Lecture
Preschool age is a period of intensive formation
of the psyche on the basis of the prerequisites that formed in early childhood.
Along every line of mental development new formations arise
of varying degrees of expression, characterized by new properties and
structural features. They occur owing to many factors:
speech and communication with adults and peers, various forms of cognition
and engagement in various types of activity.
As the central new formations of preschool age (3–7 years)
one can single out the following:
The central personal new formation of preschool age is
the subordination of motives and the development of self-awareness. In the course of mental
development the child masters forms of behavior characteristic of a human being
among other people. This movement of ontogeny is bound up with the development of
the inner position.
D. B. Elkonin (1989) regarded as the main psychological
new formations of preschool age the following:
1. The emergence of the first schematic outline of a coherent childhood
worldview. A child cannot live in disorder. Everything it sees, the child
tries to bring into order, to see the regular relations into which
this inconstant surrounding world fits. J. Piaget (1969)
showed that in preschool age a child develops an
artificialist worldview: everything that surrounds the child, including
natural phenomena, is the result of people's activity. Such a worldview
is bound up with the entire structure of preschool age, at the center of which
stands the human being. Research by L. F. Obukhova (1996) showed that in
explaining natural phenomena children use moral, animistic and
artificialist reasons: the sun moves so that everyone will be warm and
bright; it wants to walk and move, and so on.
In building a picture of the world, the child makes things up, invents a theoretical
conception. It builds schemes of a global character, worldview
schemes. D. B. Elkonin (1989) notes here a paradox between the low level
of intellectual needs and the high level of cognitive
needs.
2. The emergence of primary ethical instances is connected with the distinction
between «what is good and what is bad». These ethical instances grow
alongside aesthetic ones.
3. The emergence of the subordination of motives. At this age one can already
observe a predominance of deliberate actions over impulsive ones.
Overcoming immediate desires is determined not only by the expectation
of reward or punishment from an adult, but also by a promise expressed
by the child itself. Thanks to this, personality qualities such as
persistence and the ability to overcome difficulties are formed; a sense
of duty toward other people also arises (Yu. N. Karandashev, 1987).
4. The emergence of voluntary behavior. Voluntary behavior is
behavior mediated by a definite idea. D. B. Elkonin
noted that in preschool age the image that orients behavior
at first exists in a concrete, visual form, but then it becomes
more and more generalized, appearing in the form of a rule, or norm.
On the basis of the formation of voluntary behavior in the child, according to
D. B. Elkonin, a striving to control oneself and one's
actions appears.
5. The emergence of personal consciousness. D. B. Elkonin (1989) regarded
as one of the main psychological new formations of preschool
age the emergence of personal consciousness, i.e. the appearance of one's
own limited place in the system of relations with adults, and a striving toward
carrying out socially significant and socially evaluated
activity (L. V. Finkevich, 1987). If you ask a three-year-old child: «What
are you like?», it will answer: «I am big». But if you ask a seven-year-old child: «What
are you like?», it will answer: «I am small».
The preschooler develops an awareness of the possibilities of its actions; it
begins to understand that it cannot do everything (the beginning of self-evaluation). Speaking of
self-awareness, what is often meant is the child's awareness of its own personal qualities
(good, kind, bad, and so on). In this case what is meant is awareness
of one's place in the system of social relations. At age three one can
observe the external «I myself», at age six – personal self-awareness: the external
turns into the internal.
In preschool age the leading type of activity is play.
Play produces qualitative changes in the child's psyche; within it
the foundations of learning activity are laid, which will become leading in
the school years.
Children begin to satisfy their striving for a shared life with adults
in play, in which they reproduce not only working
life but also social relations, taking on the role of adults. Such
a special place of the child in society becomes the basis for the emergence of role-play
as a peculiar form of introducing the child to adult life.
The consistent performance of particular roles disciplines
children playing together in joint activity. They learn to coordinate their
actions. These real relationships with other members of the children's
group not only form collectivist qualities but also
raise the child's self-awareness. Orientation toward peers, toward the opinion
of the nascent collective, forms in the child social feelings,
independence, the ability to follow the group, the ability for
empathy, and so on.
All types of games have their own features and purpose, but between them there are no
clearly marked boundaries – in each play situation they may
overlap one another.
The following typical children's games are distinguished:
1. Sensory games. The purpose of this type of game is: acquiring sensory
experience (splashing water, chewing blades of grass, tearing petals off flowers).
