Pedagogical and psychological diagnostics of children in preschool educational institutions
Maria Tazina
Pedagogical and psychological diagnostics of children in preschool educational institutions
Table of contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. Features of psychological diagnostics of children in preschool educational organizations
1.1 General concept of psychological diagnostics
1.2 System of psychological diagnostics in preschool organizations
1.3 Methods of psychodiagnostics of preschool children
Chapter 2. Pedagogical diagnostics of children in preschool educational organizations
2.1 General concept of pedagogical diagnostics
2.2 Functions and principles of pedagogical diagnostics
2.3 Stages of pedagogical diagnostics
Conclusion
Introduction
One of the priority tasks of preschool development is the protection and strengthening of the psychological health of pupils. It is considered as a condition for the implementation of the basic general education program of preschool education. Therefore, creating conditions for the realization of child development opportunities in preschool age and assistance in the formation of those psychological formations that will form the basis for development in subsequent periods is a priority in the professional activities of specialists in preschool organizations.
Along with these areas there is psychological and pedagogical diagnostics of children. Early diagnosis of the development of the cognitive sphere and all mental processes of the child is extremely important and necessary. Today it has been proven that the earlier targeted work with a child is started, aimed at correcting or developing his capabilities and abilities, the more effective its results can be; it often becomes possible to prevent secondary developmental deviations, if they are detected. The child’s nervous system has such an important property as plasticity, that is, it reacts flexibly to external influences. This quality determines the need for early diagnosis of the child.
Chapter 1. Features of psychological diagnostics of children in preschool educational organizations
1.1 General concept of psychological diagnostics
The most important area of psychological science and psychological practice is psychodiagnostics. It is associated with the development and application of various methods for recognizing the individual characteristics of a person or group of people.
Psychodiagnostics is understood as a field of psychological science that develops theory, principles, as well as tools for assessing and measuring individual psychological characteristics of a person and variables of the social environment in which a person’s life activities take place.
Psychodiagnostics is practically used in a variety of areas of psychologist activity. And when he acts as an author or participant in applied psychological and pedagogical experiments, and when he is engaged in psychological counseling or psychological correction. And, nevertheless, most often psychodiagnostics is a separate independent field of activity of a practical psychologist. Then its goal is to make a psychological diagnosis, that is, to assess the psychological state that a person has.
There are three stages in a psychodiagnostic examination:
1. Data collection.
2. Processing and interpretation of the results obtained.
3. Making a decision – psychological diagnosis and prognosis.
Psychodiagnostics faces the following tasks:
- identifying the presence of a person’s psychological behavioral characteristics or psychological properties;
— determination of the degree of development of a given property, its expression in quantitative and qualitative indicators;
- characteristics of the diagnosed behavioral and psychological characteristics of a person when this is necessary;
— comparison of the degree of expression of the studied properties in different people.
All of the above tasks are solved in practical psychodiagnostics either comprehensively or each separately, depending on the goals of the research being conducted.
1.2 System of psychological diagnostics in preschool organizations
In preschool organizations, psychological diagnostics is an integral part of the general diagnostic system for preschool children, which also includes pedagogical and medical diagnostics (Table 1).
Table 1 – System of diagnostic work with children
Goal: Study and identify the developmental characteristics of each child and groups of children for subsequent individual and group correctional and developmental work
Indicators: State of health and physical development; means: medical examination;
Responsible: doctor, nurse.
Indicators: Mastering the educational program; means: pedagogical diagnostics; Responsible: senior teacher, educators.
Indicators: Features of mental development; means: psychological diagnostics; responsible: practical psychologist.
The goals and objectives of psychodiagnostics depend on the specifics of the preschool educational organization and, at the same time, their focus should be focused on identifying the conditions that impede the full development and formation of the personality of a preschooler. Psychodiagnostics should always be the basis for building an effective educational process in preschool educational institutions.
T. M. Martsinovskaya believes that the subject of psychodiagnostics in preschool educational institutions is the individual age characteristics of children, as well as the reasons leading to deviations and disorders in their mental development.
There are three main diagnostic schemes in the model of psychological support: diagnostic minimum, primary differentiation of norm and pathology of mental development, in-depth psychodiagnostic examination of the individual.
A psychodiagnostic examination is provided at three stages of preschool education. These include the stage of entering a preschool institution, the stage of staying in it and the stage of finishing preschool education. All of them are important components in terms of the potential development and learning opportunities present in them.
Thus, the diagnostic system in a preschool organization may include six examinations:
1. examination of children upon admission to a preschool institution during the period of their adaptation;
2. examination of young children (2-3 years);
3. examination of the younger age group (3-4 years);
4. examination of preschoolers of the middle age group (4-5 years);
5. examination of children of the older age group (5-6 years);
6. examination of children of the preparatory group during the period of completion of training in a preschool institution (6-7 years).
The scheme of psychodiagnostic work may look like this. In September-October, i.e., the beginning of the school year, a psychologist conducts a rapid diagnosis of the level of mental development of children of all age groups. After this, he conducts an in-depth examination of children who are suspected of having developmental problems. These children, as a rule, belong to the “risk group”. Based on the results of in-depth diagnostics, correctional and developmental work is compiled.
