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Sensitive periods of development of children and adolescents. Sensitive periods of child development (according to L.S.

Lunkina E.N., teacher-speech therapist d/s "Magic Castle", Central Administrative District, Moscow

The concept of “sensitive periods of child development” was introduced by the outstanding Russian psychologist, psycholinguist, defectologist, and world-famous scientist L.S. Vygotsky (1896-1934). He developed the concept of “psychological systems,” which were understood as integral formations in the form of various forms of interfunctional connections (for example, between thinking and memory, thinking and speech).

The enormous contribution of L.S. Vygotsky into child psychology - the introduction of the concept of “zone of proximal development”. According to the scientist, this is an area of unripe but maturing processes that can be called “developmental buds.” The “zone of proximal development” poses big tasks for the child, which he is able to solve only with the help of an adult, in the course of their joint activities. L.S. Vygotsky came to the conclusion that a child’s learning should precede, run ahead of, pull up and lead development. This statement has become an axiom in child psychology and pedagogy.

The next important discovery of the brilliant scientist in child psychology was the age-specific determination of periods in a child’s life that are most favorable for the development of certain functions of the individual. This knowledge is necessary for teachers and parents in order not to miss the period most favorable for the child’s education, so that those “developing buds”, which represent maturing processes in the “zone of proximal development,” can fully develop and enrich physical, intellectual, emotional , social and cultural opportunities in the child’s future life.

There are no identical children, even twins are very different from each other. Everyone has individual mental properties, abilities and interests.

However, in the life of every child there are periods in which physiology itself creates the most optimal conditions and opportunities for the child to develop certain mental properties and receptivity to acquiring certain knowledge and skills. These periods are called sensitive periods.

Sensitivity(from Latin sensitivus - sensitive) - the optimal combination of conditions for the development of mental processes inherent in a certain age period. During sensitive periods there is a great opportunity to develop children’s abilities to the maximum.

Another definition of the sensitive period can be formulated as follows. The sensitive period is a certain period of a child’s life in which optimal conditions are created for the development of certain psychological qualities and types of activities.

These periods are limited in time, therefore, if you miss stages of mental development, in the future you will have to spend a lot of effort and time to fill the gap in the development of certain functions. Some mental functions may never develop. This is exemplified by numerous cases of children growing up in a pack of animals. When they were returned to society, no rehabilitation methods could teach them full speech and adaptation to new conditions. All their behavior copied the life and habits of animals.

Thus, the sensitive period is the time of maximum opportunities for the most effective formation of any mental property, the period of the highest plasticity. It shows its ability to change according to the specifics of external circumstances.

During certain sensitive periods, there is a sharp increase in sensitivity to certain external influences due to the high plasticity of the child’s nervous system.

Age-related sensitivity is a combination of conditions characteristic of a certain age for the formation of specific mental processes. For example, for the development of speech in children, the sensitive period is 1.5 years. It is at this time that adults need to pay increased attention to the child, harmoniously raising and developing him. Therefore, the environment, diversity of activities, interests and emotions are extremely important for the development of a person in the first years of his life. The lack of emotions, knowledge, skills, physical and mental development acquired in childhood will be an irreparable gap in later life.

First, you need to figure out how many of these periods a child has, at what age they begin, and what kind of knowledge the child easily perceives in each of them.
Periods of maximum opportunities and conditions for the development in children of certain mental properties and susceptibility to acquiring knowledge and skills.

1.5-3 years. A period of vivid speech perception and vocabulary replenishment. At this age, the child is very receptive to learning foreign languages. It is also favorable for the development of motor skills, manipulation of objects, and perception of order;
3-4 years. This period is most favorable for becoming familiar with the symbolic designation of numbers and letters and preparing for writing. Conscious speech and understanding of one’s own thoughts develop, the senses develop intensively;
4-5 years. This period is marked by the development of interest in music and mathematics. The child’s activity in the perception of writing, color, shape, size of objects increases, intensive social development occurs;
5-6 years. The most favorable period for the transition from writing to reading. This period is very important for instilling social skills and behavior in the child;
8-9 years old. During this period, language abilities reach their peak for the second time. It is also of great importance for the development of imagination and cultural education.

At different stages of a child’s sensitive development, changes in his psyche can occur either gradually and slowly, or quickly and abruptly. Accordingly, stable and crisis stages of development are distinguished. They are also called turning points in development, or crises, if they occur rapidly. During these periods, the child is especially receptive to acquiring knowledge and life skills. Changes occur in the child’s body, which are manifested by increased sensitivity and vulnerability. We cannot influence the occurrence of these periods, since this is inherent in human nature. But parents and teachers should (even are obliged) to use them as productively as possible for the development of their child.

At a stable stage of development, the child’s behavior is smooth, without sudden shifts or changes. This may not even be noticeable to those around him. But these changes accumulate and at the end of the period give a qualitative leap in development.

Stable stages alternate with crisis ones. Crisis periods do not last long (from several months to 1-2 years, depending on the wisdom of teachers and the tact of parents). These are most often short but violent stages. During periods of crisis, significant changes in the child's personality occur. The crisis itself begins and ends imperceptibly, its boundaries are blurred and unclear. Exacerbation occurs in the middle of the sensitive period. Parents see drastic changes in behavior and interests; the child is out of the control of adults.

