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The main periods of a person's life. Age periods of a person's life. During this period, it is necessary to establish social ties, get a new job, show your organizational skills and overcome shortcomings. Such as, for example, egocentrism, se

According to a number of morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics, the entire life path of a person can be divided into periods, or stages. There are no clearly delineated boundaries between these periods, and they are largely conditional; nevertheless, the establishment of the approximate boundaries of these periods on the basis of objective criteria is a very important task. Periodization was based on the maturation of the gonads and the intensity of body growth. Attempts have been made to classify age periods according to the dentition.

The degree of development of the central nervous system, in particular the cerebral cortex, was also put forward as a criterion. Based on this trait, the authors tried to move away from a purely biological trait and find a biological-social one. However, despite the many approaches to the periodization of individual development, it was not possible to find the optimal general biological or sociobiological criterion underlying it. Meanwhile, the problem of age periodization is considered one of the topical for the entire complex of sciences that study human development.

Age is the period of human development, characterized by a set of specific patterns of formation of the organism and personality.

Passport age - the chronological age of an individual from the moment of birth to the end of life.

Biological age is characterized by growth, maturation and aging, as well as other biological indicators, i.e. biological age reflects the biological evolution of a person.

The psychological characteristic of age is a certain qualitatively unique stage of the mental development of a person as an individual and as a person.

The age of cultural development is an indicator of cultural self-determination and self-development of an individual at each stage of his formation, mastering cultural rules and norms of behavior and activity in relation to chronological age.

The social characteristic of age is a reflection of the child's involvement in a certain system of social relations and the degree of his social maturity.

There are many age division schemes.

The classification of the ages of life, according to Pythagoras, is as follows:

1. Formation period - 0-20 years (spring).

2. Young man - 20-40 years old (summer).

3. A man in his prime - 40-6Q years (autumn).

4. An old and dying person - 60-80 years old (winter).

From Antiquity, the Middle Ages perceived the reasoning about the stages of human life, which was most often also divided into seven periods. Their characteristics could be found in Hippocrates, Philo of the Jews, Galen and many others. In Orthodox countries, the text about human ages first became known through the writings of John Chrysostom. Here is how it is said in one of the books: “The first week is when a person is seven years old from his birth: teeth attack, gentleness, meekness and ignorance, pranks in games and all thoughts of infancy ...

The second week is when a person happens to be twice seven times from his birth, i.e. 14 years old, he comes into decay, characteristic of youth, and is overwhelmed, it is carnal lust, emission of seed and absurd rampage ... The third week - when a person happens three times seven, i.e. 21 years old, then he is a young man violent and many rebellious, in his mind crafty thoughts often nestle on fornication and drunkenness, and on many other absurd riots. But then, he begins to lightly listen to the meaning, comes to the mind and follows the teachings of the elders, imitating everything and succeeding in everything ... "

Augustine also gives a brief description of the ages (childhood, adolescence, adolescence, masculinity, old age), but, unlike other authors, he speaks of the existence of “spiritual ages” characteristic of people growing spiritually, developing their minds. These ages correspond "not to the number of years, but to (inner) prosperity." There are also divisions into two, three, four, five, six and even nine periods.

In our domestic science, the classification proposed by N.P. Gundobin.

This classification is based on some biological characteristics of a growing organism and the following periods are distinguished:

1. The period of intrauterine development.

2. The neonatal period (2-3 weeks).

3. The period of infancy - up to 1 year.

4. Preschool, nursery age - from 1 year to 3 years.

5. Preschool age - from 3 to 7 years old.

6. The period of adolescence, or primary school age, is from 7 to 12 years old.

7. Adolescence - from 12 to 15 years old.

8. Senior school age - from 14 to 18 years old for girls and from 15-16 years old to 19-20 years old for boys.

L.S. Vygotsky distinguished three groups of periodization: by external criterion, by one or several signs of child development. The first group includes periodizations created according to the biogenetic principle, when the process of the child's individual development is built in accordance with the main periods of biological evolution and the historical development of mankind, or periodization, in which the stages of childhood coincide with the stages of the system of education and upbringing of children.

In the second group of periodizations, an internal criterion is used. This criterion becomes any one side of development, for example, the development of bone tissue (PP Blonsky) or the development of child sexuality (3. Freud). P.P. Blonsky in his classification singled out toothless childhood, milk-toothed childhood, constant-toothed childhood, prepubertal and pubertal periods.

In the third group of periodizations, periods of the child's mental development are distinguished on the basis of significant and non-isolated features of this development. This group includes the periodization of L.S. Vygotsky and D. B. Elkonin. They use three criteria - the social situation of development, the leading activity and the central age-related neoplasm.

To understand the human life cycle, it is necessary to determine the sequential change of developmental states, the one-pointedness and irreversibility of the life time, i.e. topological characteristics of this time. At the same time, one should take into account the duration of an individual's existence, determined by the total life expectancy of all individuals of a given species, - a metric characteristic of the life cycle and its individual moments.

Both of these characteristics are presented, for example, in the following age periodization scheme:

Newborns 1-10 days

Infant 10 days - 1 year

Early childhood 1-2 years

The first period of childhood 3-07 years

Second period of childhood:

8-12 years old for boys

8-11 years old for girls

Adolescence:

13-16 years old for boys

12-15 years old for girls

Adolescence:

17-21 years for men

16-20 years for women

Average age:

first period:

22-35 years old for men

21-35 years old for women

second period:

36-60 years old for men

36-55 years for women

Aged people:

61-75 years for men

55-75 years for women

Senile age:

74-90 years old for both sexes

Centenarians:

Over 90 years old

In anthropology and psychophysiology, pediatrics and gerontology, more special classifications of periods of growth and maturation, on the one hand, and involutionary periods, on the other, are used more often. In them, the main attention is paid to the objective signs of the beginning and end of each age period, the duration of which can vary significantly for different individuals.

In pediatrics, for example, the following periodization of development is widely used:

1) prenatal period;

2) the neonatal period;

3) the period of breastfeeding;

4) the period of milk teeth;

5) period of adolescence;

6) puberty.

Using age periodization in practice, it should be borne in mind that the chronological framework of a person's age and its morphological and psychophysiological characteristics are largely determined by social factors.

A number of authors consider the classification of D.B. Bromley (1966, England). She considers human life as a set of five cycles: uterine (pregnancy stage), childhood, adolescence, adulthood and aging. Each of these cycles consists of a number of stages, characterized by age dates (taking into account variability) and general features of development.

The first cycle consists of four stages:

1) zygote (fertilized egg);

2) embryo (early stage of biological development);

3) fetus (late stage of biological development);

4) the moment of birth (change of life in the internal environment of the maternal organism to life in the external environment).

From this moment, development is determined by age dates (from birth) and is characterized by a change in the methods of orientation, behavior and communication in the external environment.

The second cycle - childhood - consists of three stages, covering 11-13 years of life.

The first of these - infancy (from birth to 18 months of life) - is characterized by many important features of development. It is during this period that the child acquires the basic skills of movement, perception and manipulation, he develops a sensorimotor scheme that regulates behavior. Non-verbal communication is developing very intensively, with the help of which the initial socialization of the individual is carried out. The child's complete dependence on adults, especially on the mother, is of particular importance for initial socialization, the formation of communication needs and attachments, the accumulation of communication experience necessary for further development.

The second stage of childhood (from 18 months to 5 years) - preschool childhood - is characterized by the development of perceptual, mnemonic and elementary thought processes (preoperative ideas), complex manipulations and actions with things, and the accumulation of behavior experience in various life situations. This stage is distinguished by the intensive development of speech, the formation of verbal connections in the process of communication. However, along with them, earlier, non-verbal means of communication are also used (expressive forms of behavior: facial expressions, gestures, posture, intonation). Family and other social relations in the immediate environment are gradually being strengthened.

The third stage of childhood - early school childhood - from 5 to 11 or 13 years old. This stage is characterized by the assimilation of culture through education, the development of a symbolic principle in thinking and behavior, the assimilation of specific grouping operations, etc. social environment, but also rationally, by mastering the foundations of morality and regulating relations on these foundations.

The cycle of adolescence consists of two stages:

1) puberty - senior school childhood (early adolescence), lasting from 11-13 to 15 years.

2) late adolescence (15-21 years old). Starting from this cycle, Bromley characterizes the development of certain changes in the personality, its status, roles, positions in society. At the same time, she tries to note the most important psychophysiological changes in an individual at different periods of life.

The first stage of adolescence is characterized by the intensive development of secondary sexual characteristics and productive functions, somatic development and neuropsychic maturation. During this period, a system of formal operations and logical structures is formed that increase the level of mental activity. Very significant; changes occur in social development: begins to act; system of limited legal responsibility, new social roles and positions are being mastered. Behavior is oriented towards adult norms of behavior, and claims to adulthood are distinguished by many motives of behavior at this age.

The second stage of adolescence is the completion of the main phase of biological development, further education and vocational training, the development of certain professional roles, the beginning of an independent work and economic life. The transition from dependence (economic, legal, moral) to independence from parents is of decisive importance. It is precisely this transition, acutely experienced by individual young men and women, that explains, according to Bromley, the fact of social statistics that it is precisely during these years that the peak of antisocial behavior falls.

The adult cycle has four stages:

1) early adulthood (21-25 years old);

2) middle adulthood (25-40 years old);

3) late adulthood (40-55 years old);

4) pre-retirement age (55-65 years), which is transitional to the cycle of old age.

Early adulthood is mastering the role of an adult, legal maturity, electoral rights, economic responsibility - in general, full inclusion in all types of social activity of one's country. At this stage, one's own family is formed and one's own way of life is being built: marriage, the birth of the first child, the establishment of a circle of acquaintances related to common work. At work, professional roles are mastered, vocational training continues and skills improvement begins.

D. B. Bromley characterizes middle adulthood as follows: the years of "peak", or optimum, of intellectual achievements, the consolidation of social and professional roles by the type of service, the accumulation of relatively constant material resources and social ties, leadership in various activities and seniority by age among many employees and acquaintances, a slight decline in some physical and mental functions, manifested at maximum activity.

Late maturity has as its main features the continuation of the establishment of special (by occupation) and social roles with the domination of some of them and the weakening of others, the departure of children from the family and a change in lifestyle in connection with this, menopause, a further decline in physical and mental functions. According to many experimental data, the midpoint of this stage of development is between 45-50 years.

The pre-retirement age is characterized by a more obvious decline in physical and mental functions, a further weakening of sexual functions and interests. At the same time, these are the "peak" years for the most general social achievements - position in society, power and authority, partial exemption from employment and selection, the most interesting public affairs for the individual. No less significant is the change in all motivation in connection with the preparation for the upcoming retirement lifestyle, the expectation of old age and resistance to its onset.

The aging cycle has three stages:

1) “retirement” (“retirement”, 65-70 years);

2) old age (70 and more years);

3) the last stage of decrepitude, painful old age and death (maximum - about 110 years in the conditions of England and Western Europe).

