A. L. Wenger Psychological counseling and diagnostics practical guide PART II Moscow “GENESIS” 2001 1 UDC 159.923 (075.8) BBK 88ya73 V 29 Venger A. L. V 29 Psychological consulting and diagnostics. Practical guide. Part 2. - M.: Genesis, 2001. - 128 p. ISBN 5-85297-036-0 This manual is intended for psychologists working with children and adolescents. It contains specific recommendations for conducting a diagnostic examination of a child, interpreting the results, and counseling parents and teachers. The first part is mainly devoted to diagnostic problems. The second part of the manual describes the most common types of complaints and typical reasons leading to behavioral difficulties, school failure and emotional disturbances. A general direction of counseling is proposed in accordance with the client’s complaints and the psychological characteristics of the child. ISBN 5-85297-036-0 © Wenger A. L., 2001 © Genesis Publishing House, 2001 2 1. FINAL CONVERSATION CHAPTER 1.1. TASKS AND ORGANIZATION OF THE FINAL CONVERSATION The final conversation is the main stage of counseling. During it, the psychologist answers questions posed by the client, gives advice, and expresses his assessment of the situation. Sometimes at this stage a conversation with the child is also carried out. In some cases, it is useful to use express correction methods, showing certain methods of correction work to parents or a teacher. It is most convenient to begin the final conversation with the client by describing the “psychological portrait” of the child obtained as a result of examination, observations, analysis of complaints and anamnesis. A novice consultant can be advised to first analyze the results, and then talk with the client. For a more experienced specialist who is not afraid to “reveal his cards” to the client, the presence of an adult who has asked for help will not only not hinder the analysis of the results, but, on the contrary, will allow it to be carried out more effectively (of course, the presence of a child is unacceptable). At this stage of counseling, active work with the client’s consciousness is appropriate, during which the psychologist popularly explains to him the results of his actions. If the client does not share the consultant’s point of view, then it is pointless to move on to the next stage - specific recommendations for training and raising the child. They will not be accepted and, even more so, will not be implemented. A psychologist cannot, like a plumber, say: “I explained to you the cause of the problem, but whether you believe me or not is up to you.” The task of a psychologist is not limited to identifying the causes leading to difficulties and formulating recommendations. Counseling always includes an element of psychotherapy. It can be considered successful only when the psychologist manages to find a common language with the client and encourage him to take the measures necessary to solve existing problems. Rejection of the psychologist's point of view on the problem manifests itself not only in direct dispute. Very often, an adult, after listening to a consultant, begins to immediately interpret his words, giving explanations for the named reasons for the child’s troubles - for example, he can refer to the influence of genes: “He is just like his father...” (and, they say, there is no point in fighting this). Behind this behavior of an adult there is usually an attempt to escape from the real problem, exposed by the psychologist, to relieve oneself of responsibility, shifting the blame for past and future failures to some anonymous person (genes, birth trauma, bad kindergarten). It would seem that such behavior is devoid of logic: after all, the client himself asked for help. However, the real motives for conversion are often completely different. It happens that a person seeks to demonstrate his conscientiousness in this way (“Look what a good mother I am: as soon as my daughter had difficulties, I immediately took her to a psychologist”). Sometimes parents turn to a consultant at the insistence of other family members (for example, grandmothers) or school teachers, but they themselves do not consider it necessary. A teacher can turn to a school psychologist “for the record” in order to relieve himself of responsibility for the fact that the child does not understand his explanations. The main task of the consultant in such cases is to try to bring the adult back to the awareness of the need to solve the problem: “If the reasons for your child’s anxiety lie in the distant past, then now they no longer apply. Therefore, today we practically do not care where anxiety comes from - from nature 4 or from upbringing. Now the main thing for your son is to get rid of his anxiety, not to let it grow” (of course, this is said if the primary source of anxiety is no longer active). In this way, the consultant can actively, but rather gently, deflect any unproductive interpretations of his words. Often the client demonstrates complete agreement with the consultant, hastens to remark: “Yes, yes, I always thought so too,” or admire: “Oh, how right you are!” In these cases, it is useful to check how well he understood what was told to him. An overly active demonstration of agreement often hides a lack of understanding of the true meaning of the psychologist’s findings and conclusions. When talking with a client, it is advisable to avoid scientific terms. The conversation should be scientific in content, not in form. If the consultant considers it important to introduce the client to