Psychodiagnostic work is carried out with children who have severe mental development disorders with the aim of primary differentiation of normal and pathological mental development. Such children are referred for psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation.
In April, a repeat psychodiagnostic examination of children in the preparatory group is carried out according to all criteria of psychological readiness, which is initially in-depth. If a preschooler is found to have a low level of readiness for school, they should receive additional psychological and pedagogical assistance.
The basis of a psychological examination of preschool children is the need to obtain information about such individual psychological characteristics of the child as the characteristics of the emotional-volitional sphere; features of communication and behavior; features of cognitive activity (Table 2).
Table 2 – Psychodiagnostic examination
Early age
(2-3 years)
Cognitive sphere: Sensory standards, general motor skills, constructive praxis.
Emotional-volitional sphere: Emotional background of mood, activity.
Behavior and communication: Play, contact, response to encouragement and reprimand.
Junior group
(3-4 years)
Cognitive sphere: Imagination, thinking, speech, motor skills.
Emotional-volitional sphere: Dominant emotional state, gender and age identification, level of aspirations.
Behavior and communication: Play, communication skills in communicating with adults.
Middle group
(4-5 years)
Cognitive sphere: Imagination, thinking, speech, memory, motor skills.
Emotional-volitional sphere: Self-awareness, dominant emotional state.
Behavior and communication: Play, communication skills in communicating with adults.
Senior group
(5-6 years)
Cognitive sphere: Imagination, thinking, speech, memory, attention, motor skills.
Emotional-volitional sphere: Self-esteem, status in the group, dominant emotional state.
Behavior and communication: Play, communication skills in communicating with peers.
Preparatory group
Cognitive sphere: Memory, attention, speech, logical thinking, imagination, motor skills.
Emotional-volitional sphere: Motivation, self-esteem, volition, dominant emotional state.
Behavior and communication: Playing, communicating with peers and adults.
Based on the results of the psychological diagnostic data obtained, the psychologist prepares generalized analytical information for groups, filling out summary tables.
1.3 Methods of psychodiagnostics of preschool children
In the process of psychological diagnostics, various methods are used to obtain information about the status of the child and his compliance with age standards at the stage of the diagnostic examination. Methodological techniques that are used to conduct a diagnostic examination of a child should be brief and convenient to quickly obtain information from one or another area of the child’s personality. Before starting a diagnostic examination, it is recommended to conduct a diagnostic interview, which can cover any topic. It is important that the psychologist has a good command of the methodology for conducting it.
Diagnostic interview
It should not be boring or time-consuming for the child. It is necessary to take into account the age of children and diagnostic tasks, and on the basis of which to apply its different modifications. For this purpose, you can use toys, pencils, and paper. This is due to the fact that children cannot describe their feelings; they express them more easily in drawings. You can begin the actual psychodiagnostic examination after the initial acquaintance.
Observation method
is one of the main methods in working with children. D. B. Elkonin, a famous Soviet child psychologist, used observation of his grandson to describe the process of formation of the child’s objective actions.
Observation must be carried out correctly: it must be purposeful and built according to a specific plan. Before starting observation, it is important to establish its purpose, answer questions about why it is being carried out, and what results it should produce. After which an observation program is drawn up and a plan is developed.
To obtain the results necessary for generalization, observation must be carried out regularly. This is explained by the fact that children grow very quickly and their psychology and behavior changes just as quickly. The intervals depend on the age of the child: the earlier the age, the shorter the time interval between the next observation should be. In this case, we mean the implementation of scientific observation, which is accompanied by the maintenance of systematic records, analysis and generalization of observation results.
Due to the fact that preschoolers are highly distractible and have insufficiently stable attention, it is possible to use hidden surveillance, which is designed so that the child does not see the adult watching him.
This method has both a number of undeniable advantages and disadvantages. Thanks to observation, you can obtain interesting facts by studying a child in the natural conditions of his life; it is also indispensable for initial orientation in the problem and obtaining preliminary facts. The disadvantages include the labor intensity of this method. It requires the researcher to have high psychological education and a lot of time, which does not guarantee obtaining facts. In addition, observation results often do not make it possible to understand the reasons for certain forms of child behavior.
Experimental method
is often one of the most reliable ways to obtain reliable information about the psychology and behavior of a child. Including a child in an experimental play situation makes it possible to obtain the child’s immediate reactions to the influencing stimuli and, on the basis of these reactions, to judge what the child is hiding from observation or is unable to verbalize during questioning.
The best results from an experiment in working with children can be obtained when it is organized and carried out in the form of a game and activities familiar to the child - drawing, guessing riddles, designing, etc. The important point is that children should not suspect that games are being played specifically for their study. This can lead to a loss of interest in the child in what he is asked to do and will not allow him to reveal his intellectual abilities and qualities of interest to the researcher.
The specificity of an experiment in child psychology is that the experimental conditions should not violate the child’s usual forms of activity and should be close to his natural living conditions.
In addition to the main methods of studying children - observation and experiment - auxiliary methods are also used. These are the analysis of the results of children's activities
(drawings, crafts, fairy tales they composed, etc.) and
the conversation method
.
