Unsuccessful child as a psychological and pedagogical problem

Of course, the problem of school failure worries us all. And it's not just adults who are worried, it's children too. After all, it is clear that there is not a single mentally healthy child in the world who would like to study badly. When a child for the first time crosses the threshold of school, he is most often filled with dreams of a bright and fascinating school world, of meeting with smart and kind teachers, of an early opportunity to talk to us in our adult language, about subjects that are not yet available to him, phenomena. In other words, the child wants to learn, learn new things and become a "good student". This is the leading motivation of children aged 7-8. When the dreams of successful learning break down on the first two, he first loses the desire to learn, and then he simply either refuses to go to school, skips classes, or becomes a "difficult" student: rude, humiliating teacher, does not perform tasks, prevents the work in class classmates.

The problem of school failure has always received special attention from both psychologists and teachers (M.N. Danilov, V.I. Zynova, N.A. Menchinskaya, T.A. Vlasova, M.S. Pevzner, A.N. Leontiev), A.R. Luria, A.A. Smirnov, L.S. Slavina, Yu.) Reasons for school failure were noted: unpreparedness for schooling, in its extreme form acting as a social and pedagogical neglect; somatic weakness of the child as a result of long-term illness in the preschool period; speech defects, not corrected in preschool age, vision and hearing deficiencies; mental retardation; negative relationships with classmates and teachers.

At present, scientific thought is characterized by the theory of two factors, i.e. the adoption of both biological and social theories. Specialists note that the problem of underachievement is both pedagogical and medical, as well as psychological and social. That is why in the last decade there have been more and more calls to unite the efforts of specialists from different fields in improving the performance of schoolchildren. It is believed that a comprehensive examination is necessary to identify the causes of failure. To psychological examination, anthropometric (type of build) and psychophysiological (properties of the nervous system) examination should be added.

Despite the close attention of teachers and psychologists, scientists and practitioners to the problem of school failure, the number of students experiencing difficulties in learning is constantly growing. According to data from the Institute of Age Physiology of RAO, 15-40% of schoolchildren have learning difficulties. It is noted that more than 30 per cent of children have continuing difficulties in learning. It must be said that the problem of school failure is not unique to our country. For example, according to M. Lenardussey, 25% of pupils in Western Europe are behind in their studies, while in Mali the number of pupils who fail is 25-35%.

According to N.I. Murachkovsky, persistent failure and repetition can lead to serious psychological consequences. Significant deviations in personal development of schoolchildren, formation of aggressiveness, self-confidence, isolation, and falsehood are possible. Unsuccessfulness of a schoolboy can become the reason of school maladaptation, prompt decrease in educational motivation, and as consequence - deterioration of behavior, and sometimes even criminal behavior.

Difficulties of adaptation and difficulties of learning at school may have the same external manifestations, reflected in the behavior of the child, his performance, relationships in the team, etc., but their causes, psychological and physiological mechanisms, their etiology can be quite different. Therefore, assistance to the child in each individual case should not be aimed at changing the behaviour itself, but at eliminating undesirable causes. The help to a child (to a concrete child) is impossible without understanding certain difficulties that he or she has. And this requires the teacher to recognize the typical difficulties caused by failure, and provide specific assistance.

Basics of the problem of failure of younger pupils

General characteristics of primary school age children

The boundaries of primary school age, which coincide with the period of education in primary school, are currently set from 6-7 to 10-11 years. During this period, the child's further mental and psycho-physiological development takes place, enabling systematic schooling. Above all, the work of the human brain and nervous system is being improved. According to physiologists, by the age of 7 the cortex of large hemispheres is already largely mature. However, the imperfection of the regulating function of the cortex is manifested in the peculiarities of behavior peculiar to children of this age, organization of activity and emotional sphere: younger schoolchildren are easily distracted, unable to concentrate for a long time, excitable, emotional. In younger school age, the psychophysiological development of different children is uneven. Differences in rates of development of boys and girls also remain: girls are still ahead of boys.

Starting school leads to a radical change in the social situation of a child's development. It becomes a "public" subject and now has socially important responsibilities, the performance of which is publicly evaluated.

The leading role in the early years of school is played by educational activities. It defines the most important changes taking place in the development of children's psyche at this age. Within the framework of educational activity, psychological neoplasms characterizing the most significant achievements in the development of younger schoolchildren and being the foundation that ensures development at the next age stage are formed.

During primary school age, a new type of relationship with people around begins to take shape. The unquestioned authority of the adult is gradually lost, peers are becoming more important to the child and the role of the child's community is growing. Thus, the central neoplasms of primary school age are:

• a qualitatively new level of development of arbitrary regulation of behaviour towards activities;
• reflection, analysis, internal action plan;
• the development of a new cognitive attitude towards reality;
• orientation towards a group of peers.

Thus, according to Erickson's concept, the age of 6-12 years is considered to be the period of transfer of knowledge and skills to the child, ensuring his or her initiation into working life and aimed at the development of diligence.

The most important neoplasms arise in all spheres of mental development: intellectual personality and social relations are transformed. The leading role of educational activity in this process does not rule out the fact that the younger schoolboy is actively involved in other activities, during which the child's new achievements are improved and consolidated.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, the specificity of primary school age is that the goals of activity are set for children mainly by adults. Teachers and parents determine what can and should not be done by a child, what tasks to perform, what rules to obey, etc. One of the typical situations of this kind is when a child performs any violation. Even among those schoolchildren who are willing to carry out an adult's task, quite frequent are cases when children do not cope with the tasks because they have not learned its essence, quickly lost initial interest in the task or simply forgot to perform it on time. These difficulties can be avoided if certain rules are followed when giving children an assignment.

Kolomensky Ya L. believes that the child to the age of 9-10 years old establish friendly relations with any of his classmates, it means that the child is able to establish close social contact with his peers, maintain a relationship for a long time, that communication with him too, someone important and interesting. Between the ages of 8 and 11 children consider friends of those who help them, responds to their requests and shares their interests.

Such qualities as kindness, attentiveness, independence, self-confidence, honesty become important for mutual sympathy and friendship. Gradually, as the child learns the realities of school, a system of personal relationships in the classroom is developed. It is based on direct emotional relationships, which prevail over everyone else.

Numerous studies of domestic psychologists have identified the most essential conditions allowing an adult to form a child's ability to independently manage his or her behavior. Such conditions are:

1. the presence in the child of a sufficiently strong long-term acting motive for his or her behavior;
2. introduction of a restrictive goal;
3. dividing of the assimilated complex form of behavior into relatively independent and small actions;
4. availability of external means, which are the basis for mastering the behavior.

An important condition for the development of the child's arbitrary behaviour is the participation of an adult who directs the child's efforts and provides the means to master.

From the first days of school, the child is included in the process of interaction with classmates and teachers. Throughout primary school age, this interaction has some dynamics and patterns of development.

Peculiarities of the learning environment for primary school-age children

According to L.S. Vygotsky, with the beginning of school education, thinking is put forward in the center of the child's conscious activity. The development of verbal and logical thinking, which takes place during the learning of scientific knowledge, reconstructs all other cognitive processes: "memory at this age becomes thinking, and perception becomes thinking".

According to G.'s concept. Piaget, the intellectual development of a 7-11 year old child is at the stage of specific operations. This means that during this period, mental actions become inverse and coordinated.

According to E.E. Danilova, junior school age is sensual:

• for formation of motives of ability, development of steady cognitive needs and interests;
• development of productive methods and skills of educational work, "ability to learn";
• disclosure of individual features and abilities;
• developing self-control, self-organisation and self-regulation skills;
• development of adequate self-esteem, development of self-criticism and criticism of oneself and others;
• assimilation of social norms, moral development;
• development of skills of communication with peers, establishment of other friendly contacts.

According to O.Yu. Ermolaev, during the primary school age there are significant changes in the development of attention there is an intensive development of all its properties: especially sharply (by 2.1 times) increases the volume of attention, increases its stability, develops the skills of switching and distribution. By the age of 9-10, children are able to maintain and implement a randomly set programme of action for quite some time.

According to E.E. Danilova, in younger school age memory, like all other mental processes, undergoes significant changes. Their essence is that the memory of the child gradually acquires the features of arbitrariness, becoming deliberately regulated and mediated. A child's lack of memorization affects his or her learning activities and ultimately his or her attitude towards learning and school. In early grades, where a student is required to simply reproduce a small amount of material, the "just memorize" approach helps to cope with the learning load. But it is not uncommon for students to be the only one for the duration of their schooling. This is primarily due to the fact that at this age the child has not mastered the methods of meaningful memorization, his logical memory has not been sufficiently formulated. Thus, the process of development of logical memory in younger schoolchildren should be specially organized, since in the overwhelming majority of children of this age do not use the methods of semantic processing of material on their own (without special training) and in order to remember it they resort to the tried and tested means - repetition.

Continuing conversation about sensibility, E.E. Danilova speaks that younger school age is sensible for formation of the higher forms of arbitrary memorization, therefore purposeful developing work on mastering mnemonic activity is during this period most effective. V.D. Shadrikov and L.V. Cheremankina identified 13 mnemonic methods, or ways to organize a memorable material: grouping, selecting reference points, making a plan, classification, structuring, schematization, establishing analogies, mnemonic techniques, recoding, completion of the memorable material, serial organization, association, repetition.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, with the beginning of training, the thinking is put forward to the center of the child's mental development and becomes a determinant in the system of other mental functions, which under his influence are intellectualized and acquire arbitrary character. The thinking of the child is at a critical stage of development. During this period, there is a transition from visual-like to verbal-logical, conceptual thinking, which gives the child's thinking activity a dual character: concrete thinking associated with real duality and direct observation is already subject to logical principles, but distracted, formally logical reasoning is not yet available to children. The development of thinking is also linked to the emergence of important new phenomena in primary school age: analysis, internal action plans and reflection. These neoplasms are formulated in younger schoolchildren in the course of learning activities.

On what does the difficulty of a schoolboy's study work depend? On the one hand, the peculiarities of educational material, on the other hand, the possibilities of the student from the individual and age characteristics of his memory, attention, thinking, and, of course, the skill of the teacher.

The difficulty of highlighting the main, essential, clearly manifests itself in one of the main types of learning activities of a schoolboy - in paraphrasing the text.

Psychologist A.I. Linkina, who studied the features of oral retelling in younger schoolchildren, noticed that a brief paraphrase is given to children is much more difficult than a detailed one. To tell a short story is to highlight the main one, to separate it from the details, which is what children do not know.

The mentioned features of children's thinking activity are the reasons for the failure of a certain part of pupils. Failure to overcome the difficulties arising in this teaching leads sometimes to the abandonment of active thought work. Pupils begin to use various inadequate techniques and ways of performing educational tasks, which psychologists call "workarounds". These include mechanical memorization of the material without understanding it. Children reproduce the text almost by heart, verbatim, but are unable to answer questions about the text. Another workaround is to complete a new task in the same way as any previous task. In addition, students with deficiencies in the thought process in the oral answer use a hint, try to write off and comrades, etc.