any concepts, then their meaning should immediately be explained in detail. It is useful to find out in advance the client’s profession and the range of his interests: then it will be clearer how popular the psychologist’s language should be. The consultant must be prepared for the fact that in the final conversation complaints may appear that were not stated by the client in the initial conversation. For example, when making an initial complaint about a child’s poor academic performance, parents and teachers often do not note any other difficulties: poor academic performance overshadows everything else for them. Only in the final conversation, when the consultant describes the psychological characteristics of the child, other problems emerge (communication disorders, emotional distress, etc.). It may turn out that the material collected as a result of a psychological examination is not enough to answer the client’s newly emerging questions. In this case, a follow-up appointment should be scheduled and additional examination should be performed. Depending on the nature of the problem, recommendations given to the client may contain advice on the need to conduct either classes aimed at correcting deviations in mental development, or adjusting the child’s behavior (and more often, the behavior of adults towards the child). Recommendations can be given in the same conversation that began with the analysis of the child’s psychological characteristics, or they can be postponed until the next meeting. In any case, the counselor must first make sure that the client accepts his point of view about the child's problems. Evidence of such acceptance can be episodes from the life of a child, which are cited by adults as if to confirm the words of the psychologist. “Pedagogical epiphanies” are possible, such as: “Now, after your explanation, I suddenly understood why...” (and then follows a story about some problems that were not included in the primary complaint, but have now received clarification). All this indicates acceptance of the consultant’s point of view, i.e., that the adult saw the picture of trouble in a new way - through the eyes of a psychologist. Consequently, he is internally ready to change something in his life, which he was able to look at from the outside. As already mentioned, without combining the points of view of the psychologist and the client, the consultation cannot be effective. However, the psychologist is not right in all cases. Sometimes not the parents, but he himself, under the influence of convincing arguments, changes his initial hypothesis. One way or another, it is necessary to achieve a coincidence of positions on key issues. It happens that difficulties in combining positions are caused by misunderstandings. In these cases, the psychologist must formulate his point of view in other words, show that, in essence, the conversation is about the same thing, but in different languages ​​(in this case, he acts as a “translator”). In your story, you should be sure to use the exact wording of the initial complaints, emphasizing that the conclusion takes into account everything that the client said. And only when the adult who has asked for help is convinced that his life problem is correctly understood and presented without distortion in a scientific interpretation, the consultant can generally formulate the steps that will help overcome the recorded difficulties. 6 It is best if the client himself outlines specific ways to implement the general “psychological recipe,” naturally, with the help of leading questions and tips from a consultant who assesses the degree of realism of the parents’ or teacher’s pedagogical plans. Psychological recommendations will be the more productive the more the client participates in their development. Firstly, only he himself can decide what he is actually ready to do and what he is not ready to do. Secondly, a person’s feeling that he himself has found a way out of his own difficulties will sharply increase the motivation to carry out corrective plans. 1.2. ACCOUNTING LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES The following sections provide general, schematic recommendations for correcting the behavior and development of children with certain psychological characteristics. When working with a client, these schemes must be extremely specific, the techniques for their implementation must be tied to certain living conditions of the family (class). When giving advice, the consultant must take into account the specific life circumstances and value orientations of the family. The point is not that circumstances of this kind should be perceived by him as absolute boundaries, beyond which it is impossible to go beyond. Both living conditions and parental values ​​are, of course, subject to discussion, but in any case they must be understood and taken into account. Let's look at a few examples. Suppose a child needs remedial classes. When recommending a way to organize them, it is useful to find out what the financial situation of the family is and whether it allows the child to hire a private teacher. At the same time, one should not always consider the financial situation as an absolute given. Sometimes it makes sense to talk about the possibilities of redistributing the family budget. If you are considering the possibility of parents conducting classes on their own, then you need to make sure that their general cultural level (not necessarily the same as their educational level) is sufficient for this and that they can allocate