Self-esteem- this is an individual’s assessment of himself, his capabilities, abilities, qualities and place among other people. Self-esteem refers to the fundamental formations of personality. It largely determines her activity, attitude towards herself and other people.

The final dimension of the Self, the form of existence of global self-esteem, is the self-esteem of the individual. Self-esteem- a stable personality trait, and maintaining it at a certain level is an important concern of the individual. The self-esteem of an individual is determined by the relationship of his actual achievements to what a person claims to achieve and what goals he sets for himself.

The totality of such goals forms the level of a person’s aspirations. It is based on such self-esteem, the preservation of which has become a need for the individual.

Level of aspiration- this is the practical result that the subject expects to achieve in his work. In his practical activities, a person usually strives to achieve results that are consistent with his self-esteem and contribute to its strengthening and normalization. As a factor determining satisfaction or dissatisfaction with an activity, the level of aspirations is of great importance for individuals focused on avoiding failures rather than achieving success. Significant changes in self-esteem appear when the success or failure itself is associated by the subject of the activity with the presence or absence of the necessary abilities.

Important new formations in the development of self-awareness, associated with the emergence of self-esteem, occur at the end early age. The child begins to realize his own desires, which differ from the desires of adults, and moves from referring to himself in the third person to the first person personal pronoun - “I”. This leads to the birth of the need to act independently, to assert, to realize one’s “I”. Based on the child’s ideas about his “I,” self-esteem begins to form.

During the preschool period, a child's self-esteem develops intensively. The child’s communication with adults is of decisive importance in the genesis of self-esteem in the first stages of personality development (end of the early, beginning of the preschool period). Due to the lack (limitation) of adequate knowledge of his capabilities, the child initially takes on faith his assessment, attitude and evaluates himself as if through the prism of adults, focusing entirely on the opinion of the people raising him. Elements of an independent idea of ​​oneself begin to form somewhat later. They first appear in the assessment not of personal, moral qualities, but of objective and external ones. This reveals the instability of ideas about others and about oneself outside the situation of recognition. Gradually changes the subject of self-esteem. A significant shift in the development of a preschooler’s personality is the transition from a substantive assessment of another person to an assessment of his personal properties and internal states of himself. In all age groups Children discover the ability to evaluate others more objectively than themselves. However, certain age-related changes are observed here. In older groups, you can notice children who evaluate themselves positively in an indirect way. For example, to the question “What are you: good or bad?” they usually answer like this: I don’t know... I obey too.” The child younger age the answer to this question is: “I am the best.” Changes in the development of a preschooler’s self-esteem are largely associated with the development of the child’s motivational sphere. In the process of child personality development the hierarchy of motives changes. The child experiences a struggle of motives, makes a decision, then abandons it in the name of a higher motive. Exactly what motives are leading in the system clearly characterize the child’s personality. Children at an early age perform actions on the direct instructions of adults. When performing objectively positive actions, children are not aware of their objective benefits and are not aware of their duty towards other people. A sense of duty arises under the influence of the assessment that adults give to an act committed by a child. Based on this assessment, children begin to develop differentiation between what is good and what is bad. First of all, they learn to evaluate the actions of other children. Later, children are able to evaluate not only the actions of their peers, but also their own actions. The ability to compare oneself with other children appears. From self-esteem appearance and behavior, the child, by the end of the preschool period, increasingly moves on to assessing his personal qualities, relationships with others, his internal state, and turns out to be able to realize in a special form his social “I”, his place among people. Having reached the senior preschool age, the child already acquires moral assessments, begins to take into account, from this point of view, the sequence of his actions, and anticipates the result and assessment on the part of an adult. Children of six years of age begin to become aware of the peculiarities of their behavior, and as they master generally accepted norms and rules, use them as standards for assessing themselves and others.

This is of great importance for the further development of the individual, the conscious assimilation of norms of behavior, and the following of positive models. Six-year-olds are characterized mainly by undifferentiated inflated self-esteem. By the age of seven, it differentiates and decreases somewhat. A previously absent assessment of comparing oneself with other peers appears. Undifferentiated self-esteem leads to the fact that a six- to seven-year-old child considers an adult’s assessment of the results of an individual action as an assessment of his personality as a whole, therefore the use of reproaches and comments when teaching children of this age should be limited. Otherwise, they develop low self-esteem, lack of confidence in their abilities, and a negative attitude towards learning. Inadequate low self-esteem can also develop in a child as a result of frequent failure in some significant activity. A significant role in its formation is played by demonstrative emphasis on this failure by adults or other children. Special studies have established the following causes of low self-esteem in a child:

Objective disadvantages: short stature, unattractive appearance, etc.; imaginary shortcomings: imaginary completeness, apparent lack of abilities; failure in communication: low sociometric status in the group, unpopularity among peers; the threat of alienation in childhood: dislike of parents, upbringing with a tight grip, etc.; excessive sensitivity to external assessments coming from significant others, etc.

Children with low self-esteem experience a feeling of inferiority; as a rule, they do not realize their potential, i.e. inadequate low self-esteem becomes a factor inhibiting the development of a child’s personality.

According to research by G.S. Abramova, M.D. Martsinkovskaya, V.V. Zelkovsky, M.V. Lavrentyeva, from a psychological and pedagogical point of view, to school age is one of the key ones in a child’s life and largely determines his future psychological development. This made it possible to determine the structure of drawing up a psychological portrait of a preschooler: identifying the characteristics of the cognitive sphere, identifying the characteristics of the preschooler’s personality development, determining the characteristics of activity and communication in preschool age.

Features of the development of the cognitive sphere in preschool children are noted in the works of I.V. Dubrovina, A.V. Petrovsky. In preschool age, children's attention progresses simultaneously in many ways. various characteristics. The development of memory in preschool age is also characterized by a gradual transition from involuntary and immediate to voluntary and indirect memorization and recollection. In preschool age, children memorize and reproduce under natural conditions of memory development, i.e. In preschool age, under the same conditions, there is a gradual transition from involuntary to voluntary memorization and reproduction of material. Most normally developing preschool children have well-developed immediate and mechanical memory. With the help of mechanical repetitions of information, children in preschool age can memorize it well.

As noted by D.B. Elkonin, A.L. Wenger, in preschool age, when arbitrariness in memorization appears, the imagination turns from reproductive, mechanically reproducing reality into creatively transforming it. A child’s verbal and logical thinking, which begins to develop at the end of preschool age, already presupposes the ability to operate with words and understand the logic of reasoning. N.N. Poddyakov specifically studied how preschool children develop an internal plan of action characteristic of logical thinking, and identified six stages in the development of this process from junior to senior preschool age.

V.S. Mukhina highlighted the features of the stage-by-stage development of various types of activities of children of senior preschool age. In older preschool age, you can find almost all types of games that are found in children before entering school. Certain stages of the consistent improvement of children's games, work and learning at this age can be traced by conditionally dividing preschool childhood into three periods for analytical purposes: junior preschool age (3 - 4 years), middle preschool age (4 - 5 years) and senior preschool age (5 - 6 years old).

In middle and older preschool age role-playing games develop, but at this time they are already distinguished by a much greater variety of themes, roles, game actions, rules introduced and implemented in the game than in early preschool age. In older preschool age, the construction game begins to turn into labor activity, during which the child designs, creates, builds something useful, needed in everyday life.

Based on this psychological portrait of a preschooler from birth to the end of senior preschool age, he has certain traits that are the main characteristics of this age stage and form the conditions for the transition to the next stage of child development. In the studies of L.F. Obukhova notes that the cognitive sphere of a child of senior preschool age is characterized by a transition to the arbitrariness of all processes, from perception to thinking. Children's intelligence already in older preschool age functions on the basis of the principle of systematicity. By the end of senior preschool age, the main stage of the child's awareness of his gender identity has passed.