The inability and unwillingness to think actively are the hallmarks of this group of underperforming students, sometimes called "intellectually passive". Psychologists consider intellectual passivity as a consequence of improper upbringing and education, when a child has not passed a certain path of intellectual development during his life before school, has not learned the necessary intellectual skills and abilities.

There are 3 factors that can cause cognitive deficits and thus affect the performance of students:

• the non-formation of learning activities;
• deficiencies in the development of mental processes;
• Inadequate use by students of their sustainable individual and psychological characteristics.

Thus, junior school age is the most responsible stage of school childhood. The high sensibility of this age period determines the great potential for a child's development.

The major achievements of this age are due to the leading nature of learning activities and are largely determinant of subsequent years of schooling: by the end of primary school age, the child must be willing to learn, able to learn and able to believe in his or her own strength.

Fully living this age, its positive acquisitions, are the necessary foundation on which to build the child's further development as an active subject of knowledge and activity. The main task of adults in work with children of primary school age is to create optimal conditions for disclosure and realization of children's opportunities, taking into account the individuality of each child.

Reasons for school failure

Classification of reasons for school failure

To speak about the causes of school failure, it is necessary to dilute definitions found in literature, which are sometimes used as synonyms: school difficulties, failure, school maladaptation.

School difficulties refer to the whole range of school problems that a child may encounter when starting systematic schooling. As a rule, they lead to a pronounced functional tension, deterioration of health, violation of socio-psychological adaptation, as well as to a decrease in learning achievement.

According to specialists, school difficulties, which were not detected and compensated for in time, lead to failure.

Underachievement usually means unsatisfactory grades in a certain subject (or in all subjects at once) in a quarter or a year.

School failure, in turn, can lead to school maladaptation, i.e. students who do not learn the curriculum, have difficulty interacting with peers and teachers.

According to N.N. Zavadenko's data, school maladaptation differs in 31.6%; children. Of these, 42% are boys and 18.6% are girls.

The notion of "failure" is interpreted differently in pedagogical and psychological literature. In L.A. Regush's opinion, "in psychology, when speaking about failure, we mean its psychological reasons, which are, as a rule, properties of a pupil himself, his abilities, motives, interests, etc. Pedagogy considers as a source of failure the form, methods of organization of education and even the educational system as a whole".

Failure is related to the children's individual characteristics, the conditions of their development, and hereditary factors. That is why it is necessary to systematize various approaches to the problem of failure and to identify its causes.

There are various concepts and theories of failure. Thus, representatives of biologisatory theory believe that the main cause of failure is congenital factors that do not change learning. According to the sociogenetic approach, failure is the result of the influence of an unfavorable environment.

Much attention has been paid to the problem of school failure in the history of pedagogy and psychology (B.G. Ananyev, 1982, L.I. Bozhovich, 1962, 1968, 1978; L.S. Vygotsky, 1997; N.A. Menchinskaya, 1971; L.S. Slavina, 1958, etc.). In different historical periods this problem was treated differently. B.S. Bodenko suggests the following periodization.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the works of a Soviet scholar traced the connection between failure and social factors such as the social origin of parents. I.A. Armyanov, P.P. Blonsky, L.S. Vygodsky made attempts to consider a failing student in the context of his holistic, biosocial development.

In 1940-1950s M.A. Gelmont, M.A. Danilov, E.I. Monoszon, S.M. Rieves and others, paying attention to this problem, considered the main reason for the failure of the educational process, emphasized the importance of the level of pedagogical skill of the teacher. L.S. Slavina's researches are devoted to identification of purely psychological reasons and became the basis for identification of certain types of the unsuccessful student.

The 1960s - 1970s can be characterized as a time of increasing attention to the personality of a student, to the formation of the student as a subject of learning and education (Yu.K. Babansky, L.I. Bozhovich, Z.I. Kalmykova, etc.). In order to prevent and overcome underachievement it is proposed to optimize UVP at school.

In works of 1980th years (Borisov P.P., Kalmykova Z.I., Matyukhin M.V.) the main reasons of failure are considered the main components of psychological structure of educational activity. Besides, influence of individual-typical and age features of children's personality on success of their training is noted.

Nowadays, the theory of two factors, i.e. acceptance of both biological and sociological theories, is characteristic for scientific thought. M.M. Bezrukih notes that the problem of failure is both pedagogical and medical, and psychological and social. That is why in the last decade there have been more and more calls to unite the efforts of specialists of different profiles in improving the performance of schoolchildren.

It is believed that a comprehensive examination is necessary to identify the causes of failure. To psychological examination, anthropometric (type of addition) and psychophysiological (properties of the nervous system) examination should be added.

Harold B. Levi notes that recently the amount of research on the problem of failure has increased so much that no scientist can follow them. "Psychologists hardly read medical journals, doctors are not interested in psychological literature, and school teachers do not read either".

The criterion for determining failure is the teacher's recording of unsatisfactory grades at the end of the quarter.

A.F. Anufriev believes that the huge variety of reasons for failure reflected in the literature leads to the fact that the teacher, finding out the cause of learning difficulties, feels difficult to choose diagnostic methods and corrective programs.

Depending on the causes of failure, there are several approaches to classifying failure types. Let us consider some of them.

Thus, A.A. Budarnyi singles out two types of failure - absolute and relative:

1. Absolute failure, in the author's opinion, is expressed by grades "2" and "1" and corresponds to the minimum requirements of the school program;
2. Relative failure is characterized by insufficient cognitive load of those students who could exceed the mandatory requirements of the school program and the capabilities of individual students.

A.M. Gelmont and N.I. Murachkovsky present another classification constructed depending on stability of lagging. They highlight three degrees of school failure and the reasons for its occurrence in each case.

Polish researcher V.S. Zetlin, analyzing the literature on the problem of underachievement, focuses our attention on the fact that along with fixed underachievement there is a hidden underachievement, that school underachievement can be expressed not only in gaps of knowledge, but also in the attitude of students to teaching.

The classification of the English author F. Schoonella is based on the identification of its causes, namely:

• A - general failure, which leads to stupidity;
• B - general failure (corrected and unfixed) or special (corrected and unfixed).
• C - the failure to do well, caused by the child's unrealized abilities. The highest degree of this failure leads to "B", i.e. total failure.

N.P. Localova distinguishes two types of school failure: the general backlog in studies and the backlog in individual subjects.

In order to achieve effective work to overcome school failure, it is necessary, first of all, to identify the causes causing it. There is no consensus on the causes of underachievement among specialists who pay attention to the problem, but an analysis of the relevant literature has made it possible to identify several groups of factors that lead to underachievement in school:

• physiological factor;
• social factor;
• psychological factor.

P.P. Blonsky (1930, 1965) believed that the causes of failure could be pathological heredity (nervous and heart diseases), unfavorable childhood in the morning, poor performance of the parent, and others.

L.S. Slavina names the following among the causes of failure:

• the wrong attitude to study;
• difficulties in assimilating the educational material;
• inability to work;
• lack of cognitive learning interests;
• lack of skills and ways of learning activity or incorrectly formulated skills and ways of learning activity.

Yu.K. Babansky, N.I. Murachkovsky identify such causes of failure as gaps in knowledge, skills of labor organization, underdevelopment of individual thinking processes, etc.

P.P. Borisov offers a detailed classification of the causes of failure, combining all possible causes in 4 large blocks:

• Pedagogical reasons: shortcomings in teaching individual subjects, gaps in knowledge in previous years, incorrect transfer to the next class;
• Social and domestic reasons: unfavourable conditions. Inappropriate behaviour of parents. Material security of the family, absence of home regime, neglect of the child;
• Physiological reasons: diseases, general weakness of health, upper respiratory tract diseases. Infectious diseases, motor disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), nervous system diseases;
• Psychological reasons: peculiarities of the development of attention, memory, slowness of understanding, lack of speech development, unformed cognitive interests, narrow-mindedness.

A.L. Wenger and G.A. Zuckerman among the reasons for failure to achieve the following:

• problems connected with mental development;
• behavioural problems;
• emotional and personal problems;
• learning problems;
• neurotic manifestations (ticks, enuresis), etc.

G.I. Vergeles, L.A. Matveeva, P.I. Rayev believe that school failure can be caused:

• mental features of a pupil;
• lack of volume and quality of knowledge;
• insufficiently formed educational activity;
• attitude to others;
• deformation of teaching motives.

Specialists believe that at different stages of ontogenesis and different stages of learning the leading causes of school failure may be different. In critical periods (the beginning of schooling, the period of puberty), physiological, psychophysiological reasons will prevail, while in other periods social reasons may be more important.

O.P. Matveeva cites interesting facts that allow to highlight the contradiction in views on the problem of failure of various subjects of the pedagogical process:

• 80 per cent of parents who have asked for advice on school difficulties believe that the main reasons for a child's failure are related to the teacher (teachers' unfairness - 29 per cent; inability to find an approach to the child - 48 per cent; low qualification - 23 per cent);
• Teachers (88%) attribute their difficulties in working with children to the wrong attitudes of their parents (passiveness and inattention to children - 31%, unwillingness or inability to help the child - 18%).

According to research data, specialists have identified the views of teachers, parents, administration representatives and children on the problem of failure.

The survey of 104 teachers determined that teachers consider the main reasons for failure to succeed:

• 60% health;
• family problems 32%;
• low self-esteem of the pupil 16%;
• anxiety 18 per cent;
• pedagogical neglect of children 24 per cent;
• programme complexity 16.5 per cent.

Parents (100 people surveyed) tend to believe that the main reasons for their children's failure are:

• uninteresting teaching of the subject - 36%;
• laziness of the child - 32%;
• lack of attention of children - 28%;
• lack of individual approach - 24%;
• high learning loads - 24%.

The survey of 94 psychologists showed that they consider failure to succeed as a consequence:

• 30 per cent of parents' ambitions;
• immaturity of children's mental functions - 28 per cent;
• Insufficient consideration of the individual characteristics of students 28 per cent;
• children's health problems 20 per cent.

The above figures showed that in order to optimize the process of education at school, it is necessary to use a comprehensive approach, to take into account the views of parents, teachers, doctors, etc., and it should not be forgotten that the search for the causes of failure and ways of solving the problem should be based primarily on the interests of children themselves.

An analysis of the literature on the problem of school failure has made it possible to identify several factors that may lead to failure from the causes mentioned by many authors.

Psychological reasons for failure

Some experts note that school failure may be caused by various psychological reasons in different cases. N.P. Localova admits that there is an urgent need to help teachers who work with poorly performing students. However, she believes that the help will be effective only if she knows the psychological reasons for failure. There may not be a direct and unambiguous correlation between the external manifestations of difficulties and their psychological causes.

At the heart of any one difficulty in educational activity, notes N.P. Localova, can lay different psychological reasons, but the same psychological reason can cause different external displays. For example, the pupil can be inattentive because of indifferent processes of attention and insufficient load on thought activity, and also because of lack of interest to the doctrine, presence of personal problems. Difficulties of breathing, thinking activity (for example, processes of memory, attention, etc.).

