capable of productive activity only if they are oriented towards voluntary memorization and visual reinforcement of verbal material. This means that, stepping on the path of imitativeness, the involuntary acquisition of knowledge, we automatically classify 30% of children as incapable of successfully mastering a foreign language. But this is unfair: the same children can achieve no less success than representatives of the communicative type if they are placed in a situation of conscious acquisition of knowledge.

Therefore, mastering a foreign language at preschool age should take place in the learning process, no matter how playful and outwardly spontaneous it may be. And children must be physically and psychologically prepared for this. And this readiness, as a rule, comes to five years.

It is also equally important to take into account the child's linguistic abilities for language. Are there specific abilities in this area, and if so, how are they related to other personality traits, and can they be adjusted? Is it possible to talk about linguistic talent, as we talk about musical or literary talent?

MM. Gohlerner and G.V. Eiger distinguishes the following components of linguistic abilities:

Pronounced verbal memory;

speed and ease of formation of functional-linguistic generalizations;

imitative speech abilities at the phonetic, lexical, grammatical and stylistic levels;

· the ability to quickly master a new psycholinguistic point of view on the objects of the objective world in the transition from one language to another;

ability to formalize verbal material.

However, A.A. Leontiev criticizes this statement and states that “language abilities” do not exist as such.

""In general, language abilities are made up ... of many components, most often non-specific, non-specialized," the scientist believes. To such non-specific abilities A.A. Leontiev refers to the general type of the nervous system, temperament, character, individual differences in the course of mental processes (memory, thinking, perception, imagination), as well as individual personality traits associated with communication.

I.L. Sholpo fully agrees with A.A. Leontiev, who claims that ""there are no restrictions, called" nature ", on the child's capabilities"".

However, I.L. Sholpo believes that it is still possible to talk about some specific language abilities, so she identifies the following main parameters by which one can judge a person's greater or lesser giftedness in the field of learning foreign languages:

Speech hearing, which implies sensitivity to the phonetic, rhythmic and intonational aspects of speech;

Language memory, which allows you to quickly replenish your vocabulary, master new forms and grammatical structures, translate words from a passive dictionary into an active one;

· lexical flair, which allows you to connect the meaning of a word and its form, draw parallels with other languages, feel the meaning of individual word-forming suffixes and prefixes, determine the shades of meanings when choosing the necessary word from a synonymic series, etc .;

grammatical (constructive) flair, which makes it possible to create a coherent whole from disparate elements, to feel the commonality of grammatical structures, to isolate the grammatical core, to determine the ways of forming and coordinating words in a sentence;

Emotional-figurative perception of the language, including the subjective assessment of the word, the feeling of "taste", the originality of this language, its beauty, providing a connection between the word and the concept, filling the verbal abstraction with life;

functional and stylistic perception of the language, which implies the distinction of its style layers and the ability to assess a specific speech situation from this point of view.

It is also important that the child has a desire to study, interest in the life and culture of different countries, sociability, the ability to easily adapt to various situations in communication.

Children 5-6 years old have both a good memory and an emotional perception of the language. The sound of the language is of particular interest to the child, and many sounds even have peculiar associations. Experiments of E.I. Negnevitskaya and A.M. Shakhnarovich show, for example, that sound<и>associated in the child's mind with something small, but<о>- with big. A group of children who do not know what a whale is was asked to answer the question: “Which is bigger - a whale or a cat?”. The vast majority of children answered that the cat is bigger. An experiment showed a similar result, during which it was proposed to divide wooden figures of different sizes into two groups - “bim” and “bom”. All the children called the small figurines “bim” and the big ones “bom”.

"" The connection between the object ... and the word ... is based on the similarity that the child observes between the material shell of the word and the material, sensually perceived signs of objects. ... Therefore, in the child's speech, there are such a number of onomatopoeic and figurative, sound-pictorial words "" write E.I. Negnevitskaya and A.M. Shakhnarovich.

As for sociability and a positive attitude, most preschool children are devoid of complexes and do not have psychological barriers.

mother influence personality child

Human development is the process of becoming and shaping his personality under the influence of external and internal, controlled and uncontrolled factors. Development is a process of physical, mental and moral growth of a person and covers all quantitative and qualitative changes in innate and acquired properties. Human development as a process of physical, mental and moral maturation, in essence, means the transformation of a child, a biological individual with the inclinations of a person as a representative of a biological genus, into a person as a person, a member of human society Age-related features of the mental development of children / Ed. I.V. Dubrovina. - M.: Enlightenment, 2011 - S. 167 ..

Initially, based on Darwin's theory, psychologists believed that the development of the psyche occurs gradually, evolutionarily. At the same time, there is continuity in the transition from stage to stage, and the pace of development is strictly fixed, although it can partially accelerate or slow down depending on conditions. Stern's work, in particular his idea that the rate of development of the psyche is individual and characterizes the characteristics of a given person, somewhat shook this view, fixed by Hall and Claparede. However, the postulates of natural science, which proved the connection between the mental and the nervous system, did not allow one to question the progressive nature of the development of the psyche, associated with the gradual maturation of the nervous system and its improvement. So, P.P. Blonsky, who connected the development of the psyche with growth and maturation, proved the impossibility of its acceleration, since the rate of mental development, in his opinion, is proportional to the rate of somatic development, which cannot be accelerated. Mikhalchik, N. F. prokinte and others; Ed. M. V. Gamezo and others - M .: Pedagogy, 2010. - S. 104 ..