enough time for classes. In any case, it is useful to tell parents where they should make inquiries about government or public organizations that could provide assistance in conducting classes. The question of how busy parents are and how much time they can and are willing to devote to communicating with their child arises in many other cases. Let's say the consultant discovered a clear lack of communication between the boy and his father. At the same time, he will construct a conversation with parents in different ways, explaining in different ways the lack of time for family communication. If the father, in his own words, devotes all his time to work “to provide the child with everything he needs,” then the solution will be one, but if the son is of little interest to him at all, it will be another. In the first case, you will probably have to dwell on the question of what exactly is most necessary for the child and what is actually more important for him: getting the new sneakers that he demands, or spending part of the holidays with dad on a hike. In the second case, such a question is hardly appropriate. Here it is more useful for the consultant, when choosing justification for his recommendations, to specifically focus on the difficulties that may arise in the future as a result of neglecting the emotional needs of the son. Let's give another example. Suppose a child benefits from visual arts for self-realization. When reporting this, you must immediately find out what clubs there are in the area where the family lives. It is very likely that neither the consultant nor the parents know this, then it is necessary to advise the parents to collect the relevant information and suggest how to do this. Another question related to visiting clubs and sections is the question of whether someone can accompany the child there. If it turns out that there is no corresponding club nearby or that for some reason it is not possible for the child to attend it, then you will have to think about how to create conditions for drawing classes at home. It often happens that in order to make the right decision, it is necessary to understand how parents perceive possible future options for their child. Do they consider it normal for him to go to work after finishing school, or do they see him receiving a higher education as the only acceptable option? To what extent did they manage to instill their attitudes in the child himself? If a child has disrupted contacts with peers, then you need to find out whether his classmates live nearby, whether there are children of his age with friends of the parents. The question of circles existing nearby, already touched upon above, also arises in this case, but in a more general form. Due to communication problems, it is not particularly important for us what the general direction of the circle will be - whether it will be an art studio, a photo club or a sports section. When faced with the need to change the style of communication with a child in a family, it is necessary to find out in detail which family members participate to what extent in his upbringing. For example, if the adult who spends the most time with the child is the grandmother, then you need to be prepared for the fact that it will be very difficult to achieve the desired changes. Rigidity increases with age, and it is difficult for an elderly person to change his usual style of behavior, even if he well understands the need for such a change. 1.3. POSSIBLE AREAS OF RECOMMENDATIONS The general directions of recommendations that can be given to a client by a consulting psychologist are determined by many factors. The most important of them are the client’s request and complaints, as well as the psychological problem and general psychological characteristics of the child, revealed as a result of the examination. We can offer the following convenient classification of frequently encountered types of recommendations: > General age and general pedagogical recommendations, determined not so much by the individual characteristics of the child and a specific problem, but by the parents’ insufficient familiarity with the general patterns of mental development. Such recommendations may relate both to the development of cognitive processes and to the personal and emotional characteristics of the child, and to his behavioral manifestations. > “Symptomatic” recommendations aimed at solving the private psychological problem behind the client’s complaints. This could be advice on overcoming certain behavioral manifestations (for example, aggressive), on developing certain mental functions (for example, attention), etc. > Individualized recommendations, determined by the specific psychological characteristics of the child and his existing system of relationships with others. They can also relate to different areas of the psyche and behavior. > “Dispatcher” recommendations, which involve contacting other specialists. The most common “addresses” to which the client has to be referred are a doctor (psychiatrist, neurologist, endocrinologist...), defectologist (psychological teacher, teacher of the deaf...), social services. In real consulting, these four types of recommendations usually appear in one or another combination. Thus, “symptomatic” recommendations almost always require taking into account the individual psychological characteristics of the child, that is, they must be supplemented with individualized advice. When referring a child for additional consultation with a specialist (that is, giving “dispatcher” recommendations), it is necessary to give some advice related to the area of ​​either general age-related or individual psychological characteristics. 