Childhood is one of the most complex phenomena of developmental psychology. When we talk about it, we usually mean that phase of life when a person is not yet ready for independent existence and needs to intensively assimilate the experience passed on by the older generation. But how long does this phase last and what does this phase depend on?
The difficulties and contradictions that arise even with a superficial analysis of the phenomenon of childhood are primarily due to the fact that childhood is a historical category. We can only talk about childhood given child living in given era, in data social conditions, although there are common features with other generations.
Historical experience shows that social and cultural traditions consolidate this period of life in different ways: if at the beginning of the 19th century. a 13-year-old child from a noble family entered the university, this did not seem strange to anyone, but in our time this is more the exception than the norm. If at that time 15-16 year olds were already embarking on the path of independent work and creativity, then in our time only unique social conditions or individual attitudes can lead to complete independence.
In modern social conditions, economically, socially and personally independent life begins for people at the age of about 25 years, or even later. Of course, biologically modern children are ready for independent life much earlier, but a person lives not only a biological life, and the end of childhood is associated not so much with biological, how much socio-economic independence. But this means that childhood, as a special phase of human social development, can only be contrasted with maturity, adulthood. And therefore, in modern childhood it is also necessary to include the periods of school age, adolescence and youth.
When, how and why did childhood become a separate phase of human life in history?
The problem of the historiography of childhood is complicated by the fact that in this area it is impossible to conduct either observation or experiment, and psychologists are left to make generalizations only on the basis of studying cultural, ethnographic, archaeological and anthropological data. And the data indirectly relating to childhood are very fragmentary and contradictory. Even in those rare cases when among archaeological finds there are miniature copies of people, animals, carts, fruits, etc., it is difficult to establish with certainty whether they were toys or whether they were made specifically for children. Most often, these are either religious objects that in ancient times were placed in graves so that they would serve the owner in the afterlife, or accessories of magic and witchcraft, or jewelry.
Based on the study of ethnographic materials, D. B. Elkonin concluded that at the earliest stages of human society, when the main way of obtaining food was gathering using primitive tools for knocking down fruits and digging up edible roots, there was no childhood in our usual sense.
In the conditions of primitive communities, with their relatively primitive tools and means of labor, even 3-4 year old children lived a common life with adults, taking part in simple forms of domestic labor, in collecting edible plants, roots, larvae, snails, etc., in primitive hunting and fishing, in the simplest forms of agriculture. The child was introduced to the work of adults very early, practically learning ways of obtaining food and using primitive tools. And the earlier the society was at a stage of development, the earlier children were included in the productive labor of adults and became independent producers. This led to the fact that in primitive societies there was no sharp distinction between adults and children.
The demand for independence presented to children by society found a natural form of implementation in working together with adults. The direct connection of the child with the whole society, carried out in the process of common labor, excluded all other forms of connection, so there was no need to highlight the special status of the child, the institutions of socialization of childhood and a special period in a child’s life. There is objective confirmation of this conclusion by D. B. Elkonin.
Thus, according to the testimony of V. Volz, primitive wandering gatherers together (men, women, children) move from place to place in search of edible fruits and roots. By the age of 10, girls become mothers, and boys become fathers and begin to lead an independent lifestyle. Describing one of the most primitive groups of people on earth - the Kubu people, M. Kosven writes that from the age of 10-12, children are considered independent and capable of shaping their own destiny. From this moment on, they begin to wear a bandage that hides their genitals. During their stay, they build themselves a separate hut next to their parents' hut. But they look for food on their own and eat separately. The bond between parents and children gradually weakens, and soon the children begin to live independently in the forest.
A. T. Bryant, who lived for almost half a century among the Zulus, describes the duties of 6-7-year-old children: they drove calves and goats to the meadow in the morning (and older children - cows), collected wild edible herbs, and drove the ears of corn into the fields when they ripened. birds, doing housework, etc.
Ethnographic data from Russian travelers indicate the very early training of young children to perform labor duties and the inclusion of adults in productive work. Thus, G. Novitsky in 1715, in a description of the Ostyak people, wrote: “What is common to all is handicraft, shooting animals (they kill), catching birds, fish, they can feed themselves with them. They study these tricks and their children and from a young age they become accustomed to shooting with a bow, killing animals, catching birds, fish (they teach them).”
S.P. Krasheninnikov, describing his journey through Kamchatka (1737–1741), writes about the Koryaks: “The most praiseworthy thing about this people is that although they love their children excessively, they teach them to work as children; for which reason they are kept no better than slaves, they are sent for firewood and water, they are ordered to carry heavy loads, graze deer herds and do other similar things.”
N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, who lived among the Papuans for many years, writes about their children: “I often saw a comical scene, how a little boy of about four years old seriously lit a fire, carried firewood, washed dishes, helped his father peel fruit, and then suddenly he jumped up, ran to his mother, who was squatting at some work, grabbed her breast and, despite resistance, began to suck.”
Since the well-being of the community depended on the participation of everyone in productive labor, there was also natural age-sex division of labor. Thus, according to N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, children participated not only in simple household labor, but also in more complex forms collective productive labor of adults.
For example, describing the cultivation of soil by a tribe on the coast of New Guinea, he writes: “The work is done in this way: two, three or more men stand in a row, deeply stick sharpened rods [strong long sticks pointed at one end; men work with them, since working with this tool requires a lot of force] into the ground and then with one swing they lift a large block of earth. If the soil is hard, then stick the poles into the same place twice, and then lift the soil. The men are followed by the women, who crawl on their knees and, holding their udya-sab [small narrow shoulder blades for women] firmly in both hands, crush the earth raised by the men. Children of various ages follow them and rub the earth with their hands. In this order, men, women and children cultivate the entire plantation.”
That is why in early societies there was equal rights for children and adults and equal respect for all its members, even the smallest. According to the researcher of northern peoples S.N. Stebnitsky, during a general conversation, the words of children are listened to as carefully as the speech of adults. The leading ethnographer L. Ya. Sternberg also emphasizes this equality of children and adults among the peoples of Northeast Asia: “It is difficult for a civilized person to even imagine what sense of equality and respect reigns here in relation to young people. Teenagers 10–12 years old feel like completely equal members of society... No one feels any difference in age or position.”
The primitive tools and forms of labor available to the child provide the opportunity for the development of early independence generated by the demands of society and the direct participation of adults in the work. It is absolutely clear that we are not talking about exploitation of child labor: it has the character of satisfying a naturally occurring need that is social in nature. Children bring specifically childish traits into the performance of work duties, perhaps even enjoying the process of work itself and, in any case, experiencing a feeling of satisfaction and associated pleasure from the activity carried out together with adults and How adults. According to the testimony of most ethnographers, in primitive communities children are not punished, but, on the contrary, their cheerful, cheerful, cheerful state is supported in every possible way.
The transition to higher forms of production - agriculture and cattle breeding, the complication of fishing and hunting methods, their transition from passive to increasingly active ones was accompanied by the displacement of gathering and primitive forms of labor. Due to the increasing complexity of tools, there is a need to identify a separate process of mastering them, and children begin to work with reduced tools, although the ways of using them are not fundamentally different from the ways of using real tools.
It must be borne in mind that these weapons functional differ significantly from toys in primitive societies: they are copies of adult tools, and they work, and do not imitate the process of adult labor, as happens in the game. Under these conditions, childhood begins to stand out as the stage of preparing a child for work, although it is short and children still play very little in it.
Thus, researchers of the North A.G. Bazanov and N.G. Kazansky write that Mansi children who have just begun to walk are already drawn into fishing by adults, and their parents already take them with them into the boat, give them small oars, teach them how to operate the boat, and teach them how to life of the river. In another work, A.G. Bazanov notes that a 5-6 year old Vogul child is already running around the yurts with a bow and arrow, hunting birds, and developing accuracy. From the age of 7-8, children in the forest are taught how to find a squirrel, wood grouse, how to handle a dog, where and how to set traps. Children, even the youngest, are avid hunters and come to school with dozens of squirrels and chipmunks to their name. S.N. Stebnitsky points out that the children also have the responsibility of preparing firewood - in any frost or bad weather, the boy must, harnessing the remaining dogs at home, sometimes drive ten kilometers for firewood.
What kind of reduced implements children now use depends on the prevailing branch of work in a given society. So, for example, according to the testimony of N. G. Bogoraz-Tan, who studied the peoples of the Far North, the Chukchi begin to learn how to use a knife (the main necessary tool of a reindeer herder) from early childhood: “Little boys, as soon as they begin to tenaciously grab things, are given a knife, and from that time on they did not part with him. I saw one boy trying to cut wood with a knife; the knife was not much smaller than himself.”
A. N. Reinson-Pravdin notes that children of the North early learn to use small, but real, knives and axes, bows and arrows, slings and crossbows, fishing rods and lassos, and master skiing from the moment they begin to walk.
N. G. Bogoraz-Tan draws attention to the fact that a doll plays a special role for girls, with which they master women’s handicrafts: dressing deer skins, suede, bird and animal skins, fish skins, sewing clothes and shoes, weaving grass mats , making birch bark utensils, weaving, and in many areas weaving.
It is quite natural that learning all these skills went in two ways: on the one hand, by early inclusion in the mother’s work (helping with cooking, caring for babies, participating in purely female crafts - harvesting berries, nuts, roots); on the other hand, the production of dollhouses, mainly wardrobes. The dolls collected in museums of the peoples of the Far North amaze with the perfection of their sewing skills, using a needle and a knife.
Children, of course, cannot independently discover ways to use tools, and adults teach them this by showing them how to operate them, pointing out the nature of the exercises, and monitoring and evaluating children’s actions in mastering these tools. There is not yet a school with its system, organization and program, but there is already special training caused by the needs of society.