The most widely used is the analysis of children's drawings. The emotional state of the child, the peculiarities of perception of surrounding people and objects, the nature of relationships with others are reflected precisely in children's drawings. At the same time, the interpretation cannot be definite and unambiguous and always presupposes the subjectivity of the researcher, therefore the analysis of children's drawings requires high qualifications and extensive experience in working with this material. In this regard, this method can only be used as an auxiliary method in serious research.
Conversation method
(question method) can be used from the age of four, when children already have a fairly good command of speech. Since preschool children do not yet have the opportunity to express their thoughts and experiences in words, they usually give short and formal answers.
Choosing the right questions to talk to children is a great art. The child does not always correctly understand the questions that are addressed to him. For this reason, when conducting psychological research using interviews with children, it is advisable to initially make sure that the child correctly understands the questions addressed to him and only after that begin to interpret and discuss the answers he gives. Conversation can also be used as an auxiliary method.
Thus, psychodiagnostics of preschool children has its own specifics, since they have a number of psychological and behavioral characteristics that need to be known in order to obtain reliable results in the process of their psychodiagnostic examination. It is important to take into account the relatively low level of self-awareness and consciousness, and also to remember that preschoolers have underdeveloped processes such as attention, thinking, memory and imagination.
Chapter 2. Pedagogical diagnostics of children in preschool educational organizations
2.1 General concept of pedagogical diagnostics
Pedagogical diagnostics has three interrelated meanings:
1) This is an independent type of analytical activity of a teacher.
2) Applied field of pedagogy, studying the patterns of pedagogical diagnosis.
3) The process of the teacher studying the current state of the object and its relationship with the norm.
Pedagogical diagnostics is not so much a study of children and their personal characteristics, but rather the capabilities and resources of the education system, the pedagogical process organized in a preschool institution and in the student’s family.
In addition, pedagogical diagnostics in a preschool organization is also aimed at studying teachers and parents, identifying their difficulties in organizing the pedagogical process and their level of competence. The obtained diagnostic data are used for the active development of all participants in the pedagogical process, for the correct selection of methods and means of education, as well as for the purpose of providing timely assistance when problems or difficulties are detected in working with children.
2.2 Functions and principles of pedagogical diagnostics
One of the main functions of pedagogical diagnostics for a practicing teacher is the feedback or information function . The diagnostic activity of the teacher is aimed not only at identifying and assessing the child’s condition, but also at identifying conditions that positively or negatively affect his development. While observing the child in various situations (in his free time, on a walk, playing with peers, etc.), the teacher makes notes of his reactions to conflict and to praise, to an offer to engage in some activity.
With the help of this, he manages to find out what interests the child has, his skills, inclinations, difficulties, preferences and objects that are significant to him, as well as understand the reasons for behavioral manifestations. Understanding these points allows the educator to reduce the formality of educational interaction, determine the uniqueness of educational goals, and guide him to search and apply the best option for a pedagogical solution.
The prognostic function allows you to predict the course of the pedagogical process and determine the prospects for the child’s development. In order to make a forecast, the teacher compares information about what the preschooler was like before and how he manifests himself now. As a result, the identified dynamics of changes (negative or positive) contributes to the ability to predict changes in the child and prevent undesirable development trends.
The control and correction function identifies specific difficulties in the educational process and determines the causes that give rise to them. This function manifests itself primarily in the process of conducting pedagogical examination and presupposes the existence of a standard.
The evaluation function establishes the degree of change in the pedagogical object under study and the dependence of these changes on the conditions of the educational process. Using this function, you can conduct a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the achievements of preschoolers, the performance of each teacher individually and the entire teaching staff as a whole.
Conducting pedagogical diagnostics should be carried out taking into account a number of principles that are determined by the specifics of the pedagogical process of a preschool organization. The content, goals, forms and methods of diagnostic procedures, as well as the methodology for analyzing the data obtained, are determined precisely by the principles of pedagogical diagnostics.
1. The principle of objectivity allows us to minimize the subjectivity of assessments, which can be observed due to the fact that, as a rule, “participant” observation is carried out, in which the diagnostician is inside the subject under study, and not removed from it.
2. The principle of a holistic study of the pedagogical process presupposes:
— consideration of the child as an integral system consisting of certain interconnected components;
- comparison of data obtained in different conditions and situations of the child’s life, by different people who are in different relationships with him;
— identifying the interdependence and interdependence of internal factors of a person’s individual and personal development with external environmental conditions.
3. The principle of processuality is the study of a phenomenon in its genesis and progression.
4. The principle of competence is that the diagnostician makes decisions only in those matters in which he has special training; any actions that could cause harm to the subject during the diagnostic process and results are also prohibited.
5. The principle of personalization lies in the requirement to detect not only individual manifestations of general patterns, but also individual paths of development, and deviations from the norm should not be assessed as negative without analyzing the dynamic trends of formation.
2.3 Stages of pedagogical diagnostics
Before starting diagnostics, it is necessary to design it. In this connection, the first stage is the design stage . It involves performing certain actions.
1. Outline the diagnostic goals (for example, to assess the degree to which children in the middle group demonstrate curiosity and activity, and also to determine the individual characteristics that appear in this case).
2. Determine the norm (standard, ideal, sample), with which the received information will be compared in the future.
3. Identify indicators and criteria for assessing manifestations of curiosity and activity in preschoolers. Thus, the criterion of curiosity may be the child’s sensitivity to new things, and indicators of the manifestation of this criterion are the identification of new objects in the environment, attentive listening to the teacher’s stories, cognitive questions about new objects, etc.