There are much more individual differences during crises than during stable periods. At this time, contradictions intensify, on the one hand, between the child’s adult needs and his still limited capabilities, and on the other, between new needs and previously established relationships with adults. Modern psychologists consider these contradictions as the driving forces of mental development.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, the most important are three sensitive periods (crisis moments) - 1 year, 3 and 7 years. Teachers and parents should be aware of crisis moments in a child’s life and prepare for them in a timely manner to ensure the best possible satisfaction of the child’s needs in each sensitive period.

Age-related sensitivity is characteristic of a specific age stage; it is the best combination of conditions for the formation of specific properties or mental processes.

Age periodization (according to L.S. Vygotsky)

Newborn crisis - infancy (from 2 months to 1 year).
At 1.5-2.5 months. fine motor skills are formed, the sensory area develops, the child learns about the world using auditory and tactile sensations.
. Crisis of 1 year - early childhood (1-3 years).
New types of communication appear, the psychological unity “mother-child” breaks down, speech and mental abilities develop. The leading type of activity is the emotionally direct communication between the infant and the adult.
From 1 to 3 years is a sensitive period for the development of speech abilities. The child listens, accumulates a passive vocabulary, and then speech appears, which is of an objective nature. The ability to express your desires and feelings develops.
At 2.5-3 years old, a child often talks to himself, which contributes to the development of logical thinking and consistency in speech. Over time, he conducts such monologues mentally.
. Crisis of 3 years - preschool age (from 3 to 7 years).
The leading type of activity is tool-object. Self-esteem and self-awareness are formed, personality formation occurs. From 3 to 7 years old, the child is included in adult life, in various types of activities, he chooses what to play and his role in the game; interested in sounds and letters, i.e. their graphic representation in the form of symbols. Imagination and display of impressions about the world around us, interaction with others, and communication are actively developing. The leading type of activity is a role-playing game.
. Crisis 7 years - school age (from 7 to 13 years).
The leading type of activity is educational. The child’s psyche, thinking, special abilities, personality and interpersonal relationships develop.
. Crisis of 13 years - puberty (13-17 years).
The leading type of activity is personal communication between teenagers.
. Crisis of 17 years - adolescence (17-21 years).
The leading type of activity is professional and educational.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, at these moments the child needs to receive increased attention from adults. During periods of crisis, the child becomes receptive to acquiring certain knowledge and skills.

And although the development of human intelligence continues into adulthood, in childhood it happens much easier and more naturally. Parents should pay attention to the onset of each of these periods and promptly prepare the base and environment to best meet the needs of the child at each stage of his development.

Let us remember the fairy tale by R. Kipling “The Jungle Book” and its hero, Mowgli, raised in a pack of animals. The author's idea for this book did not come out of nowhere. Currently, there are about 4 thousand official evidence of such cases. “Children of the jungle” found themselves from a very early age in a pack of animals (usually wolves) and had neither speech nor social experience in behavior and communication. After they were returned to normal living conditions, despite intensive care and special classes with them, it was no longer possible to return them to human society. The maximum number of words that only a few of these children could be taught was no more than 45. And their skills of human existence after the rehabilitation period were more like training, like those of domestic animals. Children who were surrounded by animals for the first 6 years of life will practically no longer be able to master human speech, communicate meaningfully with other people, walk upright, etc. Rehabilitation was not complete in any case. Animal skills (walking on all fours, raw food, animal sounds and habits), acquired at an early age, played a decisive role for these children.

The fact is that the most crucial sensitive periods in the formation of a person’s personality were irretrievably missed. It is in the first 5-7 years of life that a child receives 70% of all life information. And if during this period he finds himself in a wolf pack, then he will grow up to be a wolf. Animal skills acquired by children who found themselves among animals from infancy are imprinted on the psyche and physiology, and it is virtually impossible to instill human skills, i.e. Such children will never be full-fledged people.

The sages believed that every child would speak the language of his parents, even if no one taught him this. An Indian child will speak Indian, a Nepali child will speak Nepali, etc. The padishah doubted this and decided to carry out a cruel experiment: several infants were placed in separate rooms, and deaf-mute servants looked after them. Seven years later, the padishah and the sages entered and heard incoherent screams, screams, hissing and meowing of young beast-like creatures.

All this once again proves how important the first years of life are for the development of a child and his speech.

The examples given provide the best possible proof of the legitimacy of the existence of sensitive periods in the life of every child. Missed for various reasons, they will be an irreparable gap throughout a person’s life.

The modern, world-famous Japanese teacher-practitioner Masaru Ibuki entitled his book on child psychology “After Three It’s Too Late.” In his work, the scientist writes that the key to the development of a child’s mental abilities is his personal experience of learning in the first three years of life. It all depends on the stimulation and degree of brain development during the crucial years of a child's life. Here we again see confirmation of L.S.’s theory. Vygotsky about the decisive sensitive periods in a child’s life and their significance in the formation of personality.