In conclusion, considering the psychological portrait of a preschooler, it should be noted that drawing up a schematic portrait is determined by the individual development of each child. You can give a number of psychological characteristics of older preschoolers, but all of them will describe a specific individual and characterize certain personal qualities of the child. However, this characteristic trends general development preschooler, up to senior preschool age, made it possible to determine the level of development of each of the cognitive processes that the senior preschooler reaches in his development.

At a glance N.I. Nepomnyashchy, the stage-by-stage development of the cognitive and behavioral spheres of a preschooler made it possible to trace the transition from one type to another and the level at which the older preschooler is in his development. Taking into account the characterological traits and typical psychological portraits of the personality of an older preschooler makes it possible to determine the child’s zone of proximal development and his readiness to study at school.

The development of discipline, organization and other qualities that help a preschooler manage his behavior, according to A.K. Markova, largely depends on the degree of his sensitivity to the demands of an adult as a bearer of social norms of behavior. Among the factors determining the development of this type of sensitivity, an important place is occupied by the nature of the relationship between the child and the adult, mastery of the content of the demands of adults through “verbal instructions, sign means.”

Thus, in the studies of L.F. Obukhova notes that the cognitive sphere of a child of senior preschool age is characterized by a transition to the arbitrariness of all processes, from perception to thinking. By the end of senior preschool age, the main stage of the child’s awareness of his gender identity has passed. The development of discipline, organization and other qualities that help a preschooler manage his behavior, according to A.K. Markova, largely depends on the degree of his sensitivity to the demands of an adult as a bearer of social norms of behavior. Among the factors determining the development of this type of sensitivity, the nature of the relationship between the child and the adult occupies an important place.

According to M.I. Lisina, self-esteem is a complex structured formation that has a significant impact on the formation of personality, its activities, communication, and mental health. L.I. Bozhovich consider self-esteem as a psychological new formation of preschool age, an important link in the motivational-need sphere of a child’s personality.

V. Satir put self-esteem in first place among the factors determining success and failure in raising children and personal development. By self-esteem, she understood the ability (or, conversely, inability - author) of a person to honestly, lovingly and truly evaluate himself.

The child’s communication with adults is of decisive importance in the genesis of self-esteem in the first stages of personality development (end of the early, beginning of the preschool period). Due to the lack (limitation) of adequate knowledge of his capabilities, the child initially takes on faith his assessment, attitude and evaluates himself as if through the prism of adults, focusing entirely on the opinion of the people raising him. Elements of an independent idea of ​​oneself begin to form somewhat later. They appear for the first time, as studies by B.G. show. Ananyeva and others, diary materials, in assessing not personal, moral qualities, but objective and external ones (“And I have a plane”, “But I have this”, etc.). This reveals the instability of ideas about others and oneself outside the situation of recognition, the remaining elements of the inseparability of actions from the object.

A significant shift in the development of a preschooler’s personality is the transition from a substantive assessment of another person to an assessment of his personal properties and internal states of himself. According to research by E.I. Suverova, in all age groups, children demonstrate the ability to evaluate others more objectively than themselves. But here there are certain age-related changes. Rarely does an older preschooler answer the question “Who is your best?” we will hear “I am the best,” so characteristic of the little ones. But this does not mean that children's self-esteem is now low. Children have already become “big” and know that bragging is ugly and not good. It is not at all necessary to directly declare your superiority. In older groups, you can notice children who evaluate themselves positively in an indirect way. To the question “What are you: good or bad?” they usually answer like this: “I don’t know... I also obey”, “I also know how to count to 100”, “I always help those on duty”, “I also never offend children, I share candy”, etc. .

As noted by E.A. Maslova, in preschool age, assessment and self-esteem are emotional in nature. Of the surrounding adults, those for whom the child feels love, trust, and affection receive the most positive assessment. Older preschoolers more often evaluate the inner world of the adults around them, giving them a deeper and more differentiated assessment than children of middle and younger preschool age.

According to E.N. Vasina, comparison of preschooler’s self-esteem in different types activity shows an unequal degree of objectivity (“overestimation”, “ adequate assessment", "underestimation"). The correctness of children's self-esteem is largely determined by the specifics of the activity, the visibility of its results, knowledge of their skills and experience in assessing them, the degree of assimilation of true assessment criteria in this area, and the level of the child's aspirations in a particular activity. Thus, it is easier for children to give an adequate self-assessment of the drawing they have completed on a specific topic than to correctly assess their position in the system of personal relationships.

M.V. Lavrentyeva found that the status and position of the child in the group also affects the self-esteem of the preschooler. For example, a tendency towards overestimation is more often found by “unpopular” children, whose authority in the group is low; underestimation - “popular” ones whose emotional well-being is quite good.

Self-esteem of preschool children manifests itself differently depending on their attitude to activity. The most favorable, as research by V.A. Gorbacheva, R.B. Sterkina, for the formation of dynamic self-esteem in older preschoolers are those types of activities that are associated with a clear focus on the result and where this result appears in a form accessible to the child’s independent assessment (for example, games with throwing an arrow at a target, playing ball and hopscotch) . In this case, children are guided by the motive of increasing self-esteem, while when performing activities of a productive nature (for example, cutting out paper), associated with the need to carry out fairly delicate operations that do not evoke a strong emotional attitude, the motives of self-esteem recede into the background, and primary importance For children, it acquires interest in the process of activity itself. The accuracy and objectivity of assessment and self-esteem of preschoolers grow as children master the rules of the game, acquire personal experience.

N. Avdeeva believes that by the end of preschool age, a child’s self-esteem and his evaluative judgments about others gradually become more complete, deep, detailed, and detailed. These changes are largely explained by the emergence (increase) of interest of older preschool children in the inner world of people, their transition to personal communication, the assimilation of significant criteria for evaluative activity, and the development of thinking and speech. The preschooler's self-esteem reflects his developing feelings of pride and shame.

The development of self-awareness, in the opinion of L.I. Bozhovich, is in close connection with the formation of the child’s cognitive and motivational sphere. Based on their development, at the end of the preschool period, an important new formation appears - the child turns out to be able in a special form to be aware of himself and the position that he currently occupies, i.e., the child acquires “awareness of his social “I” and the emergence on this basis of internal position.” This shift in the development of self-esteem has an important role in the psychological readiness of a preschooler for school and in the transition to the next age level. By the end of the preschool period, independence and criticality of children's assessment and self-esteem also increases.

M.I. Lisina divides self-esteem into: high, low, overestimated, underestimated. M.I. Lisina emphasizes that a person with positive self-esteem generally feels good and, as a result, believes in his success. His goals are broad, his goals are high, his plans are ambitious. The means correspond to the ends: responsibility is not scary, the efforts made are justified by the reward, and faith in success allows you to ignore temporary failures and mistakes. Little self-criticism and some inattention to other people are one of the consequences of optimism and initiative. It is easier for a child with high self-esteem to exist in a team. He is not afraid to seem funny or do something stupid - so he is ready to come up with ideas: how to solve a problem, where to skip class, what to play during recess. He is not too critical of his actions, so he carries out them - many and different. It is easier for him to learn: he is confident in his own abilities, so tasks cause excitement and curiosity if they are complex, and boredom if they are simple or stupid. But even the most difficult ones will not cause him fear or anxiety. When the bar for achievement is high and confidence in success is high, it means that a person evaluates himself generally positively. The consequence is activity, productivity, the author’s attitude to what is happening.

According to L.A. Wenger, V.S. Mukhina, adequate self-esteem, when a person generally accepts himself and his image, but does not idealize himself and sees his negative traits, is extremely important for the normal development of the child. For children with high self-esteem, a situation is typical when the image that the child has built does not coincide with other people’s ideas about him. This mismatch prevents contact and is the cause aggressive behavior, conflict, anxiety, communication disorders.