However, the works of geneticists, reflexologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts have shown that the human nervous system is a product of its social development. This was also proved by the experiments of behaviorists, who demonstrated the flexibility and plasticity of the psyche in the formation and reformation of behavioral acts, as well as the work of I.P. Pavlova, V.M. Bekhterev and other scientists who established the presence of fairly complex conditioned reflexes in young children and animals. Thus, it was proved that with a purposeful and clear organization of the environment, it is possible to achieve rapid changes in the child's psyche and significantly accelerate his mental development (for example, when teaching certain knowledge and skills).

E. Haeckel in the 19th century. the law was formulated: ontogenesis (individual development) is an abbreviated repetition of phylogenesis (historical development of the species) Age and pedagogical psychology / M. V. Matyukhina, T. S. Mikhalchik, N. F. prokinte et al.; Ed. M. V. Gamezo and others - M .: Pedagogy, 2010. - S. 105 ..

The development of the human psyche occurs according to certain laws. L. S. Vygotsky in his research established four laws for the development of the child's psyche:

1. The development of mental functions is uneven in time (sometimes faster, sometimes it slows down) and asynchronously (if the development of some functions accelerates, then at the same time the development of others becomes slower).

2. The law of metamorphosis: development is not limited to quantitative changes; it is a chain of qualitative changes, the transformation of quantitative changes into qualitative ones.

3. The law of unevenness: different mental functions and aspects of the child's personality have their own optimal (sensitive) period of development.

4. The law of development of higher mental functions: higher mental functions first arise as a form of collective behavior, and only then do they become internal individual functions of the child himself Vygotsky L.S. Age problem. - M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 2008. - S. 18 ..

For example, L. S. Vygotsky believed that the main driving force behind a person’s mental development is learning. At the same time, he noted that learning is not yet development. It should be properly organized: focus on new opportunities for the child, promote development. Under such conditions, training creates a "zone of proximal development" - the distance between the level of actual development (tasks that the child can already solve independently) and the level of possible development (tasks that the child can solve under the guidance of adults) Vygotsky L.S. Age problem. - M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 2008. - S. 23 ..

Another psychologist, G.S. Kostyuk, considered the contradictions (contradiction) that arise in his life as the driving forces of a person’s mental development. Moreover, they first appear as external (which are not yet the driving force), and then in the process of internalization (transformation of the external into the internal) they turn into internal contradictions, which already become the source of the individual's activity aimed at their solution through the development of new ways of behavior Mukhina V. WITH. Child psychology. - M.: April-Press, 2009. - S. 96 ..

In accordance with the dynamic concept of sexual development 3. Freud, all stages of human mental development are reduced to the transformation and movement of sexual energy through different erogenous zones. Psychoanalytic stages of mental development are the stages of mental genesis during the life of a child, in which the development of the three main components of the personality is displayed: "It", "I", "Super-I" and their mutual influence Khukhlaeva O.V. Developmental psychology: youth, maturity, old age: Proc. allowance for universities. - M.: Academy, 2010. - S. 144 ..

The oral stage (0-1 year) is characterized by the fact that food is the main source of pleasure. It includes two phases: early (0-6 months) and late (6-12 months) and is characterized by two consecutive libidinal actions: sucking and biting. The leading erogenous zone at this stage is the mouth. The mother is perceived as an object that can protect from the outside world, and the child shows discontent and anxiety when she is not around for a long time. The biological connection with the mother gives rise to the need for love, which lives in a person all his life.

The anal stage (1-3 years) is characterized by the transfer of children's sexuality to the anus in connection with the mastery of the functions of excretion, defecation, the formation of the "I", which is able to control the impulses of "It" and "Super-I" as parts of the "I", where prohibitions and requirements of adults to the behavior of the child. Depending on the child's attitude to the bodily, natural functions that she masters, he develops such traits as accuracy, accuracy or stubbornness, aggressiveness, isolation, etc.

The phallic stage (3-5 years) is the highest level of childhood sexuality, in which children are focused on the genital organs and feel longing for other adults and, above all, for their parents. This, according to 3. Freud, is the Oedipus complex in boys (attraction to the mother) and the Electra complex in girls (attraction to the father). Liberation from this complex and the formation of the "Super-I" occurs at the end of this stage, which plays a significant role in the mental development of the child. Until the age of five, the child has already formed the basic structures of the personality, the main among which is played by the "I", which fights against the inclinations of the "It" and the prohibitions of the "Super-I", rational thinking, self-observation, and prudence are laid.

In the latent stage (5-12 years), the "I" already fully controls the needs of the "It", sexual interest decreases, the libido energy is transferred to the assimilation of universal human experience and the establishment of friendly relations with peers and adults.