The plasticity of the brain of a young child (from 0 to 3 years), psychophysiologically optimal conditions (sensitive periods) for the formation of emotions, intelligence, speech and personality determine great potential. Although the Japanese scientist places emphasis on two (of the three main, according to L.S. Vygotsky) crisis periods of development - 1 year and 3 years, it is nevertheless clear that without a solid basis for the development of an individual’s personality in the first two sensitive periods (up to 3 years ) we lose the opportunity for the comprehensive development of the child’s mental abilities. Only the realization of all the possibilities of the previous stage ensures a favorable transition to a new stage of development.

L.S. Vygotsky wrote that the new does not fall from the sky, but appears naturally, prepared by the entire course of previous development. The source of development is the social environment in which the child finds himself.

Disciples and followers of L.S. Vygotsky (P.Ya. Galperin, L.V. Zankov, A.V. Zaporozhets, A.N. Leontiev, A.R. Luria, D.B. Elkonin, etc.) continue to be guided by his works and, based on his research continues to develop the concept of early development of a child’s personality.

So, we can draw the following conclusions. Sensitive periods are an opportunity to fully develop the abilities of children at a particular age, while paying attention to the quality of their development. These are the most critical stages of children's development.

It is worth noting that these periods occur for every child, but the time of their appearance and duration are individual, and neither teachers nor parents can influence their occurrence. With the right approach, they can be used productively for the further development of certain abilities or types of activities. That is why at certain age stages you should pay more attention to a specific area, while trying to develop the qualitative component of your child’s abilities.

It is necessary not to accelerate, but to enrich mental development, to expand the child’s capabilities in activities characteristic of his age. It is important to create the necessary conditions under which children can demonstrate their abilities. The child’s activities should not be limited; he should be given the opportunity for free creative expression.

Parents and teachers should clearly understand that the wider the child’s range of interests, the more harmonious he will grow up. The peculiarity of a child’s development is that all new skills, knowledge, and abilities are superimposed on those already learned. At these moments, the child needs to receive increased attention from adults.

Literature

Bogdanovich T.G., Kornilova T.V. Diagnostics of the cognitive sphere. M., 1994.
Bozhovich L.I. Personality and its formation in childhood. M., 1968.
Wenger L.A., Wenger A.L. is your child ready for school? M., 1994.
Developmental and educational psychology / Ed. A.V. Petrovsky. M., 1973.
Vygotsky L.S. Collected works: In 6 volumes. T. 2, 5. M., 1982.
Galperin P.Ya. Methods of teaching and mental development of the child. M., 1985.
Galperin P.Ya. Psychology of thinking and the doctrine of the gradual formation of mental actions. Voronezh, 1998.
Gutkina N.I. Psychological readiness for school. M., 1993.
Mukhina V.S. Age-related psychology. M., 1999.
Elkonin D.B. Diagnostics of educational activity and intellectual development of children. M., 1981.
Elkonin D.B., Bozhovich L.I. Development of learning motives in 6-7 year old children. Volgograd, 1999.

Adolescence as a sensitive period for the development of creativity. Creative activity is human activity, which manifests itself in the process of creating material and spiritual values, characterized by novelty, originality, and uniqueness. The psychological basis for the manifestation of creative activity is a person’s abilities, motives, and skills.

Creative activity is a motivating principle in the formation of a healthy lifestyle for adolescents. The material is better absorbed by teenagers when it is presented in an original way. In addition, creativity in adolescents is manifested in playing out various types of situations, forcing them to comprehend what is happening in reality. By creating conditions for creative activity, the teenager will be encouraged to take an interest in activities related to a healthy lifestyle.

Another effective condition for the formation of a healthy lifestyle is the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. It is necessary to convince teenagers that life can provide them with a lot of interesting things, that there are no insoluble problems or hopeless situations. Involving teenagers in social activities that will require them to develop positive qualities will help prevent deviant behavior. The teacher’s task is to develop an enlightened teenager into a socially caring person who will be able to resist alcohol, smoking and drugs in any situation.

Informing teenagers about a healthy lifestyle is carried out through training aimed at transitioning from a passive form of information perception to an active one and ensuring the subject-subject nature of interaction between teacher and student: lectures, conversations, debates, training exercises.

The use of these forms and methods makes it possible to use such basic characteristics of a teenager’s personality as the ability to cognition and self-knowledge, higher-level needs, and value relations. In addition, they contribute to schoolchildren’s reassessment of the meaning of their own life activities, the fulfillment of the need to achieve, recognize, and realize their various abilities, including changing their lifestyle.

At the same time, students are being prepared for the implementation of the practice-oriented part of the work, since what is relevant in orienting a student towards a healthy lifestyle is his emotional and value acceptance at the personal level as a necessary basis for the self-organization of healthy life activities. We consider the actualization of the student’s emotional and value attitude towards a healthy lifestyle as the next condition for the implementation of the pedagogical strategy of orienting the student towards it. Updating the student’s emotional and value attitude towards a healthy lifestyle is a purposeful pedagogical activity to transfer his value valeological guidelines (thoughts, views, ideas, beliefs, attitudes, feelings, abilities) from a potential state into a real one and awareness of their significance in human life.

