In this article:
Modern children are different from those raised in Soviet times. In everything. From needs and intelligence to psychological characteristics. What is the reason? First of all, in changed living conditions, to which man and progress have had a hand. And an equally important reason is the cultivation of new forms of education based on child acceptance and love. The three main pillars of such education are motivation, cooperation and control. Everything that modern children have much more than Soviet and post-Soviet children.
Features of modern children
The normal development of children requires adequate development conditions. Most parents protect their children from problems, stressful situations, grief, pain and other negative factors that life is filled with. As a result of this they grow 
Children who are incapable of anything, shaking with fear at the sight of any problems, because they not only do not know how to solve them, but also do not know how to behave in such situations.
Also, modern children do not have a feeling of guilt. They are immune to the tactics of indoctrination, which are often used in families and public institutions in the early stages of development. Modern offspring react poorly to lectures, punishment, coercion and other generally accepted methods of education and techniques used by teachers and parents.
These children are not afraid even of corporal punishment. It is almost impossible to “put them in place.” This is achieved by a few and with the help of a limited number of measures.
The most important thing for modern children is respect. Only to him do they react and respond. Adults should respect not only small toddlers as reasonable individuals, but also their problems, which they consider no less difficult than parental difficulties.
Most of these children are not very well behaved. Many can even be called dysfunctional. At the same time, each of them needs a chance to receive from adults the advice that can encourage the best that is in each individual child.
These kids come into our imperfect world perfect. Inside they have a core and an intuitive sense of what is good and right. Therefore, they easily and clearly identify the bad words and actions committed by others. You may ask: why then do they themselves say and act badly? Yes, because others do it. Since this is allowed for some, why not for others? Why not for this particular child, who, like other modern children, does not like prohibitions, even if they are not spoken out loud? These are rebels who demand that we follow the rules by breaking them. This is how they point out our mistakes. It’s not for nothing that they say that you should raise yourself, not your children, because they will still grow up to be like us.
In addition to respect, modern children have an acute need for love. And under no circumstances will they approve of lies, 
manipulation and violence. They need explanations, and excuses like “because I said so” do not suit them.
There is no point in raising a full-fledged personality - it is in front of us. She just needs to be helped to improve and “grow” with new knowledge and experience. To do this, you just need to take it seriously to your own child, his opinion, desires and life position. You shouldn’t change the baby – you should change yourself, your thinking and expectations regarding the behavior of your beloved child. Only in this difficult way can you achieve what you want. The position of peace and harmony is aimed at helping parents in raising modern offspring.
Features of education
Raising the current generation is not easy. This becomes clear as a result of communication with representatives of modern children. For education 
For a child of the 21st century, experts recommend using the following principles.
Modern children and discipline
Many parents think that modern children and discipline are incompatible concepts. However, it is not. Even the most unruly child can be disciplined. To do this you just need:
Personal qualities
Knowing the personal qualities of the children of the new generation, it will be easier for you to find a common language with them. So, according to many teachers and parents, most modern children:
Quite specific personal qualities, but at the same time easily explained and natural for today, in which parents have a lot of time for work and hobbies and almost no time left for children. But if some do not have time for a child, then others have no desire to communicate with him, especially since he is often a more multifaceted, perfect, entertaining and deep representative of humanity than his parent.
Problems of modern children
Modern parents suffer from two extremes. Some do not participate in the child’s life at all, entrusting their personal growth to the kindergarten, school, tutors and nannies, while others overly 
control, patronize and protect from real life.
Thus, children of the 21st century have a number of serious problems. They:
Each of these problems has a solution. The main thing is not to identify this problem, but to see it, want to solve it and solve it. First of all, this is the task of caring parents. All they should do is pay attention to the child, teach him to live here and now, communicate with people, enjoy simple things, to love and be loved by people, and not by gadgets and virtual friends and girlfriends.
What should parents do?
As is clear from the above, the life of a modern child is not so simple and cloudless, even if it is filled with laptops, tablets, consoles, smartphones and other benefits of modern civilization. Together with them they acquire a lot 
psychological problems, which only parents can help solve. However, I would like to note that it is better not to solve problems, but to prevent them.
The first and most important rule in raising modern children is strict control over “gadgetomania”! It is necessary to control not only computers and tablets, but even televisions. If the rule is introduced before the child becomes dependent on gadgets, then there will be no problems. When restrictions are introduced already during the “illness,” the baby may begin to experience a kind of “withdrawal”, like any other addicted person, manifested by fits of rage, hysterics, scandals, and attempts at blackmail. But as soon as the baby gets used to the new rules, he will immediately change. He will become calmer, his playing skills will develop, and he will become interested in the world around him.
Experts recommend spending more time with your son or daughter - walking, traveling, visiting museums, theaters, zoos, going to the approaches, picking mushrooms and berries. The offspring should be taught kindness and love for all living things - from plants and animals to similar representatives of humanity. Whatever values society imposes on children, the main ones can only be instilled by parents. All you need to do is love your baby, want to be close to him, give him time and attention, and also be a role model.
Lyudmila Nedik
Essay " Modern preschooler»
Nedik Lyudmila Evgenievna - physical education instructor.
MADOU Kindergarten "Ship"
ESSAY
« Modern preschooler"
Today there is no longer any doubt that modern child not like that, what his peer was like several decades ago. Children are well informed.
Preschoolers sometimes they make such unexpected conclusions and conclusions in non-childish situations that adults begin to seriously think about growing up prematurely modern children.
Modern preschooler makes happy, on the one hand, by their activity, mobility, initiative and determination, on the other hand, by their developed imagination, penchant for fantasy and creativity.
Children are able to think and act independently, live with a sense of inner freedom, are cheerful and optimistic, are distinguished by positivism, developed intellectual processes, and a focus on understanding the world around them.