In contrast to the process of mastering the tools of labor, which occurs with the direct participation of the child in the productive work of adults, this process is highlighted in special activity carried out under conditions different from those in which productive work occurs. A little Nenets, a future reindeer herder, learns to use a lasso not in a herd of deer, participating in its protection, as it was originally. A little Evenk, a future hunter, learns to use a bow and arrow outside the forest, participating in a real hunt together with adults. They do this in open space, throwing a lasso (or shooting from a bow) first at stationary objects and then at moving targets. And only after this they move on to hunting small birds and animals or lassoing dogs and calves. Probably, D. B. Elkonin believes, at this stage role-playing games, exercise games and competition games are born. Gradually, children are entrusted with increasingly sophisticated tools, and the conditions of exercise are increasingly closer to the conditions of productive labor.
The age at which children are now included in productive work depends primarily on the degree of its complexity. In the process of further development of society, tools become so complicated that if they are reduced, they, while maintaining an external resemblance to the tools of adults, lose their productive function. So, for example, if a reduced bow did not lose its main function - it was possible to shoot an arrow from it and hit the target, then the already reduced gun becomes only image guns, you cannot shoot from it, much less kill, but you can only depict shooting. In hoe farming, the small hoe was still a hoe with which a child could loosen small clods of earth - it was similar to the hoe of his father or mother not only in form, but also in function. When switching to plow farming, a small plow, no matter how much it resembles a real one in all its details, loses the main functions of a plow: you can neither harness an ox to it nor plow with it.
According to the assumption of D. B. Elkonin, at the same stage toys appear in their modern understanding - as objects, depicting tools, household items. Children’s mastery of tools is divided into two periods: first associated with the mastery of household tools, second moves forward to older ages, and a gap forms between them. This period will be longer, the more complex the forms and tools of activity that each child of a given society has to master.
In a certain sense, children are left to their own devices, “children’s communities” arise, and it is during this period that development develops. a game, where existing in a given society are reproduced in a special form relationship between people.
But since the tools of adult labor become so complicated, then mastering them by young children directly in the course of productive activity becomes impossible. Of course, household labor with its elementary tools remains with children, but it can no longer be considered socially productive labor, and the labor of children is no longer so necessary to maintain the well-being of society. Children are gradually being squeezed out of the complex and most responsible areas of adult activity. It becomes necessary to have a long period of preparing children for future mastery of complex forms and means of social production, which is why a special social institution of childhood is identified and, accordingly, a special period in children’s life.
D. B. Elkonin noted that childhood arises when a child cannot be directly included in the system of social reproduction, since he cannot yet master the tools of labor due to their complexity. As a result, the natural inclusion of children in productive labor is delayed. According to D. B. Elkonin, this lengthening in time occurs not by building a new period of development over existing ones (as F. Ariès believed, for example), but by a kind of wedging in a new period of development, leading to an “upward time shift” of the period mastering the tools of production. Childhood becomes a period of development when the basic elements of social experience are actively absorbed until the subject reaches social and psychological maturity.
Considering the phenomenon of childhood in a historical aspect, one cannot help but recall its two main paradoxes, described by D. B. Elkonin.
First paradox nature, which predetermines the history of childhood, is as follows. When a person is born, he is endowed with only the most basic mechanisms for maintaining life. In terms of physical structure, organization of the nervous system, types of activity and methods of its regulation, man is the most perfect creature in nature. However, at the time of birth, there is a noticeable drop in perfection in the evolutionary series - the child does not have any ready-made forms of behavior. As a rule, the higher a living creature stands in the evolutionary series, the longer its childhood lasts, the more helpless this creature is at birth.
In the process of the emergence of man, biological evolution ceases, and during the transition from ape to man, almost all forms of behavior become acquired. Human childhood, in comparison with the childhood of animals, is qualitatively transformed and itself changes significantly in the process of human historical development.
In the course of history, the material and spiritual culture of mankind has been continuously enriched. Over the millennia, human experience has increased many thousands of times. But, oddly enough, during this time the newborn child practically did not change. Based on the data of anthropologists on the anatomical and morphological similarities of Cro-Magnon and modern Europeans, it can be assumed that the newborn of a modern person is not significantly different from a newborn who lived tens of thousands of years ago. And this second paradox childhood.
The helplessness of a human being is also the greatest acquisition of evolution: it is this “detachment” from the natural environment, “freedom”, plasticity, readiness for variability that allows a person to “become everything” in the future - to speak any language, master any cultural form of behavior and activity, to appropriate any form of experience (by the way, this is why children who, for whatever reason, find themselves in an animal environment, “merge” with it so organically).
Unfortunately, practically nothing is known about what the childhood of Neanderthals, Pithecanthropus, and Cro-Magnons was like. The course of human development, according to L. S. Vygotsky, does not obey the eternal laws of nature, the laws of maturation of the organism, and the course of a child’s development is of a socio-historical nature: there is no eternally childish, but only historically childish.
Moreover, the duration of childhood in a primitive society is not equal to the duration of childhood in the Middle Ages or our days. Since childhood is a product of history, its duration and psychological content are directly dependent on the level of material and spiritual culture of society.
Thus, in the literature of the 19th century. There is quite a lot of evidence that proletarian children actually had no childhood. For example, in a study of the situation of the working class in England, F. Engels referred to the report of a commission of the English Parliament in 1883, which examined working conditions in factories: children sometimes began to work from the age of five, often from the age of six, more often from the age of seven, but almost all children of the poor parents worked from the age of eight, and their working day lasted 14–16 hours.
It is generally accepted that the status of the childhood of a proletarian child was formed only in the 19th–20th centuries, when legislation on the protection of children began to prohibit child labor (by the way, the upper limit of modern childhood is established in exactly the same way - criminal liability for acts committed begins at 14 years of age). Of course, this does not mean that the legal laws adopted are capable of ensuring childhood for the lower strata of society. Children in this environment, and especially girls, even today perform work necessary for social reproduction (caring for babies, housework, agricultural work, women's “crafts”: darning, sewing, embroidery, etc.). Thus, although formally in our time there is a ban on child labor, it is impossible to talk about the status of childhood without taking into account the position of parents in the social structure of society*.
* The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by UNESCO in 1989 and ratified by most countries of the world, is aimed at ensuring the full development of the child’s personality in every corner of the Earth.
Childhood, being a long period in human development, is divided into substages, which V.V. Zenkovsky even suggested calling “first (early) childhood” and “second” (meaning adolescence and youth).
1. Childhood as a psychological problem. Historical and socio-psychological aspects of the world of childhood
Today, any educated person, when asked what childhood is, will answer that childhood is a period of intense development, change and learning. But only scientists understand that this is a period of paradoxes and contradictions, without which it is impossible to imagine the process of development. V. Stern, J. Piaget, I.A. wrote about the paradoxes of child development. Skolyansky and many others. D.B. Elkonin said that paradoxes in child psychology are developmental mysteries that scientists have yet to solve. He invariably began his lectures by characterizing the two main paradoxes of child development, which imply the need for a historical approach to understanding childhood. Let's look at them.
When a person is born, he is endowed with only the most basic mechanisms for maintaining life. In terms of physical structure, organization of the nervous system, types of activity and methods of its regulation, man is the most perfect creature in nature. However, based on the state at the time of birth, there is a noticeable drop in perfection in the evolutionary series - the child does not have any ready-made forms of behavior. As a rule, the higher a living creature stands in the ranks of animals, the longer its childhood lasts, the more helpless this creature is at birth. This is one of the paradoxes of nature that predetermines the history of childhood.
In the course of history, the enrichment of the material and spiritual culture of mankind has continuously increased. Over the millennia, human experience has increased many thousands of times. But during this same time, the newborn child has practically not changed. Based on the data of anthropologists on the anatomical and morphological similarities of Cro-Magnon and modern Europeans, it can be assumed that the newborn of a modern person is not significantly different from a newborn who lived tens of thousands of years ago.
How does it happen that, given similar natural prerequisites, the level of mental development that a child achieves at each historical stage of the development of society is not the same?
Childhood is a period lasting from newbornhood to full social and, therefore, psychological maturity; this is the period of the child becoming a full member of human experience. Moreover, the duration of childhood in primitive society is not equal to the duration of childhood in the Middle Ages or in our days. The stages of human childhood are a product of history and are as subject to change as they were thousands of years ago. Therefore, it is impossible to study a child’s childhood and the laws of its formation outside the development of human society and the laws that determine its development. The duration of childhood is directly dependent on the level of material and spiritual culture of society.
The problem of childhood history is one of the most difficult in modern child psychology, because in this area it is impossible to carry out either observation or experiment. Ethnographers are well aware that cultural monuments related to children are poor. Even in those not very frequent cases when toys are found in archaeological excavations, these are usually objects of worship that in ancient times were placed in graves so that they would serve the owner in the afterlife. Miniature images of people and animals were also used for witchcraft purposes.
Theoretically, the question of the historical origin of periods of childhood was developed in the works of P.P. Blonsky, L.S. Vygotsky, D.B. Elkonina. The course of the child’s mental development, according to L.S. Vygotsky, does not obey the eternal laws of nature, the laws of maturation of the organism. That is why he emphasized that there is no eternal child, but only a historical child exists.
Historically, the concept of childhood is associated not with a biological state of immaturity, but with a certain social status, with a range of rights and responsibilities inherent in this period of life, with a set of types and forms of activity available to it. Many interesting facts were collected to support this idea by the French demographer and historian Philippe Aries. Thanks to his works, interest in the history of childhood in foreign psychology has increased significantly, and the research of F. Aries himself is recognized as classic.
