At the age of 6-7 years, the child enters school, which entails a number of major changes in his psyche and behavior. Yesterday's baby enters the world of strictly normalized relations, where he is required to be able to arbitrarily control his behavior, obey discipline, and fulfill the requirements of a teacher. All this leads to increased mental tension. Sometimes children develop various deviations (fears, depression, decreased volitional activity). Therefore, it is so important to observe the emotional-volitional sphere of a younger student.
Definition
Emotions are understood as processes that reflect a subjective assessment of various situations in a person’s life in the form of experience (joy, surprise, fear, anger, etc.). The will is closely connected with feelings. This property of a person is manifested in the ability to consciously control his behavior and mental manifestations. In practice, it is expressed in the ability to perform certain actions, despite internal resistance, or to restrain emotional impulses.
Raising a child, teachers and parents teach him to manage their experiences, to express them in a socially acceptable form. A feature of the emotional-volitional sphere of elementary schoolchildren is that feelings so far lead over volitional manifestations and become motives for actions.
The child and his experiences
From I to IV class, children change very much, however, some general trends can be identified. We begin the characterization of the emotional-volitional sphere of a primary school student by describing the feelings of the child. At this age, children:
- They react violently to the phenomena of the surrounding life, which is expressed through movements and a sharp change in moods.
- Learn restraint. Where a preschooler gets into a fight, the student will resort to verbal forms (abuse, mockery, rudeness).
- They become more expressive in demonstrating their feelings (intonation, facial expressions).
- They begin to realize the emotions of another person, empathize with him.
- Easily respond to everything interesting, colorful, bright.
- Under the influence of adults and the school team, they begin to experience moral feelings (responsibility for the cause, pity for the offended, loyalty to comrades, resentment towards the brawler) and learn to act in accordance with them.
Development of strong-willed qualities
In the classroom, the teacher requires arbitrary actions from the children. The child has to do homework, listen to the teacher’s explanations, even if this does not correspond to his desires. A feature of the development of the emotional-volitional sphere of primary schoolchildren is the gradual formation of the following volitional qualities:
- Exposure Initially, children are very impulsive, especially pronounced in boys. However, they learn to obey the directions of adults. By the third grade, many children do their homework and do their homework without being distracted by extraneous stimuli.
- Confidence. Success in school is very important for the establishment of an adequate self-esteem of the child. Repeated failures, poor knowledge, a new environment lead to increased anxiety and timidity.
- Perseverance. Children learn to overcome difficulties and achieve success in school, work. This quality is usually formed to class III.
- Independence. Students in grades I and II act as directed by an adult or imitate their surroundings. They learn to make independent decisions in grades III-IV when moral motives of behavior (collectivism, duty, honesty, patriotism, etc.) are formed.
Emotional disturbance
Not all children manage to adapt successfully to toughened conditions. The formation of the emotional-volitional sphere of a primary school student sometimes proceeds with violations, which leads to a situation of failure. Psychologists distinguish three main problems of "difficult" children:
- Aggressiveness. All the kids are fighting and quarreling, but some have a very pronounced tendency to violence and cruelty. They constantly provoke conflicts in the team, are angry with others.
- Emotional disinhibition. Such children have weakened self-control, so they react too violently to any situation, are excited for the slightest reason.
- Shyness, resentment, anxiety. Such children, on the contrary, hold emotions within themselves, are afraid to attract the attention of adults and peers, and are depressed.
Assessment of the emotional state
Psychological testing will help to identify problems in time. Diagnosis of the emotional-volitional sphere of a younger student is carried out using various techniques. The following methods are designed to assess the general condition of the child:
- The eight-color test developed by Lusher. Children first choose the most pleasing colors from those proposed, and then the most repulsive. Based on the resulting series, conclusions are drawn about the emotional state.
- Method "Cactus". The child is invited to draw this plant on his own. Its size, location on a sheet of paper, drawing lines and needles, color scheme talk about the psychological facets of the individual. The test reveals increased aggressiveness and tension.
Diagnosis of child anxiety
To identify the fears of the child, as well as the nature of his relationship with adults and children, special techniques will help. Diagnosis of the emotional-volitional sphere of primary schoolchildren is carried out taking into account age-related characteristics. Widely applied:
- Test M. Dorki, W. Amen and R. Tampla "Choose a face." The child is shown pictures that depict typical life situations. Depending on the gender of the subject, the main character can be a girl or a boy whose faces are not drawn. The schoolboy expresses his assumption about whether the character is sad or happy.
- Anxiety test developed by Phillips for students in junior and middle grades. It consists of 58 questions that need to be answered unequivocally: yes or no. As a result, we can conclude about the general emotional state of the child and notice alarming symptoms.