Today's preschooler faster than an adult, manages to master a mobile phone and a computer, a TV and a tape recorder, and is fluent in modern technology , goes with family and friends to cafes and restaurants, goes abroad on vacation, travels, knows car brands, names of clothing manufacturers, etc.
Starting from the age of 4-5, children begin to intensively prepare for school. Therefore, most six-year-old children know letters and numbers, can read syllables, and can write in block letters and perform simple calculations.
But along with strengths in development modern preschoolers Weaknesses are also noted.
Poor physical health and development (since they spend almost all their time at the computer and TV; in their mode, walks in the fresh air, failure to follow a daily routine, and poor nutrition are practically excluded).
Inability to restrain one’s impulses, to be patient, to wait, to give in; children are reluctant to obey external requirements, have difficulty fulfilling general rules for all
Inability to listen and hear another person, not only a peer, but also an adult (interrupting, concentrating only on one’s own interests, desires, inability to sympathize, empathize, turning to "You" to an adult)
Low level of speech development (violations of sound pronunciation, underdevelopment of phonemic hearing)
Increased egocentrism (selfishness)– priority for children of personal interests over the interests, feelings, desires of other children (of people)
Weak hand readiness for writing.
Despite changes in the world, society, family, modern preschoolers continue to be children. They love to play, but the content of the games and gaming interests have changed somewhat. Along with role-playing games, children choose games with modern designers, various puzzles, know and are interested in computer games;
Thus, the teacher, when organizing educational work with children, you need to take all this into account and live with the times!
Publications on the topic:
Essay “A modern educator is...” ESSAY “A modern educator is...” “A teacher who does not have facial expressions and who cannot give his face cannot be a good educator.
Game and preschooler Revetneva Tatyana Mikhailovna – teacher of MBDOU DS No. 5 “Forget-me-not” GAME AND PRESCHOOLER In modern pedagogy, play is considered as.
Essay “Modern educator - who is he?”“How childhood passed, who led the child by the hand during his childhood years, what entered his mind and heart from the world around him - this is decisive.
Essay “I am a modern teacher”“To be a good teacher, you need to love what you teach and love those you teach.” V. Klyuchevsky How modern he is.
Essay “What a modern educator should be like” Essay on the topic: “What should a modern educator be like?” And what a modern educator should be like, what is his function in the modern.
Essay “Modern teacher” Essay on the topic “Modern teacher” The Federal State Educational Standard puts forward new social requirements for the system.
Essay “Modern teacher” It educates everything: people, things, phenomena, but above all and for the longest time - people. Of these, parents and teachers come first. Makarenko A.
20.11.2013Issues of child psychology, upbringing, and education are important at any time, in any society. Increasingly, we are faced with information about crimes against children, about the suicidal tendencies of teenagers, about the “decline of their morals” and interest only in the Internet. What are the reasons for all this? What are they like, modern children?
Issues of child psychology, upbringing, and education are important at any time, in any society. Increasingly, we are faced with information about crimes against children, about the suicidal tendencies of teenagers, about the “decline of their morals” and interest only in the Internet. What are the reasons for all this? What are modern children like?
This summer with a report on the topic "The nature and degree of changes in modern childhood and the problems of organizing education at a historically new level of development of society" spoke David Feldstein(Soviet, Russian teacher and psychologist, specialist in the field of developmental and educational psychology, developmental psychology, personality psychology; professor, academician and vice-president of the Russian Academy of Education). In the report, we did not find specific measures to change the situation in upbringing and education, however, it clearly outlines the “differences” between modern children and us, parents. Scientists are sounding the alarm about our indifference: “An unfavorable prognosis for further changes in the field of general mental development and personality formation of a growing person. Firstly, low level of development of parental motivation. Secondly, today adults have become indifferent to other people's children. Thirdly, and most importantly, it is obvious loss of adult responsibility for children".
So, 14 distinctive features modern childhood:
1. In a minimally short five-year period, starting from 2008, sharply decreased cognitive(cognitio - “cognition”) child development before school age
.
2. Children's energy levels have decreased, their desire to actively act.
3. Noted narrowing the level of development role-playing game preschoolers, which leads to underdevelopment of the child’s motivational-need sphere, as well as his will and arbitrariness.
4. A survey of the cognitive sphere of older preschoolers revealed extremely low indicators in those children’s actions that require internal retention of rules and operating in terms of images.
5. Underdevelopment of fine motor skills of the hand older preschoolers, lack of graphic skills.
6. Lack of social competence 25% of children of primary school age, their helplessness in relationships with peers, inability to resolve simple conflicts.
7. As data obtained over 15 years (from 1997 to 2012) show, significantly (almost 2 times) the number of children has increased 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years with speech development disorders(from 40 to 60% varying in different regions).
8. Causes serious concern reluctance of a significant part of today's schoolchildren to study.
9. Activation at the teenage stage of ontogenesis (the process of development of the organism) of the communication process and the increased need to present oneself to the world are blocked by the lack of appropriate structures adequate to the needs and capabilities of a growing person.
10. Impoverishment and limitation of live, tactile communication of children, including children adolescence, with peers, increase in the phenomena of loneliness, rejection, low level of communicative competence. (If in the early 90s many teenagers were distinguished by a feeling of loneliness, but at the same time their anxiety was in 4-5 places in terms of severity of manifestation, then in 2012 anxiety among 12-15 year olds came to 2nd place).
11. It's getting bigger children with emotional problems
who are in a state of affective tension due to constant feelings of insecurity, lack of support in the close environment and therefore helplessness.
12.In children
adolescence regressive changes occur in the brain support of cognitive activity, and the increased activity of subcortical structures caused by the hormonal process leads to deterioration of arbitrary regulation mechanisms.