F. Aries was interested in how the concept of childhood developed in the minds of artists, writers and scientists over the course of history and how it differed in different historical eras. His studies in the field of fine art led him to the conclusion that until the 13th century, art did not address children, artists did not even try to depict them. No one believed that the child contained a human personality. If children appeared in works of art, they were depicted as miniature adults. Then there was no knowledge about the characteristics and nature of childhood. The word “child” for a long time did not have the exact meaning that is given to it now. Thus, it is characteristic, for example, that in medieval Germany the word “child” was a synonym for the concept “fool”.
Childhood was considered a period that quickly passed and was of little value. Indifference towards childhood, according to F. Aries, was a direct consequence of the demographic situation of that time, characterized by high birth rates and high infant mortality. A sign of overcoming indifference to childhood, according to the French demographer, is the appearance in the 16th century of portraits of deceased children. Their death, he writes, was now experienced as a truly irreparable loss, and not as a completely ordinary event. The differentiation of the ages of human life, including childhood, according to F. Aries, is formed under the influence of social institutions, i.e. new forms of social life generated by the development of society. Thus, early childhood first appears within the family, where it is associated with specific communication - “tenderness” and “pampering” of a small child. For parents, a child is simply a cute, funny baby with whom you can have fun, play with pleasure and at the same time teach and educate him. This is the primary, “family” concept of childhood. The desire to “dress up” children, “pamper” them and “undead” them could only appear in the family. However, this approach to children as “charming toys” could not remain unchanged for long.
The development of society has led to a further change in attitudes towards children, and a new concept of childhood has emerged. For teachers of the 17th century, love for children was no longer expressed in pampering and entertaining them, but in psychological interest in upbringing and teaching. In order to correct a child's behavior, it is first necessary to understand him, and scientific texts from the late 16th and 17th centuries are full of commentary on child psychology. Let us note that deep pedagogical ideas, advice and recommendations are also contained in the works of Russian authors of the 16th – 17th centuries.
The concept of rational education based on strict discipline penetrates family life in the 18th century. Parents' attention begins to be drawn to all aspects of their child's life. But the function of organized preparation for adult life is assumed not by the family, but by a special public institution - a school, designed to educate qualified workers and exemplary citizens. It was the school, according to F. Aries, that took childhood beyond the first 2-4 years of maternal and parental upbringing in the family. The school, thanks to its regular, ordered structure, contributed to the further differentiation of that period of life, which is designated by the general word “childhood”. “Class” has become a universal measure that sets a new markup for childhood. the child enters a new age every year as soon as the class changes. in the past, a child's life was not divided into such subtle layers. Class therefore became a determining factor in the process of differentiation of ages within childhood or adolescence itself.
The next age level is also associated by F. Aries with a new form of social life - the institution of military service and compulsory military service. This is adolescence or adolescence. The concept of the teenager led to a further restructuring of learning. Teachers began to attach great importance to dress code and discipline, instilling perseverance and masculinity, which had previously been neglected.
Childhood has its own laws and, naturally, does not depend on the fact that artists begin to pay attention to children and depict them on their canvases. The study of F. Aries begins with the Middle Ages, for only at that time did pictorial subjects depicting children appear. But caring for children, the idea of education, of course, appeared long before the Middle Ages. Already in Aristotle there are thoughts dedicated to children.
Based on the study of ethnographic materials by D.B. Elkonin showed that at the earliest stages of the development of human society, when the main way of obtaining food was gathering with the use of primitive tools for knocking down fruits and digging up edible roots, the child very early became familiar with the work of adults, practically mastering the methods of obtaining food and using primitive tools. Under such conditions, there was neither need nor time for the stage of preparing children for future work. As emphasized by D.B. Elkonin, childhood arises when the child cannot be directly included in the system of social reproduction, since the child cannot yet master the tools of labor due to their complexity. As a result, the natural inclusion of children in productive labor is delayed. According to D.B. Elkonin, this extension in time occurs not by building a new period of development over the existing ones (as F. Aries believed), but by a kind of wedging in a new period of development, leading to an “upward shift in time” of the period of mastering the tools of production. D.B. Elkonin brilliantly revealed these features of childhood when analyzing the emergence of role-playing games and a detailed examination of the psychological characteristics of primary school age.
2. Subject and tasks of child psychology. Current problems of modern child psychology
Developmental psychology studies the process of development of mental functions and personality throughout a person’s life. A person develops especially intensively at the beginning of his life's journey - from birth to 18 years, until the rapidly growing child graduates from school and enters adulthood. In the corresponding section of developmental psychology, patterns and facts of child development are identified. This means that child psychology studies the mental development of children from birth to 18 years of age.
The main thing that distinguishes developmental psychology from other areas of psychology is the emphasis on the dynamics of development. Therefore, it is called genetic psychology (from the Greek “genesis” - origin, formation). Nevertheless, developmental psychology is closely related to other areas of psychology: general psychology, personality psychology, social, educational and differential psychology. As is known, in general psychology mental functions are studied - perception, thinking, speech, memory, attention, imagination. Developmental psychology traces the process of development of each mental function and changes in interfunctional connections at different age stages. Personality psychology examines such personal formations as motivation, self-esteem and level of aspirations, value orientations, worldview, etc., and developmental psychology answers the questions of when these formations appear and what their characteristics are at a certain age. The connection between developmental psychology and social psychology makes it possible to trace the dependence of the development and behavior of a child and then an adult on the specifics of the groups to which he belongs: the family, kindergarten group, school class, teenage groups, etc. Each age has its own, special influence of the people around the child, adults and peers. The purposeful influence of adults raising and teaching a child is studied within the framework of educational psychology. Developmental “educational psychology, as it were, looks at the process of interaction between a child and an adult from different sides: developmental psychology from the point of view of the child, pedagogical psychology from the point of view of the educator, teacher
The subject of developmental psychology is:
Quantitative and qualitative changes in the psyche during the transition from one age group to another,
A unique combination of psychological and behavioral characteristics for each age.
Driving forces, conditions and laws of human mental development.
Tasks:
1. Study of mental development at each age stage,
2. use of acquired knowledge in the educational process.
3. use of the theoretical framework in the practice of psychological services.
Problems of modern child psychology
1. The problem of the influence of heredity and environment on the human psyche and behavior;
2. The problem of the influence of spontaneous and organized education and upbringing on the development of children (what influences more: family, street, school?);
The problem of correlation and identification of inclinations and abilities;
The problem of the relationship between intellectual and personal changes in the mental development of a child.
3. Methodological principles for studying the child’s psyche. Stages of constructing a psychological study
The general scientific principles of the dialectical approach correspond so precisely and harmoniously to the tasks of studying the laws of child mental development that it seems as if they were specially created for researchers in the field of child psychology. The methodology of psychological research is built on the basis of the general principles of dialectical methodology. Thus, the requirement for objectivity in the study of phenomena is implemented in the methodological principle of the unity of consciousness and activity, according to which the child’s psyche is both formed and manifested in types of activity that naturally replace each other. In this case, it is important to emphasize the fact that we judge the inner mental life of a child by its external manifestations, products of children's creativity, etc.
It is impossible to understand a child’s personality and behavior without analyzing his communication with people around him (the principle of the unity of the study of personality in activity and communication). It is especially important to study how personality manifests itself in activities that are significant for a child of a particular age; how the peculiar conditions of the personal microenvironment (relationships with mother, father, other family members, with peers and, to a large extent, with the educator, teacher) - external conditions - are melted into the internal psychological qualities of the human personality.
The principle of the genetic (historical) approach to the study of the child’s psyche is also important. For understanding child psychology, this principle is so significant that this science itself is sometimes called genetic psychology. According to this principle, when studying the phenomena of the child’s psyche, we strive to find out how they arose, how they develop and change under the influence of the child’s interaction with adults, his own activities and communication with peers. The mentioned principle also guides the researcher to analyze the influence of specific cultural and historical conditions on the development of the psyche of children, on the formation of their personality.
A dialectical approach to the study of the development of a child’s psyche also presupposes the implementation of the principle of determinism - the cause of certain changes being determined by certain external and internal factors, the interconnection of all aspects of mental development.
It should also be said about the integrity of the child’s psyche, his entire mental make-up, bearing in mind that a personality is a complex integral system where everything is interconnected and interdependent. It is important to take this into account, since individual diagnostic methods (surveys, tests, etc.) seem to “snatch” some small piece from this whole. But this particle has meaning only within the whole phenomenon. We must always remember: any mental trait is inscribed in a complex picture and has meaning only within this picture. Therefore, the same quantitative indicators that we obtain during the study acquire meaning only when considered against the background of the child’s personality. Each individual fact obtained must be considered at a qualitative level, i.e. taking into account its inclusion in the entire internal picture of the child’s world and the melody of his behavior. Hence the need to study the child’s psyche in all its diverse connections with the people around him. It is the principle of systematicity and integrity in research that ensures this approach.
The principle of non-harm to the test subject requires such an organization of the study of a child (group) in which neither the research process itself nor its results would cause any harm to the test subjects (their health, condition, social status, etc.).
But this is not enough. We strive to use methods that help the development of the child and his personality. Hence, it is very important to ensure the unity of diagnosis and correction of mental development. Strictly speaking, this is the main goal. Diagnostics should not be aimed at selecting children, but at monitoring the progress of their mental development in order to correct detected deviations. Let's listen to the advice of the famous child psychologist D.B. Elkonina: "...Control over development processes should be especially careful so that the correction of possible developmental deviations begins as early as possible"
Reliance on the principle of correction in the selection of diagnostic methods and the direct implementation of diagnostics, based on the recognition of the variability of the psyche, is a prerequisite in the work of a practical psychologist and teacher-researcher.