In practical problem solving, we proceed from the theoretical provisions of pedagogical axiology about the essence of value relations. A value receives its actual existence in activity when a subject, interacting with an object, forms a relationship. It becomes valuable when the properties of an object satisfy the needs of the subject, involve the emotional sphere and generate personal meaning, forming the internal position of the individual. Under the influence of real life practice, in the presence of a person’s internal activity, a value attitude arises.

In accordance with this, a choice was made of such social and pedagogical conditions that would contribute to the formation of an internal picture of a healthy lifestyle in adolescents. The main components of such a picture are: cognitive (a set of knowledge, ideas, conclusions about a healthy lifestyle) and emotional (sensual side), promoting awareness, emotional-value acceptance and modeling of a healthy lifestyle as an activity guide.

The social educator informs students about the school's opportunities in this area, participates with them in various events, and supports them in implementing a healthy lifestyle. The choice of forms and methods of organizing the activities of adolescents at the stage of enrichment with relevant knowledge includes consultations with a social teacher, participation of students in sports, recreational, cultural events, and leisure forms of work, which contributes to their involvement in health-creating activities, enrichment of creative and activity experience, and manifestation of activity. and independence in organizing your own healthy lifestyle.

For the success of developing a healthy lifestyle in a teenager, these conditions must be met.

Thus, the formation of a healthy lifestyle in a teenager through the implementation of a set of socio-pedagogical conditions, methods, techniques and means of an informational-cognitive, emotional-value and creative-activity nature can be carried out in the educational process of school and contribute to solving the problem of creating a healthy lifestyle for a schoolchild.

In adolescents, memory capacity increases significantly, due not only to better memorization of material, but also to its logical comprehension. A teenager’s memory, like attention, gradually acquires the character of organized, regulated and controlled processes.

In connection with learning, maturation, accumulation of life experience and, consequently, progress in general psychological development, at the beginning of adolescence, new, broader interests are formed in children, various hobbies arise and a desire appears to take a different, more independent position.

2.2 Sensitive periods of actualization of the essential forces of adolescents.

As a child enters a new age phase - adolescence - his social position at school, family, and on the street changes significantly. He learns new disciplines, in the family he is given more complex and responsible responsibilities, he no longer plays “those children’s games with kids,” but strives to join the youthful “party.” That is, he is no longer a child, but not yet an adult. In this regard, a favorable atmosphere arises for influencing his social and age self-determination.

By adolescence, a child accumulates a fairly large amount of a wide variety of information. As he enters a new age phase, he learns to build logical patterns and grasp cause-and-effect relationships. On this basis, the amount of knowledge gained transforms into a new quality, and coupled with expanding life experience, he develops a higher level of self-awareness, he turns his gaze to the inner world and spiritual appearance of other people and on this basis builds a stable moral ideal. Thus, adolescence is sensitive to the formation of an ideal.

For teenagers, the opinion and assessment of peers is of great importance, and at the same time, in the teenage environment there is a kind of behavioral code, the priority in which belongs to the manifestation of will. It is in this regard that adolescence is sensitive to the formation of a strong will, in particular such traits as determination, independence, endurance, determination, courage, initiative, endurance, masculinity and more.

Let us note that all these traits will develop one way or another, and if not these, then alternative ones and will be aimed, if not at creation, then at destruction, so it is important for society not to miss the chance to “educate a citizen.”

The moral and ethical core of the individual is also at the peak of its formation. Of course, a person’s moral core begins to form with the awareness of his “I”, i.e. from the age of three, but during this period of childhood he is mainly directed by adults with “dos” and “nots”, most often without reason and working mainly due to the child’s self-restraint.

The process of moral and ethical formation of an individual enters a completely different qualitative direction in adolescence, when a teenager evaluates himself through the relationship of his inner world with the inner world of other people. A teenager develops conceptual thinking, he can understand the connections between a specific act and personality traits, on the basis of which the need for self-improvement arises.

The teenager, in the process of gaining life experience, as well as turning his gaze to literary and film characters, begins to worry about deeply ethical questions about the meaning of life and human happiness, about justice, honor and dignity, as well as about his own role in the formation of the moral and ethical environment in his immediate environment.

The moral and ethical standards of a teenager are very far from ideal, they are fragmented and unstable, but they, and this is most important, are for the first time formed consciously and independently. A distinctive feature of this process, however, which is soon fading, or rather strangled by society, is sincerity and intransigence, which is where the intransigence towards what he denies comes from.

During adolescence, significant biological changes occur - a significant increase in muscle strength, overall body stamina and performance, both in boys and girls. A natural need arises to “use physical force.” This circumstance creates more than favorable conditions for active sports and physical labor both at home and outside - social labor (and not only free, but also paid).

At the age of 13-15 years for boys and 12-14 years for teenage girls, the profile of energy capabilities and contractile properties of skeletal muscles with which a person is destined to live for the rest of his life is formed. Therefore, during these years, boys can effectively develop speed, strength and speed-strength qualities; You can purposefully train middle-distance runners and sprinters, weightlifters and wrestlers, throwers and jumpers. (Note that earlier specialization in all these sports often results in developmental disorders). To smooth out the angularity of movements, form plasticity and grace, it is advisable for girls to engage in all types of dance, shaping, rhythmic gymnastics, and athletics. Let us note, however, that the teenager’s body is still very far from complete physical formation.