As a rule, psychological reasons for failure include the properties of the student, his abilities, motives, etc.

Among psychological factors, it is possible to distinguish several spheres influencing learning:

1. cognitive;
2. motivational;
3. emotional-willful.

L.B. Ermolaeva-Tomina, I.A. Akopiants, V.K. Voevodkina believe that for successful mastering of each subject it is necessary to form certain qualities of cognitive processes at schoolchildren.

Many specialists, in particular Dembele Baba, have proved in the course of research that there is a certain correlation between the level of manifestation of some features of attention, memory, thinking, and school performance. D.B. Elkonin asserts that nowadays it is experimentally proved that it is possible to form (in case of creation of certain learning conditions) much higher level of mental development in the younger school age.

However, deficiencies in the development of thought processes in a number of cases may be caused by age-specific features of thought activity.

Concreteness of thinking of younger schoolchildren makes it difficult to understand the figurative meaning of words and word combinations, syncretism of thinking (absence of necessary and sufficient analysis of all data) leads to wrong conclusions, inertia - to formation of templates, unambiguousness (being chained to only one side of the considered subject, phenomena) - to inability to operate simultaneously with all data necessary for solving the problem, etc.

Teaching should go hand in hand with the child's mental and physical development, not contradict it. During primary school, the leading function of the child is sensual perception, on the basis of which learning should be built (from sensual knowledge - to abstract understanding).

Acknowledging the need to develop cognitive processes in order to improve learning achievement, a number of scholars hold the following view: in order to successfully master many school subjects, students must have a high level of memory development, because memory is the most important cognitive process that underpins learning.

In the early school years there is an intensive formation of memorization techniques, so it is during this period it is appropriate to introduce children to mnemonic techniques that help structure and memorize the material. Children in primary school are characterized by verbal and logical thinking.

Many authors believe that some features of the development of thinking can cause failure. Insufficient organization of independent active work of thinking in the process of learning is revealed when the knowledge gained should be applied in practice. L.S. Vygotsky believes that the younger school age is a sensible period for the development of conceptual thinking. The formation of scientific notions at this age is just beginning. Depending on the perception and type of thinking, all children can be conditionally divided into "thinkers" and "practitioners" and "artists. When building a lesson, the teacher should focus on this feature of the child.

According to many authors, lack of attention development may also cause difficulties in learning the curriculum. In first-graders, arbitrary attention is poorly developed, unstable, the volume of attention is small, they can do the same thing for 10-20 minutes.

O.M. Razumnikova and E.I. Nikolaeva conducted a study that showed that one of the factors of success in learning is the behavior of children in class, which teachers often consider in terms of the effectiveness of the attention function. Attention impairment may be the result of physiological changes or the result of the child's situational psychological state (lack of motivation for learning, conflicts with the teacher, parents, and peers). The authors of the research believe that the more symptoms of attention disorder, the lower the marks in all subjects.

This point of view is shared by G.M. Ponomareva, who asserts that all schoolchildren who do not have time due to ZPR, - children without development deviations, but who do not have time in Russian language and mathematics, as well as the majority of students, steadily succeeding in "3", have defects in the organization of attention, which can certainly be one of the reasons for learning difficulties.

Studies by T.M. Matyukhina, T.P. Meshkova, and N.V. Gavrish have shown that the relationship between learning achievement in individual subjects and the properties of attention is different in groups of attentive and inattentive second-graders. Achievement in the Russian language in attentive second-graders correlates with indicators of accuracy in tests on attention distribution. Attentive students are strongly influenced by the distribution of attention (determined by indicators of accuracy), less detectable is the dependence of learning success on the volume of attention. In attentive students, the relationship between attention and success in writing is chaotic.

Of all the properties of attention being studied (concentration, stability, switchability, distribution, volume), the greatest correlation between performance and switchability is found.

Studies by N.I. Murachkovsky have proved that failed students mostly do not have pathological disorders of memory and attention.

E.S. Gobova recommends to build an effective training program to take into account which channel of perception of information is used by each child (visual, auditory, kinestic), in what form the information is stored in the consciousness (in the form of visual, auditory, kinestic images) and how the child checks the correctness of their decision (for example, when writing a dictate).

M.I. Krupennikova cites data confirming that approximately 75% of writers are dominated by visual memory.

If a child is well developed both visual and auditory and kinestic systems in another, training is given to him easily. If the child relies on only one system, the teacher should give material according to that system. Michael Grinder and Betty Lou Liver recommend that the teacher explain the new material based on the leading teaching style, then fix it on a weak system and test the knowledge again based on the child's preferred style.

E.S. Gobova, M. Grinder connect learning achievement with a knowledgeable representative system of the student. The style of school education changes from class to class (primary school - kinestic, secondary school - audiovisual, senior - visual), in this regard, a successful child who has developed all three systems. Children - visuals, as a rule, are the most prepared to learn literate writing (G.B. Monina).

In connection with the above, the teacher is faced with the need to develop all channels of perception for students. Gobova, Grinder, Sirotyuk, Liver, etc. recommend multi-sensory learning for children, in which information is given through several channels. For more successful learning, it is necessary to use all three channels of perception: visual, audio, kinestic.

A.O. Drobinskaya pays special attention to the emotional sphere of the child in the book "School difficulties of non-standard children" writes: "Analyzing each individual case of persistent difficulties in learning and violation of adaptation to school, it is necessary to take into account not only the peculiarities of development, health and gaps in knowledge, but also the emotional state of the student, the direction of his personal efforts and interests.

L.M. Strakhova notes the connection between emotional processes and thinking and believes that the teacher has the main role in the emergence of emotional connections in the learning process.

The author believes that the main factor of productivity in the cognitive sphere is the emotional connection between teacher and students. The teacher stimulates the mental activity of children by emotionally staining mental operations. In the complex activation of cognitive functions (perception, attention, memory, thinking), the necessary condition is the ability of the teacher to use the speech properties of expressiveness, which activate the attention of students and promote a conscious understanding of the learning material.

Many specialists note the impact of self-esteem on a child's success at school. Undoubtedly, the confidence with which a student answers the teacher's questions at the blackboard depends not only on the level of knowledge and preparation for the lesson, but also on his level of self-esteem. Low self-esteem creates problems both in learning the material ("I will not understand it anyway"; "I will never remember it") and in relationships with classmates and teachers ("I will not answer at the blackboard, everyone laughs at me", "I will not go to the biology class, the teacher still thinks I'm a dumbass and above two will not put").

Typically, children come to school with a desire to learn, but gradually increasing difficulties, problems arising in the school of some children, lead to a negative attitude towards the teacher and reduce self-esteem. In R.M. Granovskaya's opinion, the self-esteem of younger schoolchildren is unassessed based on the opinion of surrounding adults and remains in key aspects until adolescence.

Another variant of influence of success of learning on formation of self-esteem of the schoolboy: there are cases when the child successfully and without problems, practically without spending efforts, passes from class to class. On a background of easy successes is fixed habit to constant approval, develops a high level of claims and high self-esteem. But when a pupil in high school where the material requires deep and serious study, suddenly realizes that he no longer has a clear superiority in relation to classmates, and even encounters difficulties in learning, his self-esteem falls sharply.

Inadequate self-esteem can also lead to problems both for the student and for those around him and those who interact with him. It is not uncommon for teachers and students to have conflict situations where the teacher and the student refuse to attend classes in the subject, unreasonably considering themselves to know the course material better, and as a result, they have significant problems in mastering the subject material. Sometimes a child does not agree with a fair assessment, considering himself to be right and disagreeing with the teachers' arguments, who try to explain the essence of the problem and propose solutions.

Formation of adequate self-esteem depends on the teacher's attitude towards the child and his position in the school community.

Poor performance usually leads to deterioration of the child's relations with classmates, to complication of relations with parents and teachers, and as a result - to a decrease in the level of self-esteem. The child becomes conflicted, withdrawn, or seeks communication outside school and family.

Willful action is characterized by the fact that it is the subject's own, proactive and simultaneously conscious and meaningful action. N.P. Mayorova asserts that a child is only ready for school when he or she has formed volitional qualities, when he or she can set his or her own goal and achieve it. An important component of learning activity is self-control by pupils.

The lack of such volitional qualities as initiative, independence, etc., can affect the success of the child's learning. However, it is possible to assume that formation of volitional qualities can be carried out only if the child has a positive emotional attitude towards education.

A.N. Leontief points to the possibility of direct dependence of intellectual processes on the activity motivation: only with a certain kind of motivation is it possible to have a real, not formal mastery of the operations of theoretical thinking.

The tasks of training can be considered solved completely, notes D.B. Elkonin, only if the full motives of learning activity are raised. A child's attitude to teaching, i.e. educational motivation, plays a decisive role in shaping the personality of a schoolboy. Highlighting external and internal motives for learning, L.I. Aidarova refers to external motivation as everything that lies outside of the activity itself: "reinforcements after the task, external control," etc. To internal motivation is that which follows from the task of the activity itself, "providing from within its continuous learning". L.I. Aidarova believes that such motivation is formed in the process of activity itself, mainly due to the preservation of approximate research moments in it. Reproductive learning, which is carried out in traditional programs, has one goal - to obtain knowledge, to approve the approval of others. In development programmes (productive learning), however, the main motive, apart from knowledge, will be the learning process itself.

The level of motivation of schoolchildren to study is reduced by the end of primary school age, which may be a disadvantage in the organization of learning, in particular, with the system of assessment of children's knowledge.

Lou Liver believes that "there are simply no students who are not motivated to learn. Some, and perhaps even many, students are discouraged by the motivation of teachers who do not accept them, parents, peers who learn more quickly, and learning materials themselves that target other types of students". Thus, the reason for failure is not psychological, but social and domestic.

In A.A. Sirotyuk's opinion, the teacher should put forward the task to form at children a motive of achievement, to create a situation of success which is connected with motivation sphere and is defined by psychological aspects of the child's individuality.

Thus, D.B. Bogoyavlensky considers "creation of a problem situation as a necessary condition for active mental activity. The need for knowledge arises in those cases when on the way of the student there are obstacles, difficulties, which he can not overcome without the necessary information for this".

The problem situation may become the first step of the method of independent work, which will force the student to turn to analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization.

However, Z.I. Kalmykova calls for very clear restrictions on the application of the principle of problem solving, believing that in some conditions it is better to be oriented towards reproductive thinking.

The variety of approaches to the problem of learning efficiency, the multitude of unrelated classifications of the causes of failure, and recommendations make it difficult for the teacher to analyze specific cases of children's failure in the classroom. Introduction of the position of a practical psychologist in school can be useful in improving the effectiveness of learning, since it is this specialist is designed to help the teacher to understand the flow of psychological information, to understand the causes of failure of each individual student in each case.