At the genital stage (12-18 years old), the childish sexual desires return again, and the teenager strives for normal sexual intercourse. But if for some reason it becomes more complicated, there is a regression to one of the previous stages, for example, an Oedipus complex in the form of homosexuality may arise. The "I" fights the "It" using psychological defense mechanisms such as asceticism and intellectualization, which help to slow down trains.

The main value of 3. Freud's theory is to identify the significance of other people for the development of the child.

Psychoanalysis 3. Freud was developed in the works of his daughter A. Freud, which illuminate the patterns of child development, difficulties in learning and education, the nature and factors of violations of normal development. Each phase, according to A. Freud, is the result of resolving the conflict between internal instinctive aspirations and the requirements of the environment. The normal development of a child occurs spasmodically with progressive and regressive processes, and is a process of gradual socialization, a transition from the principle of pleasure to the principle of reality Obukhova L.F. Age-related psychology. M .: Rospedagence, 2009. - S. 219 ..

E. Erikson, based on the structure of personality according to 3. Freud, developed a psychohistorical theory of personality development, taking into account a specific cultural environment. In his opinion, each stage corresponds to the expectation of a given society, which an individual can justify or not justify and, accordingly, be accepted or not accepted by him Obukhova L.F. Age-related psychology. M.: Rospedagency, 2009. - S. 221 ..

The concept of social learning (N. Miller, J. Dollard) shows how a child adapts in the modern world, how she learns the norms of society, that is, how her socialization takes place.

Socialization is the process of a child entering society, becoming a full-fledged member of it. D. I. Feldstein. - M.: Institute of Practical Psychology, 2010. - S. 69 ..

Supporters of this theory argue that all individual differences in the development of the child are the result of learning.

The theory of social learning is developed by three generations of scientists. Representatives of the first - N. Miller and J. Dollard - transformed the ideas of 3. Freud, replacing the principle of pleasure with the principle of reinforcement, by which they understand everything that stimulates the repetition of a previously occurring reaction. Learning is the strengthening of the connection between the main stimulus and the response that occurs due to reinforcement. Any form of behavior can be acquired through inheritance Ibid. - S. 71 ..

They saw the task of parents in the socialization of children, in preparing them for life, and a special role in this process is played by the mother, who sets the first example of human relations.

The relationship between parents and children within the framework of this concept was studied by the American psychologist R. Sire. He believed that the nature of child development is determined by the practice of child education.

R. Sire identifies three phases in the development of the child:

The phase of rudimentary behavior is based on innate needs and learning in the first months of life;

The phase of primary motivational systems is learning in the family (the main phase of socialization);

The phase of secondary motivational systems - learning outside the family in connection with admission to school Smirnova E.O. Child psychology: Uch. for universities. - M.: Vlados, 2011. - S. 185 ..

J. Piaget is one of the most prominent psychologists of the 20th century, who made several significant discoveries in the field of child development, and the main one is the discovery of the child's egocentrism.

The child's egocentrism is manifested in the originality of children's logic, children's speech, ideas about the world. Thus, for example, in studying children's ideas about the world, Piaget showed that a child at a certain stage of development considers things as he directly perceives them. He called this phenomenon "realism" V.S. Mukhin. Child psychology. - M.: April-Press, 2009. - S. 102 ..

Until a certain age, children do not distinguish between the subjective and the external world, and only gradually does knowledge about themselves develop from social interaction.

In the system of psychological views of J. Piaget there is also the concept of socialization. Socialization is a process of adaptation to the social environment, which consists in the fact that a child, reaching a certain level of development, acquires the ability to cooperate with other people by sharing and coordinating his point of view and the points of view of other people. Socialization causes a turn in the mental development of the child - the transition from an egocentric position to an objective one (7-8 years) Mukhina V.S. Child psychology. - M.: April-Press, 2009. - S. 104 ..

The process of development of intelligence, according to Piaget, consists of three large periods, during which three main structures are born:

sensorimotor operations;

specific operations;

Formal operations Ibid. - S. 105 ..

He sees development as a transition from a lower stage to a higher one. The previous stage prepares the next. The order of the alternation of stages is unchanged, and this makes it possible to make the assumption that it is determined by a biological factor, the maturation of the organism as the discovery of developmental opportunities that should be realized. The average chronological age of the appearance of one or another stage is determined by the activity of the child, his experience, study and cultural environment.

J. Piaget studied various mental functions (memory, perception, broadcasting) and their relationship with intelligence and found that the development of other mental functions at all stages depends on the intellect and is determined by it, which means that the stages of intellectual development identified by him can be considered as stages of mental development in general. He argued that "a child's thinking necessarily goes through all known phases and stages, regardless of whether the child is studying or not" Lysina MI Communication, personality and psyche of the child. - M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University: 2009. - S. 147 ..

From birth to the end of early childhood, the child achieves significant success in mental and personal development. During this time, he overcomes such relatively independent and different periods of duration as the newborn, the period of the baby, early childhood.

The neonatal period, despite its relative short duration, is especially important in the development of a child who, with his first breath, must first of all adapt to new conditions. And already on the third week of life, he begins to respond to social agents (factors).