10 2 GENERAL AGE AND GENERAL PEDAGOGICAL RECOMMENDATIONS CHAPTER 2.1. MENTAL DEVELOPMENT A REQUEST THAT INVOLVES AGE-WIDE RECOMMENDATIONS ON MENTAL DEVELOPMENT In the cognitive sphere, age-wide and general pedagogical recommendations most often relate to issues of mental development and mental education of children of early and preschool age. At school age, issues related to the development of cognitive processes more often require individualized or “symptomatic” recommendations, since the client’s complaint and request are usually more specific. The ratio of the consultant's advice to the parents' request can be very different. Sometimes the appeal directly contains a corresponding request: How to teach a five-year-old child to play, draw, build models using a construction set? How to develop the thinking of a preschooler? How to prepare a child for school? What activities can be useful for a two-year-old child? It happens that the request is formulated more specifically, but does not correspond to the age characteristics of the child. For example, parents of four-year-old and even three-year-old children ask the question: “How to teach a child to read? " Meanwhile, at this age, targeted teaching of reading is not recommended. It requires a significant investment of time and labor, which can be used with greater benefit for child development. Here we are talking only about inadequate requests, since in cases of an adequate specific request, what is required is not those recommendations that we classified as general for all ages, but “symptomatic” or individualized ones. A frequent basis for age-wide and general pedagogical recommendations on a child’s mental development are not so much questions (requests) as client complaints, for example: “My daughter is already three years old, and she still hasn’t learned to count even to five.” For the same reasons as in the case of a specific request, only complaints that are inappropriate for the child's age are considered here. Age-appropriate complaints will be analyzed in subsequent chapters. SENSITIVE PERIODS In all cases requiring general age and general pedagogical recommendations on the mental development of a child, you can recommend the client the appropriate literature (see the list at the end of the book). It is also useful to very briefly describe the main patterns of child development in a given age period, in particular, to introduce the client to the concept of sensitive periods. This term itself can only be used if the client’s educational level is sufficiently high, but it is almost always possible to convey its content in simple words. It must be explained that there is a special sensitivity of certain age periods to the assimilation of certain knowledge, ideas, methods of action, etc. For example, in the second or third year of life (with late development of speech - up to four years), a child very easily masters oral speech. At this age, he can easily master not only one, but two or even three languages ​​so that he subsequently speaks them without an accent. The sensitive period for mastering literacy is age 12, from five to seven to eight years. Adolescence is sensitive to the assimilation of abstract logical laws. The point is not only that during the sensitive period learning occurs with less effort than at other ages. More importantly, each age stage contributes to the child's subsequent development. Each stage of life has its own “age-related tasks”. Thus, the main “tasks” of infancy (the first year of life) are the formation of direct emotional communication with adults and the development of objective perception. If for some reason direct communication or objective perception are not formed in infancy, then in later life the person will have difficulties in the relevant areas. At an early age (up to three years), motor talent is formed (the ability to master motor skills, “manual skill”), oral speech , foundations of practical intelligence. Using the example of motor talent, it is easiest to see what the consequences of neglecting the capabilities of the sensitive period are. Data obtained on twins showed that if sufficient attention was paid to the physical development of a child at an early age, then later he easily masters any new motor skill. If at an early age his physical development was not taken care of enough, then in the future the development of new motor skills occurs with great difficulty. The main contribution of preschool age (from three to six to seven years old) is the development of imagination and imaginative forms of thinking. During this same age period, the foundations of curiosity, cognitive motives, and active orientation in the environment are laid. At this age, one has to take special care of the development of those psychological qualities that will ensure the child’s successful entry into school life. Along with the already mentioned imaginative thinking and cognitive motives, readiness for school also presupposes a relatively high level of development of voluntariness, that is, the ability to subordinate one’s behavior to given norms and rules. 