Physiological reasons for failure

It is no secret that children's health has been steadily deteriorating over the past decades. More and more children are coming to school with chronic illnesses of some kind. Since the 1990s, there has been a decline in the number of preschool children with normal physical development. According to data from the Scientific Research Institute of Hygiene and Disease Prevention for Children and Adolescents, the number of absolutely healthy children has fallen to 15.1 per cent, while the number of children with various health conditions has increased to 67.6 per cent.

Diseases of the musculoskeletal apparatus, respiratory organs and skin diseases are the most common in preschool children (4-7 years old), and the picture is less favourable for boys than for girls.

School is a very serious and complex plan in the life of every child. The task of preserving the health of the child should be considered no less important than the pursuit of excellent conventionality at any cost. Conditionality should be noted not only the grades in the diary, but also the accompanying good health.

To date, medical statistics show that only 10% of school leavers can be considered absolutely healthy. There is a clear downward trend in the mental health of children and adolescents. The main forms of child mental pathology are neurosis, psychopathy and deviant behaviour.

That is why specialists working with children and parents need to take into account the child's state of health and the option of his or her individual development when organizing the educational process, both at school and at home. Children with poor health are more in need of a gentle regime, control over the learning load, and careful attention from teachers and parents.

Let's consider some individual cases of special development of children, which are most often addressed to the psychologist by concerned parents.

Left-handed children deserve special attention from teachers. The main difficulties of such a child usually begin on entering school. Many specialists believe that left-handed children should be taught in a different way from the generally accepted teaching method. It should be remembered that left-handedness is not an abnormality in the state of health, but only another normal variant of development, a manifestation of individuality within the norm.

Left-handed child is not very comfortable in the right hand world: and hold a spoon in his right hand and a pencil. But the main difficulties, as a rule, begin at school.

Almost 90% of people have a leading right hand and only 10% - left or equally well own both right and left hand. The leftists were Leonardo da Vinci, Charlie Chaplin, I. Pavlov, V. Dahl. Left-handed and right-handed people have different brain organization and, therefore, the choice of the leading hand for any activity is very difficult.

Left-handed children are characterized by increased emotionality with weakened braking processes, it is desirable to involve such children in moving games, to give various tasks requiring frequent switching of attention. It should be remembered that by retraining the child, changing the leading hand, we inevitably cause a restructuring in brain activity.

So far there is no clear and unambiguous answer to the question what is the reason for left-handedness and how such a person differs from the right hand, but it is known that left-handedness - the result of special organization of the brain - determines not only the leading hand, but also some features of the organization of higher mental functions (speech, reading, writing). Certainly, one cannot consider left-handedness a pathology, let alone a precondition for the decrease of mental abilities.

In June 1985, the first all-Union seminar "Health care of left-handed children" was held, at which the following decisions were made:

1. not to retrain left-handed children;
2. to develop methodological recommendations on the SD of left-handed children;
3. to oblige medical workers of pedagogical institutions to identify left-handedness in the course of children's checkups and to include this data in the outpatient records.

If a left-handed child was retrained at preschool age, "double" retraining after the first quarter of the first grade is categorically contraindicated.

Fortunately, parents and teachers who retrain left-handed children are less and less common now, but the problem of teaching left-handed children (defining the methods of teaching writing, planting, position of the notebook; work of the child at labor lessons and in school workshops, selection of special tools) still remains unsolved.

There are generally accepted rules for the communication of left-handed children. When writing with the left hand, it is not recommended to demand that children write with the same inclination as right handers. It is categorically contraindicated to require left-handed children to write without interruption, the trajectory when writing ovals should be lighter, from top to bottom, from left to right, and lighter connections in the form of "loops".

Left-handed children more often than right-handed children note mirror writing, pronounced handwriting disturbances, example, incorrect letter writing (optical errors), most often they have lower speed and worse connectivity. When writing, drawing, reading everything should fall on the right side.

General tactics of behavior of the teacher and parents, who consider left-handedness of the child as an individual variant of development within the norm, creation of favorable conditions for the formation of motor skills will help left-handed children to adapt in the mainly right-handed world and successfully study at school.

As mentioned above, one of the possible causes of school failure is a child's physical health. Many illnesses that used to be mostly adult ill are increasingly common in children.

Often a sick child is more irritable, tires out more quickly, has lower levels of physical and mental activity, is less resistant to all kinds of stress, less able to work.

However, general weakness of the body may also be congenital. By the beginning of schooling somatically weakened child often looks younger than his age, is characterized by excitability, capriciousness, fatigue, tearfulness. In addition, to reduce the endurance of the child to the load may be changes that occur in the body due to growth spurt occurring at 6-7 years of life, because the period of primary school may coincide in time with a period of intensive growth of the child's body.

The probability of such coincidence is particularly high in children with delayed development, and their level of biological development often does not coincide with the calendar. Changes that occur at a timely development stage in older preschool age take place already behind the school desk. A child's stability during this period decreases, and the normal school load may be excessive and have an adverse effect on health. It is all the more tiring for a child who is weakened, and the resistance to learning loads and various illnesses is further reduced.

Difficulties in adapting to school conditions are due not only to the increased fatigue of these children and reduced ability to work, but also to the infantile features of the psyche, which are different in often ill, weakened child: incompetence, timidity, extreme dependence on an adult.

In spite of the fact that the intellectual activity of such children may be relatively preserved, their systematic study load and stay in the children's group is often impossible for them. The standard load is excessive: fatigue is faster than in healthier children. Accumulated fatigue lack of timely rest (they have time to get tired, exhausted long before the break between lessons and do not have time to rest for a change) leads to the formation of asthenic syndrome, ie, a state of neuro-psychiatric weakness, rapid depletion, fatigue from any activity, inability to long-term stress.

The child becomes more sensitive to external stimuli (loud sounds, bright light), he becomes irritable, crying, impatient, headaches appear more often, attention and memory deteriorate. The painful increase in sensitivity can be so pronounced that the child suffers from ordinary everyday irritants - for him it becomes intolerable to stay in a noisy classroom, the sound of a school bell makes him shudder, a loud teacher's voice causes headaches.

Violation of the regulation of vegetative processes is clearly manifested: digestive and vascular tone disorder sluggishness to fainting, all kinds of pains that have no organic basis. Sleep becomes superficial, anxious, the child often wakes up in the morning, feels tired, depressed unwillingness to do anything.

Much attention is paid to the school success of a child who is often ill by the social and living conditions of the family and the style of education. As a rule, a child growing up in a socially and pedagogically neglected environment does not receive sufficient treatment at home and may spend most of the year in hospitals and sanatoriums. Often missed lessons, gaps in knowledge, constant changes in learning conditions, lack of a permanent children's team and broken friendships lead to a violation of school motivation (their reduction), the level of claims. The child ceases to cope with the material available to him/her.

Another problem is education in the style of hyperheropeka, which makes it difficult for the child to develop independence and adequate self-esteem. Fixation of the child on his or her painfulness, understatement of requirements leads to the fact that, faced with real school difficulties, he or she is not ready to overcome them to achieve the necessary result. The child, feeling discomfort, is more inclined to leave the problem rather than to make any efforts to solve it.

In both cases, the combination of the child's asthenization and inadequate social and living conditions can lead to distorted personality formation, which will prove to be maladapted not only to school but also to generally mobile social conditions.

A number of children at admission to school have features of mental immaturity (first of all, it is shown in emotional-volitional sphere), keeping, according to L.S. Vygodsky's definition, earlier children's organization of psyche. Such children observe later formation of educational activity and more direct behavior than school conditions require.

Such condition, when the child as though "detained" at the previous age stage of maturing of psyche, has received the name mental infantilism syndrome.

It is accepted to distinguish several tests of mental infantilism:

1. Harmonic - a proportional combination of physical and mental immaturity in the absence of painful deviations of the child's mental condition. This form of infantilism is usually found in hereditary predisposition of the child to later development, in close relatives it is also possible to reveal the presence of infantile features in childhood. Sometimes it occurs in twins and prematurely born children. The development of children with harmonic infanticism has a favorable prognosis: with the proper organization of education and training, these children over time catch up with their peers in their studies, the negative trends in their personal development are smoothed out.
2. Disharmonic - is based on the delayed development of frontal lobes of the human brain, due to objective factors and improper education. Children with a simple form of mental infantilism by behavior are evaluated 1-2 years younger than their age. Parents and caregivers are often confused by their naivety, unaccustomed to reality and the manner of free treatment of adults. Peers approach them as equals, but communication is difficult or even impossible.
3. Psychogenically conditioned - an artificial delay in the socialization of the psyche and physically healthy child by an egocentric or anxiously suspicious style of education. Infantileism is cultivated by hyperhero, the child is protected from difficulties, limits communication with peers. Missed age development may be missed forever: the child had no objective prerequisites for the development of infantilism, it was caused artificially. According to V.I. Zakharov, this type of mental infantilism is more difficult to correct.

Mental infantilism is not a general mental retardation. Speech development of drawing skills is to develop in full accordance with age standards, they learn to read and count in time.

The most noticeable signs of infanticism become at the beginning of school learning, when children find themselves unable to learn: they do not understand their responsibilities in the classroom, they have no sense of responsibility to the school and the teacher. School activities are hindered by increased motor activity, inability to exert tension, lack of learning motivation. The interests of these children are in line with pre-school age, and the leading form of activity is still play (they bring toys to the class, say they would like to stay in kindergarten).

An infantile child cannot arbitrarily control his or her behaviour by the time he or she starts school. His behavior is impulsive and direct: he can be involved in general work, actively perform the task, but if the game "in school" he is bored, he can get up and walk in the classroom, talk to a neighbor at the desk, do other things. He does not understand the school rules and regulations

Repressive measures only increase the risk of school maladaptation of such a child. The most effective way to work with such a student is to maintain a direct interest in what is happening in the classroom.

However, mental infantilism can also be combined with a low level of intellectual capacity of the child. In this case, it is desirable to conduct additional individual lessons with the child in the form of didactic games.

Specialists note a number of features of the psychophysiological development of infantile children, which affect the success of their education:

• motor infantilism - the movements of infantile children are often impulsive, insufficiently coordinated and precise; the development of motor stereotypes is difficult, which is particularly evident in a child's learning to write, draw and work;
• concrete and demonstratively effective thinking prevails;
• the insufficiency of verbal and semantic memory was noted (the greatest difficulty in memorizing matter, requiring awareness of the connection between its parts);
• lack of active attention, increased distractiveness, inability to concentrate;
• inability to work according to instructions at a general pace for the whole class.

Thus, the construction of correctional work with infantile children involves taking into account their physiological characteristics, level of mental development and general preparedness for school.

Learning difficulties and behavioural disorders can be the result of so-called psycho-organic syndrome. Psycho-organic syndrome (in Russian literature) - a complex of disturbed intellectual activity, emotional-volitional sphere and behavior arising as a result of organic brain damage. The English-language literature uses the name "minimal brain dysfunction" to describe the psycho-organic syndrome.

This concept is rather vague, as it has no clear boundaries or degrees of expression. It may include individual manifestations of hyperdynamic syndrome, cerebral growth, organic infantilism and may cause a complex of these disorders.