According to M.I. Lisina, a child with low self-esteem is recognized by gloominess, shyness, and lack of cheerfulness. He thinks that it is boring to play with him - and it really becomes boring, because he forbids himself to get carried away completely. But due to the fact that he really misses communication, other children can easily teach him to play roles that they themselves do not like - unwinning, boring, performing ones. If such a child decides to do something (come up with a new plot, hit the offender, let him copy off an assignment, or copy it himself - it doesn’t matter), it is very likely that he will then worry, be ashamed of his mistake or ashamed of his win, hide his involvement, running away from responsibility.

A number of authors (A.I. Silvestru, M.I. Lisina) believe that inflated self-esteem is the result of numerous “strokes” and encouragements that are not organic and, perhaps, are manipulation by parents. For example, a child is not denied anything material, but they do not participate emotionally in his fate, do not evaluate his behavior, and do not educate him. He grows up with the feeling that all the blessings of life are given to him by nature, but they are in no way connected with what he really is. He knows that he is abstract good child. But he doesn’t know what he can be praised for, and he doesn’t differentiate his achievements well from those of others.

As noted by V.V. Stolin, inadequate self-esteem, which is not realized and therefore cannot be changed, causes difficulties in communication for many people, prevents them from adapting to work, and prevents self-actualization. Low self-esteem is characterized by a complete lack of faith in one’s own success, to the point of refusing to do anything; this is helplessness brought to the point of automaticity.

L.A. Wenger, V.S. Mukhina believe that children with inadequately low self-esteem are characterized by anxiety, lack of self-confidence, and the desire to win over their interlocutor and please him.

According to E.T. Sokolova, self-esteem is manifested not so much in what a person thinks or says about himself, but in his attitude towards the achievements of others. With the help of self-esteem, the child’s behavior is regulated. It is activity and communication that give him some important guidelines for behavior.

Considering self-esteem the most complex product of a child’s conscious activity, B.G. Ananyev noted that its initial forms are a direct reflection of adults’ assessments, and true self-esteem appears when it is filled with new content, thanks to the “personal participation” of the child himself in its production.

Psychologists correlate the development of a child’s ability to evaluate himself with such phenomena as self-selection and taking oneself into account (V.V. Stolin); with the emergence of ethical authorities that determine arbitrariness of behavior (L.I. Bozhovich); with the emergence of ideas about one’s capabilities (H. Heckhausen). As intellectual development The child overcomes the direct acceptance of adults’ assessments, and the process of mediation by their own knowledge of oneself begins. Older preschoolers, for the most part, correctly understand their strengths and weaknesses and take into account the attitude of others towards them. This is of great importance for the further development of the individual, the conscious assimilation of norms of behavior, and the following of positive models.

The system-forming core of individuality is the individual’s self-esteem, which largely determines a person’s life position, the level of his aspirations, and the entire system of assessments. Self-esteem influences the formation of a person’s behavior style and life activity. Self-esteem largely determines the dynamics and direction of a subject’s development.

According to research by S.G. Yakobson, G.I. Morevoy, with age, a child masters more advanced methods of assessment, his knowledge about himself expands and deepens, integrates, becomes more conscious, and its incentive and motivational role increases; the emotional-value attitude towards oneself also differentiates, becomes selective and gains stability. By the end of preschool age, the ratio of emotional and cognitive components is somewhat harmonized. Favorable conditions are created for the development of the cognitive component of self-esteem, for the intellectualization of the child’s attitude towards himself, and to overcome the direct impact on his self-esteem from adults.

Research by A.N. Leontyeva, A.R. Luria, D.B. Elkonin and others showed that the mental development of a child is determined by his emotional contact and the characteristics of cooperation with his parents. Child-parent relationships are affected by the type of family, the position taken by adults, relationship styles and the role they assign to the child in the family. Influenced by type parental relationship The child's personality is formed.

According to researchers (I.M. Balinsky, A.I. Zakharov, I.A. Sikhorsky), parental relationships can act as a positive or negative factor influencing a child’s self-esteem. At the same time, relationships in the family can be diverse in nature, and the use of an ineffective type of parental relationship leads to the emergence of inadequate self-esteem in the child.

D.V. Zaitsev identified four parental attitudes and the corresponding types of behavior: “acceptance and love”, “obvious rejection”, “excessive demands”, “excessive care”, and also traced a certain relationship between the behavior of parents and the behavior of children. For example, “acceptance and love” generate a sense of security in a child and contribute to normal personality development, while “overt rejection” leads to aggressiveness and emotional underdevelopment.

N.T. Kolesnik studied the influence family education on the social adaptation of children, manifested in varying degrees of expression of their self-esteem, sociometric status, level of communication and emotional well-being. She identified the types of behavior of children differently adapted to the world around them:

1. Adapted type - it is important for the child to adequately perceive the requirements, the motivation to achieve success is clearly expressed, he has diverse interests that are not limited by the program material preschool. Such children easily make contact, have high or average adequate self-esteem, occupy a favorable status in the peer group, and are able to resolve conflicts and avoid them.

2. Partially adapted type - has difficulty communicating, prefers familiar company or playing alone.

3. Unadapted type - have difficulty in independent work, react sharply to external stimuli, exhibit unconstructive behavioral reactions. In a peer group they are “outcasts”.

A significant element of a child’s psychological and pedagogical experience is his self-awareness. Social experience will be assigned to them only as they become aware of themselves as a member of society, a bearer of a socially significant position. A preschooler learns to look at himself from the outside, to evaluate his actions, to correlate his capabilities with the social role, with the type of behavior that life “prescribes” to him. N.T. Kolesnik identifies the following types of self-esteem:

Underestimated adequate - inadequate,

Average adequate - inadequate,

Overestimated adequate - inadequate.

Moreover, in children 4-5 years old, an overestimation of their qualities prevails, thanks to which they feel more confident, are active, and take initiative in communication. By the age of 6-7, due to the mastery of new, more significant activities, self-esteem approaches adequate or sharply decreases. Children can talk about what others think of them, what adults want from them, and whether they can do it.

M.I. Lisina traced the development and formation of preschoolers’ self-esteem under the influence of parent-child relationships. M.I. Lisina notes that children with an accurate idea of ​​themselves have high self-esteem, are brought up in families where parents apply a democratic style of education, devoting a lot of time to children, positively assessing their physical and mental data, but not considering their level of development higher than most of their peers. Such children are often encouraged, but not with gifts. They are punished mainly by refusal to communicate. Children with a low self-image (low self-esteem) grow up in families with an authoritarian, liberal or chaotic parenting style. They are not dealt with, but they require obedience (especially the authoritarian type of education). They are judged low, often reproached, punished, sometimes in front of strangers. They are not expected to have success and achievements in later life.

According to Karabanova O.A., child-parent relationships influence the formation of an adequate self-esteem of a child if an adult applies a democratic style of education towards the child, i.e. :

Always finds time to talk with the child;

Takes an interest in the child’s problems, delves into all the difficulties that arise in his life and helps develop his skills and talents;

Does not put any pressure on the child, thereby helping him make decisions independently;

Has an understanding of the different stages in a child's life;

Respects the child’s right to his own opinion;

Knows how to restrain possessive instincts and treats the child as an equal partner who simply has less life experience.

According to G. Craig, with an authoritative style, there is a level of control when parents recognize and encourage the growing autonomy of their children, warm relationships (parents are open to communication, allow changes in their requirements). Children of such parents are socially adapted, self-confident, capable of self-control, and have adequate high self-esteem.

In G. Craig’s opinion, with an authoritarian style of parent-child relationships, which is characterized by high control, conditions are created for the formation of inappropriately low (low) self-esteem. Children are withdrawn, fearful and gloomy, unpretentious and irritable. Girls for the most part are passive and dependent, boys are uncontrollable and aggressive.

G. Craig believes that inadequately inflated self-esteem is formed under the influence of child-parent relationships, where the liberal style dominates, which presupposes a low level of control and warm relationships. Children are prone to disobedience and aggressiveness, behave inappropriately, and are undemanding to themselves.