The first of these stages is characterized by an increase in impressionability (susceptibility) to violations of a life stereotype, an increasing need for communication, an exacerbation of a sense of kinship and affection for loved ones; release from official roles and public affairs or the continuation of some kind of activity in order to maintain authority and power; adaptation to new living conditions without constant and strenuous activities; deterioration in physical and mental condition.

Old age: complete unemployment in society, the absence of any roles other than family roles, growing social isolation, a gradual reduction in the circle of close people, especially from peers, physical and mental disability.

The last stage - decrepitude, painful old age - is characterized by an increase in the phenomena of senility in behavior and the mental sphere, the final violation of biological functions, chronic painful conditions, and death.

The classification of ages according to the psychophysiological characteristics of development includes, therefore, the following chain of phase transformations of the human life cycle: infancy, early childhood, childhood, adolescence, adolescence, youth, middle age, elderly, old, elderly (decrepitude). The allocation of adolescence and youth as special periods separated by the period of adolescence is dictated by the presence of psychophysiological characteristics new for the development.

Periodization of childhood V.V. Zenkovsky is based on a philosophical understanding of the totality of various signs of age (psychological, associated with socialization, etc.). The author identified three periods: childhood, adolescence and adolescence, and childhood, in turn, divided into early and second.

If in "early" childhood (after 1 year to 5-6.5 years) - the metaphysics of childhood - the foundations of the personal are laid and there is an initial nondiscrimination of the subjective and objective worlds, then in the "second" childhood there is a strict separation of the inner world and the outer world. Adolescence is associated with sexual maturation and with the turn of the adolescent's attention to the inner world. In adolescence, the basis for the correct balance of the inner and outer world is formed. Thus, childhood is a thesis, adolescence is an antithesis, and adolescence is a synthesis.

L.S. Vygotsky believed that the age periodization of a person “should be considered in the context of his cultural and historical affiliation.

In his opinion, the development of a child consists of stable critical periods. The basic principles of dividing child development into separate ages are neoplasms, critical ages, etc. Age periodization, according to Vygotsky, is presented as follows: newborn crisis; infancy (2 months - 1 year); crisis 1 year; early childhood; crisis 3 years; preschool age (3-7 years old); crisis 7 years; school age; crisis 13 years; puberty (14-18 years old); crisis of 17 years.

Vygotsky's concept became the basis of a number of ideas in which activity is the basis of an independent direction. Thus, the theory of activity arose (A.N. Leont'ev and others), which is currently being developed by many authors.

Age periodization in the framework of the activity approach of D. B. Elkonin is expressed in the regular change and dominance of two areas of activity between birth and adolescence: motivational-need and cognitive functions, as well as operational and technical capabilities.

He identified the periods: from 0 to 1 year - direct emotional communication between the baby and adults; from 1 to 3 years old - subject-manipulative activity, when the child learns ways of acting with objects; 3-5 years old - role-playing game typical for preschoolers; 7-11 years old - educational activities of younger students; 11-13 years old - socially useful activities of adolescents; 13 / 14-16 / 17 years old - adolescent age, which is characterized by professional and educational activities. Thus, each age has its own social developmental situation, leading activities.

A.V. Zaporozhets also attached particular importance in development to the leading activity, in which the child's relations with people and object-related activities, typical for this stage of development, are realized: infancy (up to 1 year), early childhood (1-3 years), preschool age (3-7 years ), primary school age (7-12 years old), adolescence (11-15 years old), early adolescence (14-18 years old). At the same time, Zaporozhets pointed out that such a periodization of age is devoid of truly scientific justification, since it is empirical, not conceptual. Thus, in the works reflecting the activity principle, the features of biological development are not disclosed.

Age periodization, according to A.V. Petrovsky, correlates with the development of personality. In its most general form, the development of a person's personality can be represented as a process of entering a new social environment, integration in it. The personality is formed in groups hierarchically located at the stages of ontogeny.

With this in mind, Petrovsky identified the following age stages of personality functioning: early childhood (preschool) age (0-3 years), kindergarten childhood (3-7 years), primary school age (7-11 years), middle school age (11-15 years), senior school age (15-18 years). The author adheres to the point of view that the unity of ideas about the formation of the personality and the fundamental similarity of the options for the social situation of development in a particular culture determine the typical psychological characteristics of children, adolescents or young men at school age, i.e. as a kind of standards.

The critical periods of childhood, adopted in modern science, are assessed by the authors in different ways:

a) as an indicator of the reflection of the adaptation of the organism during maturation (meaning pubertal crisis), for example, E. Erickson's idea of ​​a "normal crisis";

6) as a "disease" of development, deviation from the norm (L.S.Vygotsky, L.I. Bozhovich, G.E. Sukhareva, P.K.Ushakov, V.V. Kovalev, I.Yu. );

c) as an optional symptom of the transition from one stable age to another (A.N. Leont'ev).

The main manifestations of any critical period are signs that are opposite to the signs of stable, or stable, age periods, namely: difficult to educate, sensitivity (easy vulnerability, vulnerability), imbalance. At the same time, there are also signs that indicate a combination of creation and destruction, i.e. coexistence of both positive and negative traits is possible (P.P. Blonsky, L. S. Vygotsky, K. N. Polivanova).

Difficulty in education, which takes various, sometimes ugly forms, is one of the most important consequences of crisis periods. Children begin to study worse, they lose interest in classes, conflicts with others are possible. As they say, the child becomes "problematic." It is this important feature of crisis periods that attracts the attention of teachers, psychologists and psychiatrists and requires special treatment.

In addition to being difficult to educate, the so-called easy education (K.N. Polivanova) can testify to the crisis, although such "easy education" is important only if it reflects "a change in behavior, its new forms, unusual reactions to educational influences" (K.N. . Polivanova).

The presence of signs indicating combinations of the manifestation of creation and destruction is expressed (according to L.S.Vygotsky) in the change of the old situation of development to the new one. So, in the transition period, adolescents have a distinct process of withering away of children's interests and the formation of new ones. Since the whole life of a person is a series of intervals where one situation changes to another, in each specific case it is necessary to clearly understand what stage of development we are talking about and how the interests (and, as a consequence, behavior) of the child change.

Various signs of a crisis are due to the influence of a number of factors, and it is difficult, and sometimes simply impossible, to determine which is more important. These factors are the biological restructuring of the body, the process of socialization and others, such as illness. Overcoming the crisis means moving development forward, to a higher level into the next biological and psychological age.

To designate mental age-related phenomena in the special literature, different terms are used: neoplasm, age-related functions, etc. Vygotsky proposed to use the term neoformation, which is “a new type of personality structure and its activity, those mental and social changes that first arise at a given age stage and which in the most important and basic way determine the consciousness of the child, his attitude to the environment, his inner and external life, the entire course of its development in a given period. " In his opinion, neoplasms can be used as a criterion for dividing development into separate ages.

Features of the course of the I age crisis (2-4 years). Vygotsky distinguishes five main psychological signs of the first age crisis: negativism, stubbornness, obstinacy, self-will and jealous attitude towards other children.

Negativism is a behavior in which a child does not want to do something just because an adult suggested it, i.e. it is the child's reaction not to the content of the proposal made, but to the proposal itself. According to Vygotsky, "negativism forces the child to act contrary to his affective desire."

Stubbornness is a behavior of a child in which he insists on something not because he really wants to, but because he demanded (L.S. Vygotsky).

Obstinacy, in contrast to negativism, is impersonal and rather directed against the norms of upbringing; is biased.

Self-will, reflecting a tendency towards independence, is another sign of crisis. Its timely establishment is important, since the lack of independence is typical of infantilism.

Features of the course of the II age (child) crisis. Age II (children's) crisis (6-7 years) - the period of the birth of the social “I” (LI Bozhovich) - coincides in time with the beginning of schooling. With the loss of interest in play as an activity, a new activity begins to form in a child at this age - educational.

The most important indicator of this crisis period is the child's readiness or unpreparedness for school, since it is to this age that the formation of the biological basis of such readiness belongs, namely: the maturation of the most complex frontal regions (A.R. Luria) and the strengthening of the processes of inhibition of the cerebral cortex over instinctive emotional reactions (N.Y. Krasnogorsky).

Features of the course of the pubertal crisis. The puberty period falls on the age of 11-20 years and is characterized by violent morphofunctional rearrangements, especially pronounced in the genital area (the beginning of the functioning of the gonads). The distinct psychological characteristics of adolescents are often called the "adolescent complex."

It is now generally accepted that the pubertal crisis is heterogeneous in its structure (S. Buhler, O. Cro, M. Tramer, L.S.Vygotsky, A.E. Lichko, E. Kretschmer, etc.). There are various grades of puberty. Usually, two phases of this period are distinguished (S. Buhler, M. Tramer, etc.): negative (11-15 years old) and positive (16-20 years old), which have both common and distinctive features. In addition, the so-called III phase (post-pubertal - EE Sukhareva) is distinguished, which is practically devoid of common features of the critical period and is interpreted as a stable age (post-critical phase - L.S. Vygotsky).

The general features of the pubertal crisis period are conventionally combined into five groups of signs:

a) a clearly expressed affective instability that determines all the behavior of adolescents - "pubertal mood lability" (M. Tramer);

b) the inconsistency of certain aspects of the mental structure of adolescents;

c) the appeal of mental activity to the outside world, the desire to expand contacts (L.I.Bozhovich and others);

d) signs of ripening of drives;

e) various violations of behavior (deviant behavior) in the form of antidisciplinary, antisocial, delinquent (illegal) and autoaggressive (A.G. Ambrumova, L.Ya. Zhezlova, V.V. Kovalev, etc.) behavior. This is stated as a certain degree of violation of social adaptation.

Along with the general signs, each phase of the pubertal crisis has its own, special features. The negative phase (the phase of denial - V.E. Smirnov; negativistic - V. Willinger; protest, against the fathers - E. Kretschmer, G. Nissen) is characterized by the predominance of an unstable mood, increased excitability, a desire for independence, protest against elders (A . Wallon, etc.). The positive phase (philosophical - M. Tramer; leading intellectual excitement - V.E.Smirnov) is characterized by a pronounced desire for creativity, the growth of self-awareness, the transformation of drives into interests (L.S.Vygotsky).

L.I. Bozovic, studying the age characteristics of personality development together with her colleagues, came to the conclusion that the formation of a child's personality is determined by the ratio of the place that occupies in the system of human relations available to him (hence, the corresponding requirements for him), and those psychological characteristics that he has have already formed as a result of his previous experience.

It is from this relationship that that internal position of the child arises, i.e. that system of needs and aspirations (subjectively represented in the corresponding experiences), which, refracting and mediating the impact of the environment, becomes the direct driving force behind the development of new mental qualities in him. Bozovic believed that these provisions are valid not only for understanding the conditions for the formation of the individual characteristics of the child's personality, but also for understanding the driving forces of the age-related development of children and the reasons that determine the typical characteristics of their age-specific psychological appearance.

