Age characteristics of younger adolescents (10-12 years old) consultation on the topic

Age characteristics of younger adolescents (10-12 years old) consultation on the topic

AGE FEATURES

YOUNGER TEENAGERS 10-12 YEARS OLD

There is sun in every person. Just let it shine.

Socrates

Children 10-12 years old (students in grades 5-6) are in a transitional age - from junior age to adolescence. This age period is usually called early adolescence. Age is associated with the gradual acquisition of a sense of adulthood. At this time, children are characterized by increased independence from adults, negativism - the desire to resist, not to succumb to any influences, suggestions, judgments, feelings of adults.

Like any other age, adolescence “begins” with a change in the social situation of development.

The specificity of the social situation of development is that the teenager is in a position (state) between an adult and a child - with a strong desire to become an adult, which determines many features of his behavior, the teenager strives to defend his independence and acquire the right to vote. Escaping adult supervision is a universal goal of adolescence. But this deliverance does not take place through a rupture of relations, separation, which probably also takes place (in special cases), but through the emergence of a new quality of relations. This is not so much a path from dependence to autonomy as a movement towards increasingly differentiated relationships with others.

Everything that a teenager has become accustomed to since childhood - family, school, peers - is evaluated and re-evaluated, acquiring new meaning and significance.

“Challenging adults is not so much an attack on adult standards as an attempt to establish boundaries that contribute to their self-determination” (C. Shelton).

Thus, in the social situation of a teenager’s development, a fundamentally new component appears - alienation, i.e. disharmony of relations in significant areas. Disharmony manifests itself in activity, behavior, communication, internal experiences, and its cumulative result is difficulties in “growing into” new areas. Disharmony in relationships occurs when a teenager leaves the familiar, comfortable system of relationships and cannot yet enter (grow) into new areas of life. In such conditions, adolescents need those qualities, the absence of which they are characterized by.

Adolescence is divided into junior adolescence and senior adolescence by the age of 13. Although, both in essence and in the nature of the changes occurring at this age, adolescence as a whole is a crisis.

There are both external and internal (biological and psychological) prerequisites for this.

External ones include:

1. Changing the nature of educational activities:

a) multi-subject;

b) the content of the educational material represents the theoretical foundations of science;

c) the abstractions offered for assimilation evoke a qualitatively new cognitive attitude towards knowledge.

2. Lack of unity of requirements (from 1st to 4th grade there was one primary school teacher, and now there are several subject teachers): how many teachers, so many different assessments of the surrounding reality, as well as the child’s behavior, his activities, views, relationships , personality traits. Hence the need to form one’s own position and emancipate from the direct influence of adults.

3. Involvement in socially useful work leads to the teenager’s experience of himself as a participant in socially useful activities.

4. The emergence of new demands from adults - real help with housework, assignment of responsibility.

5. Change in the child’s position in the family - they begin to consult with him. Expanding the teenager’s social connections - providing an opportunity to participate in the multifaceted social life of the team.

The presence of internal biological prerequisites is explained by the fact that during this period the entire human body enters the path of active physiological and biological restructuring.

Three systems are radically rebuilt at once: hormonal, circulatory and musculoskeletal. New hormones are rapidly released into the blood and have a stimulating effect on the central nervous system, determining the onset of puberty. The uneven maturation of various organic systems is pronounced. In the circulatory system, the muscle tissue of the heart outstrips the blood vessels in terms of growth; the pushing force of the heart muscle forces the vessels, which are not ready for such a rhythm, to work in extreme mode. In the musculoskeletal system, bone tissue outstrips the growth rate of muscles, which, unable to keep up with bone growth, become tense, creating constant internal discomfort.

All this leads to an increase in the fatigue, excitability, irritability, negativism, and pugnacity of adolescents by 8–11 times. This is how the negative phase of adolescence begins. She is characterized by restlessness, anxiety, disproportions in physical and mental development, aggressiveness, rudeness, opposition to the teacher, educator, flaunting of shortcomings, affective outbursts, contradictory feelings, stubbornness, criticism, self-will, insufficiently motivated actions, decreased performance, melancholy, etc. .

In this case, you should know that:

1) None of these negative manifestations, often noted in the behavior of children, are among the specifically age-related characteristics of a younger teenager.