According to G.A. Uruntaeva, the main way adults influence the development of children’s self-esteem is through organizing the assimilation of moral norms. These norms are acquired by the child under the influence of models and rules of behavior. Adults themselves serve as models of behavior for children - their actions, relationships. The child is inclined to imitate them, adopt their manners, and borrow from them their assessment of people, events, and things. A preschool child gets acquainted with the life of adults by observing their work, listening to stories, poems, and fairy tales. By making demands on children and evaluating their actions, adults get children to follow the rules. Gradually, the children themselves begin to evaluate their actions.

According to L.I. Bozhovich, authoritarian parents have children who have low self-esteem and are dissatisfied with themselves. Adults constantly reproach the child or set inflated goals for him. The child feels that he does not meet the requirements of his parents. Inadequacy can also manifest itself with inflated self-esteem. This happens in a family where the child is often praised, and gifts are given for little things and achievements (the child gets used to material rewards). The child is punished very rarely, the system of demands is very soft. Usually these are families with a liberal parenting style.

M.I. Lisina notes that by denoting this or that individual quality of a child with a word, those around him thereby classify him as one or another category of people. If a mother says to her daughter: “You beautiful girl", - thereby she seems to mean that the daughter belongs to a certain group of girls who have a set of attractive characteristics. The verbal designation of the child’s individual characteristics is addressed, first of all, to his consciousness. Being realized by the child, the judgments of adults become his own knowledge about himself The self-image instilled in a child by adults can be either positive (the child is told that he is kind, smart, capable) or negative (rude, stupid, incapable). formation of his self-esteem.

As L.D. believes Stolyarenko, the pedagogical assessment of parents, which plays an important role in the formation of a child’s self-esteem, should perform orienting and stimulating functions, influence not only the mind, but also the feelings of the preschooler. It should take into account not only the age and individual characteristics of the child, his current capabilities, but the zone of proximal development, knowledge of the specific microenvironment in which the child is included. Authoritarian parents have children with low self-esteem.

In the opinion of A.I. Silvestru, M.I. Lisina, democratic parents in their upbringing use a method such as encouragement, which, by supporting and reinforcing specific behavior, works to form a positive assessment of oneself. Punishment and neglect are used by authoritarian and liberal parents, respectively, which is aimed at the formation of inadequate self-esteem.

A.I. Silvestru, M.I. Lisina notes that in addition to actions, words are important. What parents say, projecting their expectations or hopes onto the child, is also stored in the child's memory. The words of adults can become a “guide to life” in one case or “bad advice” where everything needs to be done strictly, on the contrary, in another: “You are so nice, you are a loser like me”; “You will definitely become a dentist, you will make my dream come true, because I myself did not succeed”; “The main thing is to rely only on yourself and never relax, then you will achieve everything you want.”

According to L.A. According to Wenger, assessments learned from adults become the child’s own assessments. The child evaluates himself the way others, and above all, his parents, evaluate him. Parents and other adults form in him certain personal values, ideals and standards that he should be equal to; outline plans to be implemented; determine standards for performing certain actions; call general and specific goals. If parents adhere to democracy in their upbringing, then they set more realistic goals for their children, which correspond to the child’s capabilities and contribute to the formation of a positive self-image and positive self-esteem.

In the studies of A.V. Petrovsky shows that child-parent relationships influence the formation of inadequately low self-esteem with reckless authoritarianism of parents, ignoring the interests and opinions of the child, suppression, coercion, and, in case of resistance of the child, sometimes also emotional or physical violence against him, bullying, systematic deprivation his right to vote in resolving issues pertaining to him - all this, according to the researcher, is a guarantee of serious failures in the formation of his personality, and, consequently, a decrease in his self-esteem.

Ya.L. Kolominsky, E.A. Panko believe that a preschooler’s value judgment “is continuously intertwined with evaluative attitudes towards him on the part of his comrades and the teacher. Research by E.I. Suverova reveal a clear dependence of awareness of the qualities and characteristics of a peer on educational work in the group. The general tendency observed in this case is that children are primarily aware of those qualities and characteristics of the behavior of their peers that are most often assessed by others and on which, therefore, their position in the group largely depends.

The effectiveness of adults’ influence on the formation of a preschooler’s self-esteem is determined to a large extent by the level of their pedagogical skills. Research by psychologists (B.G. Ananyev, P.R. Chamata, N.E. Ankudinova, V.A. Gorbachev, A.I. Silvestru, etc.) shows that the relative accuracy of the assessment of oneself and peers is determined by the direction and style of educational work, the teacher’s deep knowledge of both the life of the group, interpersonal relationships in it, and the individual characteristics and capabilities of each child.

An important role in this is played by the possession of pedagogical communication skills, the skillful use of orienting and stimulating (B.G. Ananyev) functions of pedagogical assessment. Positive results in the formation of self-esteem in preschoolers who lack self-confidence are achieved when educators develop children’s capabilities, create a situation of success for them, do not skimp on praise, and show emotional support for them. This helps to strengthen children's self-confidence and self-esteem. This is confirmed by both advanced pedagogical experience and specially conducted research.

In the opinion of L.I. Umanets, the conditions for the formation of self-esteem are forms of optimization of children’s evaluative relations in the game, as a result of which: a) the positive experience of a child’s comparison, under the guidance of a teacher, of his gaming achievements in various games with the results of his peers is enriched; b) develops the ability to apply moral criteria when assessing and self-assessing success in performing game actions and game communication; c) the child’s need for a positive assessment of himself by peers - play partners - is updated.

Experimental data by L.I. Umanets indicate that self-esteem, which is formed in play activities, presupposes the development in a child of the ability to evaluate the merits of partners in the game, skillfully coordinate his actions with them without breaking the rules, be friendly, provide the help you need, take into account the opinions of others, do not infringe on their rights. In order for this moral behavior to be characteristic of older preschoolers, it is necessary: ​​firstly, to equip them with a system of criteria by which this or that participant in the game is assessed; secondly, teach how to operate with these criteria, i.e. independently apply them to yourself and others. To solve these problems, the teacher must skillfully use the psychological mechanism of influence play group on the personality of an individual child.

As V. Abramenkova believes, development is in the process preschool education rules of collective behavior of children and the habits of this behavior develops in them an awareness of the need to act in accordance with these rules, an assessment of their own behavior from the point of view of proper behavior, based on the opinion of the collective. In the formation of purposefulness and planning of volitional actions of a preschooler, the decisive role is played by this awareness of the rules of behavior, both regulating the satisfaction of one’s desires and stimulating the process of overcoming one’s reluctance.

According to research by T.P. Avdulova, in the process of children’s conscious mastery of the rules of relationships in the collective life of the group, the objective basis of the child’s evaluative relations to himself is formed. The relative adequacy of the child’s evaluative judgments about his friends and himself is determined by the direction and style of educational work, the teacher’s deep knowledge of both the internal collective life of the group and the individual characteristics and capabilities of each child. This adequacy of self-esteem is also determined by the nature of the child’s play activity, awareness of the objective components of this activity, especially its results. The child's evaluative judgment about himself is continuously intertwined with evaluative attitudes towards him on the part of his comrades and especially the teacher.

Results of the study by O.A. Belobrykina allow us to conclude that the socially significant environment of the child does not fully ensure the satisfaction of the needs that are important in the development of adequate self-esteem in the preschool period of childhood. Thus, in particular, the assessment system that exists in the child’s immediate environment does not meet psychological and pedagogical requirements: firstly, it does not take into account individual and age differences in the child’s need to receive external assessment; secondly, it does not correspond to the meaning and significance of pedagogical assessment, designed to ensure adequate development of various spheres of the child’s personality.

The specifics of the development of self-awareness in preschool age are characterized by the presence of the following trend. Here the position of proximity of the real and ideal self is the most favorable (L.I. Bozhovich, R. Burns, M.I. Lisina, A.I. Silvestru, E.E. Kravtsova, T.A. Repina), because it serves as a trigger actualization of one of the most important needs of the individual - the need for self-development, self-improvement, which, in fact, forms the basis of goal setting. Thus, the presence in a child of a “position of proximity of two selves” indicates his self-identity, i.e. about his self-confidence, the confidence that he is good, loved. Self-identity, according to E. Erikson, is the potential that makes it possible to realize the need for self-development.