Thus, human development is conditioned (determined):

Internal contradictions and psychophysiological characteristics;

Social developmental situation;

The type of leading activity;

The measure of his own activity in the process of formation and improvement of the personality;

Age and gender and individual characteristics.

The process of age-related development of a person is associated with sensitive periods - periods of ontogenetic development in which the developing organism is especially sensitive to certain kinds of environmental influences; periods of optimal combination of conditions for the development of certain mental properties and processes. The onset of the sensitive period is determined by the functional maturation of brain structures, internal connections necessary for the implementation of the mechanisms of certain functions. For example: 1.5-3 years - speech; 3-6 years old - perception, thinking, imagination, etc .; 5-6 years old - coordination of movements (ballet, figure skating, etc.), reading, etc.

Learning has the greatest impact on those mental functions that are just beginning to develop, but premature or delayed learning in relation to the sensitive period may not be effective enough, which generally adversely affects the development of the psyche. A number of scientists believe that the untapped opportunities inherent in the body quickly fade away. So, for example, there are cases when children who fell into the hands of animals and remained alive, being returned to human society, practically did not recover as representatives of the human race, since those opportunities that were in the corresponding sensitive periods of their development turned out to be irretrievably missed.

Any age periodization is rather arbitrary (a growing organism develops individually, goes through its own unique path), but it is necessary for a comprehensive analysis of the body properties changing in the process of ontogenesis, for the development of a scientifically grounded system of mental and physical health protection, for the creation of techniques and methods adequate for each age stage. training and education, optimal development of physical and mental capabilities.

There are the following age periods of a person:

1. Childhood- from birth to the beginning of the period (12-13 years).

2. Adolescence(puberty) - from 12-13 to 16 years old in girls and from 13-14 to 17-18 years old in boys. This age is characterized by a sharp increase in body length with an annual increase of 5-6 cm. By the age of 15 (compared to a newborn), it triples and reaches an average of 158 cm in boys and 156 cm in girls. Body weight is respectively 48 and 49 kg. By the age of 14-15, all permanent ones appear, except for wisdom teeth. During this period, one of the most important age-related crises occurs - pubertal, which is based on a change in the function of the endocrine system of the body, which leads to the appearance of secondary, the onset of menstruation in girls and the appearance in boys. The general metabolism in the body becomes intense, but unstable, labile. The mental life of a teenager is very complex and unstable and requires great tact and endurance from teachers, doctors and parents.

3. Adolescence- from 16 to 25 years old for women and from 17 to 26 years old for men. Growth retardation is characteristic, the average annual increase is 0.5 cm. At this age, wisdom teeth usually appear.

4. Adult age- from 25 to 40 years old for women and from 26 to 45 years old for men. Period of relative stabilization of morphological and metabolic processes.

5. Mature age- from 40 to 55 years old for women and from 45 to 60 years old for men. During this period, the second most important age crisis sets in, which is especially pronounced in women. Menopause is associated with the extinction of the functions of the gonads and the restructuring of a number of hormonal systems in the body. The mental sphere and metabolism are characterized by significant lability.

6. Elderly age- from 55 to 75 years old for women and from 60 to 75 years old for men.

7. Old age- over 75 years for women and men. The general involution of the organism begins to develop.

Sometimes it is proposed to allocate a special age for centenarians for people 90 years and older.

Accurate determination of age is essential in clinical and forensic practice. Age can be judged on the basis of data on height, body weight, number of teeth, skin condition. With age, wrinkles appear on a person's face. By 20 years - frontal and nasolabial, by 25 years at the outer edges behind the ears, by 30 years - infraorbital, by 40 years - cervical, by 55 years - on the earlobes, hands, chin. However, all these criteria are very relative.

A more accurate method of establishing age is to determine (radiographically) the so-called. Its definition is based on the patterns in ossification associated with age periods. So, for example, ossification points in the distal epiphysis of the radius appear at 12-14 months. in girls and at 16-18 months. in boys. in the distal epiphysis of the ulna at the age of 19 and 20, respectively. As a rule, a snapshot of the hand and distal bone is used to determine bone age. Knowing the time of the appearance of points of ossification and synostosis, it is possible to determine the age of a person with a high degree of accuracy.

Age periods in children... The period of childhood is characterized by the constant development and growth of the child's body. There is no strict line between the individual stages of development.

Childhood is preceded by a period in which the stage of embryonic development (the first 3 months) and the stage of placental development (from the 3rd to the 9th month) are distinguished.

The prenatal period of development is divided into several periods: 1) newborns, lasting up to 4 weeks of life; 2) infancy, lasting from 4 weeks to 1 year; 3) preschool, or nursery, - from 1 year to 3 years; 4) preschool (kindergarten period) - from 3 to 7 years; 5) junior school - from 7 to 12 years old; 6) senior school (adolescence, or puberty) - from 12 to 18 years old (see above).

The neonatal period is characterized by the incompleteness of the development of all organs and systems. During this period, the child's body adapts to the conditions of the external environment. Insufficient functional ability of various organs is the reason for the development of a number of disorders in which it is difficult to draw the line between physiological and pathological states (physiological and physiological weight loss, and others). The newborn is extremely susceptible to coccal infection, which requires maximum care for a child of this age (see).

Infant age... For the period of infancy, the intensity of the growth and development of the child's body is characteristic, which determines a relatively large need for high-calorie food and requires proper nutrition. In case of violation of the quality and quantity of food, nutritional disorders and are possible. Due to the relative functional weakness of the digestive organs, the child eats mainly dairy food. During this period, the child is also helpless and requires special care.

The first signaling system is formed in an infant. Children begin to recognize objects and faces are guided in the environment.

Rapid exhaustion of the central nervous system. requires a large number of hours of sleep and proper alternation of sleep and wakefulness.

The weakness of immunobiological defense mechanisms makes children in the first months of life more susceptible to septic processes. In 2-5 months. the child is most vulnerable to infections due to a decrease in passive and insufficient production of active acquired immunity. In infancy, the manifestation of constitutional anomalies is characteristic, most often of exudative-catarrhal diathesis (see).

Preschool age in its biological characteristics, it has common features with infancy and preschool age. By the end of the first year, especially after two years, it is developing rapidly. At this age, appropriate organizational measures are required to ensure the correct regime, education, sufficient rest and further development of the child. In preschool age, acute infections become more frequent, mainly due to insufficient production of active immunity. This requires a timely child, as well as the implementation of measures to protect the child from infection.

Preschool age characterized by great mobility of the child, his activity. Children are much more involved in sports activities.

In this period of childhood, it is especially important to properly organize outdoor games, manual labor, etc. When developing a daily routine, especially organizing walks, one must remember that the child gets tired very quickly with slow, non-stop walking. Household and street injuries become more frequent in preschool age; the incidence of acute infections increases significantly.

Junior school age characterized by increased muscle development, but the child's growth slows down somewhat. The child develops in the school team and lives by its interests. Physical education should be organized so that they do not tire the child, but contribute to an increase in metabolic processes and functions of all body systems.

With a significant school load, improper organization of sleep and rest, the development of neurotic reactions is possible. Primary school age is characterized by a high incidence of acute infections, diseases that are rare in preschool age appear (functional cardiovascular disorders, and others).

Senior school age... Physiologically, it is characterized by the maturation of the gonads. the gonads dramatically change the course of all life processes and affect the functional state of the nervous system. In adolescents, there are a number of shifts in (pulse instability, etc.).

Uneven mood, increased irritability, and fatigue are also noted. In adolescence, morphological and physiological features that distinguish a child from an adult gradually smooth out and disappear. The course of the disease takes on the clinical features characteristic of adults. See also .

Developmental psychology studies the facts and patterns of mental development of a healthy person. Traditionally, it is customary to divide its life cycle into the following periods:

1) prenatal (intrauterine);

2) childhood;

3) adolescence;

4) maturity (adulthood);

5) old age, old age.

In turn, each of the periods consists of several stages with a number of characteristic features.

All these stages have their own specifics associated with the level of physiological functioning, the degree of mental development of a person, his psychological qualities and prevailing desires, prevailing forms of behavior and activity.

Prenatal period divided into 3 stages:

pre-embryonic;

embryonic(embryonic);

stage of the fetus.

The first stage lasts 2 weeks and corresponds to the development of a fertilized egg before its introduction into the uterine wall and the formation of the umbilical cord. The second - from the beginning of the third week after fertilization until the end of the second month of development. At this stage, anatomical and physiological differentiation of various organs occurs. The third begins from the third month of development and ends by the time of childbirth. At this time, the formation of body systems takes place, which allow it to survive after birth. The fetus acquires the ability to survive in the air at the beginning of the seventh month, and from that time it is already called a child. Childhood period includes stages:

birth and infancy(from birth to 1 year);

early childhood(or "first childhood" - from 1 year to 3 years) - the period of development of functional independence and speech;

preschool age(or "second childhood" - from 3 to 6 years), characterized by the development of the child's personality and cognitive processes;

junior school age(or "third childhood" - from 6 to 11-12 years old) corresponds to the inclusion of a child in a social group and the development of intellectual skills and knowledge.

Adolescence is subdivided into two periods:

adolescent(or pubertal);

youthful(juvenile).

The first period corresponds to puberty and lasts from 11-12 to 14-15 years. At this time, under the influence of constitutional changes, a teenager forms a new idea of ​​himself. The second period lasts from 16 to 20-23 years and represents the transition to maturity. From a biological point of view, the young man is already an adult, but he has not yet reached social maturity: adolescence is characterized by a feeling of psychological independence, although the person has not yet taken on any social obligations. Youth acts as a period of making responsible decisions that determine the entire future life of a person: the choice of a profession and his place in life, the search for the meaning of life, the formation of his worldview and self-consciousness, the election of a life partner.

In the transition from one age stage to another, critical periods or crises are distinguished when the previous form of a person's relationship with the outside world is destroyed and a new one is formed, which is accompanied by significant psychological difficulties for the person himself and his social environment. Allocate small crises(crisis of the first year, crisis of 7 years, crisis of 17/18 years) and big crises(birth crisis, 3 years old, teenage crisis 13-14 years old). In the case of the latter, the relationship between the child and society is being rebuilt. Small crises are outwardly calmer, they are associated with an increase in the skills and independence of a person. During periods of a critical phase, children are difficult to educate, stubborn, show negativism, obstinacy, disobedience.

Maturity. It is subdivided into a number of stages and crises. Stage early maturity, or youth(from 20-23 to 30-33 years old), corresponds to the entry of a person into an intensive personal life and professional activity. This is the period of "formation", self-affirmation of oneself in love, sex, career, family, society.