2) These phenomena are only a derivative of the unsatisfied need for a decent position in a peer group (class, etc.) and in the family, as well as a gentle regime of work and rest.

3) Younger teenagers are characterized by increased fatigue.

Unmotivated antics and affective[1] outbursts are not observed in younger adolescents in a cheerful state; but in a state of fatigue they more often turn to ugly phenomena as a means of self-affirmation.

In order to prevent fatigue, it is necessary to monitor compliance by younger adolescents with age-appropriate sleep norms and school work schedule. It is harmful for 10-12 year olds to sit for many hours preparing homework, in class (without moving) classes in the additional education system. Ideally, a young teenager should play outdoors with peers for at least several hours a day[2].

The positive phase begins gradually and is expressed in the fact that the teenager begins to feel close to nature, perceive art in a new way, he has a world of values, a need for intimate communication, he can experience a feeling of love, dreams, etc.

We can distinguish four types of the most striking interests of a teenager, called dominants:

• “egocentric dominant” – a teenager’s interest in his own personality, his appearance, self-knowledge, increased criticism of himself;
• “dominant distance” - the teenager’s orientation towards vast, large scales, which are much more subjectively acceptable to him than the nearby, current, today’s ones;
• “dominant effort” - a teenager’s interest in resistance, overcoming, and volitional tension, which sometimes manifests itself in stubbornness, hooliganism, struggle against educational authority, and protest;
• “The dominant feature of romance” is interest in the unknown, risky, adventure, and heroism.

Leading activity

In this context, a change in leading activity also occurs. The leading role in adolescence is played by socially significant activities, the means of which are: learning, communication, socially useful work.

Teaching. It is in the learning process that thinking in concepts is mastered, without which “there is no understanding of the relationships underlying phenomena” (L. S. Vygotsky, 1984). Thinking in concepts makes it possible to penetrate into the essence of things, to understand the patterns of relationships between them, therefore, as a result of assimilation of new knowledge, ways of thinking are also restructured. Knowledge becomes the personal property of the student, developing into his beliefs, which, in turn, leads to a change in views on the surrounding reality (L. I. Bozhovich). Thus, “the complete socialization of thinking lies in the function of concept formation” (L. S. Vygotsky). The nature of cognitive interests also changes - interest arises in relation to a certain subject, specific interest in the content of the subject. (L.I. Bozhovich).

Due to the onset of puberty and the characteristics of the neuropsychic state, a number of changes occur in the cognitive sphere of the younger adolescent:

• the pace of their activities slows down (students now need more time to complete certain work, including homework);
• children are often distracted and react inadequately to comments;
• sometimes they behave defiantly, are irritated, capricious, their mood often changes.

Educational activity is characterized by extreme disorganization and impulsiveness. Teenagers do not know how to plan their actions, control them, and often jump from one thing to another without completing what they started.

Insufficient cognitive activity, combined with the rapid fatigue of a younger teenager, seriously hinders his learning and development. Rapidly occurring fatigue leads to loss of performance and, as a result, difficulty in mastering educational material arises: they do not retain the terms of the task in memory (short-term memory predominates, absent-mindedness), they forget words (a feature of memory), they make ridiculous mistakes in written work, there is no concentration, are unable to evaluate the results of their actions.

The educational life of a younger teenager is further complicated by the unjustified demands that teachers who are accustomed to working in high schools begin to place on younger teenagers.

The teacher should know that all these features are objective, and they will quickly pass and will not have a negative impact on learning if the teacher finds gentle methods and forms of interaction.

Communication. The leading motive for a teenager’s behavior is the desire to find his place among his peers. Moreover, the lack of such an opportunity very often leads to social maladaptation and crime. A teenager is maximally exposed to the influence of the group and its values; he is afraid of losing popularity among his peers. Tragically experiences situations of not being included in a peer group (if everyone is against me, I am against everyone). Social norms of behavior established by adults fade into the background. The younger teenager switches to intragroup norms of behavior (which he and his peers established). The desire for personal authority among peers gives rise to an active search for a role model. Teenagers begin to play certain roles at school and at home (the role of a leader, the role of an expert, the life of the party, a bully, a negativity[3]) and try out how adults will react to this or that role.