13. Observations of the dynamics of the physical development of children revealed a tendency towards a progressive decrease in the rate of their longitudinal growth, an increase in asthenia of the physique, a lag in the growth of muscle strength.
14. In the population of modern growing people, a large group consists of children, for whom characterized by an unfavorable, problematic course of mental development in ontogenesis.
Perhaps this information will help you raise caring, kind, successful, happy, harmonious... the very best children.
It’s interesting that scientists are sure: “Today, boys are able to sympathize with other children only under the age of 8, girls up to 9-10 years old. And boys up to about 7 years old can rejoice, but girls practically do not know how to do this.” It's time to change something!
Today they write and talk a lot about new children, about their unique intellectual and even telepathic abilities, about the fact that they “came into this world to change it, to make it better and kinder.” At the same time, the number of children with poor health, slow development of various parts of the brain, hyperactive, and with disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere is rapidly increasing. What do we know about them? Let's do a little experiment: look at the first photo and determine the age of the child. As a rule, the baby is aged from three to five years. Now pay attention to the second picture: you see the same one-and-a-half-year-old child next to his six-year-old brother. Why is it so difficult to determine the age of a child from a photograph? Why is it sometimes difficult to understand the motives of his behavior? Why do modern three- and four-year-old children master computers faster than adults? Why does the behavior of their grandchildren cause anxiety and misunderstanding among grandparents, since “those methods and techniques of education that they used for their children now “do not work” (from the grandmother’s questionnaire).
Smart, persistent, demanding
The problem of studying the developmental features of modern children is that traditional diagnostic methods and techniques are outdated and do not reflect the “current level of development” of children.
Today, many tasks that were previously successfully used to test children of preschool and older age are performed by children two or three years old. A child of two and a half to three years old can enthusiastically and quickly assemble puzzles of twelve elements. Our colleagues from the UK note the same problem: the diagnostic tasks that they used for four- and five-year-old children (as indicators of typical development) are now successfully completed by three-year-old children. The results of our monitoring of the opinions of parents and teachers about modern children showed that children have increased anxiety (98%) and aggression (78%), excitability (93%) and hyperactivity (87%), the need to perceive information (69%), and at the same time – increased fatigue (95%) and emotionality (93%). Children are persistent and demanding (94%), do not want to perform meaningless actions (88%), they are significantly different from their peers of the last century (86%), and methods of education and training should be different (94%). The consciousness of preschoolers has changed, as society itself has changed.
Increased sensitivity and emotionality
It is necessary to study the characteristics of modern children from different positions: socio-economic, cultural-educational, political, environmental, information-technological, biogenetic.
Conducting psychogenetic research, Drunvalo Melchizedek (famous American scientist, inventor, healer - Ed.) discovered that “modern children have an intelligence level of 130 IQ, not 100 (previously, such an IQ was found in one child out of ten thousand). 80–90% of children born in the United States have new DNA.” In the course of our research, the following features of modern children were identified: fixed gaze at birth, holding their head, physically more developed, increased body tone (increased excitability, hyperactivity); refuse breast milk early; wake up at night to eat; don't perceive medications; increased sensitivity and emotionality, as well as the need to perceive information; volume long-term memory more, and the patency of the operating room is higher; increased anxiety and aggression. They, as already mentioned, are persistent and demanding, have high self-esteem, do not tolerate violence, and do not hear the instructions and orders of adults. They generally have their own philosophy of life.
I propose to consider the characteristics of children from the perspective psycholinguistics of children development, studying the problem of the development of a child’s consciousness and his personality in activity. Developed by me child personal development model, with the help of which you can not only understand the features of his development, but also build a trajectory of his progress in the process of upbringing and training. This model allows you to determine the spheres (zones) and lines of development of the child. It is very simple and intended for practitioners.
Freedom reflex
The modern child has an active nature, but whether it will manifest itself in later life will depend on the conditions of upbringing and training.
The first question that worries the baby is: “why?” – has replaced the question “why?” The modern child has an active nature, but whether it will manifest itself in later life will depend on the conditions of upbringing and training.
A six-month-old baby watches the actions of his mother, who assembles and disassembles a pyramid. Instead of the usual imitative reflex, the child’s semantic orientation dominates, and, waiting for the moment when the mother assembles the pyramid, the baby takes it by the base, throws off all the rings and hands the base of the pyramid to the mother. There is a question in the eyes: why are you doing this?
Dad instructs the baby (1 year 8 months): “First you need to wash your face, and then we’ll have breakfast.” After listening to dad, the baby asks: “Why?”
A two-year-old girl listens carefully to her mother’s explanations of what needs to be done and how, and then asks: “Where is shmyshl?”
If earlier a child had a well-developed imitative reflex and tried to repeat the actions of an adult, then in modern children the freedom reflex predominates - they themselves build a strategy for their behavior. If a child understands and accepts the meaning of an act or action that he must perform, then he will perform it. If not, he will refuse, expressing protest even to the point of aggression. In modern children, the system of relationships dominates the system of knowledge. The semantic sphere of personality controls the development of the other four spheres: body (physical development), soul ( emotional development), mind (mental development) and spirit (will development). These areas of personality should develop harmoniously from the moment of birth.
Body Sphere
Modern children have increased body tone, as well as excitability and hyperactivity.
The development of a child’s body sphere depends on nutrition, sleep and physical activity. Modern children refuse breast milk early, on average at the age of five to six months. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that for full development the child does not have enough microelements, which are contained in breast milk Therefore, it is recommended to introduce complementary foods already at three months of age. If previously a baby crying at night could be calmed down by giving him warm water, then a modern child needs to be fed in the same way as in the daytime. In children, increased sensitivity to external stimuli, acute taste and smell help them to be selective about food. During complementary feeding, they choose their favorite dish. For a child early age It is difficult to determine the feeding time, since his body reacts sensitively to natural changes. For example, when it gets colder, a child’s appetite increases and he asks for food more often. When it gets warmer, he refuses to eat and eats less often than usual. This is normal, since the baby tries to regulate the energy balance in the body, taking into account his physical activity. However, this phenomenon often causes concern among parents who try to feed him strictly according to the clock.