In mature years, its crisis periods stand out. One of them - crisis 33-35 years old, when, having reached a certain social and marital status, a person begins to think with anxiety: “Is this really all that life can give me? Is there nothing better? " And some begin to feverishly change jobs, spouses, place of residence, hobbies, etc. Then comes short stabilization period - from 35 to 40-43 years old, when a person consolidates everything that he has achieved, is confident in his professional skills, authority, has an acceptable level of career success and material wealth, his health, marital status and sexual relations are normalized.

Following a period of stability comes critical decade 45-55 years. A person begins to feel the approach of middle age: health deteriorates, signs of loss of beauty and physical shape appear, alienation occurs in the family and in relations with matured children, there is a fear that nothing better will be obtained either in life, or in career, or in love. As a result, a feeling of fatigue from reality arises, depressive moods, from which a person hides either in dreams of new love victories, or in real attempts to “prove his youth” in love affairs, or a career takes off. The final period of maturity lasts from 55 to 65 years. This is a period of physiological and psychological balance, a decrease in sexual tension, a gradual withdrawal of a person from an active work and social life. The age from 65 to 75 is spoken of as the first old age. After 75 years, age is considered old: a person rethinks his whole life, realizes his I in spiritual thoughts about the years he has lived - and either accepts his life as a unique destiny that does not need to be redone, or realizes that life has been wasted.

V old age(old age) a person has to overcome three sub-crises. The first of them is the reassessment of one's self, which is not related to the professional role, which for many people remains the main one until retirement. The second sub-crisis is associated with the awareness of the deteriorating health and aging of the body, which makes it possible for a person to develop the necessary indifference to this.

As a result of the third sub-crisis, self-concern disappears, and now the thought of death can be accepted without horror.

Faced with its inevitability, a person goes through a series of stages. The first one is denial. Thought "No, not me!" - the usual and normal reaction of a person to the announcement of a fatal diagnosis. Then comes the stage anger. It embraces the patient with the question "Why me?" For such a stage to come to an end, the dying person must pour out his feelings outside.

The next stage is "Bargaining". The patient tries to prolong his life, promising to be an obedient patient or an exemplary believer, trying to prolong his life with the help of the achievements of medicine and repentance before God for his sins and mistakes.

All these three phases constitute a period of crisis and develop in the described order, there are returns to the previous stage.

After the resolution of this crisis, the dying person enters the stage depression. He realizes: "Yes, this time it is me who will die." He withdraws into himself, often feels the need to cry at the thought of those whom he is forced to leave. This is the stage of preparatory sadness in which the dying person renounces life and prepares to meet death, accepting it as his last stage of life. He separates further and further from living people, withdrawing into himself - the state of “ social death”(A person has already moved away from society, from people, as if he had died in the social sense).

The fifth stage - " acceptance of death. " A person realizes and agrees, resigns himself to the inevitability of near death and humbly awaits his end. This state " mental death "(psychologically, the person has already given up life, as it were). Clinical death occurs from the moment the heart stops working and breathing stops, but within 10-20 minutes it is still possible to bring a person back to life through medical efforts.

Brain death means the complete cessation of the activity of the brain and its control over various functions of the body, resulting in the death of brain cells. Physiological death corresponds to the extinction of the last functions of the body and the death of all its cells. According to some religious views and the opinion of a number of scientists, with the death of the body, the soul, the psyche of a person, does not die. There is a hypothesis that it continues to exist in the form of an information clot after the death of a person and is connected to the global information field. The traditional materialistic understanding denies the possibility of preserving the soul, the psyche of a person after his death, although the latest studies of physicists, doctors, psychologists are no longer so categorical.

20 psychological development of a child in preschool age .

The separation of a child from an adult by the end of an early age creates the prerequisites for the creation of a new social development situation... For the first time, a child transcends his family circle and establishes a relationship with the world of adults. An adult for a child acts in a generalized form, as a carrier of social relations. The social situation of a preschooler's development is contradictory, because a child, being already a member of society, cannot live without society, and his main need is to live with the people around him. However, it is completely impossible to fulfill this need in modern conditions, since a child's life takes place in conditions of mediated, rather than direct, connection with the world. This connection is carried out by play activities.

Trying to simulate the real world, the relationships existing in it and to be included inside such a simulated model, the child carries out such activities as role-playing game which becomes leading activity preschool child.

Another feature of the social situation of development, which consists in the emergence of relationships with peers, the formation of a "children's society", allows one to carry out this activity.

The active inclusion of a preschooler in various activities, expanding the range of his relationships with adults and peers contribute to the rapid development and improvement of many mental cognitive processes.

Sensory Perceptual Development a preschooler includes two interrelated sides - 1) assimilation of ideas about various properties and relationships of objects and phenomena and 2) mastering new actions of perception, sensation, allowing more and more fully and dismembered to perceive the world.

In the first half of the period, the child begins to master the generally accepted means of performing actions of perception and visual-figurative thinking - sensory standards and visual models (highlighting and visualizing connections and relationships between objects and phenomena).

Perceptual actions become more hidden, curtailed, reduced, their external links disappear, and perception from the outside begins to seem a passive process. In fact, this process is active, takes place in the consciousness and in the subconscious of the child. As a result, external perceptual action turns into internal mental action. Thus, the inner actions of perception arise.

Major change attention in preschool age is that children for the first time begin to control their attention, consciously direct it to them, i.e. attention becomes voluntary; however, involuntary attention remains predominant throughout preschool age.

Memory preschooler is mostly involuntary, memorization and recall occurs independently of the will and consciousness of the child. In the middle preschool age, arbitrary forms of memorization begin to develop, and in the older preschool age, arbitrary forms of memorization begin to develop.

However, while voluntary memory in preschoolers is already developed, but as before, involuntary memorization associated with the active mental work of children on a certain material remains much more productive than voluntary memorization of the same material.

The preschooler's memory, despite its imperfection, actually becomes the leading function, taking a central place among other mental processes.

In the first half of preschool childhood, the child is dominated by reproductive imagination, which mechanically reproduces previously received impressions in the form of images.

In older preschool years, the imagination turns from reproductive to creatively transformative. It connects with thinking, starting to perform a cognitive and intellectual function, becomes controllable.

In preschool childhood, such main lines of development are distinguished. thinking, as: 1) further improvement of visual-active thinking on the basis of developing imagination; 2) improvement of visual-figurative thinking based on voluntary and mediated memory; 3) the beginning of the active formation of verbal-logical thinking by using speech as a means of setting and solving intellectual problems; 4) another striking feature of the preschooler's thinking is that it is at this age that the cognitive orientation of thinking first appears.

However, the main type of thinking of a preschooler is visual-figurative thinking.

In preschoolers, the process of development of concepts also takes place, especially intensively when thinking and speech are connected with each other.

Development speeches goes in several directions:

 development of vocabulary and grammatical structure of speech. The preschooler's vocabulary is increased not only by nouns, but also by verbs, pronouns, adjectives, and numerals. The growth of the vocabulary is accompanied by the development of the ability to combine words in sentences according to the laws of grammar;

 development of phonemic hearing. With special training, a preschooler learns to make a sound analysis of a word, dismember it into its constituent sounds and establish the order of sounds in a word;

 awareness of the verbal composition of speech;

 development of speech functions: communicative, planning, sign, expressive.

Thus, the development of speech in preschool age is characterized by the following neoplasms:

 the child masters contextual speech;

• speech turns into a means of planning and regulating the child's practical behavior, due to the fact that it merges with the child's thinking;

• egocentric speech undergoes internalization, turns into internal speech and in this form retains its planning function;

 mastering the sign function of speech, which is the key for entering the world of human socio-psychological space, a means for people to understand each other. Thanks to the mastery of signs, the child begins to correspond to the level of the symbolic development of civilization, becomes a contemporary of his era.

During the preschool age, there is a rapid development of the personality traits of the child. The personality begins to really take shape in the main features, a new type of behavior is formed. If in early childhood and among younger preschoolers, impulsive actions predominate in the general pattern of behavior, then by the older preschool age the ability to voluntarily control their actions and deeds develops.

The emotional and personal development of a preschooler is characterized by such psychological neoplasms as:

Development of emotional self-regulation, due to which during the preschool period emotional manifestations, feelings of the child acquire greater depth and stability;

Self-esteem begins to develop. This happens by comparing the results of their own activities and similar activities of other people, thanks to which the child learns to evaluate his own capabilities. The child separates himself from other people, starting to evaluate in comparison with himself and others;

 there is an assimilation of moral norms, the formation of more or less stable moral ideas, as well as the ability for moral self-regulation. Most children develop their own moral position, which they follow, there is a personal moral self-regulation. The principles of moral self-awareness are formed in the child;

 along with emotional self-regulation, more complex feelings appear - of beauty, beauty, rhythm, harmony. An inner world is formed in which the child analyzes the feelings and experiences that have arisen;

 the central personality formation - the hierarchy of motives - is the result of the collision of the child's immediate desires with the direct or indirect demand of adults to act according to a given pattern;

• emergence of volitional actions;

• there is an awareness of oneself in time: the individual past and individual future are formed;

 primary psychosexual identity appears in the structure of self-awareness.

21 Adolescence and adolescence. General characteristics.

Traditionally, the sub-eastern age is considered to be the period from 11 to 25 years. Divided into 3 stages: 1 . Adolescent (adolescent) (11-15 years old). This is a transitional age in a biological sense, the age of puberty, certain biological structures reach maturity, and primary socialization continues. Age is extremely critical, imbalances in the rates and levels of development. The period of completion of childhood, the level of aspirations increases, typical age-related conflicts.

2 .Early adolescence (! 4-18 years old). 3 the world that exists between childhood and adulthood. Completion of natural physical development. The main task is to choose a profession. 3 .Late adolescence, early adulthood (18-23 (25) years). An adult, both biologically and socially. The leading sphere of activity is labor, with the emphasis on professional roles.

Kon and Geyser described features of adolescence for every year of life.

10 years... The child is basically balanced, easily perceives life, trusting, even with his parents, cares little about his appearance.

11 years... Behavior becomes impulsive, frequent mood swings, quarrels, strong development of the volitional sphere, it is difficult to build relationships with parents.

If parents adhere to an authoritarian style of upbringing (disrespect, excessive demands of parents), then there is negativism on the part of a teenager: isolation, deceit, a downtrodden, passive personality, self-doubt is formed. The child is not accustomed to an independent life, is very dependent on outside influence. A permissive upbringing style, excessive freedom gives rise to selfish asocial tendencies, unsystematicity, and disorderly behavior. A trusting relationship develops self-esteem, self-esteem, enhances the sense of security, security, with all the problems the child is ready to come home.

12 years... The attitude towards the world is becoming more positive. The autonomy of the adolescent in the family is growing, the influence of peers is increasing. Taking care of your appearance, the opposite sex is of interest.

13 years... Turning inward, the rapid development of consciousness, self-awareness, prone to withdrawal, sensitive to criticism, he himself becomes critical, mood swings. Gradually there is a decrease in values ​​in the family circle. Parents 'demands are accepted only when they matter outside the family, the parents' authority decreases (it has an external character).