4. Determine diagnostic methods. The diagnostic method is focused on studying pedagogical reality.
The main methods in pedagogical diagnostics are participant observation and non-standardized conversations with children. Diagnostic situations are also used that “provoke” the child’s activity, which the teacher would like to observe2.
The second stage is practical , at which diagnostics are carried out.
The third stage is analytical . At this stage, the obtained data is analyzed, after which quantitative data appears.
The fourth stage is data interpretation. Interpretation of the data obtained requires deep knowledge of the object of study, high professionalism and experience, the ability to analyze and summarize extensive empirical information, often of a mosaic nature, and give an objective interpretation of the identified facts.
The fifth stage - goal-oriented - involves identifying current educational goals for each child and for the group as a whole.
The teacher regularly projects the data obtained as a result of comparisons and analysis onto the child’s behavior in other situations or in the future in the field of pedagogical diagnostics.
Thus, the art of a teacher is to open up the prospects for his development to each child, to show him those areas where he can express himself. The main point of the teacher’s prognostic activity is to find the most optimal way for the development of a two-pronged process: the socialization of the child, the identification and development of his individuality.
Conclusion
Correctly organized and carried out diagnostics of children in a preschool educational organization, aimed at identifying individual psychological characteristics of development and learning, allows not only to timely identify violations and take measures to correct them. No less important is psychological and pedagogical diagnostics aimed at identifying the child’s capabilities, determining his achievements in comparison with previous periods of development and creating all the necessary conditions for the further realization of his abilities.
The use of research methods such as observation, experiment, analysis of the results of a child’s childhood activity and conversation with him requires a high level of professionalism from a teacher-psychologist.
Methodology for psychological and pedagogical examination of children 4–5 years old
Tatiana Doshchinskaya
Methodology for psychological and pedagogical examination of children 4–5 years old
Methodology for psychological and pedagogical examination of children 4-5 years old
1. Disassembling and folding the nesting doll. The task is aimed at identifying the level of development of practical orientation towards magnitude and learning ability.
Equipment: four-seater (five-seater)
matryoshka
Conducting an examination : the adult gives the child a four-seater (five-seater)
matryoshka and asks to open it and look at other nesting dolls.
Then he offers to collect all the nesting dolls into one. If there is any difficulty, the adult takes the matryoshka doll and asks the child to watch how he does it: “First I take the small doll and look for a little smaller one, then I pick up a handkerchief for it, etc.” An adult demonstrates folding a nesting doll using the trial method , attracting the child’s attention to searching for the next part.
After training, the child is asked to complete the task independently. Assessment of the child’s actions: acceptance and understanding of the conditions of the task, methods of implementation, learning ability, attitude towards the result of one’s activities.
2. Dismantling and folding of the pyramid. The task is aimed at the child’s ability to distract from color and highlight quantity as the main principle of action, practical orientation to quantity.
Equipment: pyramid of four (six)
rings, rings of different sizes, different colors.
Conducting an examination : an adult invites the child to disassemble the pyramid. If the child does not act, the adult begins to disassemble it himself and involves the child in this action. In cases of difficulty, an adult shows how to select rings by size: “You need to take a big ring every time.”
. Then he shows how to apply one ring to another to see the difference in their size. After training, the child is asked to complete the task independently.
Assessing the child’s actions: acceptance and understanding of the conditions of the task, methods of execution, learning ability, attitude to the result.
3. Box of forms ( “mailbox”
). The task is aimed at checking the level of development of practical orientation towards form and learning ability.
Equipment: “mailbox”
– a plastic or wooden box with four
(five)
slots of different shapes; eight three-dimensional geometric shapes corresponding to the slots of the box.
Conducting an examination : an adult places a box in front of the child, paying attention to the slots, and lays out three-dimensional figures next to it so that the base of each figure, corresponding to the shape of the slot, is at the top. The child is asked to place all the figures into their slots, i.e., determine which slot this or that shape fits into. In case of difficulty, the adult asks the child to try on the figurine to the slot, turning it the right way, and shows how it should be done.
Assessing the child’s actions: see previous method .
4. Cut picture. The task is aimed at identifying the level of development of holistic perception of an object picture.
Equipment: two identical subject pictures, one of them cut into three (four)
parts diagonally.
Conducting an examination : an adult shows the child three (four)
parts of the cut picture and asks to put the whole picture together:
“Make a whole picture
.
Training: an adult shows how to connect the parts into a whole. After this, he again invites the child to complete the task independently.
Assessing the child’s actions: see previous method .
5. Colored cubes. The task is aimed at identifying the level of development of color perception (highlighting by word, color name)
.
Equipment: colored cubes of five (seven)
colors: 2 red, 2 yellow, 2 green, 2 blue, 2 white
(blue and pink)
.
Conducting an examination : colored cubes are placed in front of the child and asked to show a cube of a certain color: “Show me where the red one is...”
.
Then they ask you to name the colors of all the cubes. If the child does not identify the color according to the word, training is carried out. The child is asked to show a cube similar to the one in an adult’s hand, i.e. the level of comparison is clarified. Then they are taught to correlate the color of the cube with the name word, repeating the color 2-3 times: “Show me where yellow is, here is yellow.