As noted by O.A. Belobrykina, V. Mamaeva, E.V. Prima, N.I. Sarzhveladze, in the genesis of the attitude towards oneself, a special role is played by the emergence and development of the position of decentration, considered as the ability to “look at oneself and the situation from different points of view, abstracting from the unimportant.” The ability to decenter is a prerequisite for the development of reflection in preschool childhood. One of the main conditions necessary for the development of elementary forms of reflection in a child is communication. In the socio-psychological context, reflection is understood as an individual’s awareness of how he is perceived by his communication partner.

It is known that a preschooler’s need for external assessment is extremely high, but it is not always fully satisfied. The child, according to L.I. Bozovic strives to become exactly the way an adult sees him. Consequently, one of the aspects of understanding development trends and possible prediction of dynamic changes in self-awareness, including the development of a child’s general and private self-esteem, can be the study of the attitude towards him from the social environment, which largely determines the direction of this development through the child’s experience of the environment. . Research by O.A. Belobrykina indicate that the direction of a child’s self-esteem is mediated by its relationship with the child’s actual situation that has developed in his social environment.

Thus, according to the research of S.G. Yakobson, G.I. Morevoy, by the end of preschool age, the ratio of the emotional and cognitive components of self-esteem is harmonized, favorable conditions are created for the intellectualization of the child’s attitude towards himself, overcoming the direct impact on his self-esteem from adults. Self-esteem influences the formation of a person’s behavior style and life activity. According to O.A. Karabanova, parent-child relationships influence the formation of an adequate self-esteem of a child if an adult applies a democratic parenting style towards the child. As noted by T.P. Avdulova, O.A. Belobrykina, V. Mamaeva, E.V. Prima, N.I. Sarjveladze, L.I. Bozhovich, the direction of a child’s self-esteem is mediated by its relationship with the child’s actual position (assessment) that has developed in his social environment.

A preschooler becomes independent, more independent of adults. His relationships with others expand and become more complex. This makes it possible to more fully and deeply understand and appreciate oneself.

The entire mental life of a child develops under the influence of the assessments of others; every new experience, new knowledge, a skill acquired by a child, is assessed by others. And soon the child himself begins to seek evaluation of his actions, reinforcement of the correctness or incorrectness of the reality he perceives.

Elements of an independent idea of ​​oneself first appear in the assessment not of personal, moral qualities, but of objective and external ones (“And I have an airplane,” “But I have this,” etc.). This reveals the instability of ideas about the other and about oneself outside the situation of recognition, the remaining elements of the inseparability of actions from the object.

A significant shift in the development of a preschooler’s personality is the transition from a substantive assessment of another person to an assessment of his personal properties and internal states of himself.

Observations and evaluative reasoning of children allow us to outline some trends and features in the development of children's assessment and self-esteem.

They lie in the fact that in assessing their friends and themselves, preschool children do not identify any individual, characteristic features. Their assessment is of a general, undifferentiated nature: “bad”, “good”, “smart”, “stupid”. Many children of middle and sometimes older preschool age use these concepts inadequately, since they have not yet been formed. Children use the concepts “good”, “smart”, “obedient” as identical, just as they put the content of the concept “naughty” into the concepts “bad” and “stupid”.

For a preschooler, the content of self-image includes a reflection of his properties, qualities, and capabilities. Data about capabilities accumulates gradually thanks to the child’s experience of imaginative activities, communication with adults and peers.

In preschool age, assessment and self-esteem are emotional in nature. Of the surrounding adults, those for whom the child feels love, trust, and affection receive the most positive assessment. Older preschoolers more often evaluate the inner world of the adults around them, giving them a deeper and more differentiated assessment than children of middle and younger preschool age.

A comparison of a preschooler’s self-esteem in different types of activities shows an unequal degree of its objectivity (“overestimation”, “adequate assessment”, “underestimation”). The correctness of children's self-esteem is largely determined by the specifics of the activity, the visibility of its results, knowledge of their skills and experience in assessing them, the degree of assimilation of true assessment criteria in this area, and the level of the child's aspirations in a particular activity. Thus, it is easier for children to give an adequate self-assessment of the drawing they have completed on a specific topic than to correctly assess their position in the system of personal relationships.

It has been established that the status and position of the child in the group also affects the self-esteem of the preschooler. For example, a tendency towards overestimation is more often found by “unpopular” children, whose authority in the group is low; underestimation - “popular” ones whose emotional well-being is quite good.

Throughout preschool childhood, a general positive self-esteem is maintained, based on selfless love and care from close adults. It contributes to the fact that preschoolers tend to overestimate their capabilities. The expansion of the types of activities that the child masters leads to the formation of a clear and confident specific self-esteem, which expresses his attitude to the success of a particular action.

It is characteristic that at this age the child separates his own self-esteem from the assessment of himself by others. A preschooler’s knowledge of the limits of his strength occurs on the basis of not only communication with adults, but also his own practical experience; children with inflated or underestimated ideas about themselves are more sensitive to the evaluative influences of adults and are easily influenced by them.

At the age of three to seven years, communication with peers plays a significant role in the process of self-awareness of a preschooler. An adult is an unattainable standard, and you can compare yourself with peers as equals. When exchanging evaluative influences, a certain attitude towards other children arises and at the same time the ability to see oneself through their eyes develops. A child’s ability to analyze the results of his own activities directly depends on his ability to analyze the results of other children. Thus, in communication with peers, the ability to evaluate another person develops, which stimulates the development of relative self-esteem. It expresses the child’s attitude towards himself in comparison with other people.

The younger the preschoolers, the less significant peer assessments are for them. At three or four years old, children’s mutual assessments are more subjective and more often influenced by their emotional attitude towards each other. At this age, the child overestimates his ability to achieve results, knows little about personal qualities and cognitive capabilities, and often confuses specific achievements with a high personal assessment. Given developed communication experience at the age of five, the child not only knows about his skills, but has some idea of ​​his cognitive capabilities, personal qualities, appearance, and reacts adequately to success and failure. At six or seven years old, a preschooler has a good idea of ​​his physical capabilities, evaluates them correctly, and develops an idea of ​​his personal qualities and mental capabilities. Children are almost unable to generalize the actions of their comrades in different situations and do not differentiate qualities that are similar in content. In early preschool age, positive and negative peer assessments are distributed evenly. Positive assessments predominate among older preschoolers. Children aged 4.5-5.5 years are most susceptible to peer assessments. The ability to compare oneself with friends reaches a very high level in children aged five to seven years. For older preschoolers, rich experience of individual activity helps them critically evaluate the influence of peers.

With age, self-esteem becomes more and more correct, more fully reflecting the child’s capabilities. Initially, it occurs in productive activities and in games with rules, where you can clearly see and compare your result with the result of other children. Having real support: a drawing, a design, it is easier for preschoolers to give themselves a correct assessment.

Gradually, preschoolers’ ability to motivate self-esteem increases, and the content of motivations also changes. A study by T. A. Repina shows that in children three to four years old there is more often a tendency to base their value attitude towards themselves on aesthetic appeal rather than ethical attractiveness (“I like myself because I’m beautiful”).

Four- and five-year-old children associate self-esteem mainly not with their own experience, but with the evaluative attitudes of others: “I am good because the teacher praises me.” At this age, there is a desire to change something in oneself, although it does not extend to the characteristics of moral character.

At 5-7 years old, they justify the positive characteristics of themselves, from the point of view of the presence of any moral qualities. But even at six or seven years old, not all children can motivate self-esteem. In the seventh year of life, the child begins to differentiate two aspects of self-awareness - self-knowledge and attitude towards oneself. Thus, with self-esteem: “Sometimes good, sometimes bad,” an emotionally positive attitude toward oneself (“I like myself”) is observed, or with a general positive assessment: “Good,” a restrained attitude (“I like myself a little”) is observed.