13 In the process of counseling, one often has to deal with parents’ misconceptions about the tasks of mental education of a preschool child. The most common of them is an overestimation of the role of school-type knowledge and skills (the ability to read, write, count) and an underestimation of the more general abilities that we discussed above. FORMS OF CLASSES The literature on the mental education of preschoolers necessarily describes not only the content of classes, but also the recommended forms of their implementation. However, in a conversation with the child’s parents, the consultant almost always has to specifically dwell on this issue. Otherwise, parents are inclined to use “school” forms of classes that are harmful to the general mental development of the preschooler. You need to tell them about how age-specific types of childhood activities contribute to a child’s mental development. Thus, at an early age (up to three years), a leading role in child development is played by a variety of actions with objects: collecting nesting dolls and pyramids, putting small objects of different shapes into a bottle with a narrow neck, stringing beads, closing pots of different sizes with suitable lids, unfastening and fastening buttons, inserting figures of different shapes into their corresponding slots (a “mailbox” toy), etc. The so-called instrumental actions are especially important, when one object is used to exert a certain influence on another. There are a large number of toys that allow a young child to perform certain instrumental actions. Such toys must be large enough and, of course, safe for the child (for this purpose they are usually made of plastic). This is a hammer that can be used to hammer cylinders into a special board that act as “nails”; a rod onto which 14 large nuts are screwed using a wrench; a children's screwdriver that allows you to screw in special screws. Don’t forget about such a useful instrumental action as drawing with a pencil (even if it’s just “scribbling”, without trying to depict any object). Eating with a spoon is also an instrumental action, and its developmental significance is not inferior to other similar actions. At preschool age, individual actions with objects cease to play a leading role in mental development, although they by no means become completely useless. This role is now moving to more complexly organized activities. Among them are games with dolls, sets of furniture and dishes, cars, medical supplies (the “Doctor Aibolit” set) and other toys. Moreover, the most useful are fairly simple and unpretentious toys with which you can perform a wide variety of actions. Wind-up, radio-controlled, electrified and other “modern” toys leave much less room for children’s imagination and independence, and therefore are less useful for mental development. There are many different didactic (that is, educational) games aimed at developing individual mental functions and developing certain skills and abilities. Such games are certainly useful, but you shouldn’t get too carried away with them. It is important to remember that it is not they that provide the greatest general developmental effect, but free creative children's play. For the development of a preschooler, designing from building materials and from various “constructors”, drawing, modeling, and appliqué are very important. All these are so-called productive activities. They differ from games in that they are associated with the creation of one or another “product”: a building, a drawing, etc. Thanks to this, productive types of activity develop not only figurative forms of thinking, but also such psychological qualities as purposefulness, purposefulness, and the ability to planning your actions. 15 2.2. PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS THE PROBLEM OF AGE CRISES Most often, parents are faced with surprises that are incomprehensible to them, although well known in psychology, during periods of age-related crises. In first place in terms of the number of requests is the teenage crisis. Especially many problems arise in cases where it begins earlier or later than usual. In both cases, it turns out to be unexpected. With an “early” start, parents do not have time to prepare for it; with a “late” start, they become lost, after they have already reassured themselves with the thought that all difficulties have passed them. The rapid growth of a child and the struggle for independence, characteristic of periods of crisis, cause a variety of concerns among parents. When faced with a sudden change in a child’s behavior, they do not always choose the right course of action. As a result, the problems become further aggravated, which often leads parents to a psychologist-consultant. The so-called crisis of three years (usually it begins at about two and a half) generates fewer calls than a teenage one, since even its very acute manifestations are still not so destructive. A three-year-old child does not yet have the opportunities that a twelve- or thirteen-year-old has. At the same time, negativism that suddenly appears in a child often frightens parents. When a child, until then obedient, in response to a request to get dressed, suddenly begins to undress, when ordered to go to bed, begins to jump around the room, etc., this can cause a wide variety of concerns. For example, parents may suspect a child has a nervous disorder. If, from the parents’ story, the consultant gets the impression that the appeal is caused by an age-related crisis, then in any case it is useful to conduct a psychological examination of the child to make sure that this is a normal, successful course of the crisis. In addition, the examination will help supplement general age recommendations with individualized ones, which are determined by the psychological characteristics of a given child. As for the problems