Adolescence is characterized as a pubertal period associated with a profound restructuring of the endocrine system, the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics, as well as sexual desire caused by the abundant release of hormones. This is the period when the issue of gender should be reinforced by behavioral acts of relations between boys and girls, this is the most favorable time for the formation of masculinity and femininity.

2.3. Types of leisure communication among teenagers.

Each of us lives among people. In any situation, regardless of our desire, we communicate with people. Human communication resembles a kind of pyramid consisting of four sides: we exchange information, interact with other people, get to know them and, at the same time, experience our own state that arises as a result of communication. Communication acts as an activity, an area where a person can realize himself. For socialization, communication plays one of the important roles - it is the implementation of the communicative and information function that brings a person into relationships with other people, groups of people, a system that saturates a person with information in order to shape his lifestyle;

Since we are considering the leisure sphere, the type of leisure communication determines the very process of interaction between adolescents. The following types of leisure communication can be distinguished.

Positivist.

Teenagers of this type are able to take a creative approach to the task at hand, while shouldering the main burden. They listen to the opinions of parents, teachers and peers, trying their best to implement useful advice. They are distinguished by persistence in achieving goals, as well as the ability to correctly evaluate their own results and the results of their comrades. Positivist teenagers have the necessary work skills, ways to plan their work and coordinate it with the work of the group.

Sensitive period - this is the time range that is most favorable for the development of a particular function, goy or other human ability. For example, the sensitive period in speech development is the age from 9 months to 2 years. This does not mean that the speech function does not develop either before or after this age, but it is during this period that speech develops most rapidly and during this period the child must have experience in verbal communication, support and encouragement from adults for his speech attempts, the desire to express his feelings through speech .

Sensitive periods in a child’s development are determined by the sequential maturation of certain areas of the central nervous system. Knowledge of these periods allows you to create the necessary environment around the child for the development of skills that are associated with the development of certain brain structures. This approach is especially effective when teaching children with mental retardation, hearing and vision impairments. With this approach, the high sensitivity of certain functions at certain periods is used to effectively stimulate the development of these functions by external influences. Identifying and taking into account sensitive periods is a prerequisite for creating adequate conditions for effective learning and maintaining the child’s health.

The boundaries of sensitive periods are not sharply defined; for each child they can be shifted in one direction or another for several months. Sensitive periods for the formation of various functions can overlap and create preconditions for each other. The identification of sensitive periods equally applies to motor functions (mastering motor skills), sensory functions (development of perception of the surrounding world) and mental functions, including sensory and motor. Below are the conventional boundaries of some sensitive periods.

1. From 1 month to 3–4 years – the period of mastering movements and actions. The normal state of a awake child is movement. In the first year of life, a child masters his own body, learns to control its individual parts, turn, sit down, and stand up. Then he masters actions with objects and improves hand movements. Perception and cognition of the surrounding world occurs to a large extent through movement. The ideas about the surrounding world obtained as a result of the “motor period” form the basis for the development of thinking.

2. From 0 to 5.5 years – the period of sensory development. Active acquisition of sensory experience from the first months of life (experience represented in sensations of size, shape, weight, color, texture, structure of objects, taste, smell, various sounds) stimulates the formation and development of areas of the brain that provide perception and processing of sensory information, promotes development of the child's intelligence.

3. From 0 to 6 years – the period of speech development. During this period, every child is a “great philologist”; the speed and quality of his assimilation of speech information has no analogues in other periods of development. In the first year of life, the child masters the articulation and intonation patterns of his native language. In the second year, the child’s vocabulary grows, individual words are combined into simple phrases, and many grammatical norms are learned. At 2.5-3 years old, the child speaks in verbose phrases, uses connecting conjunctions and pronouns. By this age, speech becomes a means of communication and a means of controlling behavior. By the age of 5–6 years, the child begins to master written language (reading and writing).

4. From 10 months to 2.5 years – the period of interest in small objects. The child’s increased interest in small objects is associated with the need for intensive development of fine motor skills of the fingers and hand muscles. Manipulation with small objects stimulates the intensive development of certain parts of the brain, including those responsible for the development of speech.

5. From 2 to 6 years – the period of development of social skills. The child begins to identify and become aware of himself, his dependence on the adult decreases, and interest in other children, group behaviors, and relationships with adults and peers appears. He masters social rules of behavior. His behavior is easily corrected by the communication environment, the external rhythm of life, which gradually becomes a need. The child “tryes on” various roles, which leads to the development of role-playing games and intensive absorption of the culture of the social environment. The lack of adequate social experience in this period significantly reduces the possibilities of social adaptation not only in the preschool period, but also throughout subsequent life.

Each of the sensitive periods requires certain conditions (organization of the environment and pedagogical influences) for the optimal development of those functions that are intensively developed and formed during this period.

In addition to sensitive periods in ontogenetic development, periods of rapid turning points can be distinguished. This critical periods , during which intense morphofunctional changes in certain systems occur, they are characterized by a special sensitivity of the developing function, when the lack of adequate environmental influences can irreversibly disrupt the formation of the function. For example, in the absence of certain visual stimuli in the first months of life, their perception is not formed in the future, the same applies to speech function (there are examples of “Mowgli” children who grew up among animals - mastering human speech later turned out to be inaccessible to them).