14 years old... The center of attention is transferred to the world around, the child becomes more energetic, sociable, self-confident. There is an interest in other people, a tendency to compare oneself with them. The processes of thinking are being improved, which allows the adolescent to ascribe great possibilities (omnipotence) to his thinking.

15 years. The main feature is the maximalism of independence, the desire for complete independence, self-affirmation, combined with the development of self-control, self-education, intensively working on oneself, begins to make some kind of life plans. Increased vulnerability and susceptibility to harmful external influences, distrust of surrounding adults. Makes high demands on others, low on himself. Of particular importance are situations associated with a risk to life, is interested in endurance, purposefulness, observes volitional qualities in others, tries to find them in oneself. Provokes conflict situations - the desire to establish themselves in the circle of peers.

16 years... Age of balance, cheerfulness prevails, inner independence, sociability, striving for the future. One-sidedness in assessment, categoricalness, intolerance persists, an overestimated ideal appears, in the light of which any reality seems gloomy, hence pessimism and despair (fixation of attention on what does not correspond to ideals). Social activity takes the form of rejection.

17-23(25) years... Awareness of one's own individuality, uniqueness. But inner tension can arise - a feeling of loneliness. The main new formation is the opening of the inner world and the growth of the need for spiritual closeness with another person. Friendship plays an important role, which performs the function of psychotherapy (support, self-affirmation). In general, contact with peers has the goal of self-affirmation. The age of friends reflects the need for communication: if a teenager is friends with a peer, he strives for an equal relationship; no effort is needed for this friendship. Often the balance of the inner world is disturbed by the problem of self-determination. You have to give up everything for the sake of one thing.

Self-awareness . 1. The main psychological acquisition is the discovery of your inner world. For a child, the main thing is the external world, he is not aware of his internal psychological states, for a teenager, the physical world is an opportunity to gain new subjective experience. The ability to immerse yourself allows you to rediscover the external world, the world of emotions, etc.

2. The problem of self-control is actualized (the inner "I" does not coincide with the outer behavior). The need to get rid of childhood identifications, the feeling of dissimilarity, particularity becomes more significant, which leads to a feeling of loneliness and at the same time to fear, fear of loneliness. 3. Perception of time is special. In a child under 10 years old, the main thing is the present, he weakly feels the passage of time, time lasts a very long time. In a teenager, subjective time is accelerating, historical and personal time is coming closer (for a child, these categories are almost unrelated), and many events are perceived as significant. On the other hand, there is often a feeling of the irreversibility of time, unwillingness to notice the passage of time. The hope for personal immortality, which is combined with the fear of death and old age.

4. The theme of death: before the age of 5, a child very early shows an interest in death (of a cognitive nature), the information received is not transferred to himself. Poorly distinguishes between animate, inanimate objects; death is associated with broken toys, it seems reversible. At 5-9 years old, a child personifies death, associates with darkness - fear of the dark, with old age, illness. Death and old age evoke fear and disgust. At the age of 9-12, death is an unavoidable phenomenon, but consciousness refuses to extend it to itself. In adolescence, death sounds ambiguous, childhood fears return. For some, death is a new intellectual problem that can be explored, for others the emphasis is shifted to the idea of ​​immortality, what can be done for immortality. The idea of ​​personal immortality persists for a very long time, it is typical for both boys and girls to commit deadly acts.

5. The central psychological process is the formation of personal identity. James Marshan singled out 4 stages of identity development: 1. Vague, blurred identity. There are no clear convictions, I have not yet faced an identity crisis, I have not chosen a profession. 2. Early premature identification. A person is included in the path, but not as a result of his own conclusions, but as a result of someone else's influence, experience. 3. The stage of mature identity. The person moved on to self-realization. 4. Stage "motor". Man really independently chooses the path of development, the only path.

If a person fails to solve this problem, then an inadequate identity is formed, the development of which goes along 4 lines: * Avoidance of close interpersonal relationships. * Fear of growing up and change, prefers to stay where it is, inability to make life plans. * Inability to mobilize, actualize their internal resources, focus on some basic activity. * Rejection of self-determination and selection of negative role models.

6. Self-esteem (self-satisfaction, self-esteem, positive attitude towards oneself) is an important component of self-awareness. Almost all experiences related to self-knowledge turn out to be negative, the teenager finds many shortcomings in himself. This is the result of the internalization of the assessments of the surrounding adults, and adults usually see the negative qualities of adolescents. Hence the negative self-perception.

22 ART THERAPY

For a person, creativity is one of the opportunities to penetrate into his inner world and get to know himself. It addresses the best aspects of our soul, the brightest, richest and most sincere. When a person writes, draws, sculpts from clay or expresses himself in other forms of art, this allows him to relax, open up and at least for a short while be in harmony - in harmony with himself. In addition, creativity is an effective method for healing the psyche, which today has found wide application in practical psychology under the name of art therapy.

As a method of psychological assistance, art therapy has existed for a very long time. It is known that even in ancient China, to heal nervous shocks, the drawing of hieroglyphs was practiced. For the first time concept "art therapy" used by the artist Adrian Hill in the late 30s of the 19th century, describing his experience of treating patients with tuberculosis, during which he realized that the creative process helps his patients overcome the disease. The development of art therapy as a full-fledged direction in psychology began much later - from the 30s of the 20th century, when art therapy methods were used to help children taken from Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Art therapy was originally based on psychology Sigmund Freud and Carl-Gustav Jung, according to which the result of a person's creative activity reflects his unconscious and the processes that take place in it. In 1960, she began her work in the USA American Art Therapy Association.

Age periods - these are certain terms, time intervals that are necessary to complete a certain stage of the morphological and functional development of individual tissues, organs, systems of the body and the whole organism as a whole.

The allocation of age periods is rather arbitrary, and the concept of age periods is relative. But for practical purposes, such a division is necessary. The criteria by which certain stages of life are determined, certain age periods of a person, their duration, depend on a number of factors. These are, first of all, the biological characteristics of the organism, secondly, social factors (environmental conditions, living standards), and thirdly, the level of scientific knowledge and the state of health care. Other factors are also important, affecting both the state of human health and his worldview.

Throughout the human life cycle - from conception to death - there are three main periods:

The period of growth and development, the formation of functional systems, continuing until the age of morphological, sexual, psychological maturity;

Period of relative stability, maturity of the functional systems of the body;

The period of extinction, weakening and destruction of functional systems during the aging of the body, which occurs after the cessation of reproductive function.

The boundaries between certain age periods can not always be clearly established, especially in an adult. The division into age periods was developed in the most detail for childhood, and it reflects, first of all, the stages of maturation of the nervous system, internal organs, masticatory apparatus, the formation of higher nervous activity. This is explained by the fact that it is in childhood that qualitatively new changes proceed more dynamically and faster. The period of childhood is characterized by a continuous process of growth and development, when the organs and functional systems of the child change in accordance with known age limits.

The period of childhood is preceded by a period of intrauterine development, in which it is possible to distinguish stages(or periods) of embryonic (first 2 lunar months) and placental (from the 3rd to the 10th lunar month) development.

Thus, in childhood, there are:

A. Intrauterine stage:

1) the stage of embryonic development (the first 2 lunar months);

2) the stage of placental development (from the 3rd to the 10th lunar month).

B. Extrauterine stage:

1) neonatal period (up to 4 weeks);

2) the period of infancy (from 4 weeks to 12 months);

3) preschool, or senior nursery, period (from 1 year to 3 years);

4) preschool period (from 3 to 6-7 years old);



5) primary school period (from 6-7 to 11-12 years old);

6) senior school, or adolescent, period (from 12 to 16-18 years). Such a detailed and precise distinction cannot be made either

in what other age period.

Nevertheless, in the life of an adult, certain stages, or age periods, can also be distinguished.

Currently, the following periods in the life of an adult are distinguished:

1) adolescence (from 16 to 20 years for women, from 17 to 21 years for men);

2) mature age (from 20 to 55 years for women, from 21 to 60 years for men). It, in turn, is subdivided into two sub-periods:

a) from 20 to 35 years old for women, from 21 to 35 years old for men;

b) from 35 to 55 years old for women, from 35 to 60 years old for men.

Some researchers distinguish the following groups in adulthood:

a) young age - up to 45 years;

b) the average age is 45-60 years.

At the border of mature and old age, due to the importance of the processes occurring in the body, a special age interval is distinguished - the climacteric period (from 45 to 60 years for women, from 50 to 60 years for men);

3) old age (from 55 to 75 years for women, from 60 to 75 years for men);

4) old age (from 75 to 90 years old);

5) late old age, or macrobiotic (after 90 years; such people are called centenarians).

In the stages of a person's life, several of the most important, critical periods, the so-called "hot spots" of the age biography, can be distinguished, which are characterized by more significant physiological, psychological and morphological changes that require increased attention from both medical personnel and the person himself and his immediate environment ... Such periods include, first of all, the period newborns, period puberty (puberty), menopause and the period of old and senile age.

There are such critical periods in adulthood, and they are associated with both physiological and, to a greater extent, with the psychological and social characteristics of a particular period of life. This is the third “hot spot” of a person's age biography (the first is the neonatal period, the second is pubertal age), which falls on the period from 20 to 25 years (with possible fluctuations depending on ethnic, cultural characteristics of certain groups within four years). This period is generally the same for both men and women. The following "hot spots" in the life stages of a man and a woman do not coincide in age. For women, this is about 30 years old, for men - about 40.

Each age period has its own characteristic features concerning both all organs and systems (Table 1.3) and mental and intellectual spheres.


Options Analyzer system Movement Adaptive capabilities Mental activity Ability to self-satisfy needs Sexual function
Elderly and senile age Decreased vision and hearing, development of senile hyperopia and hearing loss; decreased taste perception Limited mobility of joints, gait is slow, unsteady, movements lose smoothness Decrease with aging Labile, with a predominance of inhibition processes, mental activity decreases Limited, highly dependent on health status Sexual activity, potency, ejaculatory capabilities are reduced; sexual arousal occurs more slowly, vaginal moisture decreases
Mature age Visual acuity 1.0 from a distance of 5 meters, whisper speech - 6 meters; taste perception - individually Accurate, fully coordinated, smooth High enough, stable Stable, highly dependent on the type of higher nervous activity Full self-service ability Hypersexuality in adolescence and adolescence, individual stable in the subsequent
Growth period Farsightedness in the neonatal period is replaced by normal vision, acute hearing; constant development of taste sensations Uncoordinated in the early period, more accurate - in the subsequent Low in the early period, increases during growth Depends on the stage of development: labile, vulnerable during critical periods, stable during periods of equilibrium Complete dependence on others at an early age, limited - in preschool, complete independence - in older age periods Underdeveloped in the early periods, the onset of sexual desire in adolescence

Table 1.3 Age characteristics of a healthy person

Chapter 15. AGE PERIODS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

§ 15.1. PERIODIZATION OF AGE DEVELOPMENT

Mental development is a process that unfolds in time and is characterized by both quantitative and qualitative changes. Age development, according to the definition of B. G. Ananyev, has two properties - metric and topological. The metric property means the duration of the course of certain mental processes and states, as well as the temporal characteristics of changes in the psyche that occur throughout a person's life. The metric property is measured by time intervals (days, months, years, etc.) or indicators of the dynamics of changes in a particular mental phenomenon (pace, speed, acceleration). In the process of studying the temporal aspect of age-related development, temporal patterns were identified, such as unevenness and heterochronism. The unevenness of age-related development is expressed in the fact that individual mental functions and personal qualities of a person have a certain trajectory of changes in time, which can be both simple and complex, curvilinear in nature. In other words, the growth and aging of mental functions occurs unevenly, at different rates, which complicates the determination of different periods of a person's age development. The unevenness of mental development is influenced by historical time. The same properties function at different rates depending on the generation to which a given individual belongs. So, the same time intervals, the amount of knowledge and the system of intellectual operations change significantly with the general progress of education and culture. In the twentieth century compared to the nineteenth century. the rates and timing of the completion of maturation change, the phenomena of acceleration, or acceleration, of general somatic and neuropsychic development and, at the same time, slowing down of the aging process are observed.