Find where the yellow one is .
Assessment of the child’s actions: acceptance of the task, the level of color perception is noted (comparison, recognition of color by word, purpose, learning ability, attitude to the result.
6. Take out the key.
For children 4 years of age . The task is aimed at identifying the level of development of visual and effective thinking.
Equipment: wind-up toy, key.
Conducting an examination : a child is given a wind-up toy, and the key to it hangs so high that the child, standing on the floor, cannot reach it. The task is for the child to guess to use a chair (large and small chairs are located not far from him)
. No training is provided.
Assessment of the child’s actions: acceptance and understanding of the conditions of the task, methods of execution (whether he immediately guessed to take a large chair, whether there was an attempt to use a small chair or immediately refused to complete the task, attitude to the result.
For children 5 years of age . The task is aimed at identifying the level of development of visual-figurative thinking.
Equipment: plot picture depicting the situation: a boy is standing in the room, he has a typewriter in his hands, he is looking at the key that hangs on the wall, on a nail. Not far from the boy there are two chairs - a large one and a small one.
Conducting an examination : an adult invites the child to look at the picture, then says: “The boy wants to envy the car with a key, but does not know how to get it. Tell the boy how to get the key."
Assessing the child’s actions: accepting and understanding the conditions of the task, solving the problem in a visual and effective way, whether there are attempts to solve the problem in an effective way.
7. Account. The task is aimed at identifying quantitative ideas in the child.
Equipment: 15 flat sticks.
Carrying out the examination :
for children 4 years of age : 10 sticks are placed in front of the child and asked to take one, and then many. Training is carried out by imitation;
for children of the 5th year of life : counting sticks are placed in front of the child and asked to take two, one, three. Then the adult puts one stick on his palm, in front of the child, takes another stick and puts it on his palm, covering it with the other palm. The child is asked: “How much is there?”
Then they put another stick in the same palm and ask again:
“How many is there?”
, i.e., they check counting representations within three. In case of difficulties, training is provided. If the child cannot cope with choosing a certain number according to the word, then they offer a choice - one, two, three according to imitation.
Assessing the child’s actions: accepting and understanding the task, choosing from a variety of one, two, three by word, by imitation, the ability to perform counting operations by representation.
8. Design. The task is aimed at identifying the child’s ability to create structures from four (five)
elements according to the model, learning ability.
Equipment: 10 flat sticks of the same color.
Conducting an examination : an adult builds a figurine from flat sticks behind the screen. Then he shows the building and asks the child to build the same one. If there are difficulties, the child is asked to build according to the demonstration.
Assessment of the child’s actions: acceptance and understanding of the task, ability to work according to a model, learning ability, attitude to the result.
9. Drawing (house, tree, person)
. The task is aimed at identifying the level of development of the subject drawing, behavior in a certain situation, and the purposefulness of the activity.
Equipment: colored markers, pencils and paper.
Conducting an examination : the child is given paper and asked to draw one object first - a house. After this, they are asked to draw a person, and then a tree. No training is provided.
Assessment of the child’s actions: acceptance and understanding of the task, analysis of drawings: sketching, prerequisites for an object drawing, object drawing, leading hand, coordination of actions of both hands.
10. Game. The child’s interest in toys, the nature of the use of toys, the nature of the game (manipulation, procedural actions or plot elements)
.
Equipment: play area with a doll, strollers, sets of clothes and dishes for the doll, a car, cubes, soldiers, gates, a ball, a basin of water, small toys, “bi-ba-bo”
.
Conducting an examination : an adult invites the child to a play corner and emotionally involves him in joint actions with toys. First, you are asked to feed the doll. Then roll her in the stroller, then put her to bed. If the child does not want to play with the doll, he is asked to load the blocks into the machine and take part in the construction. An adult builds a road out of bricks, and then puts a small doll in the car and asks the child to drive it along the path. In case of refusal, the child is offered to play near a basin of water: one small toy (balls, fish, etc.) is dropped into it, then they are offered to catch them with a net.
Assessment of the child’s actions: attitude towards toys, interest and nature of actions with toys, selectivity in toys.