It is important to pay attention to one more principle - the principle of impartiality. It involves preventing a biased attitude towards both an individual subject and a children's group. The implementation of this approach largely depends on the adequacy of the methods used for the purposes of the study, their compliance with the age, gender of the subjects, experimental conditions, etc.
The ancients said that you cannot enter the same river twice. Our current current knowledge about the child is also relative. When studying a child's personality, one should take into account its continuous change and development. It is not without reason that it is recommended to study the same manifestation of personality and communication continuously, in other words, against the background of everyday observations, repeat the same tests and other tests in order to understand the current level of development of the child and his prospects.
The diagnostic activity of a psychologist, teacher, educator involves cooperation not only with fellow teachers, but also with parents, competent communication with whom often allows one to obtain very important information about the child’s inner world. The successful implementation of the principle of cooperation and a number of other above-mentioned principles into practice is facilitated by such qualities of researchers as contact, focus on children, empathy, observation of mental manifestations, and the ability to maintain a sense of trust and sympathy among others.
Thus, when studying the child’s psyche, one should take into account the methodological principles of psychological research. The possibility of using the observation method in psychology in general and child psychology in particular is based on the methodological principle of the unity of consciousness and activity. Since the child’s psyche is formed and manifested in his activities - in actions, words, gestures, facial expressions, etc., we can judge internal mental processes and states on the basis of these external manifestations, on the basis of acts of behavior.
Stages of scientific research
Traditionally, the following stages are distinguished:
1. Definition of the goal (why, why is it being carried out?);
2. Selection of object (what individual or what kind of group is to be studied?);
3. Clarification of the subject of research (which aspects of behavior reveal the content of the mental phenomena being studied?);
4. Planning situations (in what cases or under what conditions does the subject of research reveal itself most clearly?);
5. Establishing the duration of the total research time;
6. Selecting methods for recording the research material (how to keep records?);
7. Forecasting possible errors and searching for ways to prevent them;
8. Correction of the research program;
9. Stage of research;
10. Processing and interpretation of received information.
4. Empirical methods for studying the child’s psyche: natural and formative experiment in child psychology
Experiment (from Latin “test, experience”) is the leading method of scientific knowledge, including psychological research. Aimed at identifying cause-and-effect relationships. It is characterized by the creation of optimal conditions for the study of certain phenomena, as well as targeted and controlled changes in these conditions.
Unlike observation, experiment is an active way of understanding reality; it involves the systematic intervention of a scientist in the situation under study and its management. If passive observation allows us to answer the questions “How? How does something happen?”, then experiment makes it possible to find an answer to a different kind of question - “Why does this happen?”
One of the main concepts when describing an experiment is a variable. This is the name for any real condition of the situation that can be changed. The experimenter manipulates the variables, while the observer waits for the change to occur, which the experimenter produces at his discretion.
Typically, an experiment involves two groups of subjects (experimental and control). A variable (one or more) is introduced into the work of the first of them, but the work of the other is not introduced. If all other experimental conditions are the same, and the groups themselves are similar in composition, then it can be proven that the hypothesis is true or false.
Depending *on the operating conditions, this method is divided into laboratory and natural.
A laboratory experiment is carried out in specially organized conditions that differ from real ones. In this case, technical means and special equipment are usually used. The actions of the subjects are completely determined by the instructions.
An experiment of this kind has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here is an approximate listing of them:
Many significant achievements in psychological science have resulted from the use of laboratory experiments. However, the results obtained are not always amenable to legitimate transfer to the surrounding reality.
A natural experiment is carried out under real conditions with the purposeful variation of some of them by the researcher. In psychology, as a rule, it is used to study behavioral characteristics.
A natural experiment aimed at solving problems of pedagogy and educational psychology is usually called psychological-pedagogical.
A significant contribution to the methodology for organizing this type of experiment was made by the domestic scientist Alexander Fedorovich Lazursky (1910). For example, the scheme he proposed for the experimental development of psychological qualities is still used, including:
Measuring the manifestations of personality traits of subjects;
Social and pedagogical influence on them in order to increase the level of lagging qualities;
Repeated measurement of manifestations of personality traits of subjects;
Comparison of the results of the first and second measurements;
Conclusions about the effectiveness of the implemented interventions as pedagogical techniques that led to recorded results.
Based on the nature of the researcher’s actions, a distinction is made between ascertaining and formative experiments.
The first of them involves identifying existing mental characteristics or levels of development of corresponding qualities, as well as stating the relationship of causes and consequences.
A formative experiment involves the active, purposeful influence of the researcher on the subjects in order to develop certain properties or qualities. This allows us to reveal the mechanisms, dynamics, patterns of formation of mental phenomena, and determine the conditions for their effective development.
search, aimed at obtaining fundamentally new results in a little-researched area. Such experiments are carried out when it is not known whether a cause-and-effect relationship exists between variables, or in cases where the nature of the variable is not established.
Clarifying, the purpose of which is to determine the boundaries within which the action of a given theory or law is widespread. In this case, the conditions, methods, and objects of research usually vary compared to the original experiments.
Critical, organized in order to refute an existing theory or law with new facts.
Reproducing, providing for the exact repetition of the experiments of predecessors to determine the reliability, reliability and objectivity of the results they obtained.
Let us briefly describe the content of the main stages of the experimental study;
1. THEORETICAL STAGE, which includes determining the research topic, preliminary formulation of the problem, studying the necessary scientific literature, clarifying the problem, choosing the object and subject of research, and formulating a hypothesis.
2. PREPARATORY STAGE, which involves drawing up an experimental program, including the selection of variables, analysis of ways to achieve the “purity” of the experiment, determination of the optimal sequence of experimental actions, development of methods for recording and analyzing the results, preparation of the necessary equipment, drawing up instructions for the subjects.
3. EXPERIMENTAL STAGE, which combines the entire set of research work provided for in advance, from instructing and motivating subjects to recording the results.
4. INTERPRETATION STAGE, the content of which is the formulation of a conclusion about confirmation or refutation of the hypothesis based on the analysis of the results obtained, as well as the preparation of a scientific report.
5. Features of psychological observations of children
Observation is the oldest method of knowledge. Its primitive form - everyday observations - is used by every person in everyday practice. By registering the facts of the surrounding social reality and his behavior, a person tries to find out the reasons for certain actions and actions.
It is certainly based on two principles:
Passivity of the subject of cognition, expressed in refusal to interfere in the processes being studied in order to preserve the naturalness of their flow;
Immediacy of perception, which implies limiting the possibility of obtaining data within the limits of a clearly presented situation of the present time (what is usually observed is what is happening “here and now”).
In psychology, observation is understood as a method of studying the mental characteristics of individuals based on recording manifestations of their behavior.
It is impossible to observe the internal, subjective essences of thinking, imagination, will, temperament, character, abilities, etc., taken by themselves, outside of specific external manifestations. The subject of observation is verbal and non-verbal acts of behavior that take place in a certain situation or environment.
Thus, when studying people, a researcher can observe:
1) speech activity (content, sequence, duration, frequency, direction, intensity...);
2) expressive reactions (expressive movements of the face, body);
3) position of bodies in space (movement, immobility, distance, speed, direction of movement...);
4) physical contacts (touching, pushing, hitting, passing, joint efforts...).
Observation is the simplest and most common of all objective methods in psychology. Scientific observation is directly in contact with ordinary everyday observation. It is necessary to highlight the general conditions that observation must generally satisfy in order to be a scientific method. The first basic requirement is the presence of a clear goal setting: a clearly realized goal must guide the observer. In accordance with the purpose, an observation plan must be determined, recorded in the diagram. Planned and systematic observation constitutes its most essential feature as a scientific method. They must eliminate the element of chance inherent in everyday observation. Thus, the objectivity of observation depends, first of all, on its planning and systematicity. And, if observation comes from a clearly realized goal, then it must acquire a selective character. It is absolutely impossible to observe everything in general due to the limitless diversity of what exists. Any observation, therefore, is selective, partial in nature. Observation becomes a method of scientific knowledge only insofar as it is not limited to simply recording facts, but proceeds to the formulation of hypotheses in order to test them against new observations.
Advantages and disadvantages of the observation method.
The most important advantage of the observation method is that it is carried out simultaneously with the development of the phenomena and processes being studied. It becomes possible to directly perceive people's behavior in specific conditions and in real time. That is, the naturalness of the operating conditions is preserved. A carefully prepared observation procedure ensures that all significant elements of the situation are recorded. This creates the prerequisites for its objective study. It is acceptable to use a variety of technical means to record data. Observation allows you to broadly, multidimensionally cover events and describe the interaction of all its participants. It does not depend on the desire of the observed to speak out or comment on the situation. It is not necessary to obtain the preliminary consent of the subjects. Objective observation, while retaining its significance, for the most part should be supplemented by other research methods. The disadvantages of the observation method are divided into two groups: objective - these are those disadvantages that do not depend on the observer and subjective - these are those that directly depend from the observer, since they are associated with the personal and professional characteristics of the observer. Objective disadvantages primarily include: - limited, fundamentally private nature of each observed situation. Therefore, no matter how comprehensive and deep the analysis may be, the conclusions obtained can be generalized and extended to broader situations only with the greatest caution and subject to many requirements. - Complexity, and often simply impossibility of repeating observations. Social processes are irreversible, they cannot be “replayed” again so that the researcher can record the necessary features and elements of an event that has already taken place. - High labor intensity of the method. Observation often involves the participation of a large number of fairly highly qualified people in the collection of primary information.