The causes of such disorders are complications during pregnancy of the mother, her illness, occupational hazards, intoxication, adverse course of childbirth (fetal oxygen deficiency in delivery, birth trauma), severe diseases at an early age, brain injuries.

The manifestations of this syndrome are different depending on age.

School-age children show impulsivity, emotional unrestraint, weak sense of situation and lack of self-criticism. In some cases (with a rough defeat may note violations of temperament and attraction (increased suggestibility, pleasure as the main motive for behavior), impulsiveness with displays of aggression, the extinction of the attraction (sexuality, gluttony, increased attraction to new impressions that lead to vagrancy). Similar conditions have received the name of psychopathologically similar, they considerably break structure of the person and behavior of the child.

Disturbances in cognitive processes often come to the fore. In younger school age, the following disorders of formation of so-called school skills are the most widespread:

• dysgraphy (writing);
• dyslexia (reading);
• dyscalculia (counting).

Correction of difficulties and assistance to children with brain disorders should be comprehensive and include both psychological and pedagogical, speech therapy and medical support by a psychoneurologist. Medicament therapy will help to increase the overall tone and efficiency of the child, to normalize sleep, improve attention and memory. The help of a teacher is necessary to repeat the material passed many times and to form the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a medical diagnosis that only a doctor can make after a diagnostic examination.

The traits that characterize Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are usually these:

• Active Attention Deficit;
• general motor anxiety, restlessness, many extra movements;
• lack of purposefulness and impulsivity.

According to epidemiological studies, the frequency of ADHD among preschool and school children is = 4.0 - 9.5%.

Attention deficit syndrome with hyperactivity disorder is found in various diseases and development disorders (more often in the case of remote consequences of organic brain damage) and is combined with memory and work capacity disorders, but the main manifestation of this defect in the development of a child is the attention defect. The child has reduced volume and concentration of attention (he or she can focus on something only for a few moments, extremely high distractibility - reacts to any sound, any movement in the class).

Such children are often irritable, passionate, emotionally unstable, which makes it difficult for them to communicate with peers and adults. Emotional tension inherent in such children, a tendency to acutely experience difficulties that arise in communication at school, leads to the fact that he easily formed and recorded negative self-esteem and hostility to everything associated with schooling.

These deviations are secondary in nature, but enhance the child's school maladaptation. Favorable personal development and successful school adaptation depend directly on the ability of adults around the child to understand the difficulties arising from his or her painful and heightened activity and emotional instability.

The first manifestations of hyperactivity syndrome are: increased muscle tone, excessive sensitivity to all stimuli (light, noise), sleep disturbance, mobility and excitability during waking hours.

With age, disinhibition significantly decreases or disappears altogether (in adolescence, the child may become inert and non-initiative), but the instability of attention and impulsivity of actions are usually preserved. According to Zavadenko, cognitive and behavioural disorders persist, in almost 70% of adolescents and more than 50% of adults diagnosed with ADHD in childhood.

Failure to maintain concentration and control over their impulses over a long period of time becomes most pronounced at the beginning of school, is a cause of learning disabilities and often leads to disciplinary problems. All of these significantly disrupt school adaptability.

The prediction of a child's learning and development success depends on the following factors:

1. the degree of motor retardation and attention instability;
2. the nature of cognitive impairment;
3. the presence of secondary emotional and personality disorders;
4. provision of adequate comprehensive drug treatment;
5. psychotherapeutic support (to prevent secondary deviations in personal development).

To treat the syndrome, first of all drugs are used that affect the metabolic processes in the CNS and stimulate the maturation of inhibitory and regulating structures of the brain. The choice of medication and therapeutic dose is individual.

Unfavorable social and pedagogical conditions are a risk factor and may lead to personal development disorders. Children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have a predisposition to behavioural disorders and antisocial acts.

By providing timely therapeutic and pedagogical support, and in the event of favourable personal development, a hyperactive child is able to adapt to society, subsequently lead a normal working life and adequately establish interpersonal relations.

Social reasons for failure

An unfortunate, incomplete family, lack of contact with parents, low material level of the family, school educational environment, media - all these social factors can also lead a child to failure in teaching.

V.M. Astapov believes that the failure to succeed in most cases is not due to violations of cognitive activity, but to other reasons. First of all, children's unpreparedness for school, unformed prerequisites and skills for learning activity. In a class with a low UVP level, this unpreparedness can turn into pedagogical neglect.

Often the cause of failure is unfavorable living conditions in the family, lack of both control and assistance in education by adults, conflicts in the family, lack of regime.

The style of upbringing in the family affects the success of the child. The parents' constant desire for systematic relations with the child, communication with the child and joint leisure activities contribute to high achievement. When parents see a child in their home as a small loser, performance in this subject is low. Pupils who feel dislike (rejection) of themselves on the part of their parents have low academic performance. And then the cause of school problems is the influence of the family, the family "climate". And not necessarily only in dysfunctional families ... outwardly, the family may even be good, but the child does not live in it very sweetly.

But most of the time, of course, these are dysfunctional families. And there's a special conversation about children whose parents are drinking...

The fact that it is the mental health of the child - the determining factor on which depends on the successful adaptation to school and successful learning. It is in the nervous-mental sphere of children are sharply beaten by the circumstances of a drinking family. And as a result - neglect of children, intellectual and emotional hunger, gross pedagogical neglect, slow development ...

Under such conditions, even those children with reduced normal intelligence are not ready for school. And what about children with obvious neuropsychiatric disorders?

These children are typical:

• general weakness, retardation in growth and physical development;
• a predisposition to frequent illnesses, especially chronic ones;
• obvious sleep disturbances: children fall asleep poorly, scream in their sleep, wake up in fear;
• delayed development of motor, speech and cognitive functions.

Many mothers in families where fathers suffer from alcoholism are not fully aware of the fact that they are bound to face great difficulties with the child's education.

Unhurried, fussy, dispersive, inattentive, disbanded children from such families are a source of concern for teachers from the outset. Attention is drawn to the poverty of their speech, limited vocabulary, lack of knowledge and information about the world around them, the unformed many skills without which successful learning is impossible, and not at all - that great desire to learn.

At the beginning of school these children behave very directly: they often play in class, do not understand the school situation, cannot critically assess their actions and actions. They are treated with care and do not care about failures. And happiness if parents at least a little bit of "mind", will understand that their child requires a particularly careful and attentive approach, and shouting and punishment for which in such families are usually not stingy will not help.

Unfortunately, in life is often the answer to bad behavior and whims of the child is just a scream, irritation, punishment.

So there is a stressful situation, a vicious circle for the child: at home he is punished, not allowed to walk, deprived of pleasure, rest; at school "for hooliganism" is expelled from the lesson, ashamed in front of the class.

Of course, with such children it is difficult, but still there is only one way - patience, endurance. No matter how hard it is, it is unacceptable for a child to respond to his own failure! We must calmly point out to the child the wrong thing to do; remember, for example, how to act in such a situation, his favorite character from the cartoon, explain why it is good, and it is bad ... Try to communicate more with the baby, play with him, develop his speech. If he does not understand something, repeat, explain.

It is necessary that such a difficult child has a favorite pastime, a hobby - think, look for ... Do not forget to praise the baby for the slightest success and maintain confidence in his affairs.

And do not be afraid to go for advice to a psychotherapist or psychologist. Do not postpone this visit, do not hope that all this will pass! You're only going to lose time. Qualified advice from specialists, and if necessary, treatment, will help you provide your child with the best possible conditions for education, and this is extremely important.

Another factor strongly influencing the process of school adaptation and school difficulties. This is a disharmony of family relations, both between adults and between adults and children.

Psychological tension between family members creates an unfavorable background for the development of the child, breaks the necessary contacts, fixes the wrong behavior. In such families often can not find a single line: it happens, the mother punishes, the father pities, and vice versa. The child quickly finds a profitable style of behavior, adapts, twists, and then endures the same behavior with peers. Parents sometimes reproach each other for bad education. "Your son got a D again," says the father with great satisfaction in such a family, and the mother can add no less evil: "He, by the way, not only mine; he would have brought up himself!" And such a father is accepted to bring up a belt ... Nothing but anger, humiliation, the child does not feel. He can not accept it - and begins to hate the study (because of which suffers), and parents ...

In such families there is no joy, ease of relationships, mutual support and affection. Instead, there is constant bullying, tension, scowliness... And children do not make noise, do not laugh, do not have fun, and are irritated in the circle of friends with anger, aggression, fighting. Or closing in on their sorrows, turning into little old men.

Of course, and in conflict-free families can have their own mistakes in upbringing... It seemed that it could be harmful to the child that mom takes all his affairs to heart, easily upset, worried about him? She is worried that he will be late for school, did not have time to do something; that the neighbor's Kolya is much better than her son ... She tries to help in everything, she is preparing lessons with him - and very upset if there is still no desired grade. "No, I don't say anything to him, I don't scold him, but when I open my notebook, I'll definitely breathe a sigh of disappointment and hardly hold back tears. And he doesn't react, he doesn't care." And the child in the absence of his mother tells: "I'm very afraid to upset her... I'm so afraid that even when I write a dictation, I think: I'll make a mistake, put a D, and then she almost cries". In fact, my mother is afraid of school problems and makes the situation worse, and the child strengthens the feeling of insecurity in their abilities, in their knowledge.

Situations where children's success does not meet the demands of their parents can be very different. It happens that the child, according to parents, is "the worst" and instead of supporting him or her, he or she is rejected emotionally, psychologically and physically punished. Often parents are naive (no other words can be found), hoping that the best way to mobilize the little pupil - fear. They do not beat the child, but only scare: the fact that he gets a D, that he will be kicked out of school, that he can not become anyone ... And this is a psychological punch! The mother really wants her child to be an excellent student. And he can't - he's afraid of his mother. And this fear paralyzes the child's will, weakens activity, self-confidence...

How do you fight?

The main difficulty for parents is the ability to combine demanding with respect for children - while maintaining a heartfelt, heartfelt contact with them. An exaggerated sense of duty, excessive principality and moral pressure turns into a fear of "being wrong", otherwise - fear of insolvency, as well as an anxious feeling of possible failures and defeats. The elimination of fears then becomes a difficult task, requiring the frequent assistance of a psychotherapist.

Sometimes psychological batting is not perceived by parents as a powerful tool. So, the result: what can aggravate school difficulties or lead to their occurrence?