2. Motor games. Running, jumping, spinning – these are some of
the varieties of games involving movement, the pleasure of which children get
from the game itself.
3. Rough-and-tumble play. This is mock fighting. Such play brings the child
considerable benefit. Children learn to see the difference between the real and
the imagined (Pellegrini, 1987).
4. Language games. These are games with words; children are interested in speech; they
play with its sounds, forms and shades of meaning.
5. Role-play and imitation. Role-play includes not
only the imitation of someone's behavior, but also a significant element
of fantasy and new ways of interacting.
6. Games with rules and competitive games. Such games require
mastery of certain cognitive skills – one must know the rules,
take into account the consequences of various actions, be able to win and
lose – and at the same time they contribute to the development of these skills
(Flavell, Miller & Miller, 1993; Herron & Sutton–Smith, 1971; Kamii &
DeVries, 1980).
The following important features of role-play can be identified:
1. Role-play is an activity in which children take on the role
of adults and, under specially created conditions, reproduce the activity
of adults and the relations between them. In doing so, various
play objects are used, substituting for the real objects of
adults' activity.
2. Role-play is social in origin. It arises on the basis of
the child's contradictions. On the one hand, the child strives for
independence, on the other – for joint activity with an adult.
The resolution of this contradiction occurs through objects and toys.
3. The development of the plot of play proceeds from everyday games to games with complex and
varied plots. Play on one and the same plot gradually
becomes more stable, more prolonged.
The moments in adults' activity and relations that are
reproduced by the child constitute the content of the play. The content of play
changes with age: younger preschoolers imitate object-related
activity; they are absorbed in the very process of performing actions and
often forget about the result, and their actions may not be coordinated with one
another. Middle preschoolers perform play actions not for the sake of the
actions themselves, but for the sake of the relations that lie behind them. Older preschoolers in play
submit to the rules that follow from the role.
Alongside play, an essential role in the mental development of the
preschooler is played by productive activity – drawing, modeling,
appliqué, construction. Each of these is characterized by an
orientation toward obtaining a product possessing certain
given qualities. The child is required to be able to achieve
the needed result even in cases where the process of the activity itself at
a given moment does not attract it, to be able to create and
consistently carry out an intention. The orientation toward obtaining a
result forms gradually in the course of mastering the activity.
Preschool age is a period during which
the child's sensory experience becomes enriched and ordered, specifically human
forms of perception and thinking are mastered, imagination develops,
and the rudiments of voluntary attention and meaningful memory
are formed.
The child masters new perceptual actions aimed at
examining objects and phenomena of reality, their manifold
properties and relations. Perceptual actions form in connection with
mastering those kinds of meaningful activity that require
identifying and taking into account the properties of objects and phenomena.
The preschooler's sensory development includes two interconnected
aspects – the assimilation of ideas about the various properties and relations
of objects and phenomena, and the mastery of new perceptual actions.
In the development of the basic properties of perception two
contradictory tendencies are observed. On the one hand, its
wholeness forms and grows, while on the other – the perceptual image shows
increasing detail and structuredness.
Over the course of the preschool period three basic types of
perceptual action take shape: identification actions, actions of relating to
a standard, and modeling actions. Identification actions are performed
when the property of the perceived object fully coincides
with the standard, is identical to it. Actions of relating to a standard are performed with
partial coincidence of the object's property with the standard, when alongside
features of similarity there also exist some features of difference. Finally, modeling
actions are performed when perceiving objects with complex properties
that cannot be determined by means of a single standard, but require
the simultaneous use of two or more standards.
By the end of preschool age perceptual actions become
sufficiently organized and effective to give a fairly
complete picture of the object.
Over the course of preschool age the child's thinking changes substantially.
This is expressed above all in the fact that it masters new
ways of thinking and mental actions. Its development proceeds
stage by stage, and each preceding level is necessary for the next.
The main line of development of thinking is the transition from visual-active to visual-figurative thinking and, by the end of the period, to verbal-logical thinking. The predominant type of thinking, nevertheless,
remains visual-figurative.
At the basis of the development of the preschooler's thinking lies the formation of
mental actions. The starting point of this formation is real
actions with material objects. From such an action the child
moves on to internal, condensed actions with really represented
material objects and, finally, to actions carried out
entirely in the internal plane, where real objects are replaced by
representations or concepts. In this way, through the internalization of external
actions, visual-figurative, logical-conceptual forms of
thinking are formed.