Diagnosis of the level of self-regulation
Successful learning is impossible if the child does not accept the teacher’s task and is often distracted during work. Diagnosis of the emotional-volitional sphere of a primary school student includes the following tests:
- The methodology of Sh. Chkhartishvili, exploring the mobilization of will in children. During its implementation, an album is used, on the left page of which circles are drawn, and on the right - color illustrations. The student should alternately look first at the lower, and then at the upper circles. It is forbidden to look at pictures. By the number of mistakes made, a conclusion is drawn on the development of the volitional sphere.
- "Sticks-dashes" (E. Ullenkova). On a piece of paper in a ruler, the child must reproduce the pattern (| - || - ||| - |) without crawling out into the fields, skipping one line when writing and not making mistakes during the transfer of characters. The test shows the degree of development of self-regulation in schoolchildren.
Self Assessment
The development of the emotional-volitional sphere of primary schoolchildren is greatly influenced by children's ideas about their importance. The most appropriate methods for studying self-esteem in this age group are:
- "Ladder" (author V. Schur). On a leaf 10 steps are drawn. They explain to the child that the best children are at the top of the stairs, and the worst ones below. He must find his place, and also suggest where the people around him will put him. Testing is carried out according to several parameters (mind, kindness, health, hard work, etc.)
- Dembo - Rubinstein self-assessment scales edited by A. Parishioners. On the form are drawn 7 lines. You need to mark with a circle the level of your own development (high, low, medium). Children are invited to evaluate such manifestations of their personality as character, appearance, health, skillful hands, authority in the team, intelligence, and self-confidence. Then, the desired level is marked with a cross, upon reaching which the child could be proud of himself.
Prevention of Violations
Without the help of adults, children are not able to solve their psychological problems. To work with the whole class, a comprehensive program for the development of the emotional-volitional sphere of younger students is used.
It usually contains the following blocks:
- Preparatory. At this stage, the children and the psychologist get to know each other, and the emotional tension is removed. For this, games for interaction are used (compliments to each other, search for a friend with eyes closed, grouping according to various criteria). Children paint their mood. Shaped relaxation is carried out (for example, an imaginary journey on a cloud or swimming in a luminous waterfall), psycho-gymnastics.
- Main. Schoolchildren are taught to recognize feelings in pictures, by intonation and voice of the interlocutor, by the nature of music. Children show mimes, draw and put on masks that convey various emotions. Talks are held about the causes of feelings, their meaning. Role-playing games are arranged, during which favorable ways of behavior are worked out.
- Final. Children are divided into groups and each presents its own emotion through drawings, poems, music, skits and dances.
Correctional work
With children with psychological problems, the specialist works separately. Correction of the emotional-volitional sphere of younger students can be carried out in small groups of 5-8 people. The optimal number of classes is 2 times a week.
The following stages of work are distinguished:
- The installation, during which the diagnosis is carried out, a group of children with similar problems is formed and a positive attitude towards joint activity is created.
- Preparatory. At this stage, emotional stress is removed, a warm climate is formed in the group. Elements of music therapy, dance therapy, psycho-gymnastics, dramatization, drawing, relaxation exercises are used.
- Correctional. Children are taught to adequately respond to a situation through its reproduction, taking on different roles. At the same time, work is underway with fears.
- Fastening. The psychologist works on the transfer of positive behavior to the real life of children through the implementation of their "homework", forms an adequate self-esteem. Repeated diagnostics are carried out.
Individual work with children
Sometimes, when examining the emotional-volitional sphere of younger schoolchildren, the psychologist reveals deep violations. They can be caused by high irritability and anxiety of a person, psychological trauma or features of family education. In this case, individual therapy is used, often with the involvement of parents.
In the classroom, the teacher tries to create a relaxing environment, to identify the internal conflicts of the child through drawing, free dance, spontaneous play with dolls, role-playing. Psychological barriers are gradually removed, the psychologist helps the student to develop a new image of his "I". Arbitrary behavior is fixed through role-playing games, puppet theater.
Basic correction methods
In the work of psychologists, the following methods of influencing the emotional-volitional sphere of a primary school student have proven themselves well:
- Game therapy. Participating in role-playing games, children live traumatic situations, learn to cope with complex feelings.
- Art therapy. Through drawing or sculpting, children give vent to their experiences, adjust their attitude to traumatic images.
- Systematic desensitization. The psychologist makes up a hierarchy of childhood fears. Through play, the child is taught relaxation. In a state of relaxation, he is invited to transform into a beloved hero and face his fears, starting with the weak. Gradually, more frightening situations are played out.
- Behavioral training. Children are taught new effective behavior, which is first practiced in the game. Subsequently, imaginary situations are as close as possible to real ones.
The emotional-volitional sphere of primary schoolchildren is actively developing and requires special attention from adults. Children should understand other people's experiences and express their emotions in an acceptable way.