Levels of personality development
Different levels of personality development are a reality. No one will confuse a person of high culture with a person who has no culture or is clearly insufficient. Any manager knows what a responsible person is, and is sad when he sees that an employee does not reach the required level. A person who lives only as an organism is always different from a person who lives at the level of the individual.
The level of personal development is determined by two main characteristics: the orientation of the individual and the resources of the person’s personal base. What is this, what is it about?
Personality orientation is the main indicator of the level of personal development
Characteristics of a person’s orientation that indicate different levels of personal development - the height of his goals and values, the concentration of his aspirations, the ability of a person to determine his own goals and values, to be not only an organism, but to be a person.
Basic indicators of the ability to be a person:
- The choice and development of the author’s life position,
- Development of basic positions of perception, elevation to the position of an Angel.
- Level of responsibility, including business (business responsibility): dependent, employee, specialist, responsible employee, mid-level manager, director, owner.
- Levels of adulthood: infantile, human-child, growing (descending) personality, adult,
- Ways of life: we remove from our lives situations when we manifest ourselves as Parasites, then we move from the existence of Consumers and Romantics to the life of the Creator. So, gradually, you can increase your level of social development.
Personal resources are the second indicator of the level of personal development
However, no matter how strong and lofty a person’s aspirations are, the result of his life is determined not only by this. What can a person do, what are his capabilities, are his resources great? The personal base is the social, personal, psychological and physical characteristics of a person, his tools and experience.
Indicators of the development of an individual’s personal base include:
- Level of mental health: neurosis, neuroticism, high emotional tone.
- The level of culture, which includes literacy, including psychological literacy.
- Level of intelligence: fool, adequate, smart, reasonable, wise.
- Level of emotional intelligence.
More local indicators of the development of the personal base include the development of the following qualities and abilities:
- Decentration - the ability to overcome one's egocentrism
- The ability to empathize
- Ability to make choices
- The ability to put oneself in another person's shoes
- Developing Awareness
- Acceptance of yourself and others
- Demanding on yourself and others
- Level of development of attention, perception and vision of the world (see Levels of attention)
- The ability to use neurological levels to organize one's behavior.
Basics of child development at school age
Every person, from childhood, is gifted with a certain set of character traits, which in the future can change both for the better and for the worse. The main task of parents at this stage is not to try to suppress the child’s character, depriving him of his inherent individuality, just because it is necessary, but rather to cultivate them, delicately and subtly guiding them in the right direction.
You must accept that your child will never be an exact copy of your idea of an ideal person, so you should not actively fight against his “wrong” personality. I repeat, parents should only prompt and help the student make the right decisions on his own! but in no case instead of him. Allow him some freedom in his actions. Yes, some of them will be wrong, but having been “burnt” a couple of times in childhood, in the future a person will be able to subconsciously avoid similar situations in adulthood.
The child will have no reason to reproach you in the future for the fact that his freedom of action was severely limited, that he was not allowed to independently manage his time. You should first of all help him with advice, but not choose the correct answer instead of him.
Levels of development and main areas of work of a child developmental psychologist
I LEVEL
1.5 – 2 years
The second year of life is a new stage in a child’s development. Objective activity becomes the main activity at this age, during which the child masters the space around him. This is a period of intensive growth and speech becomes the main mental new formation. The child develops an increased interest in the speech of an adult, he closely watches the movement of the lips of the speaking person, sometimes silently or in a whisper tries to repeat the spoken word. Active speech usually appears at one and a half years. A period of rapid enrichment of the vocabulary and complication of the grammatical structure of speech begins: children who previously uttered individual words or prefer to communicate with others using facial expressions and gestures begin to use speech on their own initiative. The pronunciation of sounds and words is still imperfect and may not always be clear, however, during the second year of life, the articulatory side of speech improves quite quickly.
An important moment at this stage of a child’s development is the first experience of communicating with peers. In the second year of life, a special form of child activity begins to develop - procedural play. Under the influence of an adult, the child increasingly reflects elements of his life experience in play with story toys.