The entire period of intrauterine development is critical, the neonatal period and the first six months of infancy, since at this age the foundations of most physical and mental functions, their regulation and interaction are laid. In further ontogenesis, periods of overlapping sensitive periods and sharp changes in social and environmental factors are critical (for example, at the age of beginning of schooling with a sharp change in social conditions there is a so-called half-growth leap - an age-related physiological crisis of 6–7 years, accompanied by a psychological crisis of 6–7 years. The beginning of puberty (puberty) is also a critical period - changes in the neurohumoral regulation of the body weaken the possibilities of self-regulation, which coincides with the increase in social demands on adolescents and the instability of their self-esteem. This leads to a mismatch between social requirements and the functional capabilities of the body, which can manifest itself "difficult" behavior and health problems.

Critical periods of ontogenesis are distinguished by a higher sensitivity of the developing organism to the effects of unfavorable factors of the external and internal environment than relatively stable periods of development.

26 .Characterize the classification of age periodization (according to N.P. Gundobin)

Physiologists and doctors have long tried to identify several age periods to establish the characteristics of the development of a child’s body at each stage of its life. The division was based on such characteristics as teething, timing of ossification of individual parts of the skeleton, characteristics of growth, mental development, etc. The most common classification, which is currently accepted by pediatrics, is classification by N.P. Gundobin . It is based on some biological characteristics of the growing child’s body. The following periods are distinguished:

neonatal period (before the umbilical cord falls off);

infancy (up to one year);

period of milk teeth (from one year to 6-7 years);

period of older childhood (from 8 to 11 years);

period of puberty (12-17 years).

At a special International Symposium on Age Periodization (Moscow, 1965), an age periodization scheme was proposed and approved, according to which the maturation period is divided into several stages:

newborn - from 1 to 10 days;

infancy - from 10 days to 1 year;

early childhood - from 1 year to 3 years;

first childhood - from 4 to 7 years;

second childhood:

boys - from 8 to 12 years old;

girls - from 8 to 11 years old;

adolescence:

boys - from 13 to 16 years old;

girls - from 12 to 15 years old;

adolescence:

boys - from 17 to 21 years old;

girls - from 16 to 20 years old.

For working with children, it is considered most appropriate to divide a child’s development into periods that take into account the totality of his anatomical and physiological characteristics and living conditions, upbringing and education.

There are age periods: the neonatal period (the first two to three weeks of life); infancy (up to one year); pre-preschool, or nursery age (from 1 to 3 years); preschool age (from 3 to 7 years); school age: junior (from 7 to 10 years), middle (from 11 to 14 years), senior - teenager (from 14 to 18 years). This division into age groups does not contradict the scheme adopted at the International Symposium.

Preschool institutions are organized for children aged 2 months to 7 years; groups are completed taking into account the age of the children.

Children 6-7 years old are prepared for school, except for kindergartens, and preparatory classes in schools. In accordance with the resolution of the party and government of December 22, 1977, preparatory classes in our country are becoming increasingly developed.

The newborn period The newborn period is considered the time from the birth of a child until the moment his umbilical cord falls off (on average about two weeks). A sharp change in living conditions (extrauterine existence) forces the child’s body to adapt to completely new and constantly changing environmental factors. This affects the functions of many organs and systems of the newborn, sometimes causing their disruption. In the first 2-4 days, newborns experience such phenomena as weight loss (by 6-10% of birth weight), icteric staining associated with temporary insufficiency of liver activity and increased breakdown of red blood cells, hyperemia (redness of the skin, sometimes accompanied by peeling), insufficient thermoregulation (body temperature easily changes when the ambient temperature changes), as a result, the child easily overheats or becomes hypothermic. By the end of the first - beginning of the second week, under normal conditions of nutrition and care for the newborn, most of the disorders are almost completely eliminated.

Diseases of children of this period are associated either with disorders of intrauterine development (prematurity, congenital deformities, heart defects), or with birth injuries (intracranial hemorrhages, birth tumors, bone fractures), or with heredity (hemophilia, mental retardation, etc.). During this period, mother's milk represents the main and only complete food that ensures the proper development of the child.

When the baby’s weight is equalized, the umbilical wound heals, the icteric color disappears, and the newborn period can be considered over.

Infancy At the end of the neonatal period, an infant experiences an intensive rate of growth and development, which is not so significant at any other age. During the first year, the child's body weight increases by 200% and length by 50%. Particularly large increases in the child’s weight and height are observed in the first half of the year (monthly weight gain is 600 g, and in height - 2.5-3 cm).

To ensure enhanced growth and development, children in the first year of life need a larger amount of food (relative to 1 kg of weight) than older children or adults. At the same time, the digestive tract at this age is not sufficiently developed, and with the slightest violation of the diet, change in the quality or quantity of food, children may experience both acute and chronic digestive and nutritional disorders, vitamin deficiencies, constitutional abnormalities (incorrect reaction of the body to normal living conditions and nutrition), manifesting itself most often in the form of exudative diathesis. Mother's milk remains the main food for the first 4-5 months of a child's life.