Preschool childhood is the age most favorable for the development
of memory. The preschooler's memory has a number of specific features.
1. In younger preschoolers memory is involuntary. The child does not set
itself the goal of remembering or recalling something and does not possess
special methods of memorization. Events, actions and images that are
interesting to it are easily imprinted, and verbal material is also
memorized involuntarily if it evokes an emotional response. Over the
course of preschool age the effectiveness of involuntary
memorization increases.
2. In middle preschool age voluntary memory begins to
form. Conscious, purposeful memorization and
recollection appear only episodically. Usually they are included in
other types of activity, since they are needed both in play and in carrying out
adults' instructions, and during lessons. However, voluntary memory
travels the main path of its development at later age stages.
3. In preschool age memory becomes included in the process of personality
formation. The third and fourth years of life become the years of the first
childhood memories.
The child's imagination begins to develop at the end of the second, beginning of
the third year of life. The presence of images as a result of imagination can
be judged from the fact that children enjoy listening to short stories and
fairy tales, empathizing with the characters.
The development of reproductive and productive imagination is promoted by
various types of activity. Word-creation plays a great role in the development of creative
imagination. Characteristic of the preschooler
is the increasing voluntariness of imagination. In the course of development it
turns into a relatively independent mental activity.
At the beginning of preschool age the child's attention reflects its interest
in the surrounding objects and the actions performed with them. Over the
course of preschool age, in connection with the increasing complexity of children's
activity and their advancement in general mental development, attention
acquires greater concentration and stability.
The main change in attention in preschool age consists in the fact
that children for the first time begin to control their attention, consciously
direct it toward particular objects and phenomena, and sustain it on them,
using certain means for this. The origins of voluntary attention
lie outside the child's own personality. It is formed owing to the fact that adults
draw the child into new types of activity and, by means of certain
means, direct and organize its attention.
Besides situational means that organize attention in connection with
a specific task, there exists a universal means of organizing
attention – speech. Initially adults organize the child's attention by
means of verbal instructions. Later the child itself begins to designate
verbally the objects and phenomena to which it must pay
attention, in order to achieve the needed result. As the
planning function of speech develops, the child acquires the ability in advance to
organize its attention for the upcoming activity, to formulate
verbally what it must be guided by.
Voluntary attention forms in preschool age in connection with
the general increase in the role of speech in the regulation of the child's behavior. The ability
for voluntary attention begins to develop intensively toward the end of
preschool age.
In preschool childhood the process of mastering speech is basically completed; by
age seven language becomes a means of communication and thinking
for the child, as well as an object of conscious study.
Development of the motivational sphere of the preschool child's personality
• The beginning of the formation of the child's individual motivational
system.
• The appearance of the subordination (hierarchy) of motives.
• The appearance of motives of achieving success, competition, and rivalry.
• The emergence of a primary sense of duty.
• The appearance of motives connected with the moral norms being
assimilated at this time, and some others.
In addition, the preschooler begins to assimilate the ethical norms
accepted in society.
There is also a primary development of will – the management of
mental processes, the primary conscious management of behavior,
the ability to keep a goal at the center of attention.
Features of the development of self-awareness in preschool age
The development of self-awareness after age three is the further accumulation of its
cognitive, affective and volitional experience. In this period, out of
the emotional «I» characteristic of young children, a
rational, logical self-awareness grows, including an understanding
of the identity of oneself and one's own image. A detachment from
oneself appears. On this basis, it can be asserted that in preschool age
the child develops a «mirror self».
Self-awareness – an understanding of what the child is,
what qualities it possesses, how others relate to it and what
causes that attitude – is considered the central new formation of the entire
period of preschool childhood. Self-awareness is most clearly manifested in
self-evaluation, in how the child assesses its achievements and failures, its
qualities and capabilities. Self-evaluation appears in the second half of the period
on the basis of an initial, purely emotional self-evaluation («I am good»)
and a rational evaluation of others' behavior.
Another line of development of self-awareness is the awareness of one's own experiences.
In this period gender identification begins to form:
• the child becomes aware of itself as a boy or a girl;
• an awareness develops of behavioral stereotypes of the male or
female type.
An awareness of oneself in time begins.
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