It is interesting that a teenager’s place in the system of relationships depends primarily on his moral qualities, and his position in the group determines the varying degrees of his “emotional well-being.” In communication as an activity, the child assimilates social norms, re-evaluates values, and satisfies the need for recognition and self-affirmation.

Socially useful activity. Trying to establish himself in a new social position, the teenager tries to go beyond student affairs into another area that has social significance. To realize the need for an active social position, he needs activity that receives recognition from other people, activity that can give him meaning as a member of society. It is typical that when a teenager is faced with the choice of communicating with friends and the opportunity to participate in socially significant activities that confirm his social significance, he most often chooses public affairs. This could be a group activity, extra classes, etc.

Central neoplasms

Against the background of the development of leading activity, the development of mental new formations of age occurs, covering in this period all aspects of personality development: changes occur in the field of morality, sexual development, higher mental functions, and the emotional sphere.

Central new formations: abstract thinking, self-awareness, gender identification, a sense of “adulthood”, revaluation of values, autonomous morality.

Thinking. During the transition from primary school age to adolescence, the student’s thinking should change qualitatively.

The essence of the change is the transition from visual-figurative thinking and the initial forms of verbal-logical to abstract thinking, which is based on a high degree of generality and abstraction.

A necessary condition for the formation of this type of thinking is the ability to make the thought itself the object of one’s thoughts. And it is in adolescence that all the conditions for this appear.

At the age of 10-12, children develop a desire to have their own point of view, to weigh and comprehend everything, a need to think about themselves and others, to think about objects and phenomena, including those that are not given in direct sensory perception.

This need is also met by the emerging new intellectual capabilities of middle school students.

We can talk about the emergence of the most favorable period at the beginning of adolescence for the formation of the foundations of abstract logical thinking.

The general intellectual development of students who cannot operate with abstract concepts, the formation of which is an important indicator of mental and speech development, slows down significantly. Without mastering the methods of logical-speech transformations, the student demonstrates a low level of language development, while he inaccurately expresses his thoughts, draws incorrect conclusions, strives for word-for-word reproduction of the text of the textbook, thereby creating in the teacher an idea of ​​himself as an incapable, “difficult” student .

A significant number of children’s school difficulties are also associated with the lack of development of abstract logical thinking, often leading to persistent academic failure. Knowledge of different levels—generalized and specific, acquired through spontaneously formed processes of mental activity—is poorly organized, and therefore in the student’s head they often “coexist” instead of developing into clear systems.

Schoolchildren who are just starting to study in secondary school, due to the low level of development of abstract logical thinking, from the first days begin to experience significant difficulties in learning, and, in addition, they may, in connection with this, develop a persistent negative attitude towards learning and intellectual activities in general.

In the moral sphere, two features deserve close attention:

1. Reassessment of values.

2. Stable “autonomous” moral views, judgments and assessments, independent of random influences.

However, a teenager’s morality is not supported by moral convictions and has not yet formed into a worldview, and therefore can easily change under the influence of peers.

Self-awareness. “The world of the psyche is revealed to the maturing teenager for the first time. In penetrating into inner reality, into the world of one’s own experiences, the function of concept formation that arises in adolescence plays a decisive role. Only with the formation of concepts comes the intensive development of self-perception, self-observation, intensive knowledge of inner reality and experiences. The concept, being the most important means of cognition and understanding, leads to major changes in the content of a teenager’s thinking” (L.S. Vygotsky). In the thinking of a teenager, the ability to abstract a concept from reality, formulate and sort out alternative hypotheses, and make one’s own thought the subject of analysis is revealed.

Accordingly, self-awareness develops in strict dependence on the development of thinking.

The formation of a teenager’s self-awareness lies in the fact that he begins to gradually isolate qualities from individual types of activities and actions, generalize and comprehend them as features of his behavior, and then the qualities of his personality. Self-concept[4] in adolescence is one of the most dynamically developing psychological structures.

The subject of assessment and self-esteem, self-awareness and consciousness are personality traits associated, first of all, with educational activities and relationships with others. The behavior of a teenager becomes behavior for himself, he realizes himself holistically. This is the end result and the central point of the entire transitional age.