1. Misunderstanding. Parents do not see the true causes of difficulties, attributing everything to laziness, reluctance, "bad tendencies.
2. Mismatch between the requirements and expectations of parents and the opportunities and needs of children. The good intentions of parents to teach everything at once: music, choreography, painting, and foreign language - are faced with school difficulties as an obstacle to overcome, but adults often do not give up without a fight, and the victims are their children.
3. Children's rejection. We tell mom about the tactics of communicating with the board and advise her to kiss her at night.... And the unexpected answer is, "I can't kiss her. She's like a wolf, I physically feel her rejection". At the heart of this situation - a deep already long-standing conflict, which the mother could not or did not want to remove, soften. And this constant tension in the relationship between mother and daughter, this confrontation later led first to school stress, and then to neurosis.
4. Unclear parents. Imagine a family. Where strict exactingness reigns supreme, where any mistake is put on the line, causing general condemnation, there is barely an alternative and no indulgence, where the eldest is always right and the youngest has no right to have his own opinion. This is how a stuffed, unwilling, self-confident, or vice versa, an angry, constantly holding back protest is formed. Both in the first and in the second case, he is likely to be unable to overcome any difficulties.
5. Unequal relations, inconsistency in the treatment of children. This is more often the case in families where parental zeal appears from time to time. There was an educational impulse - and required a diary and notebooks, arrange a headwash, put conditions and gold promises. But a few days pass... and again the child is not interested in anyone! Mom has her own affairs and concerns, Dad has her own.

Child psychiatrist Buyanov M.I. identifies several types of defects in education in the family:

• Upbringing on the type of Cinderella, when parents are too picky, hostile or indifferent to the children, placing high demands on them, not giving the right caress and warmth. These children are battered, timid, always afraid of being beaten or insulted.
• Upbringing like a family idol. In such cases, all requirements of children are met. The whole life of the family is concentrated only around their desires and whims. Children grow up capricious, willful, stubborn, not recognizing the prohibitions and not understanding the limitations of their parents. Selfishness, spiteful attitude to their responsibilities, inability to delay pleasure, consumer attitude to others are the consequence of such ugly upbringing.
• Hyperhero - a child is deprived of independence, suppressed by his or her initiative, and prevented from turning back his or her possibilities. Many of these children grow up hesitant, weak, unsuitable for life, they get used to the fact that for them someone will decide and do everything.
• Contrary to that, hypotherapy. Such a variant of education, when the child is presented to himself, no one is controlled. Nobody forms in it a skill of social life, does not teach it to understand "what is good" and "what is bad".
• Upbringing like a crown prince. More often found in wealthy families whose members occupy a high position in society. Such parents spend a lot of time on their careers, do not spend enough time with their children, separating themselves from them with gifts and permission to do whatever they want. Instead of receiving affection, warmth and care from their parents, the children get emotional surrogates from them. Parents entrust their upbringing to relatives or random people as long as the children are not disturbed....

With all of these types of education, the occurrence of difficulties at school is more predictable and more likely. And correction sometimes does not have an effect - until the attitude to the child at home changes.

Parent-child relations are a factor in the formation of anxiety of children, and as a result - the cause of school failure. It is interesting to note that not only child-parental relations affect the success of learning, but vice versa: if children learn well, as a rule, warm family relations. In order for children to learn successfully, they need emotional acceptance, a high level of parental exactingness and prohibitions, and the absence of conflicts in the family regarding the upbringing of the child.

The phenomenon of "invulnerable children" is known, who, being in dysfunctional family conditions, are adapted in their studies and behaviour. Specialists believe that such a phenomenon manifests itself when a child's personality is highly intellectual and purposeful.

The coincidence of parents' and teachers' expectations regarding the child is of great importance. For improvement of quality of knowledge of pupils it is desirable to establish close communication of school with parents of pupils.

The school educational environment can have both positive and negative effects on a child's personality, behaviour and learning success.

Psychologists and educators have ambiguous views on the impact of various social factors, particularly the school educational environment, on the success of children's learning. From the point of view of teachers, the reason for the ineffectiveness of education is the Thomas and methods of organizing education, psychologists, among the negative factors of the influence of school on the failure of children, often cite such a reason as the interaction between teacher and pupil.

Research also shows more specific reasons for failure in learning:

1. A cruel, unified system of education, the content of education that is the same for all and does not meet the needs of children;
2. uniformity, stereotypes, in methods and forms of learning, verbalism, intellectualism, underestimation of emotions in learning;
3. Inability to set learning objectives and lack of effective monitoring of learning outcomes;
4. neglect of the pupil's development, practicality, drag and drop, pupil orientation.

Conclusion: didactic, psychological, methodological incompetence of the teacher leads to failure in learning.

Many authors believe that by improving the organization of the pedagogical process, positive typical characteristics of students can be more effectively shaped (thinking characteristics) that will contribute to learning. Learning and life tasks should be parallel, in which case children will know the purpose of the subject and successfully master the material.

K.P. Galenkina notes that the main drawback of teaching is a passion for verbal methods, which results in the development of verbal and logical thinking, and personality traits associated with the direct perception of the world and practical actions are not improved. According to L.V. Zankov, teaching generates "verbalism", i.e. operating with words that are not connected in the child's consciousness with concrete ideas.

The predominance of verbal methods leads to a gap between the knowledge and skills of students, children know the rules but write illiterately, i.e. their knowledge is passive.

Some specialists refer to the main contradiction of education as the collective form of learning itself, which excludes the "learner-to-pupil" communication, only the "teacher-to-student" communication prevails.

Indeed, the most important principle of learning and education of pupils is the individual approach, but if there is no knowledge of the psychological causes of pupils' mistakes, even individual learning will have no effect.

Harald B. Levy notes that teachers, trying to improve the learning process, change the volume of material or the sequence of its presentation, but do not think about the question of how children learn the information obtained. In his view, no comprehensive programme can be suitable for all students, since the problems are different for each child.

Harald B. Levy proposes to help unsuccessful students through the joint efforts of a qualified teacher, interested parents and an attentive doctor, as it is difficult for a single "narrow" specialist to look at the problem as a whole.

Some learning difficulties may be due to "pseudo-causes" - organizational or pedagogical passivity.

E.S. Gobova names unsuccessful textbooks as one of the reasons for learning failure. She believes that a textbook should be created taking into account the interests of children and have a parallel methodology for the teacher.

There are such means for eliminating didactic reasons for failure:

• Pedagogical prevention - search for optimal pedagogical systems, including the use of active methods, forms of education, new pedagogical technologies, problem and programmed learning, computerisation. Yu.K. Babansky proposed the concept of WUP optimization for this purpose. In the U.S., the path of automation, individuality and psychologization of learning is being followed.
• Pedagogical diagnostics - systematic monitoring and evaluation of learning outcomes, timely identification of gaps. For this purpose, there are teacher's conversations with students, parents, observations of a difficult student with recording data in the teacher's diary, conducting tests, analysis of results, summarizing them in the form of tables by types of errors made. Yu.K. Babansky proposed a pedagogical consultation - a council of teachers on the analysis and solution of didactic problems of underperforming pupils.
• Pedagogical tyranny - measures to eliminate backwardness in education. In the national school these are additional classes. In the West - leveling groups. The advantage of the latter is that the classes are held on the basis of serious diagnostics, with the selection of group and individual teaching aids. They are taught by special teachers, attendance is mandatory.
• Educational impact. Since the failure in learning is most often associated with poor education, ie, failed students should be carried out individual VR, which includes working with the student's family.

Among the social reasons, a special place is given to a child's readiness to go to school. A child's entry into school dramatically changes his or her whole life. This period is equally difficult as for 6-year-old, 7-year-old children. Undoubtedly, the better the child's body is ready for the changes associated with schooling, for the difficulties that may arise, the easier and faster it will overcome them, the more painless will be the process of adaptation in the first grade.

By the time a child starts school, he or she must not only be physically and socially mature, but also achieve a certain level of mental and emotional maturity. At present, almost all children are prepared for school: in kindergarten, at home or in special preparatory groups. Most often this is done by teachers or primary school teachers themselves: children are taught to read, count and sometimes write. As a rule, most of the influence in such training is on the intellectual development of the child. However, pedagogical readiness for school is not sufficient when defining a complex notion of a child's psychological readiness for school.

What is "readiness for school"? It is a complex complex defined by the child's morphological, functional, and mental development, which implies a sufficiently high level of development of the child's motivational, intellectual, and arbitrary spheres. The development of motivation and arbitrariness is usually referred to as personal readiness to learn, and it is as important to the child's successful learning activity as intellectual readiness.

In addition, the concept of "school readiness" is important in the conditions of mass education at school, because the teacher in his work focuses on a certain average level of development of children, at which the curriculum falls, by definition, L.S. Vygotsky, in the zone of the nearest development of a child of this age. According to N.I. Gutkina, if the actual level of a child is such that his or her personal "zone of the nearest development" is lower than the one necessary for mastering the curriculum, then such a child is psychologically unprepared for school, he or she cannot learn the material required by the curriculum and most often falls into the category of backward pupils.

Thus, determining the degree of readiness is one of the measures to prevent failure. This is a signal to the teacher, parents, and specialists that the child requires additional attention to himself or herself as a pupil, in which case an individual approach is required, as well as the search for effective means and methods of teaching that take into account his or her specific features and capabilities.

Most domestic and foreign specialists recommend a medical psychological and pedagogical examination about six months - a year before entering school. The results of such a survey will help not only to determine the level of readiness of the child for school, but also to conduct, if necessary, a special set of developmental and corrective measures. And parents can receive the necessary recommendations to improve the health of the child and eliminate the shortcomings of education.

Are there actually many "unprepared" children at school? According to statistics conducted by M.M. Bezrukih, the number of such children ranges from 10 to 50% in urban schools and can reach 75% in rural schools. At the age of 5 - 5,5 years about 80% of children are not ready for intellectual schooling. At the age of 6 they are already 51%, at the age of 6.5 32%. And by the age of 7 the number of children "not ready" for school decreases to 13%.

Another group of students, often giving teachers extra trouble, are gifted children. In recent decades, one of the problems of concern for teachers, psychologists and parents alike has been the decline in interest in learning and, as a result, the intellectual development of gifted children starting school. According to A.M. Matyushkin, about 30 per cent of American students who were expelled from schools for failure are gifted and gifted children. According to the data on our country, rather frequent conflicts with teachers among highly intellectual schoolchildren are accompanied by negative emotions of the latter both in the address of the teacher himself and in the address of the school and even taught discipline.

Undoubtedly, gifted children differ from each other by the degree of talent, cognitive style and spheres of interest.

Teachers often do not consider such a student to be in need of individual approach and help. It is believed that if a child is successful in learning the subjects of the program, he or she should have a high school motivation. However, practice shows that a gifted child may, for one reason or another, be in a negative mood for school, which undoubtedly affects the performance of his further education.

Very often, parents of a gifted child turn to the psychologist with the question whether it is possible to send the child to school earlier than usual. They explain that their son or daughter is noticeably ahead of their group mates in kindergarten and it is time for them to do something more difficult. Because of their advanced intellectual development, gifted children often do only what they love and are isolated from their peers. They need to develop communication and cooperation skills, they need to learn to be friends and to live in a team. The ability to cope with school tasks is not necessarily an indicator that a child should go to school.

As a gifted child enters the next grade of primary school, parents often hear his or her complaints that he or she is bored in class. At the same time, the child may or may not be the strongest pupil in the class.

Much in the fate of a gifted child will depend on the characteristics of education and upbringing. How will affect the development of mental abilities, these or other learning strategies. Gifted children need special programmes and specially trained teachers.