Another temporal pattern is expressed in the heterochronism of age development. When comparing the rates of variability of mental functions and properties among themselves, the difference in timing in their passage through the phases of age-related development, growth, reaching maturity and evolution is revealed, which indicates the complexity and inconsistency of age-related development. Heterochronism can be intrafunctional, when individual aspects of mental function develop at different times, and interfunctional, in which different functions go through phases of their development at different times. Intrafunctional heterochrony refers to the timing of aging of various types of color sensitivity. With age, sensitivity to blue and red colors ages most rapidly, and sensitivity to yellow and green colors (according to Smith) is more stable with age. Interfunctional heterochrony includes a mismatch in time between the achievement of the optimum of sensory and intellectual, creative abilities and social development. Sensory development reaches maturity at 18-25 years (according to Lazarev), intellectual, creative abilities can reach their optimum on average much later - at 35 years (according to Lehman), and personal maturity - at 50-60 years. All this creates favorable opportunities for age-related individual development of a person throughout his life. During the period of growth, it is precisely those functions that are of paramount importance for the formation of other forms of the psyche that develop most rapidly. So, in early preschool childhood, an orientation in space is formed, and then later the child learns the concept of time. During the aging period, heterochrony ensures the preservation and further development of some functions at the expense of others, which at this time weaken and involution. Awareness, vocabulary of an elderly person may increase, while psychomotor and sensory-perceptual functions deteriorate if they are not systematically trained and are not included in professional activity.

No less important than the metric is the topological property of age-related development. It means the certainty of this or that state, the phase or period of the formation of the individual. Since age-related development as an integral education is a complex dynamic system, its qualitative topological features can be determined by studying the structural features of the interrelationships of its various sides, highlighting the leading, system-forming factors with which the specificity of a given period of life is associated.

In modern periodizations of age development, metric and topological characteristics are used in a single classification scheme. Discrepancies of different periodizations, mismatch of boundaries for different periods are mainly associated with the inconsistency of mental development, due to the action of temporal patterns, unevenness and heterochronism, and with the topological complexity of various phases, the dynamics of the ratio of biological and social throughout the entire life cycle of a person. The structure of the life path and its main points (start, optima, finish) change in the course of historical development, from generation to generation, which also affects the periodization of age development.

The different age classifications can be divided into two groups. Private classifications are devoted to individual segments of life, more often children and school years. General classifications cover the entire life of a person. The classification of the development of intelligence by J. Piaget belongs to particular ones, which distinguishes three main periods of its formation from the moment of birth to 15 years:

period of sensorimotor intelligence (0–2 years). In this period, there are six main stages;

the period of preparation and organization of specific operations (3 years - 11 years). Two sub-periods are distinguished here - the sub-period of pre-operational representations (3 years - 7 years), in which Piaget distinguishes three stages, and the sub-period of specific operations (8-11 years);

and, finally, the period of formal operations (12-15 years), when a teenager can successfully act in relation not only to the surrounding reality, but also to the world of abstract, verbal assumptions.

In the classification of D. B. Elkonin, also belonging to the first group, three epochs of life are considered - early childhood, childhood and adolescence. In each era, there is a change in the leading types of activity, which determine changes in the development of the child and his transition to a new era. After the periods in which the predominant development of the motivational sphere occurs, periods naturally follow in which the predominant development of socially developed methods of action with objects, the formation of the operational and technical capabilities of children. Elkonin arranged the selected types of activity in the "child - social adult" system and in the "child - social object" system in the sequence in which they become leading. As a result, he received the following series, where the frequency of the change in the leading types of activity is observed:

direct emotional communication (infancy);

subject-manipulative activity (early childhood);

role play (preschooler);

educational activities (junior schoolchild);

intimate and personal communication (younger teenager);

educational and professional activities (senior teenager).

Thus, in this age periodization, two indicators act as the main development criteria - the motivational-need-sphere and the operational and technical capabilities of the child. The absence of certain time boundaries in this classification suggests that the author focused not on the metric, but on the topological characteristics of age development.

The classification of age periods adopted at one of the symposia of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR in 1965 is one of the periodizations covering the entire life cycle of a person (Table 6).

Table 6

The periodization proposed by Birren includes the phases of life from infancy to old age. According to B.G. Ananyev, it is interesting in that it takes into account modern historical trends in the acceleration of maturation during the period of growth and slowing down of the aging process. According to this classification: adolescence - 12–17 years old, early maturity - 18–25 years old, maturity - 26–50 years old, late maturity - 51–75 years old, and old age - from 76 years old.

Eight stages of a person's life from birth to old age are described by E. Erickson, who drew attention to the development of the human "I" throughout life, to personality changes in relation to the social environment and to oneself, including both positive and negative aspects. The first stage (trust and distrust) is the first year of life. The second stage (independence and indecision) - 2-3 years. The third stage (entrepreneurial spirit and guilt) - 4–5 years. The fourth stage (skill and inferiority) - 6-11 years old. Fifth stage (identification of personality and confusion of roles) - 12-18 years old. The sixth stage (intimacy and loneliness) is the beginning of maturity. The seventh stage (general humanity and self-absorption) is mature age and the eighth stage (wholeness and hopelessness) is old age. This classification uses metric and topological criteria. Moreover, with age, the importance of topological characteristics in assessing the psychological variability of a personality increases. The classification of the German anthropologist G. Grimm is constructed purely qualitatively, without metric definitions of the duration of the phases of age development. In his opinion, numerical expressions for determining time boundaries are possible only for the first periods, meaning the increase in individual variability with age. This classification is of interest, since it takes into account morphological and somatic shifts, such an important indicator as a person's ability to work at different periods of his life. The most complete and detailed, covering the entire life cycle, is the age periodization of D. Bromley. He considers human life as a set of five cycles: uterine, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and aging. Each of the cycles consists of a number of stages. The first cycle consists of 4 stages until the moment of birth. Since that time, development has been characterized by a change in the methods of orientation, behavior and communication in the external environment, the dynamics of the intellect, the emotional-volitional sphere, motivation, social formation of the personality and professional activity. The second cycle - childhood - consists of three stages: infancy, preschool childhood and early school childhood, and covers 11-13 years of life. The cycle of adolescence consists of two stages: the stage of puberty (11-13-15 years) and late adolescence (16-21). The adult cycle has four stages:

1) early adulthood (21-25 years old);

2) middle adulthood (26–40 years old);

3) late adulthood (41–55 years);

4) pre-retirement age (56–65 years). The aging cycle has three stages:

1) retirement (66–70 years);

2) old age (71 and more years);

3) the last stage is painful old age and decrepitude. Periodizations differ in how broad and detailed

presented in them age-related changes in various aspects of the psyche and to what extent the metric and topological properties of the age-related development of a person are expressed. According to B.G. Ananyev, the most difficult task is to determine the duration of development phases and critical points, its discrete moments, since it is necessary to take into account the heterochronism of functional and personal changes, as well as age and individual variability in changing historical conditions.

§ 15.2. EARLY CHILDHOOD PERIOD

From the moment of birth, a child begins to function a variety of mechanisms of mental activity, which ensure his interaction with adults and with the environment and the satisfaction of his vital needs. A newborn is capable of perceiving influences on various senses in an elementary form. All analyzers from the first days of a child's life carry out an initial, elementary analysis of the effects of the environment. Newborns not only respond to strong sounds, but they are able to distinguish sounds that differ by one octave. It was found in children the presence of color, as well as gustatory and olfactory sensitivity. There is information about the presence of other types of sensations. The most sensitive areas to touch are the baby's lips, forehead and palms. He can refuse milk, which is 1 ° C colder than usual. Children in the first 10 days of life prefer structural, complex, three-dimensional, moving objects. Small children can follow an object, localize it in space, compare objects with each other. Along with the diverse forms of sensory activity, the newborn has a large set of postural and locomotor reflexes. All this contributes to the rapid adaptation of the child to new living conditions and the creation of prerequisites for his further development. The emergence of individual experience, the establishment of various relationships and connections with the social environment based on the mechanism of temporary connections means the transition from a newborn at the end of the first month of life to a new, infant, period of development.

Infant age from 1 month to 1 year is characterized by a high intensity of the processes of development of sensory and motor functions, the creation of the prerequisites for speech and social development in conditions of direct interaction of the child with adults. At this time, the environment is extremely important, the participation of adults not only in the physical, but also in the mental development of the child (creation of an enriched physical and speech environment, emotional communication, assistance in the development of his various movements, the act of grasping and locomotion, the creation of problem situations, etc.). NS.). Mental development in infancy is characterized by the most pronounced intensity, not only in pace, but also in terms of new formations. At present, the stages of development of all types of motor skills (eye movements, the act of grasping, locomotion), the initial forms of thinking, the prerequisites of speech, and perceptual function have been established. On this rich and multi-quality basis, after a year of life and throughout the entire life cycle of a person, the social development of the psyche is carried out.

The next - preschool - period - from 1 to 3 years of life. The importance of these two years of life is due to the fact that at this time the child masters speech and the prerequisites for the formation of the personality and the subject of activity are created. The rapid development of speech is due to the fact that almost simultaneously the child begins to master the phonetic structure of the language (from 11 months) and its vocabulary (from 10-12 months). By the end of preschool age, he begins to associate individual words into sentences (from 1 year 10 months), which means a transition to flexive speech. The formation of connections between words and objects is in direct proportion to the frequency, duration and nature of communication between adults and children. On the basis of speech in the second year of life, he not only associates the word with a single object, but also begins to group objects according to the most striking external signs, for example, by color. This means the appearance of the first stage in the development of the function of generalization.