“Features of psychodiagnostics of preschool children”
Report
“Features of psychodiagnostics of preschool children”
Features of psychodiagnostics of preschool children
The word “psychodiagnostics” literally means “making a psychological diagnosis,” or making a qualified decision about the final psychological state of a person as a whole or about any individual psychological property. Practical psychodiagnostics is used in a variety of areas of activity of a psychologist: both when he acts as an author or participant in applied psychological and pedagogical experiments, and when he is engaged in psychological counseling or mental correction. But most often, psychodiagnostics acts as a separate, completely independent field of activity. Its goal is to make a psychological diagnosis, i.e. assessment of a person’s current mental state. Preschool children have a number of psychological and behavioral characteristics, knowledge of which is necessary in order to obtain reliable results in the process of their psychodiagnostic examination. These features, first of all, include a relatively low level of consciousness and self-awareness. For most preschoolers, cognitive processes such as attention, memory, perception, imagination and thinking are at a relatively low level of development. In order to correctly judge the level of development achieved by a child, it is necessary to select psychodiagnostic test tasks in such a way that they are simultaneously designed for both voluntary and involuntary levels of regulation of the cognitive sphere. This allows us to adequately assess, on the one hand, the degree of arbitrariness of cognitive processes, and on the other hand, the real level of their development in the event that they are not yet arbitrary. Children 3-6 years old already have elements of voluntariness in managing their cognitive processes. But the majority of children of this age are characterized by a predominance of involuntary cognitive processes, and the child relies on them when learning about the world around him. Psychodiagnostics of children of this age, therefore, should be two-directional: A detailed study of the development of involuntary cognitive processes. Timely detection and accurate description of voluntary cognitive actions and reactions. Preschool children are very poorly aware of their own personal qualities and cannot correctly assess their behavior. From 4 to 6 years old, children can already evaluate themselves as an individual, but within limited limits. Therefore, it is recommended to use the method of external expert assessment, using adults who know the child well as experts. Also, personality questionnaires containing direct judgments of the self-evaluative type are not entirely suitable for preschool children. If we are talking about indirect judgments, then they should also not include features of the psychology of behavior that the child is not yet well aware of. In general, the use of such questionnaires for psychodiagnostic purposes in preschool age should be minimized, and if resorting to them is inevitable, then each question must be explained in detail and clearly to the child. Only then will preschoolers demonstrate their abilities in the process of psychodiagnostics, i.e. show results that correctly reflect the level of their mental development, when the methods themselves and the tasks they contain arouse and maintain the child’s interest throughout the entire time. As soon as the child’s immediate interest in the completed task is lost, he ceases to show the abilities and inclinations that he actually possesses. Therefore, if we want to identify the actual level of psychological development of a child and his capabilities, for example, the zone of potential development, it is necessary in advance, by drawing up instructions and methods, to make sure that all this arouses involuntary attention on the part of the child and is interesting enough for him. Finally, one should take into account the characteristics of the involuntary cognitive processes themselves, for example, the inconstancy of involuntary attention and increased fatigue of children of this age. Therefore, a series of test tasks should not be made too long or require a lot of time. The optimal time for completing test tasks for preschool children is considered to be in the range from one to ten minutes, and the younger the child’s age, the shorter it should be. The best psychodiagnostic results can be obtained by observing children in the process of engaging in the leading activity for a given age - play.
Recommendations
When taking a child for diagnostics, you must keep in mind that he should not be torn away from an activity that is interesting to him and brought against his will. In this case, the research results may be unreliable.
To carry out diagnostics, a separate room is required, in which no one will interfere with the work with the child. The appearance of the room is of great importance. The less it looks like an official office, the freer the child will feel. An important condition for psychodiagnostics is adaptation to the individual characteristics of the child: his pace, level of fatigue, fluctuations in motivation, etc.
Methods of psychodiagnostic examination of preschool children
Let us consider the features of using such various methods of studying children as observation, survey, experiment and testing.
Observation method
The observation method is one of the main ones in working with children. Many methods commonly used in the study of adults - tests, experiments, surveys - have a limited scope of application in studies conducted on children due to their complexity. They are, as a rule, inaccessible to children, especially in infancy.
One of the first researchers to monitor child development was Charles Darwin. In 1881, it was he who first described the appearance of a child’s smile on the 45th-46th day of life, attachment to an adult at the end of the fifth month of life, and many other important facts. The prominent Swiss psychologist J. Piaget, highlighting the stages of mental development of a child, often referred to observations of his own grandchildren. The famous Soviet child psychologist D.B. Elkonin used observations of his grandson to describe the process of formation of the child’s objective actions.
Before you begin observing what and how children do, it is necessary to establish the purpose of the observation, answer questions about why it is being carried out, and what results it will ultimately produce. Then it is necessary to draw up an observation program, develop a plan designed to lead the researcher to the desired goal.
The observation method can provide very important results. But it all depends on what and how to observe. In this regard, several observation options are distinguished.
Firstly,
it can be continuous or selective.
Secondly,
observation can be hidden and included.
Third
, observation can be one-time or long-term.
The observation method has a number of undeniable advantages. It allows us to unfold before us the concrete life of a child, gives many living, interesting facts, but allows us to study the child in the natural conditions of his life. It is indispensable for initial orientation in the problem and obtaining preliminary facts. But this method has a number of disadvantages
, the main one being its extreme labor intensity. It requires high psychological education of the researcher and a huge investment of time, which does not at all guarantee obtaining facts. The researcher is forced to wait until the phenomena of interest arise by themselves. In addition, observational results often do not allow us to understand the reasons for certain forms of behavior. Many researchers have noticed that when observing, a psychologist sees only what he already knows, and what is still unknown to him passes by his attention.
Experimental method
In research work with children, experimentation is often one of the most reliable methods of obtaining reliable information about the psychology and behavior of a child, especially when observation is difficult and survey results may be questionable. Including a child in an experimental play situation makes it possible to obtain the child’s immediate reactions to the influencing stimuli and, on the basis of these reactions, to judge what the child is hiding from observation or is unable to verbalize during questioning. The spontaneity of children's behavior in play, the inability of children to consciously play a certain social role for a long time, their emotional responsiveness and fascination enable the researcher to see what he is not able to obtain using other methods.