A modern newborn child is somewhat different from a newborn tens of thousands of years ago. Under such natural conditions, the level of mental development (a change in mental processes expressed in quantitative, qualitative and structural transformations) that a child achieves at each historical stage in the development of society is not the same. This is explained by the fact that the process of his mental development is not subject to the eternal laws of nature, the laws of the maturation of the body.

There are certain discrepancies in the psychological literature regarding the duration of the neonatal period: some researchers limit it to 10 days, others to 2 months. Obviously, there is a more reasoned idea, according to which the period from birth to two months is considered the neonatal period, since in the second month of life, not only the child adapts to new conditions, but also the first form of human behavior is manifested - the "revitalization complex", which is very important in the mental development of the child Age-related features of the mental development of children / Ed. I.V. Dubrovina. - M.: Enlightenment, 2011 - S. 47 ..

The neonatal period is intermediate between intrauterine and extrauterine life, when the child adapts to the external physical world. From the relatively constant environment of the mother's body, he enters a world where there are sounds, smells, colors, movement and various surprises. At this time, there is a change in the functioning of all body processes: respiration, blood circulation, nutrition. When born, a child is endowed with only elementary mechanisms for maintaining life, he does not have any independent forms of behavior. he acquires them in the process of later life Age-related features of the mental development of children / Ed. I.V. Dubrovina. - M.: Enlightenment, 2011 - S. 48 ..

The transition of the newborn organism to a new type of functioning is provided by adults. They protect the child from bright light, cold, noise, provide nutrition. At the moment of its birth, the child is completely helpless. If there were no adult next to him, then in a few hours he would have died.

A child is born with a system of unconditioned reflexes (innate reactions of the body to certain influences) ready for functioning: sucking, protective, orienting. However, they are not enough to ensure its active interaction with the environment. The basis for the development of a newborn is direct contact (interaction) with the mother, during which the first conditioned reflexes (acquired) begin to be produced, in particular the position of the body during feeding Lysina M. I. Communication, personality and psyche of the child. - M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University: 2009. - S. 68 ..

Observations of the newborn gave grounds for the conclusion that the first form of human activity is the child's emotions, expressed by crying, screaming. A conditioned emotional reaction, which is a smile, appears in the second month of life when a human voice sounds or in connection with the appearance of a familiar person in the child's field of vision. The smile of a newborn is an appeal to a loved one, recognition of him, the joy of discovering another person. It is accompanied by facial expressions, lively movements, turning the head towards an adult. All this represents a whole complex of manifestations of joy, which is called the revitalization complex. Edited by S.Yu. Tsirkina, St. Petersburg: Peter, 2009. - S. 241 ..

The revitalization complex is a positive emotionally effective reaction of a newborn to the appearance of an adult, especially to the voice of the mother, her face, and touch. - S. 242 ..

The appearance of a revitalization complex during this period is evidence of normal mental development. The emotional interaction of a child with an adult is a fundamental factor in the development of his personality and mental health in adulthood. Psychologists call the animation complex the first form of human behavior. It is during the neonatal period that the child begins to single out the human face as a social object, to which he directs his behavior, showing movements that realize this orientation. The child turns to the adult with all his being. Parents become the center of the world, a means of understanding it and other people. The maturation and development of a child in the neonatal period depends on how much an adult is able to respond to her behavior, encouraging interaction.

The revitalization complex is the beginning of mental life, evidence that a favorable social situation of development has developed, which L. Vygotsky called the We (great-We) situation, the unity of mother and child Smirnova E.O. The problem of communication between a child and an adult in the works of L.S. Vygotsky and M.I. Lisina // Questions of psychology. - 2006. - № 6. - S. 17 .. Its essence lies in the fact that all the activity of the child is woven into the life and activities of an adult who looks after him. A newborn needs an adult as much as possible, but he still does not know how to influence him. This is the main contradiction of this period, which is resolved by providing a special type of activity - direct emotional communication between an adult and a child, the beginning of which is laid in the revitalization complex.

A newborn quickly learns to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces, to follow the movements of an adult. Experiments confirm the child's selective focus on different images: if he is offered several images to choose from, then he looks at the human face for the longest time Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. M .: Pedagogy, 2010. - S. 348 ..

Consequently, the specificity of the psyche of the newborn lies in the orientation of his individual organization towards development in the social environment. The appearance of a revitalization complex is a psychological criterion for the end of the neonatal period. The physiological criterion for the completion of this period is the appearance of visual and auditory concentrations, the possibility of the formation of conditioned reflexes to visual and auditory stimuli.

Adaptation of the child's body to the external environment, the emergence of visual and auditory concentration, the emergence of a revitalization complex is the basis of the infant's mental development.

The age of infancy covers the period from 2 months to 1 year. The social situation of the common life of a child with an adult predetermines the emergence of a new type of activity - their direct emotional communication (establishment and development of social contacts) Avdeeva N.N. You and the baby: at the origins of communication. - M.: Prime-Time, 2009. - S. 165 .. A specific feature of this type of activity is that its object is another person. For an adult, the child is the object of influence, at the same time the child begins to show the first forms of influence on the adult. So, very quickly, his vocal reactions acquire the character of an emotionally active appeal, sobbing turns into a behavioral act aimed at an adult. However, this is not yet a language, but only emotional reactions.