It is very important not to overfeed a child at an early age, as this can lead to disturbances in the development of the body. If a child suddenly gains weight, this can have a negative impact not only on his physical development, but also lead to delayed speech and mental development. Sleep has a great influence on the development of the body sphere. In hyperactive children it is short-lived and restless. His waking time is much longer than his sleeping time, which affects his physical and emotional state: he is capricious, throws hysterics, and forces others to fulfill his whims. Sometimes the completely opposite picture is observed: the child may for a long time stay awake and feel comfortable. Parents are sometimes surprised by their child’s endurance. This behavior is usually observed when the child is very passionate about something. The development of the body sphere is significantly influenced by the child’s movements, as a result of which he begins to develop a sense of space.
Due to increased excitability and hyperactivity, the body sphere of the modern child is very susceptible to external stimuli. In some children this may manifest itself in the form of increased sensitivity to temperature changes, others will be sensitive to smells, others may be irritated by sounds, and others by bright colors and paints. Moreover, children are selective about these stimuli: some stimuli are capable of causing delight and admiration, others – anxiety, fear and crying.
Consequently, the task of raising modern children should be to create conditions for reducing hyperactivity, developing focus and concentration, motor experience and physical health.
Sphere of the Mind
Modern children have an increased need to perceive information.
Unlike children of the last century, modern children, from the moment of birth, begin to function semantic perception based on images that, when communicating with adults, intuitively and telepathically arise in the right hemisphere of the brain. The child’s increased need to perceive information forces him to constantly look for ways to satisfy it. If he does not receive the necessary “portion” of information energy, he begins to show dissatisfaction or aggression. Sometimes parents cannot understand why a child becomes capricious or aggressive. The child’s increased need to perceive information explains the fact that from birth children love to watch TV. They are especially attracted to advertising, which is characterized by dynamism and concise information.
The modern child has a much larger volume of long-term memory, and the patency of the operational memory is higher, which allows him to perceive and process a large number of information in a short period of time. This ability is given to modern children so that in the age of high technology they have time to navigate the information flow. During the classes speech development children, using the author’s method, it was found that mental operations in modern children develop in a complex manner: children think in blocks, modules, and quanta. For example, a three-year-old child will effortlessly complete a complex combination of pictures, comparing and contrasting several features of objects at the same time, but will not be able to explain why he did this. If this complex task is broken down into elements, he may not be able to cope with it. This is due to the fact that modern children perceive the world holistically, intuitively building relationships between objects and phenomena.
Recently, cases of stuttering of a non-speech therapy nature have become more frequent in children of three and five years of age, when the child, “translating” a thought-symbol into a sign system, tries to reproduce it in oral speech. Stuttering occurs because the child is in a hurry to speak out, but does not have time to internally translate the thought-symbol into signs.
Soul Orb
Modern children have increased anxiety and aggression.
The sphere of the child’s soul is a “vessel” that is filled with desires, feelings and emotions. In infancy, a child, by screaming, crying, and then using gestures, communicates to adults about his desires and needs. From birth, the child’s soul is filled with fear and anxiety in front of the vast space surrounding him. At an early age, tactile contact is very important for a child, when the mother or father presses him to the chest, stroking his head and back, transferring his warmth, including spiritual warmth. A child feels an emotional state differently than adults: he seems to “see” color scheme souls like a rainbow. Warm colors warm his soul and he feels comfortable; cold colors make him feel uncomfortable. To relieve feelings of fear and anxiety, some children like to sleep with soft toy, holding her tightly to himself. The feeling of anxiety and fear is complemented by aggression, which manifests itself in many modern children. Numerous observations of young children indicate that most often they show aggression when there is a lack of communication, when they do not receive enough human warmth and the necessary “portion” of information. Possessing a semantic sphere, the child demands all kinds of explanations from adults, and if he does not receive them, aggression intensifies. Moreover, the adults’ explanations themselves (where we will go now, what we will do, etc.) only partially satisfy the child’s needs. To relieve fear and reduce children's aggression, adults need to organize emotional and personal communication and joint activities with the child, which will optimize the process of learning about the world around them.
The upbringing of modern children with increased anxiety and aggression should be focused on creating conditions for relieving anxiety and transforming childhood aggression - a destructive emotion - into a positive one, i.e. creative energy, saturated with a rich range of feelings and emotions, cognitive needs and cognitive interest.
Spirit Sphere
Modern children are persistent and demanding.
The sphere of spirit of the modern child is filled with an innate desire for self-realization, for the manifestation of his active nature. This is precisely what can explain the fact that he begins to show activity very early, requires increased attention to himself, and strives to learn as soon as possible. the world. Perceiving the child as a small and uncomprehending creature, some parents fulfill all his whims, wishes and demands, hoping that when the baby grows up, he will become different. Modern children persistently demand that their parents take them in their arms, but many are afraid that the child will “get used to being held.” On the one hand, in the arms of an adult, a child “sees” the world around him through his eyes and understands it better. On the other hand, if adults constantly take the baby in their arms and try to satisfy all his desires and needs, then at the slightest attempt by the parents to force the child to obey their demands, the child will begin to show persistence in the form of stubbornness and aggression. He protests because he cannot understand why his parents suddenly began to change the “rules of the game” they had established, i.e., the system of relationships. Therefore, from the day a child is born, it is necessary to involve him in a bilateral system of relations.