When diagnosing children of primary and secondary preschool age, one should keep in mind both changes in the form of play and the emergence of a new type of social activity, leading to the development of the child and interpersonal communication. Children of this age for the first time begin to show interest in their peers as individuals and engage in joint games with them. Consequently, methods should be developed in such a way that they involve both observations in individual objective activity and in a collective game of a plot-role plan. Its participants can be not only children, but also adults. In addition, at this age, to a certain extent, it is already possible to rely on the data of children’s self-awareness and on the assessments that they themselves give to other children and adults. This especially applies to the manifestation of various individual qualities in communication with other people.
In older preschool age, games with rules are added to these types of activities and elementary reflexive abilities arise. Older preschoolers not only understand and are guided in their behavior by certain rules of interpersonal interaction, especially in games, but within certain limits they can engage in one or another type of activity (study, play), analyze their own behavior in it, and evaluate themselves and the people around them.
Thus, when studying preschool children, it is necessary to take into account psychological and behavioral characteristics. This is a relatively low level of consciousness and self-awareness; dominance of involuntary cognitive processes, their low mediation by speech; poor awareness of personal qualities, inadequate self-esteem. It follows from this that the best method of collecting information and studying preschool children is observation.
6. Methods for studying communication and relationships in a preschool group
OBSERVATION IN THE STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
Observation is a method of collecting factual material with the obligatory recording of acts of behavior, their quantitative and qualitative analysis and interpretation of data.
Recording can be carried out in specially prepared forms (protocols) using writing instruments, as well as, if possible, technical means (video camera, tape recorder, etc.).
Observation, in which the purpose of the study is to determine the status of an individual in the system of interpersonal communication by recording the number of contacts in a group, is called contactometry.
The level of sociability can also be assessed using survey methods (assessment of Ryakhovsky’s level of sociability).
Sociometry
To study interpersonal relationships in a group, the sociometry method is used. This method was developed by Moreno and adapted for kindergarten by Ya.L. Kolominsky. Sociometry can be carried out with children 4 years old. Children are given the right to choose 3 people from the group; based on the results of the choice, a sociomatrix and sociogram are filled out and the sociometric status of the child in the group is determined - star, popular, unpopular, isolated.
According to sociometry data, corrective work is carried out to form favorable relationships in the group and improve the child’s status in the group.
7. Drawing as a means of studying a child’s family microenvironment
Drawing techniques are a highly informative means of understanding a child’s personality, since by drawing, the child reflects his attitude towards the objects being drawn. When analyzing children's drawings, the sequence of images of family members is studied, indicating the significance of their role in the family; the spatial arrangement of family members, which, according to the author, is an indicator of their emotional closeness; the composition of the drawn family in comparison with the real one; 4) differences between graphic presentations in form, proportions, details, and size.
The popularity of drawing techniques is explained by several reasons.
1. The process of drawing has an exceptional, disinhibiting effect on the child, reduces the tension that arises during a psychological examination, and helps to establish emotional contact with the child.
2. Drawings are easy to use: firstly, a sheet of paper and a pencil are all the necessary tools, and secondly, the child himself, as it were, records his actions and the movement of thoughts with the help of a pencil. This allows the psychologist to pay more attention to changes in the emotional state of the person being studied and to note the features of the drawing process.
3. Drawing techniques (in particular, family drawing) are a highly informative means of understanding the child’s personality, reflecting how the child perceives himself and other family members, what feelings he experiences in the family.
4. The process of drawing, especially when depicting situations that are significant for a child, has a psychotherapeutic effect. In the drawing, the child seems to get rid of personal tension and plays out possible solutions to the situation.
An extensive system of analysis and interpretation of family drawings was first presented in the work of W. Wolf. He gave the children the task: “Draw your family.” In the drawing, the author analyzed: 1) the sequence of images of family members, indicating the significance of their role in the family: the child begins the drawing with a more significant person and ends with a less significant one; 2) the spatial arrangement of family members, which, according to the author, is an indicator of their emotional closeness; 3) the composition of the drawn family in comparison with the real one (the absence of a family member in the drawing is a rare case; it often expresses the desire to get rid of an emotionally unacceptable family member); 4) differences between graphic presentations in form, proportions, details, and size. The discrepancy between the ratio of quantities in the drawing and the real state of affairs indicates that the quantity is determined to a greater extent by mental factors than by the facts of reality. W. Wolf associates a child's depiction of other family members as inappropriately large with the perception of their dominance, and drawing himself as large with a sense of his importance in the family. Interpreting differences in the depiction of individual parts of the body, the author relies on the assumption that these differences are generated by special experiences associated with the functions of these parts of the body.
To summarize, we can say that W. Wolf identified those characteristics of the drawing that would later form the main part of the interpretation by other authors.
Various authors contribute to the development of the family drawing technique, expanding the range of interpretable parameters of the technique. Despite the differences in interpretation schemes and variations in procedures, we can roughly identify the main parameters for interpreting the drawing: a) the structure of the family drawing; b) features of the drawn family members; c) the process of drawing.
Interpretation of the structure of the family drawing (location of figures, comparison of the composition of the drawn and real family). Having received the instruction “draw your family,” the child not only solves a creative problem, but first of all structures an imaginary social situation in a certain way. It is believed that such a task provides the child with the opportunity to express his feelings towards other family members and a subjective assessment of his own place in the family. These psychological parameters are reflected in the characteristics of the family structure and, therefore, can be identified by a specialist. This approach is based on the hypothesis that the structure of the family pattern is not random, but is associated with experienced and perceived intra-family relationships; reflects the general attitude towards the family drawing, which can be adequately assessed only by interpreting specific parameters of the structure of the family drawing.
8. Twin method of studying the child’s psyche
METHODS OF PSYCHOGENETICS (from the Greek psyche - soul, genos - origin) - methods that allow us to determine the influence of hereditary factors and the environment on the formation of certain mental characteristics of a person. The most informative is the twin method. It is based on the fact that monozygotic (identical) twins have an identical genotype, dizygotic (fraternal) twins have a non-identical genotype; Moreover, members of twin pairs of any type must have a similar upbringing environment. Then the greater intrapair similarity of monozygotic twins compared to dizygotic twins may indicate the presence of hereditary influences on the variability of the trait being studied. A significant limitation of this method is that the similarity of the actual psychological characteristics of monozygotic twins may also have a non-genetic origin. As for the analysis of the heritability of normal psychological traits, this method, taken in isolation from other methods of psychogenetics, does not provide reliable information, because differences between populations in the distribution of a particular psychological trait can be caused by social reasons, customs, etc. In child psychology The study of V.S. is described in detail. Mukhina, in which the author studied her own children - twins, kept diary entries and analyzed the data. This method well reflects the influence of the environment on personality development, and also shows the influence of one’s own activity on mental development.
9. The role of biological and social factors in the mental development of a child. The relationship between genotype and phenotype in childhood
In psychology, many theories have been created that explain in different ways the mental development of a child and its origins. They can be combined into two large directions - biologization and sociology. In the biologization direction, a child is considered as a biological being, endowed by nature with certain abilities, character traits, and forms of behavior. Heredity determines the entire course of his development - both its pace, fast or slow, and its limit - whether the child will be gifted, achieve a lot or turn out to be mediocre. The environment in which a child is raised becomes just a condition for such initially predetermined development, as if manifesting what was given to the child before his birth.
E. Haeckel formulated a law in the 19th century: ontogenesis (individual development) is an abbreviated repetition of phylogeny (historical development).
Transferred to developmental psychology, the biogenetic law made it possible to present the development of the child’s psyche as a repetition of the main stages of biological evolution and stages of the cultural and historical development of mankind. This is how one of the proponents of the theory of recapitulation, V. Stern, describes the development of a child: in the first months of his life, a child is at the stage of a mammal; in the second half of the year it reaches the stage of a higher mammal - a monkey; then - the initial stages of the human condition; development of primitive peoples; Starting from entering school, he assimilates human culture - first in the spirit of the ancient and Old Testament world, later (in adolescence) the fanaticism of Christian culture, and only in maturity rises to the level of modern culture.
The opposite approach to the development of a child’s psyche is observed in the sociological direction. Its origins lie in the ideas of the 17th century philosopher John Locke. He believed that a child is born with a pure soul, like a white wax board (tabularasa). On this board, the teacher can write whatever he wants, and the child, not burdened by heredity, will grow up to be the way his close adults want him to be.
It is obvious that both approaches - both biologizing and sociologizing - suffer from one-sidedness, downplaying or denying the importance of one of the two development factors. In addition, the development process is deprived of its inherent qualitative changes and contradictions: in one case, hereditary mechanisms are launched and what was contained in the inclinations from the very beginning unfolds, in the other, more and more experience is acquired under the influence of the environment. The development of a child who does not show his own activity resembles rather a process of growth, quantitative increase or accumulation.
What is meant by biological and social factors of development at the present time?
The biological factor includes, first of all, heredity. There is no consensus on what exactly in a child’s psyche is genetically determined. Domestic psychologists believe that at least two aspects are inherited - temperament and the makings of abilities. The central nervous system functions differently in different children. A strong and mobile nervous system, with a predominance of excitation processes, gives a choleric, “explosive” temperament; with a balance of excitation and inhibition processes, it gives a sanguine one.
Hereditary inclinations give originality to the process of development of abilities, facilitating or complicating it. The development of abilities depends not only on inclinations. If a child with perfect pitch does not play a musical instrument regularly, he will not achieve success in the performing arts and his special abilities will not develop. If a student who catches everything on the fly during a lesson does not study conscientiously at home, he will not become an excellent student, despite his abilities, and his general ability to absorb knowledge will not develop. Abilities develop through activity. In general, a child’s own activity is so important that some psychologists consider activity to be the third factor in mental development.