Preschool age is the initial stage in the formation of the regulatory function of speech. The inhibitory function of speech in its development lags behind its starting function. A child under 3 years old cannot yet follow complex instructions that require a choice. He can only follow the simple instructions of an adult. At this time, various basic forms of the psyche are actively developing: memory in the form of recognition, visual thinking, attention, perception, psychomotor skills. With age, the period between the perception of an object and its recognition lengthens. In the second year of life, the child recognizes close people and objects after several weeks, in the third year - after several months, and in the fourth - after a year that has passed after their perception.

In preschool age, various mental functions begin to take shape, such as the ability to generalize, transfer acquired experience to new conditions, the ability to establish connections and relationships, and in an elementary form through active experimentation to solve specific problems, using various objects as a means to achieve a goal. In the development of the thinking ability, speech and practical activity of the child play an essential role. The dominant function in preschool age is perception, which develops intensively during this period, and at the same time, it is this that determines the specificity of other mental forms that function at a visual-sensory level (memory, thinking).

Starting from 1 year 6 months, children successfully cope with the choice of simple shapes according to the model, such as a square, a triangle, a trapezoid. At 3 years old, children could visually correlate the shape and shape of the holes and then act correctly, for example, insert a certain type of key into the corresponding hole.

How actively the preschooler will be included in the sensory-perceptual activity depends not only on the formation of perception itself, but also on other forms of the child's psyche. And here the organization by adults of the process of contemplation and experimentation, a wide and varied practical acquaintance of children with the objects of the world comes to the fore. Emotional contacts with the mother are important to stimulate the child's cognitive and practical activity. At 6 months, children show the same results in mental development, regardless of the living conditions and upbringing. At the age of one year, children separated from their parents begin to lag behind in their mental development. At the age of 3, the influence of the socio-economic factor also affects. Children from cultured, wealthy families demonstrate developmental superiority compared to children from working families. Studies of mental deprivation in childhood have shown that long-term separation of a child from his mother or another person who takes her place, in the first years of life, usually leads to a violation of the child's mental health, leaving consequences throughout his further development.

Direct contact with the mother in early childhood provides a whole range of positive influences on the child. An adult not only emotionally stimulates cognitive and practical activity, but also carries out the optimal organization of the environment, enriching it with toys and various objects. It acts as a source of social and emotional reinforcement for the activities of a young child. In doing so, he uses the dominant role of perception in order to effectively influence children's behavior. In communication and cooperation with adults, the child's communicative activity begins to manifest, which, in turn, affects the development of his cognitive functions, not only speech, but also attention, memory, and especially their arbitrary forms.

In the preschool age, the formation of the subject of practical activity begins. At this time, the child learns to use various household and play items (machine, spoon, cup), can perform sequential actions according to elementary instructions. During this period of life, the direct cooperation of the child with adults is especially important, which contributes to the formation of his independence and initiative.

In early childhood, the prerequisites for the development of personality are also created. The child begins to separate himself from other objects, to stand out from the people around him, which leads to the emergence of initial forms of self-awareness. The first stage in the real formation of the personality as an independent subject, which stands out from the surrounding world, is associated with mastering one's own body, with the emergence of voluntary movements. These latter are developed in the process of forming the first objective actions. By the age of 3, the child develops an idea of ​​himself, which is expressed in the transition from naming himself by name to using the pronouns “my”, “I”, etc. Considering the genesis of self-awareness, B. G. Ananiev believed that the formation of his own “I »There is a huge leap in development, as there is a transition to the separation of oneself as a permanent whole from the current stream of changing actions. The main factors in the genesis of a child's self-awareness, in his opinion, are communication with adults, mastery of speech and objective activity. It should also be noted that preschool age is characterized by rapid and at the same time uneven rates of development of various mental functions. The development of attention is of great importance. Children with an undeveloped response to novelty also show lower scores in memory, thinking, and speech. During this period of life, an arbitrary form of attention appears, which is observed during visual search according to the verbal instructions of an adult. If at 12 months this form is still absent, then at 23 months it is already inherent in 90% of children. At this time, in terms of growth rates, the leading is spatial visual memory, which is ahead of the figurative and verbal in its development.

By the end of the second year of life, an arbitrary form of memorizing words appears. The ability to classify objects by shape and color is manifested in most children in the second half of the second year of life. In preschool age, speech function is intensively formed. In conditions of a depleted social environment and insufficient communication between adults and children, precisely those functions that are basic for the social development of the psyche turn out to be underdeveloped. The study compared the mental functions of children aged 23–25 months who are brought up in a family and in a child's home. The greatest differences were found in the development of speech, voluntary attention, classification by shape and auditory memory, and the smallest - in the development of involuntary forms of attention and classification by color.

Thus, by the age of 3, the necessary prerequisites are created for the transition to the next, preschool period. In early childhood, speech function, motor skills and object actions are intensively formed. Various cognitive functions in their original forms (sensing, perception, memory, thinking, attention) are also rapidly developing. At the same time, the child begins to develop communicative properties, interest in people, sociability, imitation, primary forms of self-awareness are formed.

Mental development in early childhood and the variety of its forms and manifestations depends on how much the child is included in communication with adults and how actively he manifests himself in objective and cognitive activity.

§ 15.3. PRESCHOOL PERIOD

Preschool age is a period of further intensive formation of the psyche, the emergence of various qualitative formations both in the development of psychophysiological functions and in the personal sphere. New high-quality education occurs due to many factors: speech and communication with adults and peers, various forms of cognition and inclusion in various activities (play, productive, everyday). All this contributes to better adaptation of the child to social conditions and the requirements of life. At the same time, elementary forms of the psyche, sensorics and perception continue to develop.

There are two contradictory tendencies in the development of the basic properties of perception. On the one hand, there is an increase in integrity, and on the other, the detail and structure of the perceptual image is manifested. By the end of preschool age, the ability to isolate the shape of an object appears. By the age of 6, children begin to cope with the task of laying out the contour of a figure, for example, a mushroom, at home without errors. The solution to this problem is still practically inaccessible to younger children. By filming the movement of the child's eyes in V.P. Zinchenko's experiments, it was found that children at the age of 3 cannot yet fix the contour of plane figures. The movements of their eyes are carried out “inside” the figures with a small number of fixations (1–2 movements per second). Only at the age of 6 does a thorough acquaintance with the figure take place and eye movements follow its entire contour. However, already at the age of 3, children are able to follow the pointer along the contour, which indicates a high learning ability at this age. The ability of children to distinguish objects along the contour means the formation of the integrity of perception. At the age of 5–6 years, a turning point comes in the development of such a property of perception as structure. This is expressed in the fact that children are able to construct a figure from its separate parts, to isolate and correlate structural elements in complex objects. Children successfully solve problems of choice based on the model of not only simple, but also complex multicomponent figures. At the preschool age, social perceptual standards are also acquired in the form of knowledge of geometric figures, a tempered musical structure.

The leading form of the psyche at this time is the presentation, which is intensively developing in various types of play and productive activities (drawing, modeling, construction, role-playing, plot games). Representations leave an imprint on the entire process of mental development. Various forms of the psyche are formed most successfully if they are associated with secondary images, that is, with representations. Therefore, such forms of the psyche as imagination, figurative memory and visual-figurative thinking are rapidly developing.

Children's cognition of various properties and connections of things occurs in the process of operating with the images of these things. Not only various mental functions, but also the child's speech, its development during this period are mainly associated with ideas. The understanding of speech by children largely depends on the content of those ideas that arise in the process of its perception. The development of mental functions in preschool age is complicated by the fact that in the process of communication, cognitive and practical activity, social forms of the psyche are actively formed, not only in the perceptual sphere, but also in the field of memory (verbal memory, voluntary memorization of words and objects). By the end of preschool age, verbal-logical thinking appears. Preschool age is the initial stage in the formation of the subject of cognitive and practical activity.

This period of life is extremely important from the point of view of the genesis and formation of social forms of the psyche and moral behavior. The predominance of subjects related to the image of a person in the work of a preschooler indicates his predominant orientation towards the social environment. This creates a broad basis for the formation of primary forms of socially significant qualities. By the end of preschool age, there is a transition from an emotional direct relationship to the outside world to relationships that are built on the basis of the assimilation of moral assessments, rules and norms of behavior. The formation of moral concepts in preschool age occurs in various ways. When asked what kindness, courage, justice are, children either used specific cases of behavior, or gave a general meaning to the concept. The answers in the general form in children 4 years old were 32%, and 7 years old - 54%. Thus, in communication with adults, the child often assimilates moral concepts in a categorical form, gradually clarifying and filling them with specific content, which speeds up the process of their formation and at the same time creates the danger of their formal assimilation. Therefore, it is important that the child learns to apply them in life in relation to himself and others. This is essential, first of all, for the formation of his personality traits. At the same time, socially significant standards of behavior are important, which become literary heroes and people directly around the child. Of particular importance as standards of behavior for a preschooler are the characters of fairy tales, where positive and negative character traits are accentuated in a concrete, figurative, accessible form, which facilitates the initial orientation of the child in the complex structure of a person's personality traits. The personality is formed in the process of the child's real interaction with the world, including the social environment, and through the assimilation of moral criteria that regulate his behavior. This process is guided by adults who facilitate the selection and training of socially significant traits. The child's independence begins to manifest itself when he applies moral assessments to himself and others and on this basis regulates his behavior. This means that at this age there is such a complex personality trait as self-awareness. BG Anan'ev singled out the formation of self-esteem in the genesis of self-awareness. The adequacy of the child's value judgments is determined by the constant evaluative activities of the parents, as well as educators in connection with the implementation of the rules of behavior of children in a group in various activities (games, duty, classes). Already at 3-4 years old, there are children who are able to independently assess some of their capabilities and correctly predict the results of their actions based on their own experience (for example, the distance of the jump). It should be noted that the influence of parents' assessments on the self-esteem of a preschooler depends on the child's understanding of the competence of the mother and father and the style of upbringing, on the nature of relationships in the family. Children accept and assimilate the assessments of the parent, who for them is a significant person and bearer of behavioral standards.

By the age of 5, children have a certain position in the group, they are differentiated by sociometric status. At the same time, the preferences that the child gives to his peers in play activities, in the classroom, when performing work assignments, are relatively stable. Selectivity of choice is associated with the formation of a motivational sphere, a variety of personal properties in preschool age. The main motive that encourages children to unite is satisfaction with the process of play communication. In second place is the orientation towards the positive qualities of the chosen one, which are manifested in communication (cheerful, kind, honest, etc.). Later, in children of 6–7 years old, the motive for choosing a partner is also his ability for any specific activity. Orientation to personal characteristics that are formed outside of direct play communication, in various classes, in communication with adults (hard work, obedience, ability to draw, singing), testifies to different sources of the formation of motives that determine relationships in children's groups.