Considering the fact that modern children do not tolerate violence and protest if adults force them to do something, the development of the sphere of spirit should proceed consistently within the framework of a certain system family relations when the child is not a junior in relation to the elders, but an equal partner in communication and joint activities. Under these conditions, the child develops a sense of success and self-confidence. The task of raising modern children should be to create conditions for the development of the child’s strong-willed qualities: determination, perseverance, responsibility and self-confidence.
The developmental features of children with a new type of consciousness indicate that they differ from their peers of the last century and require a modern approach to upbringing and education.
Full text
Since the times of the classics, thoughts on the topic of the conflict between fathers and children have been known. Discussions on this topic continue, and, in all likelihood, will never stop. Little attention was paid to children in these disputes, since it was generally accepted that they were innocent angelic creatures who needed to be cherished and cherished. But relatively recently, adults began to notice that these kids are not at all the same as they were before. Perhaps scientific and technological progress played a role here. Nowadays, preschoolers confidently drag their PSP into kindergarten and play “shooters”, “quests”, “walking games”, and the teacher rarely and cautiously, lest she press something unnecessary, plays solitaire on the computer.
Previously, for all preschool children, the good heroes were Ilya Muromets and Ivan Tsarevich, the villains were Koschey the Immortal and Baba Yaga. For many modern children, the good ones are Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America, and the villains are Galactus, the Outlander and other monsters, and for many adults, all modern heroes, both good and evil, are just some kind of monstrous monsters. And these, of course, are not all the differences between children of yesteryear and modern preschoolers. Such children are incomprehensible to many adults and cause anxiety. Scientists are trying to help adults (and not only scientists, sometimes just people who think they have understood the issues of education), writing various programs and works on the upbringing and development of modern children. But the behavior of adults who strive for innovations in education does not always bring joy to children. Looking around, we notice less and less the joyful angelic glances of the younger generation. Maybe they need help?
We invited to discuss this problem:
- BEREZINA Nadezhda Olegovna -
- VASILIEVA Elena Yurievna - child analytical psychologist, art therapist;
- EGOROVA Marina Sergeevna – the doctors psychological sciences, manager Department of Psychogenetics, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov;
- LASHNEVA Irina Pavlovna - Candidate of Medical Sciences, Senior Researcher at NIIGD;
- MIKLYAEVA Natalya Viktorovna– Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, Head. Department of Pedagogy and Methodology preschool education MGPI.
– In the opinion of professionals who have been working with children for many years, are there any fundamental differences between modern preschool children and preschoolers of yesteryear?
M.S. Egorova: Social institutions associated with raising children are very conservative and do not change exactly the opposite over 5-10 years due to changes in the political situation, parental income or the content of television programs. The first poems and fairy tales that children hear are the same ones that their grandparents (if great-grandmothers) listened to. What to play with a child, what to praise for and how to punish is determined by the childhood experience of the parents. The new things that appear today (toys, computers, books) are filtered by the family and included in old, familiar structures.
A study was conducted in our laboratory at the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education: we talked with 6-year-old children on various topics: what they love and what they are afraid of, what they play, what is read to them, how they spend their weekends, etc. (in 2001, based on the results of this research, the book “From the Life of Preschool People” was published). Now, 10 years later, we are conducting a similar study. So, it cannot be said that the social development of preschoolers raises concerns: as before, they love classic fairy tales and find their “heroes” among their characters. They know very well what is good and what is bad, and they want to be “good” - to help elders, not to offend little ones, not to be greedy, not to fight, to take care of nature, to do well in school. I don’t know what would have to happen in society for parents to be unable to convey these basic ideas to their children.
N.V. Miklyaeva: I don’t think there are any fundamental differences. These are children who derive joy from physical activity and knowledge of the world, strive for communication and want to “do like adults” and “be adults,” according to D.B. Elkonina. They, like preschoolers of previous years, need the approving attention of an adult and acceptance of their feelings, love. For this, they are ready to explore unknown territories and perform unimaginable feats: for example, many parents want their children to learn to read and count early - and now, at the age of 1.5–2 years, they are ready to spend all the potential of mental development on recognizing and identifying letters , putting them into syllables and words, counting jars and molds - if only the adult would pay attention to them and show how happy he is with their success. As a result, the development of visual perception and visual-effective thinking is carried out on a different material than before - on a higher abstraction and degree of schematicity than before. The constructive capabilities of preschoolers have been increased thanks to an enriched subject-development environment at home and in kindergarten. As a result, visual-figurative and figurative-logical thinking develop better.
Many modern children can do things that their peers couldn’t do 10–20 years ago. But not because mental development has become different (it, as before, develops according to the laws of systemogenesis) or the children themselves have changed: but because the demands of adults on what an ideal child should be have been transformed. If earlier this was considered a sympathetic, kind and honest person, now this is considered an intelligent and independent person. Therefore, modern children begin to lag behind in the development of social emotions - empathy and sympathy, aesthetic experiences and feelings, but intellectual emotions are very developed - surprise, joy from learning about the world and self-knowledge, etc. Conceit grows. This is on an emotional level, but on a volitional level - what? Weakness, and brought up by their own parents. Basically, they show their will where they need to achieve something from adults, but not where they need to subordinate their motives of behavior to the social “should” or “shouldn’t.” Adults often do not want and are afraid that their children grow up and... cease to be children. Children feel this - they are afraid and do not want to grow up. In addition, despite the sense of independence and self-sufficiency brought up in them (by the way, it often concerns only the expression of their desires and opinions, and not practical orientation in the world around them and the corresponding competence), they often have an inferiority complex (paradoxically: and this is when increased level of self-esteem) and are afraid... that they are not loved.