In older preschool age, along with the fact that most children are satisfied with themselves, the desire to change something in themselves, to become different, increases.

By the age of seven, a child undergoes an important transformation in terms of self-esteem. It goes from being general to being differentiated. The child draws conclusions about his achievements: he notices that he copes with some things better, and with others worse. Before the age of five, children usually overestimate their skills. And at 6.5 years old they rarely praise themselves, although the tendency to boast remains. At the same time, the number of substantiated estimates is increasing. By the age of 7, most children correctly evaluate themselves and are aware of their skills and success in various activities.

In addition to realizing their qualities, older preschoolers try to comprehend the motives of their own and others’ actions. They begin to explain their own behavior, relying on knowledge and ideas gleaned from an adult, and their own experience.

When explaining the actions of other people, a preschooler often proceeds from his own interests and values, i.e. own position. Gradually, the preschooler begins to realize not only his moral qualities, but also his experiences and emotional state. The older preschooler is also interested in some mental processes occurring within himself.

In a kindergarten group, there is a system of value orientations that determines children’s mutual assessments. The range of moral ideas is gradually expanding. At four to five years old, the range that a child associates with the concept of being “good” in relation to a peer and himself is small (don’t hit anyone, listen to the teacher, mother). At the age of five or six, it becomes larger, although the qualities still called concern only relationships in kindergarten and family (protect children, don’t shout, don’t play around, be careful, don’t be sorry when you give something, help mom, share toys). At six or seven, preschoolers understand moral norms more accurately and apply to people in their wider environment (don’t fight, obey, be friends with everyone, play games, treat everyone, help younger ones, don’t call names, don’t deceive, don’t offend anyone, give way to older people) . At the same age, most children correctly understand the moral qualities by which they evaluate their peers: hard work, accuracy, ability to play together, fairness, etc.

In all age groups, children show the ability to evaluate others more objectively than themselves. But here there are certain age-related changes. Rarely does an older preschooler answer the question “Who is your best?” we will hear “I am the best,” so characteristic of the little ones. But this does not mean that children's self-esteem is now low. Children have already become “big” and know that bragging is ugly and not good. It is not at all necessary to directly declare your superiority. In older groups, you can notice children who evaluate themselves positively in an indirect way. To the question “What are you: good or bad?” they usually answer like this: “I don’t know... I also obey”, “I also know how to count to 100”, “I always help those on duty”, “I also never offend children, I share candy”, etc.

By the end of preschool age, the child’s self-esteem and his evaluative judgments about others gradually become more complete, deep, detailed, and expanded.

These changes are largely explained by the emergence (increase) of interest of older preschool children in the inner world of people, their transition to personal communication, the assimilation of significant criteria for evaluative activity, and the development of thinking and speech.

The self-esteem of a preschooler reflects his developing feelings of pride and shame.

The development of self-awareness is closely related to the formation of the child’s cognitive and motivational sphere. Based on their development, at the end of the preschool period, an important new formation appears - the child turns out to be able in a special form to be aware of himself and the position that he currently occupies, i.e., the child acquires “awareness of his social “I” and the emergence on this basis of internal position.” This shift in the development of self-esteem is important in the psychological readiness of a preschooler to study at school, in the transition to the next age level. By the end of the preschool period, independence and criticality of children's assessment and self-esteem also increases.

In preschool childhood, another important indicator of the development of self-awareness begins to take shape - awareness of oneself in time. The child initially lives only in the present. With the accumulation and awareness of his experience, an understanding of his past becomes available to him. The eldest preschooler asks adults to talk about how he was little, and he himself happily recalls individual episodes of the recent past. It is characteristic that, completely unaware of the changes occurring within himself over time, the child understands that he used to be different from what he is now: he was small, but now he has grown up. He is also interested in the past of his loved ones. The preschooler develops the ability to realize and the child wants to go to school, master some profession, grow in order to acquire certain advantages. Awareness of one's skills and qualities, representation of oneself in time, discovery of one's experiences - all this constitutes the initial form of a child's self-awareness, the emergence of personal consciousness. It appears towards the end of school age, determining a new level of awareness of his place in the system of relationships with adults (i.e., now the child understands that he is not big yet, but small).

An important component of self-awareness is the awareness of one’s belonging to the male or female sex, i.e., gender identity. Primary knowledge about it usually develops by the age of one and a half years. At two years old, the baby, although he knows his gender, cannot justify his belonging to it. By the age of three or four, children clearly distinguish the gender of those around them and know about their gender, but often associate it not only with certain somatic and behavioral properties, but also with random external signs, such as hairstyle, clothing, and allow the possibility of changing gender.

Throughout preschool age, the processes of sexual socialization and sexual differentiation are intense. They consist in the assimilation of orientations towards the values ​​of one’s gender, in the assimilation of social aspirations, attitudes, and behavioral stereotypes. Now the preschooler pays attention to the differences between men and women not only in appearance, clothing, but also in their manner of behavior. The foundations of ideas about masculinity and femininity are laid. Gender differences between boys and girls in preferences for activities, types of activities and games, and communication are increasing. By the end of preschool age, the child realizes the irreversibility of his gender and builds his behavior in accordance with it.

Analysis of literary sources devoted to the problem of the development of personal self-esteem (T.A. Repina, E.E. Kravtsova, V.A. Gorbacheva, E.V. Subbotsky, M.I. Lisina, A.I. Silvestru, E.V. Kucherova etc.), allows us to identify a number of patterns specific to preschool age:

1. Self-esteem of a preschooler is an unstable, situational phenomenon.

2. The dynamics of the formation of self-esteem in preschool age proceeds in three main directions:

a) an increase in the number of personality qualities and types of activities assessed by the child;

b) transition from general self-esteem to private, differentiated;

c) the emergence of an assessment of oneself over time, which manifests itself both in elementary self-analysis of one’s previous actions and in predicting one’s future.

H. The mechanism of formation of self-esteem in preschool childhood unfolds as follows:

a) through specific types of assessments to generalized ones;

b) through the assessments of significant adults (parents, grandparents, teachers), then peers, to the development of self-esteem based on information about the quality of the result when solving specific problems.

4. The most adequate private self-esteem in preschool age, in comparison with the realistic self-esteem characteristic of an adult, is usually considered to be inflated.

5. Self-esteem of a preschooler is characterized by:

Integrity (the child does not distinguish between himself as a subject of activity and himself as a person); lack of objectivity and validity; low reflexivity and weakly expressed differentiation;

The presence of an inflated level of claims.

So, the formation of self-awareness, without which the formation of personality is impossible, is a complex and lengthy process that characterizes mental development as a whole. It occurs under the direct influence of others, primarily adults raising a child. The child’s communication with adults is of decisive importance in the genesis of self-esteem in the first stages of personality development (end of the early, beginning of the preschool period).

The more accurate the adult’s evaluative impact, the more accurate the child’s understanding of the results of his actions. A formed idea of ​​one’s own actions helps the preschooler to be critical of adults’ assessments and, to some extent, resist them. How younger child, the more uncritically he perceives adults’ opinions about himself. Older preschoolers interpret adults' assessments through the prism of those attitudes and conclusions that their experience tells them. A child can even, to a certain extent, resist the distorting evaluative influences of adults if he can independently analyze the results of his actions.

It is the adult who stimulates the emergence and development of evaluative activity in the child when:

Expresses his attitude to the environment and his evaluative approach;

Organizes the child’s activities, ensuring the accumulation of experience in individual activities, setting a task, showing ways to solve it and evaluating performance;

Presents samples of activities and thereby gives the child criteria for the correctness of its implementation;

Organizes joint activities with peers that help the child see a person his age, take into account his desires, take into account his interests, and also transfer patterns of adult activity and behavior into situations of communication with peers (M.I. Lisina, D.B. Godovikova, etc. .).