An extremely important component of self-awareness is self-esteem. Self-esteem expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval towards oneself and indicates the extent to which an individual considers himself capable, significant, successful and worthy. During the crisis transition period from younger to older adolescence (13 years), adolescents experience a significant decrease in self-esteem.

Self-esteem depends on a positive or negative assessment of one’s school abilities, on how well established interpersonal relationships are with peers, as well as teachers, and on family relationships. A crisis of self-esteem and a negative self-concept often lead to poor social adaptation and negatively affect relationships with adults and peers (provoking conflicts and aggression).

Adaptation of cadets to daily activities and

studying at school

The problem of cadet adaptation to everyday activities and training at the school is one of the most important, since when a child enters a cadet school, many changes occur in his life: a strict daily routine, the absence of parents near him, new requirements for behavior, constant contact with peers , new living conditions, a different style of communication. All these changes create a stressful situation for the child. Not only the success of his education, but also his ability for further mental, personal and social development depends on how a child adapts to school, how successfully his first months and first year in an educational institution pass.

Learning anxiety is the broadest concept, encompassing various aspects of persistent emotional distress. It is expressed in excitement, increased anxiety in educational situations, in the classroom, in anticipation of a bad attitude towards oneself, negative evaluation from teachers, educators, and peers. The teenager constantly feels his own inferiority and is not sure of the correctness of his behavior. Due to high anxiety, students may not fully develop their abilities, knowledge, skills, and abilities, which, in turn, may affect the success of their learning.

It is important to remember: highly anxious teenagers react more emotionally to messages about failure; it is difficult for them to work in stressful situations or when there is a lack of time allotted to solve a problem. They are characterized by a fear of failure; this fear dominates their desire to achieve success. A message of success has great stimulating power.

Failure, as a rule, causes negative emotions and reluctance to complete educational tasks that cause difficulties. And if failure is repeated, a negative attitude towards the subject may become entrenched.

In case of incomplete adaptation process, unsuccessful adaptation, they speak of disadaptation - a reaction to the inability to solve problems posed by life itself. Its types:

1. Intellectual – impairment of intellectual activity. Lagging behind peers in studies.

2. Behavioral – discrepancy between the child’s behavior and legal and moral standards (aggression, antisocial behavior).

3. Communication – difficulties in communicating with peers and adults (“I am against everyone”).

4. Somatic – deviations in the child’s health.

5. Emotional – emotional difficulties, anxiety, worries about problems in studies.

Signs of difficulties during the adaptation period:

• the child's tired, tired appearance;
• the child’s reluctance to share his impressions of the day;
• reluctance to do homework;
• negative characteristics addressed to educators, teachers, peers;
• complaints about certain events related to the school;
• restless sleep;
• difficulty waking up in the morning, lethargy;
• constant complaints of poor health.

General recommendations

Necessary:

• To form in a teenager positive beliefs and attitudes towards educational activities and an academic subject by developing awareness and comprehension of the vital meaning of knowledge, creating situations of success, marking even small advances of the cadet, maintaining activity in the lesson, and minimizing public criticism.
• Organize and help cadets learn “victoriously”, gain confidence in their strengths and abilities.
• Teach cadets to see personality both in themselves and in each of those around them, to develop a consciousness of involvement in their group and in the social world as a whole.
• To create an environment of learning, communication, and work in which each student would feel like an individual and would feel personal attention to him.
• Do not skimp on encouraging and praising all the good aspects and socially valuable actions of the cadet.
• Conduct psychological and pedagogical activities, educational and individual educational work aimed at reducing the level of anxiety, increasing self-esteem and, as a result, academic performance, and creating a situation for a more comfortable stay at school.
• A cadet with high anxiety and low adaptation to the conditions of a military educational institution must be placed under dynamic psychological and pedagogical supervision.

Recommendations for certain behavior

(reactions) of a teenager

[1] Affect is a short-term, rapidly flowing state of strong emotional arousal associated with the dissatisfaction of vital needs.

[2] General recommendations for each age period will be presented at the end of each section, but in cases where it is more appropriate to do this along the course of the presentation of the material, recommendations will be in italics.

[3] Negativism is unmotivated behavior that manifests itself in actions that are deliberately contrary to the requirements and expectations of others.

[4] Self-concept is a system of internally consistent ideas about oneself.