However, not all children are gifted enough to stand the test of time and age. B.M. Teplov wrote that the height of talent is found only by the results of human life, and its focus is manifested much earlier: in the sustainable interests and aptitudes, in the success of various activities, the individual learning different subjects.

A gifted child is not just an abstract bearer of talents, but above all a person with his or her own merits and shortcomings. The school should promote both mental and personal development of a gifted student. It is a calm and constructive attitude to talent, unconventionality of such a child will allow him to feel not a "white crow" among other classmates, and a student who will always help and be interesting at school.

Some of the social and pedagogical reasons for failure are related not to the unwillingness and inability of teachers to build the learning process effectively, but to the emotional and physical overloads of teachers.

Working with people, and with children in particular, requires high emotional costs. Young teachers who have just graduated from special educational institutions come to work with a burning desire to demonstrate the wonders of pedagogy and become a true friend and teacher for the children with whom they have to work. However, they soon face a difficult professional life, many realize that they are unable to change the established system of work in this or that school, gradually losing enthusiasm. Tense situations in the work of the teacher include the following: interaction with students in the classroom, in which there are various manifestations of misconduct on the part of students, conflict situations; difficulties in relations with colleagues and school administration; conflict situations with the parents of one or another student due to different assessments of the same child, lack of attention to the child in the family.

Emotional resources of a person in such a difficult situation may gradually become depleted, and then the body and the psyche develop various protection mechanisms. "Emotional burnout syndrome" is one of such mechanisms. Another definition of this mechanism - "emotional definition" - we often meet in everyday life. This concept characterizes the acquired stereotype of behavior, most often in professional behavior. Emotional burnout is a form of professional deformation of personality.

Regardless of whether a teacher works in a kindergarten or school, its devastation affects children's attitude towards school and their desire to learn. If a teacher works in primary school, then, according to E. Golizek, children develop negative feelings towards the school in general. If this happens to a high school teacher, the lessons create an atmosphere of indifference and tension, causing negative feelings among teenagers not only towards the teacher, but also towards the subject itself.

According to M.A. Berebin, of the 7300 teachers of general education schools surveyed:

• 56% note that ion is subject to constant and significant intellectual overload;
• 24% consider intellectual overloads moderate, but constant;
• 32% of those surveyed indicate that emotional overloads are permanent;
• 18.4% of teachers believe that their work causes significant physical overloads.

The teacher works in a mode of constant external and internal control. During the day of the lessons, dedication and self-control are so great that mental resources are hardly restored by the next working day. Anxiety, depression, emotional rigidity, and emotional devastation are the price of responsibility that the teacher pays. This is compounded by complex social, economic and living factors and chronic health conditions.

Э. Golizek, in his book Overcoming Stress in 60 Seconds, offers the following recommendations for teachers:

• Continue to improve your professional skills, take part in courses, seminars and other professional development activities, this will help to overcome the feeling of inconsistency;
• Plan rest breaks; coffee and lunch breaks should not be devoted to checking notebooks or preparing for class; distract from school concerns;
• Be aware of new ideas: using the same materials year after year will inevitably lead to boredom and devastation; changing lesson plans and assignments will support interest in teaching;
• Communicate with colleagues, exchange ideas and new knowledge.

Articles

ADHD in Children

Work with children

Depression, Anxiety Disorders and Aggression

Unsuccessful child

Ways to overcome the underachievement of primary school students

Preventing unwillingness to learn

Our preschooler became a schoolboy, his life has changed, and the meaning of this change is the change of the leading type of activity. The game is giving way to learning. What should parents do so that this period passed as painlessly as possible, so that there was no persistent disgust and resistance to their new responsibilities?

Fortunately, there are fewer and fewer parents now who believe that they may have nothing to do with their son or daughter's education and that this should be entirely on the shoulders of the school teacher.

Above all, if entry into school is a strong leadership activity for the child, the first task of parents is to help him or her learn this new activity.

For any child, even a kindergarten child, learning activities are not at all familiar. And, starting to engage in it, he is just yes makes a number of mistakes, completely unthinkable from our, the adult point of view. Parents need to draw the following conclusions.

First, the study is so much new and unusual activity for the child that he admits a chain of misses, mistakes, so rough and illogical that their adults simply can not predict. Among them, there are repetitive, but often they are very individual - each child has his own. Irrationality and absurdity - that's what unites them.

Secondly, if you do not pay attention to them, then they can gain a foothold, becoming the wrong methods of work.

Third, all these errors and omissions, as a rule, quite well notice the eye of any adult, and it is not necessary to have special training, to be a teacher or psychologist to detect them. You only need to pay attention to the affairs of their children,

Finally, fourthly, adults often do not show this attention. The pedagogical consequences of this line of behavior do not need comments: wrong methods of work will lead to failure in learning, and if it becomes a stable phenomenon, then from here to the appearance of disgust to study one step.

Early prevention and correction of socially and pedagogically neglected students

Psychological and pedagogical prevention is a system of preventive measures related to the elimination of external causes, factors and conditions that cause certain deficiencies in children's development.

Psychological and pedagogical correction means a set of special psychological and pedagogical influences on the personality of a neglected child with a view to his or her recovery as a subject of education, activity and self-awareness.

General principles for preventing and correcting the social and pedagogical neglect of children:

1. A comprehensive and systematic approach to diagnosis, prevention and correction.
2. Taking into account the age and individual and personal characteristics of the child and the specifics of the child's social and pedagogical development situation.
3. Professional competence and division of functions.
4. Relying on the child's positive personality and orientation towards the harmonization of his/her development.
5. Unity and complementarity of psychological and pedagogical methods.
6. Differentiated approach.

Early prevention of neglect is directly related to the quality of the educational process, and therefore has a general pedagogical character. Depending on the age of the child, there are 4 groups of prevention methods:

• cognitive games;
• creating situations of emotional experience;
• creation of situations of entertainment;
• creation of situations based on life experience;
• creating situations of success in educational and game activities.

• Creating situations of personal and group perspective;
• collective games;
• development of collective and unified requirements;
• collective competition;
• collective self-service.

• respect;
• pedagogical rigour;
• persuasion;
• condemnation;
• understanding;
• trust;
• inducement;
• empathy;
• educational warning;
• gesture analysis;
• conflict resolution.

• example, explanation;
• expectation of joy;
• stress relief;
• appealing to ego, self-respect;
• appealing to love, compassion, shame, sense of beauty;
• demand;
• indoctrination.

Recommendations for teachers when working with underachieving children

How do you help a child who is not succeeding to overcome self-confidence?

The teacher needs to create conditions for the student to experience success and the positive emotions associated with it. For this purpose, it is recommended that the teacher should set tasks that are feasible and achievable.

The teacher should try to identify areas of activity in which the student can show initiative and gain recognition at school. These may be summer camp work, hiking, sports activities, etc. Identifying "successful" areas of activity of the underperforming student can change the attitude of teachers, parents, students for the better.

American pediatrician Benjamin Spock gives such an example: "It was difficult for a child to read and write, firstly, in two classes where the subjects were taught. He stayed for the second year. Deep down he was ashamed of his failure, but he did not admit it, assuring that he hated school even before his school troubles began, he did not get along well with his comrades. Knowing that everyone thought he was a dumbass only made it worse. The child's ego was hurt. Sometimes he'd start braving in front of the class. The teacher thought he was being mean on purpose. In fact, the child was trying to attract the attention of the staff in such an unfortunate way.

The pupil moved to another school that was interested not only in teaching him how to write and read, but also in helping him find his place in the team. The teacher learned from conversations with his mother that he likes to draw and carpenter. She saw it as an opportunity to use the positive qualities of the child in the classroom. The children were busy drawing pictures from the life of the Indians, which they were going to hang on the wall in the classroom. They also worked together to make a model of an Indian village. The teacher included the boy in both these works. It was a job that he didn't have to be nervous about - he knew how to do it. Gradually, he became increasingly interested in the Indians. He needed to read about the Indians to draw his part of the picture correctly and to do his part of the layout correctly. He wanted to learn how to read. He started to try. His new classmates didn't think he was an idiot and because he could read. They thought more about how well he drew and modeled. Sometimes they complimented him and asked for help. The boy started to "thaw". In the end, it took him so long to get recognition and friendship.

It is useful to record, celebrate and encourage the smallest fortunes in the child's learning activities, the most seemingly minor shifts for the better.

Particular attention should be paid to ensuring that new failures do not become entrenched. To do this, training the will of the child, it is necessary to force him to bring the case to an end, not postponing it to "sweat" at the first errors.

Particular attention should be paid to the nature and form of condemnation and encouragement of the underperforming student. Criticism in any case should not concern the ability of the student. It should be very specific and aimed at removing the shortcomings clearly perceived by the student himself (for example, misconduct, negligence, etc.).

The psychologist recommends a reprimand in the form of a simple surprise to the teacher about the worsening of the student's work or behavior ("I was not expecting it", "I was very surprised..." etc.).

It is important what the tone of the teacher's speech is at the moment of the censure. Irritation, anger in the voice causes only negative reaction of the pupil. We should try to talk to him calmly friendly and interested.

Attention should also be paid to such things as the detailed justification for a failing grade and the criteria by which it is assessed, so that they are understood by the student.

The method used by Sh.A. Amonashvili, a well-known teacher, to turn a backward pupil into a "teacher", a mentor helping a weak pupil from a junior grade, can be quite effective.

Study of unsuccessful and undisciplined students shows that their bad behavior is, most often, a reaction to failure, in the form of protest against the existing negative attitude of teachers and peers.

As a result, although the child does not attend school every day, learning activities have ceased to be the main activity for him or her because he or she cannot cope with it and has lost interest in it. By staying in school, he has essentially already lost his social position as a student.

Therefore, work with such children should be aimed not only at filling gaps in their knowledge, skills, and abilities, but also at changing their social position.

Helping an underachieving student in class

• Creating an atmosphere of special friendliness in the survey;
• reducing the interview rate, allowing longer preparation at the blackboard;
• offering students a sample response plan;
• allowing the use of visual aids to help describe the phenomenon;
• Encouraging assessment, encouragement, praise.

• More frequent use of questions from underachievers about their understanding of the learning material;
• engaging them as assistants in preparing the instruments, experiments;
• Involve problem learning suggestions in conclusions and generalizations or in explaining the problem;

• Breaking down the lessons into doses, stages, and assigning a number of simple tasks to complex tasks;
• a reference to a similar task done earlier;
• a reminder of how the task was received and how the task was done;
• an indication that a rule needs to be updated;
• a reference to the rules and properties which are necessary for solving the tasks and exercises;
• instruction on rational ways of performing the tasks, requirements for their execution;
• stimulation of independent actions of the weakly successful;
• more careful control over their activity, reference to errors, checking, correction.

• the choice of the most rational system of exercises for the group of those who succeed, rather than a mechanical increase in their number;
• a more detailed explanation of the order in which the task is performed;
• warnings about possible difficulties, use of consultation cards, cards with a guiding action plan.