Thus, evaluative activity requires an adult to be able to express goodwill in addressing children, justify their demands and evaluations in order to show the need for the former, flexibly use evaluations without stereotypes, soften negative evaluations by combining them with anticipatory positive ones. When the specified conditions are met, positive assessments strengthen approved forms of behavior and expand the child’s initiative. And negative ones - they restructure activities and behavior and focus on achieving the required result. A positive assessment as an expression of approval from others in the absence of a negative one loses its educational power, since the child does not feel the value of the former. An excess of negative assessments with a lack of positive ones gives rise to uncertainty, fear of new things, and creates tension in relationships with adults. Only a balanced combination of positive and negative evaluations creates favorable conditions for the formation of evaluative and self-evaluative actions of a preschooler.

Without knowledge of the characteristics of children's self-awareness, it is difficult to correctly respond to their actions, choose the appropriate reprimand or encouragement, and purposefully manage their upbringing.

From all of the above, let us highlight the features of the development of self-esteem in preschool age:

Maintaining overall positive self-esteem;

The emergence of a critical attitude towards self-evaluation by adults and peers;

An awareness of one’s physical capabilities, skills, moral qualities, experiences and some mental processes develops; -- by the end of preschool age, self-criticism develops; ability to motivate self-esteem.

In the process of development, the child forms not only an idea of ​​his inherent qualities and capabilities (the image of the real “I” - “what I am”), but also an idea of ​​what he should be, how others want to see him (the image of the ideal "I" - "what I would like to be"). The coincidence of the real “I” with the ideal is considered an important indicator of emotional well-being.

The evaluative component of self-awareness reflects a person’s attitude towards himself and his qualities, his self-esteem.

Positive self-esteem is based on self-esteem, a sense of self-worth and a positive attitude towards everything that is included in one’s self-image. Negative self-esteem expresses self-rejection, self-denial, and a negative attitude towards one’s personality.

In older preschool age, the beginnings of reflection appear - the ability to analyze one’s activities and correlate one’s opinions, experiences and actions with the opinions and assessments of others, therefore the self-esteem of children of older preschool age becomes more realistic, in familiar situations and familiar types of activities it approaches adequate. In an unfamiliar situation and unusual activities, their self-esteem is inflated.

Low self-esteem in preschool children is considered a deviation in personality development.

Features of the behavior of children of senior preschool age with different types of self-esteem:

Children with inadequately high self-esteem are very mobile, unrestrained, quickly switch from one type of activity to another, and often do not finish the job they start. They are not inclined to analyze the results of their actions and deeds; they try to solve any, including very complex, problems “immediately”. They are not aware of their failures. These children tend to be demonstrative and dominant. They strive to always be visible, advertise their knowledge and skills, try to stand out from other guys, and attract attention. If they cannot provide themselves with the full attention of an adult through success in activities, then they do this by violating the rules of behavior. During classes, for example, they can shout out from their seats, comment out loud on the teacher’s actions, make faces, etc. These are, as a rule, outwardly attractive children. They strive for leadership, but may not be accepted in their peer group, since they are focused mainly “on themselves” and are not inclined to cooperate.

Children with inadequately high self-esteem take the teacher’s praise as something taken for granted. Its absence can cause them bewilderment, anxiety, resentment, sometimes irritation and tears. They react to reproach in different ways. Some children ignore criticism addressed to them, others respond to them increased emotionality(shouting, tears, resentment towards the teacher). Some children are equally attracted to both praise and blame, the main thing for them is to be the center of attention of an adult.

Children with inadequately high self-esteem are insensitive to failures; they are characterized by a desire for success and a high level of aspirations.

Children with adequate self-esteem tend to analyze the results of their activities and try to find out the reasons for their mistakes. They are self-confident, active, balanced, quickly switch from one activity to another, and persistent in achieving their goals. They strive to cooperate, help others, are sociable and friendly. In a situation of failure, they try to find out the reason and choose tasks of somewhat less complexity (but not the easiest). Success in an activity stimulates their desire to attempt a more difficult task. These children tend to strive for success.

Children with low self-esteem are indecisive, uncommunicative, distrustful, silent, and constrained in their movements. They are very sensitive, ready to cry at any moment, do not strive to cooperate and are not able to stand up for themselves. These children are anxious, unsure of themselves, and find it difficult to engage in activities. They refuse in advance to solve problems that seem difficult to them, but with the emotional support of an adult they easily cope with them. A child with low self-esteem appears slow. He does not begin the task for a long time, fearing that he did not understand what needs to be done and will do everything incorrectly; tries to guess whether the adult is happy with him. The more significant the activity, the more difficult it is for him to cope with it. Yes, on open classes these children perform significantly worse than on normal days.

Children with low self-esteem tend to avoid failures, so they have little initiative and choose obviously simple tasks. Failure in an activity most often leads to abandonment.

These children, as a rule, have a low social status in their peer group, fall into the category of outcasts, and no one wants to be friends with them. Outwardly, these are most often unattractive children.

The reasons for individual characteristics of self-esteem in older preschool age are due to the unique combination of developmental conditions for each child.

In some cases, inadequately inflated self-esteem in older preschool age is due to an uncritical attitude towards children on the part of adults, poverty of individual experience and experience of communicating with peers, insufficient development of the ability to understand oneself and the results of one’s activities, and a low level of affective generalization and reflection. In others, it is formed as a result of excessively high demands on the part of adults, when the child receives only negative assessments of his actions. Here self-esteem performs a protective function. The child’s consciousness seems to “turn off”: he does not hear critical comments addressed to him that are traumatic, does not notice failures that are unpleasant for him, and is not inclined to analyze their causes.

Somewhat inflated self-esteem is most characteristic of children on the threshold of 6-7 years. They are already inclined to analyze their experience and listen to adults’ assessments. In conditions of usual activity - in a game, in sports, etc. - they can already realistically assess their capabilities, their self-esteem becomes adequate. In an unfamiliar situation, in particular, in educational activities, children cannot yet correctly evaluate themselves; self-esteem in this case is overestimated. It is believed that the inflated self-esteem of a preschooler (in the presence of attempts to analyze himself and his activities) carries a positive aspect: the child strives for success, actively acts and, therefore, has the opportunity to clarify ideas about himself in the process of activity.

Low self-esteem at this age is much less common; it is based not on a critical attitude towards oneself, but on a lack of confidence in one’s abilities. Parents of such children, as a rule, place excessive demands on them, use only negative assessments, and do not take into account their individual characteristics and capabilities. According to a number of authors, the manifestation of low self-esteem in the activities and behavior of children of the seventh year of life is alarming symptom and may indicate deviations in personal development.

Self-esteem plays an important role in regulating human activity and behavior. Depending on how an individual evaluates his own qualities and capabilities, he accepts for himself certain goals of activity, this or that attitude towards successes and failures, this or that level of aspirations is formed.

What influences the formation of a child’s self-esteem and self-image?

There are four conditions that determine the development of self-awareness in childhood:

1) the child’s experience of communication with adults;

2) experience of communicating with peers;

3) the child’s individual experience;

4) his mental development.

The experience of a child’s communication with adults is the objective condition without which the process of forming a child’s self-awareness is impossible or very difficult. Under the influence of an adult, a child accumulates knowledge and ideas about himself, and develops one or another type of self-esteem. The role of an adult in the development of children's self-awareness is as follows:

· providing the child with information about his individual personality characteristics;

· assessment of his activities and behavior;

· formation of values, social standards with the help of which the child will subsequently evaluate himself;

· developing the ability and encouraging the child to analyze his actions and actions and compare them with the actions and actions of other people.

Throughout childhood, the child perceives the adult as an unquestioned authority. The younger the child, the more uncritical he is about adults’ opinions about himself. In early and early preschool age, the role of individual experience in the formation of a child’s self-awareness is small. Knowledge gained in this way is unclear and unstable and is easily ignored under the influence of adult value judgments.