Preschool age is the initial stage in the formation of the subject of activity. The transition to the preschool period is marked by the fact that the child is no longer satisfied with the simple manipulative actions that he mastered in previous years. A goal-setting, a volitional component of the subject of activity is formed. Concentration and consistency in actions, self-assessment of their actions and the result obtained are manifested. Under the influence of the assessments and control of an adult, an older preschooler begins to notice mistakes in his own activities and in the work of others, and at the same time, to single out role models. In preschool age, both general, mental and special abilities for visual, musical, choreographic and other types of activity are formed. Their originality lies in the fact that they are based on the development of various forms of representations (visual, auditory, etc.).

The emerging various kinds of high-quality formations, such as personal properties, psychological structures of the subject of activity, communication and cognition, the intensive process of socialization of natural forms of the psyche, its psychophysiological functions, create real prerequisites for the transition to the school period of life. Adults largely determine the originality and complexity of the mental development of a preschooler, shaping his psychological readiness for schooling.

§ 15.4. SCHOOL AND YOUTH PERIODS

The main activity of school childhood is educational, during which the child not only learns the skills and methods of acquiring knowledge, but also enriches himself with new meanings, motives and needs, masters the skills of social relationships.

School ontogenesis covers the following age periods: primary school age - 7-10 years; junior adolescent - 11-13 years old; senior adolescent - 14-15 years old; adolescence - 16-18 years old. Each of these periods of development is characterized by its own characteristics.

One of the most difficult periods of school ontogenesis is adolescence, which is otherwise called the transitional period, since it is characterized by the transition from childhood to adolescence, from immaturity to maturity.

Adolescence is a period of rapid and uneven growth and development of the body, when the body grows intensively, the muscular apparatus improves, and the skeleton is ossified. Inconsistency, uneven development of the heart and blood vessels, as well as increased activity of the endocrine glands often lead to some temporary circulatory disorders, increased blood pressure, cardiac stress in adolescents, as well as an increase in their excitability, which can be expressed in irritability, fatigue, dizziness and palpitations. The adolescent's nervous system is not always able to withstand strong or long-acting stimuli and, under their influence, often goes into a state of inhibition or, conversely, strong arousal.

The central factor of physical development in adolescence is puberty, which has a significant impact on the functioning of internal organs.

Sexual attraction (often unconscious) and new experiences, drives and thoughts associated with it appear.

Features of physical development in adolescence determine the most important role during this period of the correct mode of life, in particular, the mode of work, rest, sleep and nutrition, physical education and sports.

A distinctive feature of mental development is that it has a progressive and at the same time contradictory hetero-chronic character throughout the entire school period. Psychophysiological functional development is at this time one of the main directions of mental evolution.

Educational activity is provided by the development of the primary and secondary properties of the individual organization. The strength of the nervous system increases in relation to the processes of excitation and inhibition in the period from 8-10 to 18 years. Sensory sensitivity increases significantly during development, for example, light-discriminating sensitivity increases from grade 1 to grade 5 by 160%.

The functions of attention, memory, thinking become more complicated. At the first stage (8-10 years), the progressive nature of the development of attention is noted, which is ensured by the growth of all its aspects (volume, stability, selectivity, switching). At the age of 10–13 years, there is a slowdown in growth, function and multidirectional changes in some of its sides. At the age of 13–16, there is an accelerated and unidirectional increase in attention, especially its stability. Throughout the entire school ontogenesis, the dynamics of the productivity of certain types of memory has an oscillatory, curvilinear character. At the same time, the highest level of productivity of figurative memory is achieved at 8-11 years old, and verbal - at 16 years old (Rybalko EF).

The development of the intellectual sphere is the central link in development at school age. “Thinking is that function, the most intensive development of which is one of the most characteristic features of school age. Neither in sensations nor in mnemonic abilities is there such a huge difference between a child of 6–7 years old and a young man of 17–18 years old, which exists in their thinking, ”wrote P. P. Bolognskiy. Schooling has a decisive influence on mental development.

Noting the quantitative and qualitative changes in the development of cognitive functions and intelligence in children, J. Piaget determined that as they grow up and school, children develop the ability to perform many previously inaccessible mental operations. At the age of 7–8 years, the child's thinking is limited to problems related to concrete, real objects and operations with them. Only from the age of 11-12 the ability to think logically about abstract, abstract problems is formed, there is a need to check the correctness of one's thoughts, to accept the point of view of another person, mentally take into account and correlate several features or characteristics of an object at the same time. The so-called "reversibility" of thinking appears, that is, the ability to change the direction of thought, returning to the original state of an object. Thanks to this, the child understands, for example, that addition is the opposite of subtraction, and multiplication is the opposite of division. Adolescents develop scientific thinking skills, thanks to which they talk about the past, present and future, put forward hypotheses, assumptions, and make predictions. Young men develop a gravitation towards general theories, formulas, etc. The inclination to theorize becomes, in a sense, an age-related feature. Own theories of politics, philosophy, formulas of happiness and love are being created. A feature of the youthful psyche associated with formal operational thinking is a change in the relationship between the categories of possibility and reality. The mastery of logical thinking inevitably gives rise to intellectual experimentation, a kind of game in concepts, formulas, etc. Hence the peculiar egocentrism of youthful thinking: assimilating the whole world around him into his universal theories, the young man, according to Piaget, behaves as if the world should obey systems, not systems of reality.

The lack of formation of the mental sphere, the inability to make a comparison, to establish cause-and-effect relationships, to draw conclusions make it difficult for the student to learn, require tremendous strain of mechanical memory, perseverance, make the learning process uninteresting.

The intellectual development of a person is determined by the level of maturity of functions and mental activity, as well as by the conditions and content of training. The conditions of specialized school education have a significant impact on the dynamics of intellectual functions. Reducing requirements for students, facilitating training programs, learning in the absence of the formation of life and professional goals, as this creates the preconditions for a slow, disharmonious type of intellectual development, negatively affects the development of intellectual potential.

The development of the intellectual sphere influences the development of other aspects of the child's psyche. The mental appearance of a teenager most often combines “... the activity of analyzing thought, a tendency to reasoning and a special emotionality, impressionability. This combination of features of the "mental" and "artistic" type characterizes the unique uniqueness of age and, apparently, is a guarantee of many-sided development in the future ”(Leites N. S).

During the school period, the motives of educational activity develop. Primary school students in the structure of motivation are dominated by the motive of striving for the position of a student, in the middle grades (grades 5-8) the desire to occupy a certain place in the peer group prevails, in the senior grades (grades 10-11), the most significant orientation towards the future, and the leading motive is the motive of learning for the sake of a future life perspective. At the same time, as I. V. Dubrovina et al. Note, many schoolchildren have an unformed cognitive need as a need to acquire and assimilate new knowledge. And this, in turn, leads to the fact that learning is perceived by schoolchildren as an unpleasant duty, generating negative emotions and persistent school anxiety, which is noted on average by 20% of schoolchildren.

If in younger adolescence the most intense changes occur in physical development, then in older adolescence and adolescence, the child's personality develops at the highest rates.

The process of personality development is characterized by two opposite tendencies: on the one hand, more and more close interindividual contacts are established, the orientation towards the group intensifies, on the other hand, there is an increase in independence, a more complex inner world and the formation of personal properties.

Crises in adolescents are associated with emerging neoplasms, among which the “sense of adulthood” and the emergence of a new level of self-awareness occupy a central place.

The characterological feature of a 10-15-year-old child is manifested in a heightened desire to establish himself in society, to get adults to recognize their rights and capabilities. At the first stage, it is specific for children to seek recognition of the fact of their growing up. Moreover, among some younger adolescents, it is expressed in the desire only to assert their right to be like adults, to achieve recognition of their adulthood (at the level, for example, “I can dress the way I want”). In other children, the desire for adulthood lies in the desire to receive recognition of their new capabilities, in others, in the desire to participate in various affairs on an equal basis with adults (Feldshtein D.I.).

Overestimation of their increased capabilities determines the desire of adolescents for a certain independence and independence, painful pride and touchiness. Increased criticism towards adults, an acute reaction to attempts by others to belittle their dignity, belittle their adulthood, underestimate their legal capabilities are the reasons for frequent conflicts in adolescence.

The orientation towards communication with peers often manifests itself in the fear of being rejected by them. The emotional well-being of a teenager begins to depend more and more on the place that he occupies in the team, begins to be determined primarily by the attitude and assessments of his comrades. There is a tendency for grouping, which leads to a tendency to form groupings, "brotherhoods", a willingness to recklessly follow the leader.

Moral concepts, perceptions, beliefs, principles are intensively formed, by which adolescents begin to be guided in their behavior. Often they form a system of their own requirements and norms that do not coincide with the requirements of adults.

One of the most important moments in the formation of a teenager's personality is the development of self-awareness, self-esteem (SO); adolescents develop an interest in themselves, in the qualities of their personality, the need to compare themselves with others, to evaluate themselves, to understand their feelings and experiences.

Self-esteem is formed under the influence of the assessments of other people, comparing oneself with others; the success of the activity plays an important role in its formation.

If in primary school age SS is inseparable from the assessment of others, then in adolescence there are significant changes: a reorientation from external assessments to assessments of oneself. The content of CO is becoming more complex: it includes moral manifestations, attitude towards others, and one's own capabilities. The perception of external assessments and self-perception are aggravated, the assessment of one's own qualities becomes an urgent task for a teenager. In adolescence, the development of CO is in the direction of increasing its integrity and integration, on the one hand, and differentiation, on the other. With age, knowing himself, a person, like in a mirror, looks at another person. Turning to other people, comparing oneself with them is a necessary general prerequisite for knowing oneself. Thus, there is a kind of transfer of various personality traits, noticed in another, onto oneself.

As numerous studies have shown, the presence of positive self-esteem, self-esteem is a prerequisite for the normal development of a personality. At the same time, the regulatory role of self-esteem is steadily increasing from primary school to adolescence and adolescence. The discrepancy between the adolescent's self-esteem and his claims lead to acute affective experiences, to exaggerated and inadequate reactions, the manifestation of resentment, aggressiveness, distrustfulness, stubbornness.

Trends in the development of characterological features are that from 12 to 17 years, the indicators of sociability, ease of communication with people, dominance, perseverance, competitiveness increase noticeably, at the same time, there is a tendency to a decrease in impulsivity, excitability. At this age, some character traits are especially acutely manifested, accentuated. Such accentuations, while not being pathological in themselves, nevertheless increase the possibility of mental trauma and deviations from the norms of behavior. However, the emotional difficulties and painful progression of adolescence is not a universal feature of adolescence.

The crisis of adolescence proceeds much easier if the student during this period has relative constant personal interests or any other stable motives of behavior. Personal interests, in contrast to episodic ones, are characterized by their "unsaturation"; the more they are satisfied, the more stable and tense they become. Such, for example, are cognitive interests, aesthetic, etc. The satisfaction of such interests is associated with the setting of ever new goals. The presence of stable personal interests in a teenager makes him purposeful, internally more collected and organized.

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