Communication during the infant period should be emotionally positive. Thanks to this, the child creates an emotionally positive tone, which is a sign of his physical and mental health. Emotions (passionate experiences) become a kind of guide for the child in his behavior: the richer the world of positive emotions, the more opportunities he has for actions with an object, interaction with adults. Therefore, any situation in which an infant receives positive emotions is no less important for his life than high-quality nutrition or fresh air and warmth Meshcheryakova S.Yu., Avdeeva N.N. Features of the mental activity of a child in the first year of life // The brain and behavior of the baby / Ed., O. S. Andrianova. M .: Pedagogy, 2008. - S. 53 ..

The first manifestations of communication between the child and the mother begin without words during feeding, when he puts his hand on her breast and tries to look into her eyes. Up to 6-7 months, the arsenal of means and forms of interaction is significantly expanding. Even the cry of a baby takes on a variety of shades: crying from fear, from discomfort, crying-call.

The first "questions" that a child asks an adult are expressed in the form of an action, a look, a gesture. They can only be understood in a situation of action. The fulfillment of the requests of the infant, his appeals to an adult is a new form of dialogue that appears at the end of the first half of the year Leontiev AN Problems of the development of the psyche. M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 2007. - S. 174 ..

For a child, dialogue is an opportunity to see the world through the eyes of other people, empathy, sympathy, focus on another person, encouraging her to interact. She can achieve this by the most diverse means available: crying, looking into the eyes, a deliberate act aimed at attracting attention.

Disadvantages of communication, separation of the child from the mother during infancy gives rise to a slow emotional development of the child. Under such circumstances, significant disturbances occur in the mental development of the child, the personality is injured, which irreparably affects his future life. According to the observations of the American psychologist K. Beres, out of 38 adults who experienced a lack of communication in childhood, only seven were able to adapt well to life and were ordinary, normal people; the rest had different mental defects Smirnova E.O. Genesis of communication of a child from birth to seven years//Questions of psychology.-2007. - No. 2. - P.16..

The age from 6 to 12 months is dangerous and most vulnerable, since the baby especially needs communication with an adult, human warmth. During this period, the child should in no way be deprived of communication with the mother. And if this is not possible, it is necessary to take care of her communication with another person. A child's ability to love those around him depends on how much love and in what form he receives.

Consequently, a favorable social situation for the mental development of a child during infancy is his inseparable unity with an adult, emotional comfort.

The most general picture of changes in the period of infancy is provided by the study of the child's cognitive development. During the first year of life, children not only acquire motor skills, but also learn to play, think, and understand the world around them.

Although the process of cognition at this time is extremely multifaceted, the most important mental mechanisms in it are the development of perception, recognition of information, the allocation of categories, and the development of memory.

Perception consists in a holistic display of objects and phenomena, the child's ability to receive many visual, sound, tactile and taste impressions. Babies have most of the human sensations. They see, hear, feel pain, touch.

Children do not necessarily expect adult stimuli for motor and perceptual activity; they themselves actively seek information. Attract and hold the attention of babies for the most part the movement of objects, color (for example, black and white) contrasts, sounds different in volume, length and pitch. Children under one year of age pay more attention to images of a concentric shape, from bent elements than from straight ones, they are interested in the transition of a straight line into a curve. The contrast is more attractive for them than the monochromatic field of Abramov G.S. Developmental psychology: Textbook for university students. - M.: Academy, 2009. - S. 276 ..

Children learn to show changes in the same phenomena, to compare the information received with the knowledge acquired earlier. According to the hypothesis of scientists, from the first days of life, a baby displays the impressions received (perceptual schemes) as an abstract display of the external elements of the representation and their relationships. Genetically perceptual actions are connected with practical actions. In the movement of the hand that feels the object, in the movement of the eye, which examines the visible contour, in the movements of the larynx, which recreates the sound, the situational image is compared with the original, and its correction is carried out. Further development is accompanied by a reduction in the motor components of the perceptual action, as a result of which the process of perception becomes an instantaneous act of "contemplation". This means that the child has mastered operational units of perception and sensory standards (standards of sensations). Probably, a perceptual scheme is an identical representation of one object or phenomenon, since consciousness cannot form all (many) features of a representation or object, even one as significant as the mother's face, and the next perception of the same object or phenomenon is never absolutely identical to the first. Now the baby relates the second impression to the first, at the same time distinguishing the differences between them, it most likely combines these similar impressions. Such an association is called a schematic prototype Kulagin I.Yu., Kolyutsky V.N. Developmental psychology: Full life cycle of human development: Proc. allowance for universities. - M.: Pedagogy, 2010. - S. 235 ..

The ability to single out properties common to different impressions, the ability to combine objects or phenomena similar in properties indicate that the infant can single out categories.