Thus, the baby’s sphere of life is enriched with more and more new types of activity.
The work program of a developmental child psychologist at this level takes into account all the features of a given age period. They are built in the following areas:
Cognitive development
At this stage, the baby learns:
correlate the configurations of a three-dimensional geometric figure with a planar image;
navigate three or more contrasting values;
distinguish objects by shape, size and color;
learning to recognize the weight, texture, temperature of objects (heavy, light, soft, hard, cold, warm).
design skills - according to a model, at the request of the teacher;
we learn to hold a pencil, draw a curved or rounded line, and add to an adult’s drawing;
learning to make appliqué from ready-made forms;
sculpt simple shapes (ball, sausage, column, donut);
etc.
Game actions
The main innovation in the development of gaming activities is the emergence of a story-based game. A child learns to imitate an adult, a peer, a fairy-tale character, uses several substitute objects, all this contributes to the development of imagination and creative thinking. The child repeats words from familiar fairy tales and imitates the character’s movements.
Social-emotional development
At this age stage, long-term emotional memory appears. The foundation of basic social connections occurs, the child gains the first experience of joint, constructive interaction with peers. Development of aesthetic feelings and subtle emotional states: tenderness, sympathy, resentment, joy, melancholy, anger (aggression), fear, envy, interest.
Speech development
Programs aimed at developing a child’s speech include
learning to use adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, adverbs, etc. in speech;
we learn to answer questions based on the picture “Who is this?”, “What is he doing?”;
learning to tell a story based on a picture in two to three sentences;
learning to compose sentences of three or more words;
get acquainted with the names of animals, household items, etc.;
learning to build mini-dialogues with peers.
The developed psychological methods of advanced early development allow each child to develop in accordance with his own individual pace.
Intelligence tests assess not only the degree of general abilities, but also differences in the types of primary mental abilities.
II LEVEL
2.5 – 3 years
A period of intense growth.
There is an intensive development of active and passive speech, communication becomes not only objectively active, but also verbal. The vocabulary increases significantly and the grammatical structure of the language changes. The development of active and passive speech in the third year of life becomes the most important indicator of a child’s mental development. Cognitive activity increases significantly; objective activity still occupies a significant place in the child’s development, but acquires new features. By the end of early childhood, what becomes significant for a child is not so much the action itself, but its result - for example, it is important to sweep the floor, and not just make the appropriate movements with a broom. The emergence of goal-setting in a child becomes the most important stage in the development of his objective-practical activities and personality as a whole.
The work program of a developmental psychologist at this level takes into account all the features of a given age period. They are built in the following areas:
Cognitive development
At this stage, the baby learns:
distinguish objects by characteristics;
navigate the seven colors of the spectrum (including black and white), will be able to find a pattern, at the request of an adult;
learn to build a sequence of three to five objects from larger to smaller and from smaller to larger, establish correspondences, find identities;
visually navigate the configuration of three-dimensional geometric shapes, be able to name them and identify them by touch;
learn how to assemble a mosaic of three or four parts;
the child will be able to add missing details to an adult’s drawing, learn to draw circles, ovals, draw lines, paint, imitate a model;
learn to draw according to your own plans (creativity, development of imagination)
etc.
Game actions
The child will learn to take initiative in play (creativity). Will be able to “take on a role” and realize his role in the game, fantasize (introducing a fairy-tale character). Activities aimed at constructive interaction will help to move from “playing nearby” to “playing together”; the baby interacts with other children with interest, using substitute objects (we develop imagination, creative thinking).
Social-emotional development
In the classroom, the psychologist creates conditions conducive to the harmonious development of the individual. Programs aimed at developing the psycho-emotional sphere are based on game exercises. The child will learn to express his feelings with his eyes, facial expressions, tone, gestures, expressive movements, and poses. Emotionally express imaginary situations (in play). React vividly emotionally to the beautiful and the ugly (notice, distinguish, evaluate). Emotionally anticipate the outcome of certain actions (the beginnings of planning). Understand the state of others based on your emotional experience.