The biological factor, in addition to heredity, includes the characteristics of the intrauterine period of a child’s life. The mother's illness and the medications she took at this time can cause delayed mental development of the child or other abnormalities. The birth process itself also affects subsequent development, so it is necessary for the child to avoid birth trauma and take his first breath on time.
The second factor is the environment. The natural environment influences the mental development of a child indirectly - through the traditional types of work activity and culture in a given natural area, which determine the system of raising children. The social environment directly influences development, and therefore the environmental factor is often called social.
What is important is not only the question of what is meant by biological and social factors, but also the question of their relationship. William Stern put forward the principle of the convergence of two factors. In his opinion, both factors are equally significant for the child’s mental development and determine its two lines. These lines of development (one is the maturation of hereditarily given abilities and character traits, the other is development under the influence of the child’s immediate environment) intersect, i.e. convergence occurs. Modern ideas about the relationship between the biological and the social, accepted in Russian psychology, are mainly based on the provisions of L.S. Vygotsky.
L.S. Vygotsky emphasized the unity of hereditary and social aspects in the development process. Heredity is present in the development of all mental functions of a child, but has a different specific weight. Elementary functions (starting with sensations and perception) are more determined by heredity than higher ones (voluntary memory, logical thinking, speech). Higher functions are a product of human cultural and historical development, and hereditary inclinations here play the role of prerequisites, and not moments that determine mental development. The more complex the function, the longer the path of its ontogenetic development, the less the influence of heredity affects it. On the other hand, the environment also always “participates” in development. No sign of child development, including lower mental functions, is ever purely hereditary.
Each characteristic, as it develops, acquires something new that was not in the hereditary inclinations, and thanks to this, the proportion of hereditary influences is sometimes strengthened, sometimes weakened and relegated to the background. The role of each factor in the development of the same trait turns out to be different at different age stages. For example, in the development of speech, the importance of hereditary preconditions decreases early and sharply, and the child’s speech develops under the direct influence of the social environment, and in the development of psychosexuality, the role of hereditary factors increases in adolescence.
Thus, the unity of hereditary and social influences is not a constant, once and for all unity, but a differentiated one, changing in the process of development itself. The mental development of a child is not determined by the mechanical addition of two factors. At each stage of development, in relation to each sign of development, it is necessary to establish a specific combination of biological and social aspects and study its dynamics.
10. Patterns and driving forces of a child’s mental development
Patterns appear in all spheres of the psyche and persist throughout ontogeny.
1. Unevenness and heterochrony of mental development.
Each mental function has a special tempo and rhythm of development; some go ahead of others, being the basis for others. In infancy, the senses develop intensively, and at an early age - speech and object-related activity.
Sensitive periods are the most favorable for the development of one or another aspect of the psyche; sensitivity to certain influences increases.
2. mental development proceeds in stages, having complex specialization in time.
Each age stage has its own pace and rhythm. Mental development occurs most rapidly from 0 to 3 years. The stages cannot be rearranged or changed, each has its own value. It is important not to accelerate, but to enrich mental development. The stages of mental development are characterized by 3 components:
1. The social situation of development is the relationship between external and internal conditions for the development of the psyche.
2. Leading activity - activity that provides cardinal lines of mental development, the formation of personal new formations, a restructuring of mental processes occurs, and new types of activity arise.
3. Age-related neoplasms are a new type of personality structure and its activity, mental changes that occur at a given age, which determine transformations in the child’s consciousness.
THAT. L.S. Vygotsky formulated the basic law of mental development:
“The forces driving the development of a child at a particular age inevitably lead to the denial and destruction of the very basis of development of the entire age, with internal necessity determining the annulment of the social situation of development, the end of a given era of development and the transition to the next age level.”
3. In the course of mental development, differentiation and integration of processes, properties, and qualities occurs.
4. During mental development, there is a change in the reasons that determine it.
1. the relationship between biological and social causes is changing,
2. a different correlation of social reasons.
5. The psyche is flexible.
The driving forces of mental development are contradictions: between the needs of the individual and external circumstances, between his increased physical abilities, spiritual needs and old forms of activity; between new activity requirements and unformed skills.
Factors in the mental development of a person are those objectively existing things that necessarily determine his life activity in the broadest sense of the word.
Factors in the mental development of a person can be external and internal. External factors are the environment and society in which a person develops. Internal factors of personality development are the biogenetic and physiological characteristics of a person and his psyche.
The prerequisites for mental development of the individual are what have a certain influence on the individual, i.e. external and internal circumstances on which the characteristics and level of her mental development depend.
They are external and internal. The external prerequisites for the mental development of a person are the quality and characteristics of a person’s upbringing. The internal prerequisites for personal development are activity and desire, as well as motives and goals that a person sets for himself in the interests of his improvement as an individual.
11. L.S. Vygotsky - creator of the psychological theory of ontogenetic development
Age-related development, especially childhood development, is a complex process that, due to a number of its features, leads to a change in the entire personality of the child at each age stage. For JLC. Vygotsky's development is, first of all, the emergence of something new. Stages of development are characterized by age-related neoplasms, i.e. qualities or properties that were not previously available in finished form. But the new “does not fall from the sky,” as L.S. wrote. Vygotsky, it appears naturally, prepared by the entire course of previous development.
The source of development is the social environment. Each step in a child's development changes the influence of the environment on him: the environment becomes completely different when the child moves from one age situation to the next. L.S. Vygotsky introduced the concept of “social situation of development” - a relationship between the child and the social environment that is specific for each age. The interaction of a child with his social environment, which educates and educates him, determines the path of development that leads to the emergence of age-related neoplasms.
How does the child interact with the environment? L.S. Vygotsky identifies two units of analysis of the social situation of development - activity and experience. It is easy to observe the external activity of the child, his activities. But there is also an internal plane, a plane of experiences. Different children experience the same situation in the family differently, even children of the same age - twins. As a result, the conflict between parents, for example, will have little effect on the development of one child, while in another it will cause neurosis and other deviations. The same child, developing, moving from one age to another, will experience the same family situation in a new way.
The social situation of development changes at the very beginning of the age period. Towards the end of the period, new growths appear, among which a special place is occupied by the central neoplasm, which is of greatest importance for development at the next stage.
L.S. Vygotsky examined the dynamics of transitions from one age to another. At different stages, changes in the child’s psyche can occur slowly and gradually, or they can occur quickly and abruptly. Accordingly, stable and crisis stages of development are distinguished. A stable period is characterized by a smooth course of the development process, without sudden shifts and changes in the child’s personality. Small, minimal changes that occur over a long period of time are usually unnoticeable to others. But they accumulate and at the end of the period give a qualitative leap in development: age-related neoplasms appear. Only by comparing the beginning and end of the stable period can one imagine the enormous path that the child has traveled in his development.
Stable periods make up most of childhood. They last, as a rule, for several years. And age-related neoplasms that appear slowly and, over a long period of time, turn out to be stable and are fixed in the structure of the personality.
In addition to stable ones, there are crisis periods of development. In developmental psychology, there is no consensus on crises, their place and role in the mental development of a child. Some psychologists believe that child development should be harmonious and crisis-free. Crises are an abnormal, “painful” phenomenon, the result of improper upbringing. Another part of psychologists argues that the presence of crises in development is natural. Moreover, according to some ideas, a child who has not truly experienced a crisis will not fully develop further.
L.S. Vygotsky attached great importance to crises and considered the alternation of stable and crisis periods as a law of child development. Nowadays, we often talk about turning points in a child’s development, and the actual crisis, negative manifestations are attributed to the characteristics of his upbringing and living conditions. Close adults can soften these external manifestations or, conversely, strengthen them.
Crises, unlike stable periods, do not last long, a few months, and under unfavorable circumstances they can last up to a year or even two years. These are brief but turbulent stages during which significant developmental shifts occur and the child changes dramatically in many of his traits. Development can take on a catastrophic character at this time.
The crisis begins and ends imperceptibly, its boundaries are blurred and unclear. Exacerbation occurs in the middle of the period. For the people around the child, it is associated with a change in behavior, the appearance of “difficult to educate”, as L.S. writes. Vygotsky. The child is out of the control of adults, and those measures of pedagogical influence that were previously successful now cease to work. Affective outbursts, whims, more or less acute conflicts with loved ones are a typical picture of a crisis, characteristic of many children. Schoolchildren's performance decreases, interest in classes weakens, academic performance decreases, and sometimes painful experiences and internal conflicts arise.
However, different children experience crisis periods differently. The behavior of one becomes difficult to bear, and the second hardly changes, being just as quiet and obedient. There are much more individual differences during crises than during stable periods. And yet, in any case, there are changes even in external terms. To notice them, you need to compare the child not with a peer who is going through a crisis, but with himself - the way he was before. Every child experiences difficulties in communicating with others, and everyone’s rate of progress in academic work decreases.
The main changes that occur during a crisis are internal. Development is becoming negative. What does it mean? Involutionary processes come to the fore: what was formed at the previous stage disintegrates and disappears. The child loses the interests that yesterday guided all his activities, abandons previous values and forms of relationships. But along with losses, something new is created. New formations that arise in a stormy, short period turn out to be unstable and in the next stable period they are transformed, absorbed by other new formations, dissolved in them and, thus, die off.
During periods of crisis, the main contradictions intensify: on the one hand, between the increased needs of the child and his still limited capabilities, on the other, between the new needs of the child and previously established relationships with adults. Now these and some other contradictions are often considered as the driving forces of mental development.