These properties can be physical (static) or active (the ability to eat, throw). Later, in the process of development, children display the properties of objects in the words and thoughts of Khukhlaeva O.V. Developmental psychology: youth, maturity, old age: Proc. allowance for universities. - M.: Academy, 2010. - S. 186 ..

Most babies distinguish between the following categories of objects: furniture, animals, food. A one-year-old child can even assign the image of an object to the appropriate category. If an infant is shown an image of different people and then a dog, he will begin to look at the latter with great attention and his face will noticeably perk up. The change in the child's behavior confirms that she classifies dogs in a different category than people.

Up to 3 months, babies show great interest in phenomena that are somewhat different from those perceived before, paying less attention to well-known or completely new ones. The child's interest in a particular phenomenon is due to its difference from the perceptual scheme that he has developed (the principle of distinction). In a child under one and a half years old, a change in the secondary features of the object of perception (for example, a person’s ears, a cat’s whiskers) causes less persistent attention (focusing on a certain object for a certain time) than changes in the most characteristic features (a person’s head). Moderate changes produce more sustained attention than very abrupt or very small ones.

At the end of the first year of life, children show signs of thinking in the form of sensorimotor intelligence. They notice, assimilate and use elementary properties and relations of objects in their practical actions. Further progress in the development of thinking is directly related to the beginning of the development of speech.

Children are able to remember past experiences, and the older they are, the more they remember the experience. Infants relate new impressions to their existing images. This ability is called identification - the identification of an object or event that is perceived with one of the images (standards) fixed in memory. Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. M.: Pedagogy, 2010. - S. 402. For example, a child, having received a new doll, identifies it the next day. As a rule, he begins to look from a new object to a familiar one, as if comparing them, making it clear that the object has been identified.

In the second half of life, two new features appear in the development of the infant's memory. Firstly, there arises the ability to recreate - to recall (resuming in memory) the appearance of an object even in the absence of a similar one nearby. Already 4 months old children can distinguish a familiar face from an unfamiliar one, but it is doubtful that they are able to resume the image of the father in their memory if he is not in the room. The ability to recreate an image in memory without direct perception develops after 8 months Elkonin D.B. Psychology of development: Proc. allowance for students. universities. - M .: Academy, 2009. - S. 165 ..

At about 8 months, the baby begins to develop working (operative) memory - a type of memory that covers the processes of remembering, storing and recreating information that is processed during a specific action and is necessary only to achieve the goal of this action.

When older children or adults read or talk, the infant is able to take in the information and compare it with what they have received before.

At the end of the first year of life, the child rises to his feet, begins to walk. The main thing in the act of walking is not only the expansion of the space of the infant's existence, but also the fact that he separates himself from the adult. There is a disintegration of the only situation We, as a result of which it is no longer the mother who leads the child, but he leads the mother wherever he wants. Walking is the first major neoplasm of the infant period, which indicates that the child has overcome the limits of the previous situation of development Khukhlaeva O.V. Developmental psychology: youth, maturity, old age: Proc. allowance for universities. - M.: Academy, 2010. - S. 154 ..

The next important neoplasm of this age is the development of speech, which, like other neoplasms, has a transitional character. It is autonomous, situational, emotionally colored, understandable only to relatives, specific in its structure (consists of particles of words) and not yet coherent. To understand such speech, it is necessary to take into account the specific situation in which the child is located and to which he is directly concerned. Speech is a new property, an indication that the previous social situation of the child's development has disintegrated. Instead of the unity of parents and baby, two appeared: an adult and a child.

In general, the main acquisitions of the baby's age are cognitive development, interaction with inanimate objects and people who surround him, walking, and the appearance of broadcasting. Overcoming the crisis of the first year of life determines the further development of the child. At this stage, there is a transition from a biological to a social type of development, mastery of a "dialogue" with an adult, significant shifts in cognitive development (recognition of information based on operational units of perception and sensory standards, development of recognition and operational memory), the formation of speech, structures of interaction with objects and surrounding people, the expansion of the social situation of development due to the mastery of walking, the first affective reactions appear.

Early childhood covers the period from 1 to 3 years and is one of the key in a child's life. He is characterized by a new social situation of development, since at this stage of his life the object-manipulative activity becomes the leading one, which replaces emotional communication with an adult (the leading activity of an infant), important new formations arise Feldshtein D.I. Problems of developmental and pedagogical psychology. - M.: International Pedagogical Academy, 2005. - S. 93 ..

The special significance of early childhood lies in the fact that it is directly related to walking. The ability to move, being a physical acquisition, has tangible mental consequences. Thanks to her, the child begins to communicate more freely and independently with the outside world. Walking develops the ability to navigate in space, expands the possibilities of familiarization with the environment, and also provides a transition to independent objective activity. The kid is completely captured by objects, as a result of which his relationship with adults changes. Emotional communication with them is becoming less and less frequent, giving way to situationally effective communication, practical cooperation, and common actions with objects. An adult, as a rule, encourages communication due to his business qualities, and not emotionality. The social situation of development in early childhood has the following structure: "child - object - adult" Kulagina I.Yu., Kolyutsky V.N. Developmental psychology: Full life cycle of human development: Proc. allowance for universities. - M.: Pedagogy, 2010. - S. 265 ..