An experiment in working with children allows you to get the best results when it is organized and carried out in the form of a game or activities familiar to the child - drawing, designing, guessing riddles, etc. Children should not suspect that the games they are offered are specifically designed for their learning.
The experimental procedure has a greater impact on children than on adults. The explanation for this is found in the characteristics of the child’s psyche
:
- Children are more emotional when communicating with adults
. An adult is always a psychologically significant figure for a child. He is either kind, or dangerous, or likable and trustworthy, or unpleasant and should be stayed away from.
Consequently, children strive to please an unfamiliar adult or “hide” from contact with him.
- The manifestation of personality traits in a child depends on the situation to a greater extent than in an adult.
The situation is constructed during communication: the child must successfully communicate with the experimenter, understand his questions and requirements. A system of concepts and methods of communication that are unusual for a child will be a powerful barrier to his inclusion in the experiment.
- The child has a more vivid imagination than the experimenter, and therefore can interpret the experimental situation differently than an adult
. Experimenters are advised to pay attention to whether the child correctly understands the questions and requests addressed to him when giving one or another answer.
The specificity of an experiment in child psychology is that the experimental conditions should be close to the natural living conditions of the child and should not disrupt the usual forms of his activity. Unusual laboratory conditions may confuse the child and cause him to refuse to perform activities. Therefore, an experiment with the participation of children should be close to the natural conditions of a child’s life.
One type of psychological experiment is tests.
Test
is a system of specially selected tasks that are offered to children under strictly defined conditions. For completing each task, the child receives a score.
Helper Methods
In addition to the main methods of studying children - observation and experiment - auxiliary methods are used. These include analysis of the results of children's activities (drawings, crafts, fairy tales composed by children, etc.) and the method of conversation (or interview). Analysis of children's drawings is especially widely used. Children's drawings reflect the child's emotional state, the peculiarities of perception of surrounding people and objects, and the nature of relationships with others. When interpreting drawings, it is imperative to take into account the visual experience of the “artist,” since children’s graphic activity may be poorly formed. The presence or absence of visual skills, the use of stereotypes, templates, age characteristics - all this significantly influences the diagnostic portrait of a person. Interpretation of children's drawings requires high qualifications and extensive experience working with this material. In addition, it can never be definite and unambiguous and always presupposes some subjectivity of the researcher. Therefore, in serious research this method can only be used as an auxiliary one.
The conversation method (question method) can be used in working with children starting from the age of 4, when they already have a fairly good command of speech, but within very limited limits. The fact is that children of preschool age cannot yet express their thoughts and experiences in words, so their answers are usually short, formal and reproducing the words of an adult. Selecting questions to talk to children is a great art. Difficulties may be caused by the fact that the child does not always correctly understand the questions addressed to him.
Conclusion:
Psychodiagnostics of preschool children has its own characteristics. Preschool children have a number of psychological and behavioral characteristics, knowledge of which is necessary in order to obtain reliable results in the process of their psychodiagnostic examination. These features, first of all, include a relatively low level of consciousness and self-awareness. In addition, it should be taken into account that processes such as memory, attention, thinking, and imagination are not sufficiently developed. The most commonly used research methods are observation and experiment, as well as auxiliary methods: analysis of the results of children's activities and conversation. The best psychodiagnostic results can be obtained by observing children in the process of engaging in the leading activity for a given age - play.
Literature:
Vallon A. Mental development of the child. - M., 1967
Wenger L.A. Pedagogy of abilities. - M., 1973
Vygotsky L.S. Pedagogical psychology. - M., 1991
Gurevich K.M. Psychological diagnostics. Tutorial. M., 1997.
Druzhinin V. N. Experimental psychology. — 2nd ed., add. - St. Petersburg, 2002.
Piaget J. Selected psychological works. - M., 1969
Elkonin D.B. Child psychology. - M., 1960
Elkonin D.B. Mental development in childhood.-M., 1995
Diagnostics of the cognitive sphere of 3-year-old children
Olesya Aleksandrovna Mironova
Diagnostics of the cognitive sphere of 3-year-old children
Cognitive development:
-orients himself in an age-appropriate subject-development environment;
- distinguishes people by belonging to a certain gender, age;
- distinguishes and names parts of the human and animal body
-recognizes domestic and wild animals and their babies in pictures and toys and names them ;
- distinguishes vegetables and fruits by appearance, names them;
-has a basic understanding of seasonal changes in nature;
- distinguishes the number of objects (one, many)
;
- distinguishes and names (with the help of an adult)
objects by shape, color, size;
- is able to establish the identity and difference of objects by shape, color and size (with the help of an adult)
;
- distinguishes 6 primary colors, names 4 colors;
- distinguishes and names the location of objects relative to his body: nearby, far, in front, behind (with the help of an adult)
;
- distinguishes objects with contrasting properties: soft – hard, etc.;
- knows how to consistently assemble, disassemble, and fold pyramids, nesting dolls, and inserts (with a little help from an adult)
;
Methods and tasks used by a defectologist when examining younger preschoolers (3 years old)
— Study of subject-based practical activity: “Build from sticks”
E. A. Strebeleva,
— Plot-procedural game (conversation, observation)
— Orientation in the body diagram (conversation, observation)
— Study of gross and fine motor skills: frame inserts E. Seguin, “Find the house”
or
"Séguin's Board"
.