E.Yu. Vasilyeva: The most common problem that I encounter in practice lately is disharmonious development. This is a lag in the development of the emotional-volitional sphere (children are infantile, dependent, motivation is reduced) against the background of age-developed intelligence. Such children often develop neurotic symptoms, difficult contact with peers, and impaired adaptation. In my opinion, nowadays parents pay a lot of attention intellectual development child, starting from an early age, and at the same time little attention is paid to the child’s feelings and experiences, emotional contact is lost. And perhaps this is a requirement of the time - a huge flow of information that children encounter every day, they are not able to comprehend and process...
BUT. Berezina: There are negative trends in health; we have fewer and fewer absolutely healthy children. Over the past 20 years, the first health group has almost halved. Now in preschool institutions Only about 5% of absolutely healthy children, the number of children with chronic pathology has almost doubled - about 25%. The negative trend in the health of modern children can be seen very clearly. This applies to deviations in the physical and neuropsychic development of preschool children.
– Speaking about the characteristics of modern children, you did not mention indigo children, about whom they now talk and write so much in various media. Have you ever encountered a similar phenomenon in practice?
BUT. Berezina: So far only in the media, in literature. We visit many gardens, but have not met indigo children.
N.V. Miklyaeva: Ideas about unusual children are not new. Thus, Waldorf pedagogy already laid claim to the discovery of “secret spiritual powers” in man and the education of the “sixth race”. There are other examples.
Modern society is not far from the idea of raising and educating children of a special race - representatives of the future of humanity. These ideas are being implemented today within the framework of working with “indigo” children. It is believed that they show us a prototype of that superman to whom all humanity is moving: with enormous intellectual and spiritual capabilities, endowed with superintuition and psychic abilities. True, for some reason he combines all this with hyperdynamic syndrome, impaired attention and behavior, and lack of communication skills. This is another “social dislocation” in the way of educating and training the younger generation, a “pedagogical hole” into which parents and educators find themselves, associated with an unwillingness to look at things realistically, to analyze their own and others’ mistakes and due to the need to achieve instant, “one hundred percent” results. raising and teaching children. This doesn’t happen, especially at someone else’s expense. Especially if this “account” is presented by religious organizations and communities that pose a danger to the spiritual and moral development and upbringing of children, to the formation of their worldview.
This is exactly what happens with indigo children. Otherwise, so many “emissaries of light” and people – “catalysts of humanity”, engaged in “spiritual philosophy” and mental-physical medicine, Reiki, chiropractic and parapsychology, would not have appeared among their propagandists.
E.Yu. Vasilyeva: In my opinion, behind this term there are often real difficulties of both the child and the adult. These include impaired contact with the baby and difficulties in adaptation... It doesn’t matter what we name the child, it is important to provide him with adequate help, which he most likely needs.
M.S. Egorova: There are a lot of popular publications about indigo children and very few serious works. There have always been children who began to walk at 8 months, spoke complex phrases at one and a half years, and could read at two years. Children develop at different rates, and only by tracking a child's development over many years can we tell whether he was truly a "special" child or whether he simply developed differently.
– What trends in the development of modern children alarm you?
I.P. Lashneva: Modern children are more sociable and informed. They are more aware of life in the adult world than children of yesteryear. But children of previous years were more imaginative, their imagination was much more developed. Modern toys and games do not allow the imagination of modern children to develop brightly. Everything has already been done for their imagination.
N.V. Miklyaeva: Their inability to play. They have violated the prerequisites for the transition from objective activity to gaming, which are necessary for mastering introductory, display, plot-display and plot-role, role-playing games. Mostly children get stuck at the stage of plot-based play. Because the game develops spontaneously, mainly through playing with toys that are at home and in kindergarten, but is not aimed at reproducing different vectors of human relationships, in which toys are not an end in themselves, but only a means to outline their contours and attributes. Meanwhile, play activity is the leading activity of a preschool child, as it fulfills his need for social competence and determines the specifics of the social situation of the child’s development: mastering the social position “I and society.”
Modern children would like to learn to play on their own, but they cannot: today the children's subculture, which would pass on gaming experience to younger and older preschoolers from one generation to the next, has actually been destroyed. There are practically no mixed-age groups in kindergarten. They don’t fit in the yard (and parents are afraid of this like fire, preferring to keep their child busy with all sorts of sections and circles). In a family, most often there is one child, with whom adults have no time to play, or they prefer to engage in activities that are more important for his development - reading, writing and counting (you can also draw and make crafts together, but this is already the “ceiling” of the creative activity of parents). Meanwhile, who can teach children that the constitutive moments of play activity are an imaginary situation, a play role and play rules?
M.S. Egorova: Modern preschoolers become familiar with competition very early. In order to get into good school, you have to be “prepared”, and the poor child begins to be trained. And the point here is often not the parents’ ambitions, but the fact that a “bad” school means a lot of problems in the long run (not only a low level of education, but also friends from dysfunctional families). And it’s unclear what to do about it. Schools are really very different. Entering school cannot be postponed until next year, like college - you didn’t get into where you wanted this year, prepare better and try again in a year. So parents try, and often not very competently - they don’t take into account age characteristics the child, cause aversion to learning, overtire the child, which affects health.
There is also competition in child care institutions. No matter what methodological manuals were written explaining that preschoolers should not be given negative feedback, children were and are being compared with each other, they give hidden grades, they say who is better and who is worse, and thereby reduce both self-esteem and cognitive skills in children. need.
I.P. Lashneva: We are alarmed that the number of children with health problems is increasing. To confirm my concerns for the children, I will cite the results of our research. Deviations in physical development reach, according to our research, 19–24%. 12% of children are underweight, and 8–12% are overweight. Over the past 5 years, the number of overweight children has increased. Every third person is diagnosed with stage 1–2 obesity. This is no longer a functional deviation, but a diagnosis. 60–70% of children have functional disorders of the musculoskeletal system. 35–40% have deviations in the formation of the arch of the foot. Moreover, 70–80% of them have a combination of flat feet with valgus deformity of the foot. Every third child has weakness in the abdominal muscles, which increases the risk of hernias. Asymmetrical forms of postural impairment are associated with long-term static loads in preschool children.