By older preschool age, the knowledge acquired in the process of activity acquires a more stable and conscious character. During this period, the opinions and assessments of others are refracted through the prism of the child’s individual experience and are accepted by him only if there are no significant discrepancies with his own ideas about himself and his capabilities. If there is a contradiction of opinions, the child protests openly or covertly, the crisis of 6-7 years worsens. It is obvious that an older preschooler’s judgments about himself are often erroneous, since individual experience is not yet rich enough and the possibilities for self-analysis are limited.

In contrast to specific ideas obtained through individual experience, knowledge about oneself acquired through communication with adults is generalized. By using a word to denote one or another individual quality of a child, those around him thereby classify him as one or another category of people. If a mother says to her daughter: “You are a beautiful girl,” she seems to mean that the daughter belongs to a certain group of girls who have a set of attractive characteristics. The verbal designation of a child’s individual characteristics is addressed primarily to his consciousness. Once realized by the child, the judgments of adults become his own knowledge about himself. The self-image instilled in a child by adults can be either positive (the child is told that he is kind, smart, capable) or negative (rude, stupid, incapable). Negative assessments from adults are fixed in the child’s mind and have an adverse effect on the formation of his ideas about himself.

Parents have the most significant influence on the formation of children's self-esteem. The idea of ​​what a child should be like (the parental image of the child) is formed even before the baby is born and determines the style of upbringing in the family. Firstly, guided by their own ideas about what a child should be, parents evaluate his actual activities and behavior. Assessments learned from adults become the child’s own assessments. In a certain sense, we can say that the child evaluates himself the way others, and above all his parents, evaluate him. Secondly, parents and other adults form in him certain personal values, ideals and standards that he should be equal to; outline plans to be implemented; determine standards for performing certain actions; call general and specific goals. If they are realistic and consistent with the child’s capabilities, then achieving goals, implementing plans, and meeting standards contribute to the formation of a positive self-image and positive self-esteem. If goals and plans are unrealistic, standards and demands are too high, then failure leads to a loss of self-confidence, the formation of low self-esteem and a negative self-image.

For a child, both the lack of criticism from an adult (permissiveness) and excessive severity, when an adult’s remarks about a child are exclusively negative, are equally harmful. In the first case, by the end of preschool age, an inadequately inflated self-esteem is formed, and in the second case, an underestimated self-esteem. In both cases, the ability to analyze, evaluate and control one’s actions and actions does not develop.

Experiences with peers also influence the formation of children's self-awareness. In communication, in joint activities with other children, the child learns his own individual characteristics that are not manifested in communication with adults (the ability to establish contacts with peers, come up with interesting game, perform certain roles, etc.), begins to understand the attitude of other children towards him. It is in joint play in preschool age that the child identifies the “position of the other” as different from his own, and children’s egocentrism decreases.

While an adult throughout childhood remains an unattainable standard, an ideal to which one can only strive, peers act as “comparative material” for the child. The behavior and actions of other children (in the child’s mind “the same as him”) are, as it were, externalized to him and therefore easier to recognize and analyze than his own. In order to learn to correctly evaluate himself, a child must first learn to evaluate other people whom he can look at as if from the outside. Therefore, it is no coincidence that children are more critical in assessing the actions of their peers than in assessing themselves.

If there are difficulties in communicating with peers, then the child is constantly in a state of tense anticipation of ridicule or other unfriendly manifestations addressed to him. This, in turn, leads to increased nervousness and fatigue, and constant conflicts with children.

Kopylova Natalya Nikolaevna, educational psychologist, MKOU orphanage"Swallow's Nest", village. Novovostochny
Description: This material will be useful to specialists, parents, whose children are starting a new stage in their lives - this is schooling.
Target: acquaintance with methods of formation, development and study of adequate self-esteem in preschool children.
Tasks:
1. To provide theoretical knowledge on the issue of forming adequate self-esteem in preschool children.
2. Develop memory and thinking.
3. Instill a sense of responsibility.

Formation of adequate self-esteem in preschool children

Self-esteem- This is, first of all, an assessment of the individual herself, her capabilities, qualities and place among other people.
Self-esteem has its own complex structure. There are two main component:
1. Cognitive.(Reflects all the information about yourself that is learned from various sources).
2. Emotional.(Reflects one’s own attitude towards all aspects of one’s personality).
American psychologist William James even proposed a formula for self-esteem: Self-esteem = Success/Level of aspirations. The level of aspiration implies a certain level that an individual wants to achieve.
There are species self-esteem:

1. Adequate.
2. Overpriced.
3. Understated.
Signs of high self-esteem:
“I am the most correct”, “I am the best.”
Signs of low self-esteem:
Unsure of himself, shy, indecisive.
Signs of adequate self-esteem:
Adequate perception of the image of “I”.
Preschool age- a large period in a child’s life, it covers the period from 3 to 7 years. The leading activity at this age is play. It has a significant impact on the development of the child; through it, children learn to communicate with each other and explore the world.
The initial stage of formation of a child’s personality is from 3 to 7 years. Preschool children have different self-esteem in different types of activities.
A preschooler’s self-esteem is formed, firstly, under the influence of an adult’s praise, assessment of the child’s achievements, and secondly, under the influence of a sense of independence and success (“I myself!”).
If an adult is indifferent to the child’s successes and achievements, then at that moment the child develops low self-esteem, so the level of self-esteem literally depends on the adult. It should, first of all, contribute to the formation of adequate self-esteem in the child.
In this regard, we can highlight general recommendations on the formation and development of adequate self-esteem in preschool children.
1. Analyze the child’s personality and teach him this.
That is, you need to evaluate the child positively, even his minor obstacles; in addition, teach him to evaluate himself, compare with a model, identify the causes of failures and look for ways to overcome them. And, naturally, at the same time instill in him the confidence that he will succeed.
2. It is necessary to create conditions for the child’s comprehensive communication with other children and adults. Help solve communication difficulties.
3. More varied activities so that the child is included in independent activities and gains some experience. Thus, he will have the opportunity to test his capabilities and abilities, and his ideas about himself will expand.
4. It is important that the child grows up in an atmosphere of respect for his abilities. So that the parent is interested in their formation and development.

The level of self-esteem is very important during the transition from preschool to junior school age.
IN mental development For a preschooler, the turning point is the formation of an internal position and awareness of one’s own “I”. This is expressed in the desire for the social role of the student and for learning at school. When this desire appears in the child’s mind, it can actually be called an internal position. This indicates that the child has moved into a new age period in his social development - primary school age.
You can determine the presence of an internal position. This is expressed in the fact that the child begins to lose interest in preschool activities and begins to voice phrases such as, for example, “I want to go to school!” Also, an indicator of the formation of a child’s internal position is expressed in games at school.
As practice shows, children at the age of five exaggerate their capabilities and achievements. By the age of six, high self-esteem remains, but children no longer praise themselves so openly. And by the age of seven, self-esteem already becomes more adequate.
In the “piggy banks” of psychologists there are diagnostic techniques, which are aimed at studying the level of self-esteem in preschool age. This is, for example, a questionnaire for conducting a conversation with preschool children, proposed by T.V. Dragunova, the well-known technique of V.G. Schur “Ladder”, de Greefe test, “Draw yourself” technique and so on.
Also important on the part of the educational psychologist to give recommendations to educators and parents on the formation and development of adequate self-esteem in preschool children. In addition to this, educators and educational psychologists in kindergartens, if necessary, must carry out a number of activities aimed at increasing the child’s self-esteem. These are, for example, games, exercises, sketches, which are necessarily aimed at developing a positive image of “I” and relationships with other people.
Through observation, parents and educators can get an idea of ​​the child’s self-esteem.
Thus, we can conclude that adequate self-esteem is essential element in the mental development of a preschool child. Its level has a huge impact on the emotional sphere, behavior, success in various types activities.