For early childhood, the main activities are object activities, speech and play. The development of objective activity is connected with the mastery of the methods of using objects developed by mankind. The child learns to use objects, comprehends the meaning of things. The difference between objective activity and the simple manipulation of objects, which is characteristic of the infant's period, lies in the subordination of the child's methods of action with objects to their functional purpose in the life of a cultured person.

Early childhood is a sensitive (favorable) period for the development of speech, since it is at this time that language acquisition is most effective. If a child, for certain reasons, does not have the necessary conditions for the development of speech, then it is very difficult to catch up later. Therefore, in the 2nd-3rd years of life, it is necessary to especially intensively deal with his speech development Khukhlaeva O.V. Developmental psychology: youth, maturity, old age: Proc. allowance for universities. - M.: Academy, 2010. - S. 301 ..

For the development of the baby, the game is of particular importance - an activity aimed at orienting in the objective and social reality.

The elements of the game are already used by babies, manipulating objects (toys, nipples). In the second year of life, play becomes more spontaneous and meaningful. It is not just manipulation, but unfolds as actions with objects in which the child recreates what adults do (for example, talking on the phone, drinking tea). These are the first steps towards symbolic action. The most common types of games at this age are research game (playful study of the features of objects), design game (self-construction of structures and playing them), role-playing (children take on the role of an adult) game Smirnova E.O. Genesis of communication of a child from birth to seven years//Questions of psychology.-2007. - No. 2. - P.17..

The game activity of the child is the basis for the formation of future skills, mental actions. In the process of game experimentation, many of his new complex abilities are formed. With the development of symbolic (symbolic designation in the game of objects, events, phenomena) play, the child's attitude towards other children changes. In the first year of life, they almost do not interact with each other. Ten-month-old children treat each other like living toys: they pull their hair, touch their eyes with their fingers, and the like. At 18-20 months, they begin to interact with partners in the game, tend to play with each other.

Consequently, objective activity, speech and play testify to the mental development of the baby. In these types of activity, certain mental neoplasms of early childhood are manifested.

Consequently, at the stage of early childhood, the situational and effective communication of the child with the adult is the main thing in the social situation of development, the leading activity becomes objective. This period is favorable for mastering speech, the emergence of a symbolic game, the ability to inherit, and the development of self-awareness.

Thus, we can conclude that the development of a person is a process of formation and formation of his personality under the influence of external and internal, controlled and uncontrolled factors. Development is a process of physical, mental and moral growth of a person and covers all quantitative and qualitative changes in innate and acquired properties.

Each person goes through the same age stages of mental development, but at the same time experiences them individually, since he has his own characteristics of the nervous system, mental abilities, physical properties, and so on.

The human psyche does not develop only due to the maturation of the brain. There are driving forces of human mental development. In each theory of human mental development, which are developed by psychologists, there are different versions regarding the driving forces and factors of development.

For example, L. S. Vygotsky believed that the main driving force behind a person’s mental development is learning. G. S. Kostyuk considered contradictions (contradiction) that arise in his life as the driving forces of a person’s mental development. E. Erikson, based on the structure of personality according to 3. Freud, developed a psychohistorical theory of personality development, taking into account a specific cultural environment. In his opinion, each stage corresponds to the expectation of a given society, which the individual can justify or not justify and, accordingly, be accepted or not accepted by him.

In the process of a child's development, including in the formation of character, there are stable and critical periods. During stable periods, changes occur slowly, imperceptibly, they seem to accumulate; critical periods are characterized by a sharp qualitative leap in development. At this moment, relationships with adults are not easy, because the child begins to feel himself in a new way and requires others to take into account their new opportunities.

At preschool age, the child experiences two age-related crises that affect the development of his character: at 1 year and at 3 years. Periods from birth to 1 year (infancy), from 1 year to 3 years (early childhood) and from 3 to 6-7 years (preschool childhood) are stable.

The first year of a child's life is very important for the formation of emotional character traits. At this time, the main type of activity is direct emotional communication with an adult. The emotional background of his entire future life will depend on how attentive and kind his parents and other relatives are to him. During the crisis of the first year, for the first time, signs of strong-willed behavior of the child are clearly observed: he refuses to obey the elders, resists them. The kid begins to separate himself from the adult, even in some way to oppose himself to him. In order to get what he wants, the child begins to deliberately act up (shout, cry, fall to the floor, refuse to go). Often the situation is aggravated by the wrong position of adults.

The period of early childhood and preschool age is favorable for the development of various character traits.

In early childhood the orientation of the child to himself, to the object of activity (to the cause) or to other people is formed. If a child is focused on himself, he is characterized by high anxiety, focus on his feelings, thoughts and experiences, depression or increased capriciousness. His behavior directly depends on the state of health and mood at a certain moment. In the process of communicating with other people, the baby focuses solely on his own interests and desires, rarely thinking about the feelings of others. He overestimates his abilities, while being too demanding of others. Orientation to the subject of activity (to business) is expressed in the fact that the baby is interested in constantly learning something new. When oriented towards other people, the child shows a willingness to communicate and interact with other people.