Tissues in infants are thin and tender, with insufficient development of elastic (elastic) fibers, as a result of which they are easily vulnerable. At the same time, due to the presence in the tissues of a small child of a large number of young cellular elements and blood vessels that nourish them well, any damage in children heals much faster than in adults.

The inflammatory (protective) reaction to the penetration of pathogenic microbes in infants is weakly expressed, there is almost no protective reaction from the regional (peripheral) lymph nodes, therefore the child’s body very often responds to any local disease with a general reaction. Children at this age are prone to pustular skin lesions, which, if the child is poorly cared for, can develop into general blood poisoning.

Infectious diseases in infants, especially in the first months of their life, are rare. Measles, rubella, and scarlet fever are almost never encountered; diphtheria, chicken pox, dysentery, etc. occur in a unique way, often without giving symptoms characteristic of these diseases. This depends, on the one hand, on the immunity acquired by the child during his uterine life through the placenta and received with mother’s milk, on the other hand, on the incomplete structure of many organs and systems, especially the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Conditioned reflex connections in children of the first year of life are unstable due to the weakness of inhibitory and irritable cortical processes. In cortical dynamics, irradiation processes prevail over concentration processes. This leads to the fact that the process of excitation or inhibition, having arisen in any one area, quickly spreads throughout the cerebral cortex.

Infants, especially in the first months of life, cannot stay awake for long periods of time. Increased activity of the nervous system quickly leads to inhibition, which, spreading throughout the cortex and other parts of the brain, causes sleep.

Already in the first year of life, the child begins to develop speech. Undifferentiated sounds - humming - are gradually replaced by syllables. By the end of the year, a healthy child understands the speech of the adults around him quite well and pronounces 5-10 simple words himself.

In infants, the skeleton undergoes vigorous growth and ossification, the cervical and lumbar curves of the spine form, and the muscles of the trunk and legs develop. By the end of the year, a healthy child sits well, stands firmly on his legs, and walks, but his movements are still not sufficiently coordinated.

Pre-preschool, or nursery age (from one to 3 years) Early childhood age - from one to three years - is called pre-preschool, or nursery. At this age, the rate of growth and development of the child slows down somewhat. The increase in height is 8-10 cm, weight - 4-6 kg per year. The proportions of the body change, the size of the head decreases relatively: from 1/4 of the body length in a newborn to 1/5 in a 3-year-old child. The presence of teeth (by the end of the year there should be 8), an increase in the amount of digestive juices and an increase in their concentration serve as the basis for transferring the child from breastfeeding to a common diet.

In children of the second year of life, intensive growth and formation of the musculoskeletal system occurs. The nervous system and sensory organs develop rapidly, coordination of movements improves, children begin to walk and run independently, which allows them to communicate more widely with the outside world. The child masters speech (the vocabulary of children at this age reaches 200-300, they pronounce not only individual words, but also entire phrases).

Wider communication with the outside world also creates a greater opportunity for healthy children to come into contact with children who have contracted infectious diseases. In addition, with age, the passive immunity transmitted to the child by the mother weakens, and the threat of infections in children (measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, dysentery, etc.) increases. However, acute and chronic digestive and nutritional disorders at this age are less common than in children of the first year of life.

The tissues of young children are still very delicate and easily vulnerable; during this period, the child still needs good care. During the period of pre-school childhood, the need for thoughtful and systematic educational work with children increases.

Preschool age (from 3 to 7 years) This period is characterized by a slower rate of child growth. Annual increases in height (from 3 to 7 years) average 5-8 cm, weight - about 2 kg. Body proportions change noticeably. By 6-7 years, the head is only 1/6 of the body length. As a result of uneven growth of the head, torso and limbs, the midpoint of the body length moves. In a full-term newborn, this point is located almost on the navel, in a child aged 6 years - in the middle between the navel and symphysis (pubis), in an adult - on the pubis.

Thanks to the further development of muscle tissue and the formation of the muscle innervation apparatus, children are able to perform a variety of physical exercises that require good coordination of movements; They master the ability to run and jump quickly, walk freely on steps, play musical instruments, draw, sculpt, and cut out various rather complex patterns from paper.

At this age, the ability of nerve cells to be in an active state increases, the processes of negative induction in the cerebral cortex are somewhat enhanced, so children can concentrate on any activity for a longer time.

In the third year of life, the number of words children use in speech increases significantly, and speech signals begin to play a major role in organizing the child’s behavior. Speech development is promoted by games and activities, learning poems and songs, and communication between children and adults. The child learns the pronunciation of individual words and entire phrases through imitation, so the development of correct child speech largely depends on how correct the speech of the people around him is. Lack of attention from adults, acute and chronic diseases can cause a slowdown in speech development in a child.

Due to the fact that children 3-5 years old have poor speech motor skills, they are characterized by physiological deficiencies in sound pronunciation (incorrect pronunciation of hissing, whistling sounds, r and l sounds). With proper training in the sound culture of speech, these disorders disappear with age.