Speech development
During speech development classes, your baby will learn
use complex sentences when communicating;
the child will learn to use words when expressing his feelings, desires, impressions;
use emotional and expressive tones in speech;
use a word to denote your emotional states (I’m afraid, laughing, frozen, shy, happy, upset, etc.);
speak in grammatically formatted phrases, use subordinate clauses in speech;
change words by cases and numbers;
tell a coherent story based on the picture;
convey in words, gestures, intonation the content of a fairy tale, nursery rhyme, song, poem;
the baby will learn to come up with the ending of a fairy tale, which contributes not only to speech development, but also to the development of imagination and variable thinking;
use role-playing speech, coming up with text not only on your own behalf, but also on behalf of the character.
Formation and development of basic mental processes
development of holistic perception - name the whole imagination in detail, put together a mosaic of three or four parts;
first ideas about number, shows and says “one, two, three, many, few”, development of abstract ideas;
we learn to foresee the result (mental abilities), use means to achieve the goal (targeted actions);
stability of attention develops - the baby is able to observe for a long time, focus on activities that are interesting to him;
learn to distinguish between right and left sides;
generalize objects based on their properties: who (what) flies? Who (what) swims?
Formation of auditory perception and stability of attention - the child listens for a long time to a fairy tale proposed by the teacher;
Etc.
III LEVEL
3-4 years
A new stage in a child's life. Basic character traits and personal accentuations are formed and corrected. Intensive enrichment of the vocabulary continues. The adult behavior model is adopted. At this stage, the psycho-emotional development of the child becomes the main one. If the first two levels were stages of knowledge accumulation, now you can clearly see and analyze the results. Cognitive activity and initiative still occupy a significant place in the development of a child, but all this transforms into a different quality. A real, conscious perception of the surrounding space begins. Many children at this stage, in defense, escape from reality and invent their own world. This protective reaction of the body indicates the growth and development of your child. Real events, real space may not yet meet the needs of a 3-4 year old child. There is still a lot that is incomprehensible, unknown and therefore frightening. Inventing imaginary friends for himself, calling himself a fictitious name, the child seeks and finds a foothold in situations he himself has modeled - they are invented by him, therefore they are predictable and not scary.
There are various programs that provide psychological classes for children of this age. Despite certain differences, all of them set as their main goal the development of basic mental processes (thinking, imagination, speech development, attention, memory), as well as the formation and development of all senses and the emotional sphere of the child.
The proposed psychological programs allow the child to more easily adapt to a group of children, create a safe space for communication, conditions for self-expression, and help increase self-confidence.
At this age level, the work of a psychologist is based on the following areas. The baby will learn:
1. Formation and development of basic mental processes and cognitive development
expanding children’s understanding of color, developing the ability to subtly sense color and the ability to select adequate adjectives to describe it;
development of visual attention;
development of logical thinking and coherent speech;
developing the ability to establish connections between objects and draw conclusions;
development of phrasal speech when answering questions; developing the ability to express clearly and clearly, to construct complete sentences;
development of voice strength, pitch and duration of sound, and intonation expressiveness;
development of observation, ability to analyze, compare and generalize;
development of voluntary auditory attention and the ability to concentrate on auditory images;
activation of creative thinking and imagination
formation of spatial relationships;
ability to navigate on a sheet of paper, in space;
formation of differentiation of concepts - right - left, top - bottom;
development of stability and focus of attention.
concentration on tactile sensations and the formation of corresponding images;
development of muscle control;
practicing correct diaphragmatic breathing and the ability to exhale for a long time;
development of movement coordination.
2. Emotional and social development
development of the child’s positive emotional sphere;
formation of active personal attitudes and skills of purposeful activity;
fostering good feelings, the ability to empathize and take responsibility for one’s actions;
increasing self-confidence in children;
stabilization of mental processes, relief of emotional and bodily tension;
relieving emotional anxiety.