Family support for a failing child

School difficulties are so diverse, so intertwined with other living conditions that sometimes it is difficult for a specialist to determine what is causing it. It is difficult for the teacher to understand them, most often lacks patience and understanding of parents - but the child suffers most.

Sometimes it starts with seemingly insignificant things that neither teacher nor parents pay attention to. It can be a slow pace, and the difficulty of memorizing letters, and inability to focus. Something is written off by age - say, not used to, small, something by upbringing; something by reluctance. There is a very important point missing - the beginning of difficulties, as long as they are relatively easy to detect, they are quite easy and without consequences, one difficulty does not pull another, the third .... It is at this point that parents should not only be especially attentive, but also ready to give the child a helping hand, support him. The later you pay attention to school difficulties, the more indifferent you will be to the failures of the child - the harder it will be to break their vicious circle. Persistent failure is so frustrating to the child that difficulties "crawl" from one really difficult subject that is badly given to all others.

If the teacher (double) and parents are punished (by censure, or more abrupt measures), the desire to learn will be lost for a long time, and sometimes always. The child gives up: he or she starts to be considered helpless, unable, and all efforts are useless. It loses interest, which means that the lag deepens. Psychological research has shown that the results of training depend not only on whether a person is capable or incapable of the task at hand, but also on how confident he or she is that he or she can solve the problem. And if failure follows one after another, then naturally there comes a moment when the child says to himself: "No, I will never succeed...". And if never, then there's no reason to try! Abandoned by Mom or Dad, by the way: "Well, you're so stupid!" - ...can make the case even worse. And not just a word, but just an attitude that you demonstrate (albeit unintentionally) with a reproaching look, intonation, gesture. Heavy eyes and tight lips, when you check your homework, tell your child sometimes more loud words. Sometimes parents make excuses: "I didn't scold him for his grades, but he can't spin in class, can he?!" The fact is that for the child is not as significant as you are dissatisfied, for what you scold him, what you blame - for bad grades or bad behavior, for what is spinning in class or for not understanding how to solve the example. There is one point - I am scolded, it means I am bad, I am not fit for anything, the worst....

What can parents do if there are still school problems?

First of all - do not consider them a personal tragedy, do not despair, try not to show your grief. Your main task is to help your child. Accept and love him as he is, then it will be easier for him at school.

Second - you have a long work together (one child can not cope).

Third - your main help: maintain the child's confidence in their abilities, try to remove the feeling of tension and guilt for failures. If you are busy doing your job and take a moment to ask how you are doing, or if you are scolding, it is not help, but a basis for new conflicts.

You should only be interested in doing your homework when you are working together. Be patient. Working with such children is very tedious and requires the ability to hold back, not to raise your voice, quietly repeat and explain the same thing several times - without reproaches or annoyance. Typical parental complaints are, "No strength," "All nerves exhausted..." An adult can't help himself, but the child is to blame! In this case, all parents feel sorry for themselves, and no one - the child...

Don't overburden the child with what he can't do. It is very important that during the classes you do not interfere with anything that the child feels - you with him and for him. Leave an interesting magazine, do not even look at the TV with one eye, do not get distracted, do not interrupt the class to talk on the phone or run in the kitchen.

Never rush to get your child to do an assignment on their own. Disassemble everything first, make sure he understands what to do and how to do it.

It is equally important to decide with whom it is best to work with - Mom or Dad. Moms are usually softer, but they often lack patience and emotions are overwhelming. Dads are tougher, but calmer. Try to avoid situations where one parent loses patience, causes the other to change.

Your impatience, even if you don't talk about it: "I don't have any strength anymore!" It's a testament to the child's lameness.

What else do you have to consider when preparing your homework? A child will only rarely know what he has been given, but there is no malice behind it. The fact that homework is usually given at the end of the lesson, when the class is noisy, and the child is already tired and can not hear the teacher. So at home, he says quite sincerely that they were not asked anything. Or he is not yet able to write down the tasks, does not have time and is not ashamed to admit it. What can you do? Ask a school friend about his homework, tell him why your child has not had time to write down assignments (it is very important!).

When preparing your homework, try to reduce your writing as much as possible. It is better to leave time for special (corrective) activities, for your favorite business and leisure.

The total duration of continuous work should not exceed 20-30 minutes. Do not strive at all costs and "spare no time" to do all your homework.

Do not consider it shameful to ask the teacher: ask the child only when he is called, do not show all his mistakes, do not emphasize failure. Try to find contact with the teacher; the child needs help and support from both sides. Work only on positive reinforcement: when failures cheer up, support, and any even the smallest success emphasize.

The most important thing in helping your child is reward, and not just in words. Unfortunately, parents often forget about it. It is very important that parents reward the child is not on the results of work, which can be good, and the work spent. If this is not done, the child will start to work with the thought: "There is no point in trying! I won't get a good grade anyway and nobody will notice my success!" There should be a reward for the child at the end of every week.

Children with learning difficulties need a measured and clear daily routine. We should not forget: such children are usually restless, unassembled, which means that keeping the regime is not easy for them.

If a child has difficulty getting up, do not twitch it, do not hurry, do not push too much. It is better to set the alarm clock half an hour early.

Do not start the day with notations, quarrels, and saying goodbye to the school, refrain from warnings and cautions such as: "Be good; do not rotate in class; see that you again do not complain", etc. meeting after school, it is better to say "How good that you have already come, we will have lunch" than to ask the traditional: "Well, what are your marks today?

Perhaps the hardest time is in the evening, when it's time to go to bed. Parents are trying to get their child to bed as quickly as possible, and he is stalling for time. Often it ends in a quarrel, tears, reproaches, and then the child can not calm down and sleep for a long time. In such cases, children are especially important to relax. Therefore, it is better if the father or mother caress him "like a little" and, putting him to bed, sit next to him for a few minutes, listen, dispel his fears. You can give your child some freedom (allowing to sit not exactly at nine, but from 9 to 9.30), no less important and full rest on Sunday, and especially in the holidays.

Never do school subjects with your child during the holidays! Vacation is for rest, not to fit "debts". Children need rest and freedom so that their failures can be forgotten. Go camping together, send the child to relatives, think of something else.... The main thing is to change the environment so that nothing reminds the children of school. The main thing is for you to understand as early as possible the reason for your child's school difficulties. If possible, it is best to seek advice from a doctor, speech therapist or psychologist - to correctly diagnose and determine the methods of correction. If this is not possible, try to find out for yourself - with the help of your teacher, of course. Take your time to observe the conclusions carefully. Very often the whole complex of school difficulties arise for no particular reason, simply because the child is unable to pace and intensity of the class. And at its individual pace, the child works perfectly! Alas, the school is very reluctant to meet such children ... Meanwhile, the gradual entry into the school program, individual work at home - a good thing for the child. But more painful than children, parents are experiencing this situation. They see: the child is lagging behind more and more, his condition is deteriorating - but do not dare for some time (sometimes enough a few weeks) to take him out of school, not working with him at home, gradually increasing the load. Otherwise the difficulties will deepen - it is inevitable.

So, attention and understanding are the greatest help you can give your child. Despite the failures in his studies, he should feel supported at home, believe: here he will always be understood. Do not overestimate the need for your presence during the preparation of lessons. It is better to explain everything, to plan the work and then to yourself. After all, it is very important and you need experience of independent work! Do not stand over your soul - this you only convince your child of his helplessness. Do not make a constant remark ("Do not swing on the chair!"; "Do not chew on the pen!"; "Sit properly!") - they distract, create a sense of discomfort, insecurity. Do not tear away from the lessons with questions, do not adjust.

And one more, final reminder: the timeliness of measures taken increases the chances of success! If possible, consult your child with specialists and follow all recommendations. Your sincere desire to help your child and work together will surely bear fruit!

Conclusion: Failure to learn leads to unwillingness to go to school; children may have a favorite teacher or may like to communicate with friends, but in general it seems that they see the school as a kind of prison. It would seem that a school where children spend so much time should be a place of joy, experience and learning in the broad sense. Teachers seem to think it is important to teach children reading, writing and arithmetic, but pay little attention to the fact that if they do not take into account the psychological, emotional needs of children, they contribute to the creation and maintenance of a society in which people have no value. Teachers need to be able to feel if a child is anxious or suffering from something or thinks that he or she is not worthy of much, that it is not worth learning. Children's rejection of school affects teachers in the first place, and sometimes their negative emotions are turned on children. There is a way out - teachers and children can learn better, understand each other, see in a realistic light what they can do for each other and help each other feel stronger and better.

At least four important conditions are necessary for a child to learn well: lack of significant intellectual disability; sufficient cultural level of the family, or at least the desire to achieve this level; material capacity to meet the most important spiritual needs of the individual; skills of teachers working with the child in school.

Conclusion

Difficulties in the learning process, especially if they occur as early as in primary school, significantly interfere with the child's mastery of the compulsory school curriculum. It is in the initial period of children's education that the foundation of the knowledge system is laid, which will be replenished in future years; at the same time, mental and practical operations, actions and skills are formed, without which subsequent learning and practical activities are impossible. Lack of this foundation, lack of primary knowledge and skills leads to excessive difficulties in mastering the secondary school curriculum, and as a result these children often drop out of school. Such a situation, if there are no major developmental disorders, could be avoided by providing the child with timely and adequate assistance, but this requires knowing the possible causes of learning difficulties, identifying which ones are relevant in a particular case (i.e. diagnosing difficulties in learning activities) and being able to either correct them or correct the consequences.

Based on the results of the experimental part, it can be said that the hypothesis put forward in this work that teachers and psychologists, in close cooperation with the family of a failed child, can help to overcome difficulties encountered by younger schoolchildren in learning activities, knowing the specific causes of these difficulties and building correctional work on this basis, has been fully reflected in practice.

All the corrective and development program, built on the results of diagnostics, allowed to make significant changes in the success of the teaching of a problem student, to unite the team and significantly increase the motivational sphere of students. Corrective work has proved to be exciting and useful not only for children but also for the teacher.

It has had an impact on performance:

1. knowledge of the psychological characteristics of children of primary school age;
2. knowledge of the cognitive field of children of primary school age;
3. the psychological and pedagogical reasons for primary schoolchildren;
4. knowledge of diagnostic techniques;
5. ways of overcoming these difficulties.

Each teacher needs to know both the reasons and the content of the development work. A more effective process of coping with difficulties in the learning activities of primary schoolchildren requires intensive collaboration with parents, and as a result, parental involvement in the correction process.

Nowadays, a great number of specialists: teachers and psychologists pay special attention to this problem. Special programs are developed taking into account the individual and age characteristics of children. Speech therapists, doctors, and social pedagogues are involved in the study of this problem, which makes it possible to study the problem in a complex, and also in a complex to find a solution to its problem.

We teach and bring up the younger generation. It teaches and educates us. This is the dialectics of relationships between generations, the law of these relationships. To raise a man and grow with him. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, in his work: "After all, all adults were children at first, only a few of them remember it." ("The Little Prince". - M: Children's Literature, 1983.)

Dr. Chloe Carmichael