A lag in physical fitness was found in 25% of five-year-old children and 15% of 6–7-year-olds. Every fourth child has below average performance in the standing long jump. The most common deviations occur in children who often get sick, in the absence of a balanced diet, hardening, and a daily routine with sufficient physical activity. Physiometric data: 25–35% of children had a below average level of muscle strength development. The vital capacity of the lungs is reduced in 10–15% of preschool children.
– The deteriorating health of modern children is a very alarming fact. What is this connected with? What factors influence the mental and physiological health of children?
M.S. Egorova: Maternal health, competent pregnancy support, patronage in the first months, if possible breast-feeding. Reducing the number of kindergarten groups. Support different forms DOW. The preschool period cannot be shortened - many children cannot begin education at the age of 6; they are not yet physiologically ready for the school method of acquiring knowledge. And this is not only a problem of school reform - for example, parents of boys are afraid to send their children to school at age 7 because of the army (there will be no “spare” year).
BUT. Berezina: Adverse factors are an unfavorable environmental situation. Especially in a big city, for example, in Moscow. This is hypokinesia, characteristic of modern children. And again, these are diseases that are associated with both the pathology of pregnancy and the difficult course of childbirth, as a result of which children experience deviations in physical development and neuropsychic development. Increased workload also affects health and the impact of the educational process. For children, especially preschool age, this is very bad. An irrational daily routine, long periods of watching television, sleep disturbances, lack of sleep, and poor nutrition have a detrimental effect on children. Violation hygienic conditions stay of children in preschool institutions. An unhealthy lifestyle in the family is also significant.
– According to the World Health Organization, up to 20% of children worldwide have mental health problems. As for our country, the statistics are also disappointing. According to the Research Institute of Pediatrics, 20% of children aged 6–7 years are not ready for school, and 30–35% of preschoolers have chronic diseases. If we rely on statistics, then children urgently need to be saved. First of all, from whom and from what?
E.Yu. Vasilyeva: From us, adults, or rather, from those who forgot that they were once children and tightly slammed the door to their own childhood, from those who know the answers to all questions and therefore always know what is best... Every child is unique, a unique world, and the task of adults is to learn to understand this world, to help it grow up, preserving and protecting this uniqueness.
I.P. Lashneva: I am concerned about the negative information that our children receive from TV and radio screens. Negative characters are found even in cartoons. This naturally affects children. You also need to pay attention to the qualifications of teachers and the hygiene culture of parents. At all meetings we talk about the fact that the load should not lead to deterioration of health and should be adequate to the functional capabilities of the body.
N.V. Miklyaeva: Each generation must be responsible for what it does. The generation of modern adults are people who are afraid of the future, who are afraid to live, afraid of everyday unsettled conditions and everyday problems. Their fear is passed on to children who are not even... born yet. And I think the point is not even that children are born weak and sick. Unfortunately, these are the kind of children that modern adults need to feel strong, to understand the responsibility of parenthood and to try to lift it - and bear it as much as you can. To suffer along this path and... learn to understand that nothing can be more expensive than this baby, that for his sake she is able (or is able) to move mountains and fight with any future that awaits him. So fear gives way to love. This is how our generation learns to take responsibility for what awaits it and the next generation. Previously, this was taught by war, now – by children’s illnesses.
Another thing is that we do not understand how to act in such a situation, we despair and become despondent, we run away from these problems, we try to isolate ourselves from them, labeling them and conveniently forgetting them. Do you think it is so important that a child at 6–7 years old will not be able to complete a number of diagnostic tasks and will be unprepared for school? Is the whole point of the previous period to be to stick a “pass” or “fail” tag on it at the next stage of its development? Children are not a commodity that we, adults, put into categories - unfit, with developmental problems, or normal, or maybe talented or gifted, even an indigo child? In this regard, many parent and pedagogical communities have now been created on the Internet dedicated to the problems and prospects of raising such children; even clubs for indigo families are appearing. As if they are the chosen ones. As if they are not concerned with the problems of modern society. They have their own label and... their own price.
We analyze and sort everything into pieces, determining the price of this “everything” - the health of children, their interests and views, abilities, intelligence and problems, trying to protect ourselves from the feeling of our own helplessness. As if this would make it easier. As if it would be possible to piece together some Kolya or Dasha “piece by piece” and determine the price of his development, upbringing and training... Also, piece by piece, we collect methods and techniques, modern technologies of education and training, forgetting that before us is just a child who wants attention, warmth and affection, who is ready to do a lot for this. As a result, we stuff him with all sorts of developmental techniques, spending a lot of time so that he loses interest in movement and play, in research and creative activities. He loses them... along with the remnants of his health. Yes, overloads play a big role here, but, I repeat, that’s not the point. More precisely, not so much in them. Rather, the point is the inability to look at the world holistically and the unwillingness of an adult to take the child’s place and understand what he expects from you now and now, why he communicates with you - so that the child understands why he came into this world. This gives rise to a feeling of trust in an adult and a feeling of trust in the world, security from communicating with him. This is the psychological basis on which the child’s health rests. This is the concept of NORM.
By the way, it is now almost lost. We are either looking for deviations - for the worse or better side, or their correction. The same fate applies to physical, mental or psychological health. In this regard, we should not forget that the development of a child is carried out according to the laws of systemogenesis: there are always periods when some functions develop worse, others better, being in the stage of maturation, transition to the next level of development. However, diagnostics of children during this period will show functional deviations in the development of this particular system.