The results of a child psychologist’s work do not always appear quickly and are not as clear as when teaching children to read, count, and write. Therefore, you should not expect a quick demonstrative effect from working on these programs. However, as practical experience shows, after the classes, not immediately, not suddenly, but gradually and gradually, positive results begin to appear. Undesirable forms of behavior disappear in children, and the ability to perform activities that were previously inaccessible to them appears.
Conclusion
To summarize this article, I would like to give the main advice not only to parents, but also to teachers who work with children. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes - we are all human and therefore each of us has the right to make mistakes. The main thing is not to persist in your wrongness. Have the strength to admit the mistakes of your work methods, because the student’s personal growth depends on your professional actions.
You should be a light for your child, a person he can turn to without fear of judgment. All children are future adults who, without proper upbringing, cannot live in society. These shortcomings in upbringing will not allow them to reach their full potential and become truly happy people.
Rules for motivating a child
Before determining the moment that will be relevant for starting a mission, the name of which is “personal growth of the student,” you must first decide on the child’s motivation system, because an uninterested child will not strive to achieve a result if there is no motivation as such. There are four unbreakable rules that should be followed first:
- Stability is a delusion. It is impossible to adhere to the same pace of development all the time - try to encourage the child, even if the result does not justify the effort and time spent, the main thing that needs to be achieved is the child’s awareness that the result is undoubtedly important, but also his desire for self-development, completed path.
- Positive communication is much more effective than negative communication - under no circumstances scold or reproach your child if, for one reason or another, he was unable to cope with the assigned work. Parents, you and your child must figure out the reasons and correct them, instead of projecting all the negativity onto him. After all, you are the child's support, not his guardian. Try to gently and clearly explain to the student where he made the mistake and what needed to be done to avoid it.
- Encouragement not only for the result of the work done, but also for the manifestation of initiative - teach the child to take the initiative into his own hands, in this way you not only shape the child’s personal development, but provide him with a solid foundation for self-development and self-analysis in adulthood, which will serve in the future a good start for personal and spiritual growth.
- Find time to rest - working on yourself and gaining knowledge is, of course, just wonderful, but do not forget that the child needs rest and a shift in attention from learning. First of all, you must provide him with a happy and joyful childhood, the memories of which will warm his soul throughout his life. Give it time not only during training, but also during the game. Be close to him without encroaching on his personal territory. The child must invite you himself - this is the highest manifestation of trust in you on his part.
Factors influencing a student’s personal growth
There are a huge number of factors that can either push a child to actively strive for learning or push him away from them. The most common negative reasons for refusal to make contact and perceive information are fears and complexes.
Having fears that are associated with possible punishment for expressing your own opinion will not lead to anything good. Often, these fears occur in children whose parents try to almost forcefully impose their point of view and model of behavior. They do not realize that a child is also a person and it is vital to take his opinion into account.
We can see an example of these fears at the moment when students receive an assignment to write an essay, where they must characterize the characters. But what we see is that if the student’s opinion does not coincide with the teacher’s opinion, he receives a negative assessment. As a result, in the future, he will avoid expressing his own opinion, confident that he will be punished for this;
Personal complexes are considered another stumbling block . For example, an inferiority complex - a child, even if he achieves success in areas of activity that interest him, will still compare himself with others. He will consider himself incapable of anything. In this situation, the best solution to the problem is to convince the child of his uniqueness and originality. Don’t set others as an example for him: “Look at Petrik Pyatochkin, what he was able to achieve, but you can’t even do that.” The child must be sure that he is loved, that he is accepted as he is;
The hysterical component of character is another important factor that can greatly inhibit the personal growth of a student. Interfere with an adequate perception of the world around you and the assessment of building the necessary relationships with society. The only solution to this situation is to seek help from a highly specialized specialist. After diagnosing and choosing methods to combat frequent outbreaks of hysteria, you can help your child. Don’t be afraid to seek help from psychologists or psychiatrists; the main thing is your healthy and happy child.
All of the above factors are not congenital, they are acquired only as a result of improper upbringing and unfavorable growing conditions for the child.