Crisis and stable periods of development alternate. Therefore, the age periodization of L.S. Vygotsky has the following form: crisis newborn™ - infancy (2 months - 1 year) - crisis 1 year - early childhood (1-3 years) - crisis 3 years - preschool age (3-7 years) - crisis 7 years - school age (7-13 years) - crisis 13 years - puberty (13-17 years) - crisis 17 years.
An individual from birth to full social and psychological maturity, the period of a child becoming a full-fledged member of human society. The boundaries and content of childhood are historically variable and depend on the level of socio-economic development of society. Historically, the age limits of children change mainly upward, which is explained, first of all, by the complication of the content and tasks of teaching and raising children, which, in turn, are a consequence of the progress of economic and social technologies.
Until the 19th century childhood was on the periphery of public interests; it was mainly perceived as underdevelopment, lack of expression of adult traits and qualities. In its modern understanding, D. was discovered by J.-J. Rousseau and German. the romantics of “storm and attack” (for example, Goethe), who were the first to talk about the intrinsic value of a child’s life and child’s personality. Later (from the mid-19th century and especially in the 20th century), childhood became a special subject for the study of art (literature, painting, cinema) and science (including child psychology).
D.B. Elkonin characterized two main paradoxes of child development, which imply the need for a historical approach to understanding childhood. Let's look at them.
The first paradox. When a person is born, he is endowed with only the most basic mechanisms for maintaining life. In terms of physical structure, organization of the nervous system, types of activity and methods of its regulation, man is the most perfect creature in nature. However, at the time of birth, there is a noticeable drop in perfection in the evolutionary series - the child does not have any ready-made forms of behavior. As a rule, the higher a living creature stands in the ranks of animals, the longer its childhood lasts, the more helpless this creature is at birth. This is one of the paradoxes of nature that predetermines the history of childhood. The second paradox. In the course of history, the enrichment of the material and spiritual culture of mankind has continuously increased. Over the millennia, human experience has increased many thousands of times. But during this same time, the newborn child has practically not changed. Based on the data of anthropologists on the anatomical and morphological similarities of Cro-Magnon and modern Europeans, it can be assumed that the newborn of a modern person is not significantly different from a newborn who lived tens of thousands of years ago. How does it happen that, given similar natural prerequisites, the level of mental development that a child achieves at each historical stage of the development of society is not the same?
The duration of childhood in primitive society is not equal to the duration of childhood in the Middle Ages or in our days. The stages of human childhood are a product of history and are as subject to change as they were thousands of years ago. Therefore, it is impossible to study a child’s childhood and the laws of its formation outside the development of human society and the laws that determine its development. The duration of childhood is directly dependent on the level of material and spiritual culture of society.
The problem of the history of D. is one of the most difficult in modern child psychology, since in this area it is impossible to conduct either observation or experiment. The study by A.V. Tolstoy shows the general picture of changes in the duration of childhood in our country throughout the twentieth century. He writes about three types of certainty of childhood, characterizing the socio-organizational and institutional framework of its formation:
from 0.0 to 12.0 - the length of childhood is associated with the introduction of compulsory primary education for all children - 1930;
from 0.0 to 15.0 - the duration of childhood increased due to the adoption of the new law on incomplete secondary school - 1959;
from 0.0 to 17.0 - the duration of childhood at the present time, which is characterized by the representation of all children's ages and their clear differentiation.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by UNESCO in 1989 and ratified by most countries of the world, is aimed at ensuring the full development of the child’s personality in every corner of the Earth. It states that a child is every human being up to the age of 18, unless the law applicable to the child reaches the age of majority earlier (Article 1: “What is a child”). Historically, the concept of childhood is not associated with a biological state immaturity, but with a certain social status, with a range of rights and responsibilities inherent in this period of life, with a set of types and forms of activity available to it. Many interesting facts were collected to support this idea by the French demographer and historian Philippe Aries. Thanks to his works, interest in the history of childhood in psychology has increased significantly, and the research of F. Aries himself is recognized as classic. (Aries F. 1999).
Based on the study of ethnographic materials, D.B. Elkonin showed that at the earliest stages of the development of human society, the main way of obtaining food was gathering using primitive tools for knocking down fruits and digging up edible roots. Then the child became familiar with the work of adults very early and practically learned the methods of obtaining food and using primitive tools. Under such conditions, there was neither need nor time for the stage of preparing children for future work. As D.B. Elkonin emphasized, childhood arises when the child cannot be directly included in the system of social reproduction, since the child cannot yet master the tools of labor due to their complexity. As a result, the natural inclusion of children in productive labor is delayed. According to D.B. Elkonin, the increase in the “pre-labor” period occurs not by building a new period of development over the existing ones (as F. Aries believed), but by a kind of wedging in a new one, leading to an “upward shift in time,” the period of mastering tools production. D.B. Elkonin brilliantly revealed these features of childhood when analyzing the emergence of role-playing games and a detailed examination of the psychological characteristics of primary school age.
As already noted, questions about the historical origin of periods of childhood, the connection between the history of childhood and the history of society, and the history of childhood in general, without solving which it is impossible to formulate a meaningful concept of childhood, were raised in child psychology in the late 20s. XX century and continue to be developed to this day. In the context of cultural-historical psychology, studying child development historically means studying the child’s transition from one age stage to another, studying the change in his personality within each age period that occurs in specific historical conditions. And although the history of childhood has not yet been sufficiently studied, the very formulation of this question in the psychology of the 20th century is important. And if, according to D.B. Elkonin, there are still no answers to many questions in the theory of a child’s mental development, then the path to a solution can already be imagined. And he is seen in the light of the historical study of D..
Childhood... Special feelings and memories are associated with it... Many scientists have shown interest in it, especially in recent years. And this is not surprising - after all, it all starts from childhood. The future is connected with it. Let us recall that a person passes this stage of ontogenetic development between birth and the beginning of adolescence.
What is characteristic of childhood, what distinguishes it from other age periods?
An adult reader, especially one who has already raised his children, usually has a ready answer: childhood is a period when a person grows, develops, learns especially quickly, absorbs environmental influences like a sponge, and changes intensively. True, but this is far from a complete description of childhood (especially modern childhood).
Let's start with at least this question - thanks to what does a born human child from a weak, helpless creature in a short period become an intelligent person who amazes us in many ways?
During preschool childhood, all mental processes (sensations, perception, memory...) actively develop, imagination and elements of voluntariness arise and actively manifest. During these years, quite complex experiences arise (feelings of pride, shame, jealousy, empathy), the beginnings of higher feelings (moral, aesthetic, intellectual), interests take shape, talent develops, the foundations of personality and character are laid...
Why such rapid growth, amazing changes, pace of development? This may surprise some readers, but scientists associate the incredible intensity of development of a human child largely with the specifics of his brain, in particular with the high plasticity of the human brain. The absence of a significant number of innate forms of behavior in a child is not a weakness, but his strength, providing him with openness to acquiring previously non-existent forms of human behavior.
And this is only one of the answers to the problem under discussion. After all, can a human child satisfy his needs, become a full-fledged person without interaction, communication with others, and the help of adults? Initially, from infancy, he is a social being. From the first days of his life, all his behavior is “woven” into the social.
The social nature of the child’s psyche manifests itself even more actively at subsequent stages of life, in the process of familiarization with the socio-historical experience accumulated by humanity, the carriers of which are adults. Without it, full development is impossible. And although we have already expressed this idea above, we cannot help but turn to it again, now in a conversation about the specifics of child development.
Already in the process of objective activity (1-2 years), the child’s business communication with an adult helps him learn that a tower, a garage, or a crib for a doll can be built from cubes; learn how to start a spinning top, push a doll's stroller, repair it together with an adult (if its wheel has fallen off, etc.); use a spatula, spoon, and other objects for their intended purpose. With the help of an adult, he enters the world of music, fine arts, and masters literacy... An adult helps to reveal and realize the child’s abilities and talents, thereby promoting his development.
Let's ask our readers one more question (it worries scientists as well): has there always been childhood in the history of mankind? It may seem strange, because we are used to it - children are always nearby. Once upon a time we were children ourselves, now we work with them, interact at home, in kindergarten... What kind of question is that? Meanwhile, many researchers answer it negatively.
Currently, childhood is considered not only as a physiological, psychological, pedagogical, but also as a sociocultural phenomenon that has historical origin and nature.
Scientists have discovered: a person’s childhood is not immutable, given once and for all. Moreover, it did not always exist. The remarkable psychologist Daniil Borisovich Elkonin in his book “Psychology of Play” substantiates the position that role-playing play, and therefore childhood as a unique period of human life, arises when the child can no longer take direct, equal participation in the life of adults and forced to enter into it through symbolic activity - creative play.
One of the characteristic features of modern childhood is that it performs not only a socialization function associated with the assimilation of social experience, social connections and relationships, but also a cultural creative one. The essence of the latter is “... the birth of historically new universal abilities, new forms of active attitude to the world, new images of culture as the creative potential of humanity is mastered.” This function, according to a number of modern child psychologists, primarily distinguishes modern childhood from the childhood of earlier eras of humanity (primitive, ancient or medieval, etc.). A significant role in the implementation of the cultural function is assigned to preschool childhood.
Research in recent years has noted a number of other features of modern children that have arisen due to changed sociocultural and economic conditions. Among these are an increase in tension (especially in older preschoolers), a decrease in emotional potential, the level of arbitrariness of preschoolers, a decrease in self-esteem, a change in the gaming subculture of children, a decrease in activity in play, etc.