In preschool children, enzymatic processes are stable, and therefore diseases of the gastrointestinal tract occur quite rarely, while the body is more often exposed to childhood infections. Scarlet fever, tonsillitis, catarrh of the upper respiratory tract create the prerequisites for the occurrence of rheumatism in children.

School age (from 7 to 17 years) At this age, all organs and systems of children and adolescents continue to develop. Milk teeth are completely replaced by permanent ones, other teeth appear that were not there in preschool age, further ossification of the skeleton occurs, and increased muscle growth occurs.

Thanks to intellectual development enhanced during this period, the child becomes more independent. Compulsory schooling begins at the age of 7.

Between 12 and 17 years of age, adolescent puberty occurs. At this time, the rate of growth and development of the body increases slightly, secondary sexual characteristics appear: hair growth in the armpit and pubic cavity, development of the mammary glands and the appearance of menstruation in girls, changes in voice and wet dreams in boys, so-called wisdom teeth erupt. Teenagers have body proportions similar to adults. All this significantly changes their appearance. Teenagers' life experience increases and they become more independent.

Infectious diseases are less common during this period, and if they do occur, they occur with the same symptoms as in adults. Diseases such as rheumatism, dysfunction of the endocrine glands, especially hyperfunction (increased function) of the thyroid gland, as well as psychoneuroses are more often observed.

The development of a child occurs in a close relationship between the genetically inherent potentials of the body and the stimulating influence of the environment. Exposure to external stimuli is necessary not only for mastering any function, but also for the maturation of cells, tissues and organs that participate in the implementation of this function. Thus, experiments on animals have shown that blockade of visual information during the development of the visual analyzer leads to impoverishment and underdevelopment of the structures of the visual cortex. When kittens are raised in cages with alternating black and white stripes either vertically or horizontally, the structure of the visual cortex of the brain reflects the pattern of stripes. Consequently, the external environment (in this case, visual information) influences the formation of the perceptive substrate (visual part of the cerebral cortex), regulating the quantity and quality of its constituent cells.

Uneven maturation of various body systems, primarily parts of the nervous system, leads to the fact that sensitivity to external influences can vary greatly at different age periods. Research has shown that an organ or system performing a certain function becomes especially sensitive to external influences precisely during the period of the most intensive development of this function. These studies formed the basis for the concept of sensitive periods of development as periods of greatest sensitivity of the developing organism to the influence of environmental factors.

1. From 1 month to 3–4 years is the period of mastering movements and actions. The normal state of a awake child is movement. In the first year of life, a child masters his own body, learns to control its individual parts, turn, sit down, and stand up. Then he masters actions with objects and improves hand movements. Perception and cognition of the surrounding world occurs to a large extent through movement. The ideas about the surrounding world obtained as a result of the “motor period” form the basis for the development of thinking.
2. From 0 to 5.5 years – period of sensory development. Active acquisition of sensory experience from the first months of life (experience represented in sensations of size, shape, weight, color, texture, structure of objects, taste, smell, various sounds) stimulates the formation and development of areas of the brain that provide perception and processing of sensory information, promotes development of the child's intelligence.
3. From 0 to 6 years is the period of speech development. During this period, every child is a “great philologist”; the speed and quality of his assimilation of speech information has no analogues in other periods of development. In the first year of life, the child masters the articulation and intonation patterns of his native language. In the second year, the child’s vocabulary grows, individual words are combined into simple phrases, and many grammatical norms are learned. At 2.5-3 years old, the child speaks in verbose phrases, uses connecting conjunctions and pronouns. By this age, speech becomes a means of communication and a means of controlling behavior. By the age of 5–6 years, the child begins to master written language (reading and writing).
4. From 10 months to 2.5 years is the period of interest in small objects. The child’s increased interest in small objects is associated with the need for intensive development of fine motor skills of the fingers and hand muscles. Manipulation with small objects stimulates the intensive development of certain parts of the brain, including those responsible for the development of speech.
5. From 2 to 6 years is the period of development of social skills. The child begins to identify and become aware of himself, his dependence on the adult decreases, and interest in other children, group behaviors, and relationships with adults and peers appears. He masters social rules of behavior. His behavior is easily corrected by the communication environment, the external rhythm of life, which gradually becomes a need. The child “tryes on” various roles, which leads to the development of role-playing games and intensive absorption of the culture of the social environment. The lack of adequate social experience in this period significantly reduces the possibilities of social adaptation not only in the preschool period, but also throughout subsequent life.

The entire period of intrauterine development, the neonatal period and the first six months of infancy are critical, since at this age the foundations of most physical and mental functions, their regulation and interaction are laid. In further ontogenesis, periods of overlapping sensitive periods and sharp changes in social and environmental factors are critical (for example, at the age of beginning of schooling with a sharp change in social conditions there is a so-called half-growth leap - an age-related physiological crisis of 6–7 years, accompanied by a psychological crisis of 6–7 years. The beginning of puberty (puberty) is also a critical period - changes in the neurohumoral regulation of the body weaken the possibilities of self-regulation, which coincides with the increase in social demands on adolescents and the instability of their self-esteem. This leads to a mismatch between social requirements and the functional capabilities of the body, which can manifest itself "difficult" behavior and health problems.

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