During early childhood, actively formed intellectual traits : the child learns to solve intellectual problems, often by trial and error. He cognizes the world, studies the properties and functions of objects. Observation develops - the baby looks at adults and tries to imitate them. Pledged foundations of moral traits ability to find a common language with parents and other people.

At the turn of early childhood and preschool age, a crisis of 3 years can be observed. The most important sign of the crisis of 3 years is negativism. The child categorically refuses the proposals of adults, despite the fact that he internally agrees with them. In this way, he learns to show his volitional and emotional qualities. Another sign of crisis is stubbornness, which is different from perseverance. The kid will insist on his initial decision to the end, although he does not have a great desire to do just that. Such actions testify to the developing, but still unstable desire of the child to show independence. Another sign of the crisis of 3 years is called the “symptom of devaluation”, which indicates a decrease in the importance of parents and other close people. This is primarily due to the child's manifestation of his "I", with an attempt to form his own attitude towards the people around him.

During the preschool period game activity has a decisive influence on the formation of character. During the game, the child learns patterns of behavior, taking on the role of an adult, he is forming moral traits (honesty, sense of duty). The need to obey certain rules during the game makes the child control his behavior, contributes to the development volitional qualities (purposefulness of endurance). The game influences the formation intellectual traits (observation, prudence, mental flexibility), since knowledge from gaming activities is transferred to real life and vice versa. By the end of preschool age, the child develops a sense of self-worth, self-importance and uniqueness, on the basis of which his self-esteem develops.

For the development of the child's character, such an environment is needed in the family and preschool institution, which would provide opportunities for creativity, respect and trust, create conditions for the child's self-affirmation, equality, and form a favorable psychological climate. As the most important factors in the formation of character can be distinguished:

1) the nature of interaction with others (in the family, to a preschool institution). Important for the formation of the character of the child is the style of communication between adults with each other, as well as the way adults treat the child himself, the system of rewards and punishments.

2) the level of organization of various types of activities of the child. Manifestations of collectivism, perseverance, endurance, courage in preschool age are formed primarily in the game, especially in collective story games with the rules. Of great importance are the simplest types available to a preschooler labor activity . By performing some simple duties, the child learns to respect and love work, to feel responsibility for the task assigned.

3) communication in a peer group. It depends on the style of communication, on the position among peers, how much the child feels calm, satisfied, and to what extent he learns the norms of relations with peers.

4) acquaintance with the world of literature and art, etc.

In many ways, the influence of these factors depends on the creation of a special developmental environment in the institution of preschool education. The decisive role in this matter is played by teachers, whose task is to create optimal conditions for meeting the new possibilities of the child.

The prerequisites or factors for the mental development of a child are those developmental circumstances on which the level of mental development of the baby depends. Man is a bio-social being, which means that his mental development is influenced by such factors as natural, biological and social, that is, heredity, the conditions of his life, as well as the upbringing and education of the child. Let's look at each of them.

The biological factor in the mental development of a child is his heredity, those abilities, features of the nervous system that he receives from his parents. These are also physical signs common to each person, the structure of the speech and motor apparatus, and the structural features of the brain. The child inherits the biological need for warmth and food, as well as the properties of the nervous system that determine higher nervous activity and are the foundation of temperament. These inherited features are also called inclinations, which will develop as the child grows up.

The natural environment surrounding the baby will also have some influence on the development of the child's psyche. These are water and air, the sun and gravity, as well as the features of climate, vegetation and the electromagnetic field. But nature does not determine the mental development of the child, but only indirectly influences him through the social environment.

The social factor influences the mental development of the child much more strongly. After all, at an early age, between the child and parents there is a close psychological attachment, the baby needs love, respect and recognition. But at the same time, the child is not yet able to navigate in interpersonal communication, understand conflicts between parents, which means that he cannot express his attitude to what is happening. And if parents want their baby to grow up as a psychologically healthy person and be able to adapt in this world, parents simply have to build relationships with the child in a friendly and joyful atmosphere. After all, sometimes a baby can feel guilty in the conflicts of adults, feel that he does not justify the hopes that his parents had placed on him, and because of this, his psyche can often be injured.

The social environment affects the mental development of the child more than others, and is no less important than innate factors, because the formation of a system of norms and values ​​in the child, as well as the child's self-esteem, occurs within society. In many ways, this is facilitated by the cognitive development of children, which includes several stages, from innate motor reflexes, to the stage of speech development and to the stage of development of the child's thinking.

The factors of a child's mental development are made up of four main conditions, such as the normal functioning of the child's brain, without which the child will definitely experience developmental deviations. The second prerequisite will be the normal physical development of the child, as well as the full development of his nervous processes. The safety of the sense organs that ensure the connection of the baby with the outside world is the third important condition. And the fourth, no less important condition for the mental development of a child is his full development, the consistency and systematic nature of his education, both in kindergarten, school, and in the family. Only when all conditions are met, the child will develop fully psychologically and grow up as a healthy and developed person.