Experts also pay attention to a number of changes in the cognitive sphere of modern children. Thus, they noted an increase in the volume of long-term memory in preschoolers and the patency of operational memory (which allows children to perceive and process more information in a short period of time). This ability of modern children makes it easier in the age of high technology to successfully navigate the information flow. Peculiarities have also been identified in the development of speech of modern preschoolers. For example, it was previously believed that by the end of preschool age, most children correctly pronounce all the sounds of their native language, and only some older preschoolers have deficiencies in the pronunciation of hissing, sonorant, and sometimes whistling sounds. However, in recent years, the level of children's sound pronunciation has decreased significantly. According to A.G. Arushanova, about 40% of six-year-old children enter school with pronunciation deficiencies. Experts associate the decline in speech development indicators of modern preschoolers with their increased tension, emotional discomfort, and lack of personal communication.
Note that changes in the mental development of modern children have been recorded not only at the preschool stage, but also in early childhood. Thus, research conducted in recent years indicates, in particular, an increase in the modern infant’s need to perceive information; about earlier periods of emergence of the personal neoplasm “I myself” in pre-preschoolers; about the manifestation of intolerance towards violence, orders and demands of adults, and at the same time - more pronounced persistence in realizing one’s own desires.
There are other problems and questions that we would like readers to think about: what is the meaning of childhood? What role do impressions from childhood play in life, in a person’s destiny? We often turn to the words of A. de Saint-Exupery: “We all come from childhood.” Some psychologists believe that the entire fate of a person, all the events of his life path are determined by childhood experiences. Others think that childhood is like episodes in a movie, simply replacing each other.
Famous Russian psychologist, academician V.P. Zinchenko believes that in terms of its genius and significance, the childhood of each individual person can be compared with the childhood period of humanity as a whole: “Both childhoods are the time of discovering many worlds, entering them, the beginning of building our own worlds that we carry within ourselves for the rest of our lives, we cannot get rid of them (even with the assistance of a psychoanalyst).”
The view of childhood as a period when it not only reacts to the world of adults, but also objectively and actively poses more and more new tasks for it, is becoming increasingly recognized in modern child psychology. Views on childhood are different...
The science of child mental development - child psychology - originated as a branch of comparative psychology at the end of the 19th century. The starting point for systematic research into child psychology is the book of the German Darwinist scientist Wilhelm Preyer, “The Soul of a Child.” In it, V. Preyer describes the results of daily observations of the development of his daughter, paying attention to the development of sensory organs, motor skills, will, reason and language. Despite the fact that observations of child development were carried out long after the appearance of V. Preyer’s book, its indisputable priority is determined by turning to the study of the earliest years of a child’s life and introducing into child psychology the method of objective observation, developed by analogy with the methods of the natural sciences. From a modern point of view, the views of V. Preyer are perceived as naive, limited by the level of development of science in the 19th century. he, for example, considered the mental development of a child as a special variant of the biological one. (Although, strictly speaking, even now there are both hidden and overt supporters of this idea...) However, V. Preyer was the first to make the transition from introspective to objective research into the child’s psyche. Therefore, according to the unanimous recognition of psychologists, he is considered the founder of child psychology.
The objective conditions for the formation of child psychology, which developed by the end of the 19th century, are associated with the intensive development of industry, with a new level of social life, which created the need for the emergence of a modern school. Teachers were interested in the question: how to teach and raise children? Parents and teachers stopped considering physical punishment as an effective method of education - more democratic families appeared. The task of understanding the child became the order of the day. On the other hand, the desire to understand oneself as an adult has prompted researchers to treat childhood more carefully - only through studying the psychology of a child is the path to understanding what the psychology of an adult is.
6Historical analysis of the concept of “childhood”.
V. Stern, J. Piaget, I.A. wrote about the paradoxes of child development. Sokolyansky and many others. D.B. Elkonin said that paradoxes in child psychology are developmental mysteries that scientists have yet to solve.
The first paradox. When a person is born, he is endowed with only the most basic mechanisms for maintaining life. In terms of physical structure, organization of the nervous system, types of activity and methods of its regulation, man is the most perfect creature in nature. However, at the time of birth, a decline in perfection is noticeable in the evolutionary series - the child does not have any ready-made forms of behavior
As a rule, the higher a living creature stands in the ranks of animals, the longer its childhood lasts, the more helpless this creature is at birth. This is one of the paradoxes of nature that predetermines the history of childhood.
P.P. Blonsky noted that in relation to the duration of the entire life, childhood is 8% for a cat, 13% for a dog, 29% for an elephant, and 33% for a person. Human childhood is thus relatively the longest. At the same time, during evolution, the ratio of the duration of uterine to extrauterine childhood decreases. So, in a cat it is 15%, in a dog - 9%, in an elephant - 6%, in a person - 3%. This indicates that the mental mechanisms of human behavior are formed during life.
Second paradox. In the course of history, the enrichment of the material and spiritual culture of mankind has continuously increased. Over the millennia, human experience has increased many thousands of times. But during this same time, the newborn child has practically not changed. Based on data anthropologists about the anatomical and morphological similarities between Cro-Magnon and modern Europeans, it can be assumed that the newborn of a modern person does not differ in any significant way from a newborn who lived tens of thousands of years ago.
Childhood - the period lasting from newbornhood to full social and, therefore, psychological maturity; This is the period when a child becomes a full-fledged member of human society.. Moreover, the duration of childhood in primitive society is not equal to the duration of childhood in the Middle Ages or in our days. The stages of human childhood are a product of history and are as subject to change as they were thousands of years ago. Therefore, it is impossible to study a child’s childhood and the laws of its formation outside the development of human society and the laws that determine its development. The duration of childhood is directly dependent on the level of material and spiritual culture of society.
The problem of childhood history- one of the most difficult in modern child psychology, since in this area it is impossible to conduct either observation or experiment.
We can say that experimental facts were preceded by theory. Theoretically, the question of the historical origin of periods of childhood was developed in the works of P.P. Blonsky, L.S. Vygotsky, D.B. Elkonina.
In the textbook "Pedology" P.P. Blonsky wrote: “Childhood is the age of development. The more developed an animal is, the longer the overall time of its development and the faster the pace of this development. To have a short childhood means to have little time for development, and at the same time to have slow pace of development means developing slowly and for a short time. Man develops longer and faster than any other animal, under favorable social conditions of development, develops longer and faster than man of previous historical eras...
It is generally accepted that the status of childhood for the child of workers was formed only in the 19th and 20th centuries, when child labor began to be prohibited with the help of legislation on child protection. Of course, this does not mean that the legal laws adopted are capable of ensuring childhood for the working people of the lower strata of society. Children in this environment, and especially girls, even today perform work necessary for social reproduction (child care, housework, some agricultural work). Thus, although in our time there is a ban on child labor, it is impossible to talk about the status of childhood without taking into account the position of children and their parents in the social structure of society.
In the study by A.V. Tolstykh shows the general picture of changes in the duration of childhood in our country throughout the twentieth century.
· He writes about three types of certainty in childhood, characterizing the socio-organizational and institutional framework of its formation:
o from 0.0 to 12.0 - the length of childhood is associated with the introduction of compulsory primary education for all children - 1930;
o from 0.0 to 15.0 - the duration of childhood increased due to the adoption of the new law on incomplete secondary school - 1959;
o from 0.0 to 17.0 - the duration of childhood at the present time, which is characterized by the representation of all children's ages and their clear differentiation.
Historically concept childhood is associated not with the biological state of immaturity, but with a certain social status, with the range of rights and responsibilities inherent in this period of life, with the set of types and forms of activity available to it.
F. Aries was interested in how the concept of childhood developed in the minds of artists, writers and scientists over the course of history and how it differed in different historical eras. His research in the field of fine arts led him to the conclusion that up to the 13th century. art did not appeal to children, artists did not even try to depict them.
The word “child” for a long time did not have the exact meaning that is given to it now. Thus, it is characteristic, for example, that in medieval Germany the word “child” was synonymous with the concept “fool”. In the French language of the 17th century, according to F. Aries, there were still not enough words that would sufficiently separate young children from older ones. F. Aries writes that initially the concept of “childhood” was associated with the idea of dependence. “Childhood ended when dependence ended or became less. That is why words related to children will for a long time remain in the colloquial language as a familiar designation for people of the lower classes who are completely subordinate to others: lackeys, soldiers, apprentices.
Children's images in painting before the 13th century. found only in religious and allegorical subjects. In the 13th century. Several child types appear. This is an angel depicted as a very young man, a teenager; the baby Jesus or the Mother of God with her son, where Jesus remains a smaller copy of the adult; a naked child as a symbol of the soul of the deceased. In the 15th century F. Aries notices two new types of images of children: portrait and putti (little naked boy). According to F. Aries, the passion for putti “corresponds to the emergence of a widespread interest in children and childhood.”
Judging by painting, indifference to children was overcome no earlier than the 17th century, when portrait images of real children began to appear on artists’ canvases for the first time. As a rule, these were portraits of children of influential persons and royalty in childhood. Thus, according to F. Aries, the discovery of childhood began in the 13th century, its development can be traced in the history of painting of the 14th-16th centuries, but the evidence of this discovery is most fully manifested at the end of the 16th and throughout the entire 17th century.
· Analyzing portrait images of children in ancient paintings and descriptions of children's costumes in literature, F. Aries identifies three trends in the evolution of children's clothing:
1. Archaization - children’s clothing in this historical time is lagging behind adult fashion and largely repeats the adult costume of a previous era.
2. Feminization - a suit for boys largely repeats the details of women's clothing.
3. The use of the usual adult costume of the lower classes for children of the upper classes. Thus, straight trousers and details of a military uniform (for example, a children's sailor suit) appeared in boys' clothing.