During critical periods of development - at 1, 3 and 7 years - the entire system is in a state of unstable equilibrium. This is especially true for musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. So what, after screening, should children be included in the category of having health problems? Isn’t it possible to simply choose the optimal daily routine, physical and mental activity, and hardening methods? This turns out to be more difficult than starting to treat a child for something that, fortunately, he does not yet have. Bye…
M.S. Egorova: Unfortunately, few people can be saved “urgently”. The health of children is laid down long before they are born. What was their parents’ childhood like, what did they eat, what were they sick with - all this is not indifferent to the health of someone who is born today. And this cannot be corrected in one day. Systematic work is needed to improve maternal and child health care. Often, women’s stories about their stay in the maternity hospital can’t be compared with anything in terms of drama. It is necessary to develop correctional pedagogy for children who are unable to study in a normal manner. primary school. Schools are needed for children who, in terms of their level of mental development, are ready for learning, but for health reasons cannot withstand the usual load.
– Children’s health is deteriorating, parents’ ambitions are growing, and the requirements of regulatory organizations are becoming more stringent. What should educators do in such a situation?
I.P. Lashneva: It is very important for educators that they use those guidelines, which are approved by both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. Now it is very difficult for a teacher to figure it out and find what he needs for work. All materials must be tested so as not to harm children.
N.V. Miklyaeva: I do not agree that it is more difficult for educators to work because children’s health is deteriorating. Yes, they have certain health problems. These problems may be associated with reduced activity of children and receptivity to pedagogical influence from adults, with a violation of their learning ability. It is more difficult for educators to implement individual approach to children in the pedagogical process. This requires not just experience, but the ability to analyze educational and training situations of interaction with a child. There are plenty of opportunities for this: there are many teaching aids and recommendations that allow you to increase the level of self-education, and advanced training courses are constantly being organized. The most important thing for modern educators, in my opinion, to love children, to be able to want to do something for them and for them,
and learn to think before you act. This is especially true for the use of new-fangled methods and technologies, which are backed by nothing but speculation (this is again a jab at benefits for the development of indigo children).
– What should a teacher be like to work with modern children?
BUT. Berezina: As a rule, teachers in kindergartens in Moscow are qualified. Almost all of the teachers have higher education. But we must pay attention that they work in such a turbulent information period, when there is a lot of information from all sides, sometimes contradictory. They are faced with this and even get confused about what is really needed and what is contraindicated. It is very difficult to understand the flow of such information. Yes, and all sorts of proprietary methods that have not passed the hygienic examination. That's why advanced training courses are needed. There are excellent institutes that provide what educators need in all areas. And methodological centers that should cooperate with scientific institutes and work in unison on childhood problems.
– How well do teachers know health-saving technologies?
N.V. Miklyaeva: To own something, you need to know and understand it, research it in practice and draw conclusions about the possibilities of application. In this regard, health-promoting, health-preserving and health-forming technologies belong to the category of unstable terms - scientists themselves have not decided exactly how they are similar and how they differ. At the moment, this is rather a generalizing concept, which implies an emphasis on the preventive and propaedeutic functions of physical education and health work in kindergarten.
The use of health-saving technologies involves the creation of such conditions for interaction between an adult and a child, a child and other children, in which external factors have an optimal impact on the implementation of the processes of protecting and promoting the health of preschool children, preventing possible diseases by means physical culture and by forming in children the habit of healthy image life.
What can be said about their use in kindergarten? Often, educators pay little or no attention to educational technologies, but spend a lot of time on educational ones. Meanwhile, knowledge of “how the lungs breathe” or “blood moves through the vessels” does not instill in children a desire for self-improvement; on the contrary, there is a fear of what is dangerous to health, of illness and ubiquitous microbes. The joy of movement and physical activity, characteristic of children, is lost. In addition, once again run up the steps or run around the veranda kindergarten– it’s also impossible. Because you can only run in the gym, but here you can “break your foreheads.” In this regard, it sometimes seems to me that the “methods of ensuring life safety” developed today can, over time, replace the entire complex of preventive measures. After all, for example, you can drink an oxygen cocktail, do acupressure self-massage and walk on wet towels with your bare feet so as not to catch the flu, etc. At the same time, for some reason it is “possible” to soar 25 children in warm clothes before going out for a walk, dressing the remaining five or seven. For some reason, “you can” not pay attention to the fact that they are wet, but they are taken out for a walk outside, where it is frosty, etc. This is the reluctance of educators to break away from solving some situational, not even pedagogical, but everyday, organizational tasks of interaction with children, with the children's team. It also allows you not to notice how tired the children are of just sitting in class, listening to how the teacher has been “broadcasting” for 30 minutes, how they simply lack the opportunity to... run around the group. And how is this possible? After all, the group is not for running. A sort of pedestrian crossing for trained bunnies. What else can they do? Sit. So they sit, and we run around, introducing health-saving technologies into all routine processes so that our children do not turn into plaster statues. This is the main problem with the implementation of these technologies. I hope we can solve it.
I.P. Lashneva: The problem of introducing health-saving technologies is the need for doctors and educators to work together. But now, as you know, rates in kindergartens for personnel involved in health improvement have been greatly reduced. On the one hand, we are talking about health-saving technologies everywhere, on the other hand, we are eliminating health promotion nurses’ positions. We do not have a wellness specialist to coordinate work in preschools. Sometimes there are not enough premises for physical therapy or massage. No necessary conditions and there are no bets. And although there is a crisis now, a children's institution cannot exist without it. For us, practitioners, these are the most pressing issues. And if they are not resolved, the health of children will worsen.
The round table was moderated by Ella Emelyanova
Terms of use The copyright holder of this article permits its use only for personal non-commercial use for educational purposes. The publisher is not responsible for the content of the article materials.