— Recognition of realistic images (Luria technique)
— Story pictures (understanding of actions)
A. N. Bernstein
— Assessment of the level of general awareness (conversation, observation)
— Ideas about color, shape, size (pyramid, colored mats, box of shapes)
:
“Disassemble and fold the nesting doll”
by E. A. Strebeleva, making a pyramid from the rings of E. A. Strebeleva,
— Elementary quantitative representations: “Mailbox”
Seguin
— assessment of the level of graphic skills: “DRAW”
E. A. Strebeleva
(path or house)
.
Methods for diagnosing the development of cognitive processes in 3-year-old children (interpretation of methods developed by the scientific team under the leadership of A. L. Wenger, S. D. Zabramnaya, O. V. Borovik)
1. Five Toys
. The task is aimed at studying mechanical memory.
Equipment: 5 toys (ball, car, doll, dog, bear)
screen
Instructions: “Tell me what it is? Look and remember the toys"
. We cover the toys with a screen and ask them to name them.
Quantitative assessment of survey results:
4 points - named 5 toys, 3 points - named 4 toys, 2 points - named 2-3 toys, 1 point - named 1 toy, 0 points - did not name a single toy.
2. Attention “Picture Comparison”
Equipment: 2 pictures with two differences, stopwatch
Instructions: “Look carefully, tell me how these pictures differ”
Execution time -1 minute
Quantitative assessment of survey results:
4 points - the child coped with the methods for 4-5 years old, 3 points - found 2 differences, 2 points - found one difference, 1 point - found the difference with the help of an adult, 0 points - did not complete the task
3. Perception “Cut picture”
identifying the degree of mastery of visual synthesis - combining elements into a holistic image
Equipment: two identical subject pictures, one of which is cut into two parts.
Instructions: lay out two parts of a cut picture in front of the child and ask him to put together the whole picture: “Make a whole picture”
Quantitative assessment of survey results:
4 points - puts together a picture from 4 parts, 3 points - puts together a picture from two parts, 2 points - completes the task with help, 1 point - completes the task with the presence of a visual sample, 0 points - does not complete the task
4. Seguin Board Thinking
the technique is aimed at studying visual-effective thinking
Equipment: Seguin board 6 inserts
Instructions: the figures are laid out in front of the child and it is proposed to put each one in its place “Find its place for each figure”
Quantitative assessment of survey results:
4 points - completes the task based on the visual correlation of the insert figure with the slot (8 inserts, 3 points - performs the task based on the visual correlation of the insert figure with the slot, 2 points - the child often tries on, does not always use visual correlation 1 point - completes the task through trial and error, 0 points - does not complete the task
Card file of diagnostic methods
The second parameter is cognitive activity. Indicators of this parameter are the variety of actions with objects and the child’s emotional involvement in the activity. The variety of actions with objects characterizes the child’s desire and ability to extract maximum information about the object through a variety of actions. The child’s emotional involvement in an activity reflects the child’s degree of curiosity, pleasure from the actions and their results, persistence in trying to take possession of the object and examine it. In a baby who is in favorable conditions of upbringing, object-manipulative activity is colored with bright positive emotions, he actively seeks and finds something to do, and knows how to extract interest even from an outwardly unattractive object. Children who have a lack of communication with adults are characterized by a low level of curiosity. They often experience fear of new objects or remain indifferent to them, are not active in looking for something to do, and can spend a long time in inactivity. Their actions with objects are few and monotonous, rarely accompanied by manifestations of joy.
To identify the characteristics of the selected parameters, appropriate diagnostic tests are carried out.
Description of diagnostic situations
Situation 1. “Different toys.”
Goal: determining the parameters of object-manipulative activity with objects familiar to the child. In this test, the child is given the opportunity to update the current level of proficiency in object-manipulative activities.
Organization of the subject environment. An adult picks up a set of toys and puts them in a bag or bag. It should include toys with which the child can perform both nonspecific and specific actions, for example, a pyramid ring. This object allows you to carry out both non-specific (throwing, knocking, moving), specific (rolling, putting on a finger through a hole), and playful, culturally fixed (use as a “steering wheel” or “plate”) actions. With the help of a rattle, a rubber squeaker toy, a ball, a telephone handset, the child performs specific actions (rattling, waving a rattle, squeezing a rubber toy, rolling a ball). A soft animal toy or doll with various details of clothing, a spoon, a cup provide the opportunity for both research and play, culturally specific actions (“cradle”, “feed” the doll, “drink” from the cup, etc.) .
Diagnostic test procedure. The child sits on a special chair in front of the table, and the adult next to him. He consistently, as the child’s interest in the subject wanes, places different toys on the table. In this situation, the adult does not initiate communication. If the child shows initiative (for example, holding out a toy), you should take the toy, but do not continue communication. In cases where a child’s communication development has already been diagnosed, the psychologist can post the toy that he played with in the process of situational business communication. This will make it possible to monitor whether the baby is trying to reproduce the previously obtained pattern and whether he encourages the adult to do so. Data obtained from communication diagnostics can be used to characterize object-manipulative activity. If, when diagnosing communication, a psychologist manages to simultaneously record indicators of object-manipulative activity, these tests can be combined. The protocol records the parameters of object-manipulative activity. The protocol form is given below.