of the crisis age themselves, here, first of all, psychological and pedagogical education of parents is required. In this case, as with age-wide recommendations on mental development, popular literature for parents can be very helpful. It, however, does not relieve the consultant of the responsibility to acquaint the client with the basic principles of raising a child who is in a developmental crisis period. First of all, it is useful to talk about the general patterns of mental development, about the alternation of stable and crisis periods. Many parents imagine the process of a child growing up as a uniform forward movement. In reality, such gradual changes are characteristic only of so-called stable periods. At the “junctions” between these periods, development proceeds in sharp spurts, turning sharply in one direction or the other. The general meaning of these child's tossing and turning is to find his new place in the adult world. THE CRISIS OF THREE YEARS During the crisis of three years, the child discovers for the first time that he is the same person as others, in particular, like his parents. One of the manifestations of this discovery is the appearance of the pronoun “I” in his speech (previously he spoke about himself only in the third person and called himself by name, for example he said about himself: “Misha fell”). New self-awareness also manifests itself in the desire to imitate adults in everything, to become completely equal to them. The child begins to demand that he be put to bed at the same time as adults go to bed, and strives to dress and undress independently, like them, even if he does not know how to do this. Adult help that violates equality is no longer accepted. The conflict is aggravated by the fact that many forms of adult behavior that a child seeks to imitate are prohibited for children. For example, they are usually forbidden to iron clothes, sew, go to bed at the same time as adults, etc. Refusal to follow orders that violate the symmetry of relationships with adults (so-called passive negativism) is a natural form of a child’s struggle with such restrictions. Active negativism, that is, performing actions directly opposite to those required by an adult, is an even more pronounced form of asserting one’s equality with an adult and imitating his behavior. Actively negativistic behavior reproduces the most important function of an adult: making decisions, developing intentions. It is built in the simplest possible way: by creating a precise negative in relation to the adult’s decision, to the intention formulated by him. In a generalized form, this method of action can be presented as “always act contrary to given orders.” The independence of negativistic behavior is purely formal and abstract. The actual author of the intention remains the adult, and the child only “translates” it, replacing all the pros with cons, and the cons with pros. Many parents take advantage of this effectively by giving orders that are contrary to their real intentions. Having carried out his simple “translation”, the child ultimately performs exactly the action that they wanted to achieve from him. The consultant’s task is to explain to parents the meaning of the process occurring during the three-year crisis and to convince them of the need to rebuild their relationship with their child on the basis of greater equality than it was before. If during this period parents begin to provide the child with more freedom and independence, then they support his new 18 idea of ​​himself and teach him to intelligently distinguish between those areas of life in which he can really behave “like an adult” and those in which he is still a small child in need of help and guidance. Gradually this leads to overcoming the symptoms of the crisis. If parents continue to try to build relationships in exactly the same way as before, then the child is not able to distinguish between these areas of life and in all cases insists on his right to “be an adult.” They usually say about such a child that he is very stubborn, although in reality it is primarily his parents who show stubbornness here. ADOLESCENT CRISIS Paradoxical as it may seem, during an adolescent crisis behavioral manifestations reappear that are reminiscent of a three-year-old child and are not typical for the entire intermediate period of development (preschool and primary school age). Negativism arises again - sometimes passive, and sometimes active. Even specific topics of disputes with parents are often close to those that dominated at the age of three: reluctance to dress warmly when going outside in the cold, the desire to go to bed no earlier than parents, etc. This is not a coincidental similarity. During the period of adolescence, as at the age of three, the child tries to equalize the rights of adults. Then - having survived the crisis of three years and realizing that he was not yet able to become like his own parents in everything - he found a way out in the game. It was as if he said to himself: if it’s impossible to be an adult in reality, then I’ll limit myself to being an adult “for fun.” Later, the realization came that the only way to truly become an adult is to study, to master the knowledge that adults possess and children do not possess. Junior school age passes under this sign. 19 But then the child becomes a teenager. He has already learned to read, write, count - he has mastered the basic wisdom that used to be an advantage for adults (and Newton’s binomial, which he is not yet familiar with, is still unlikely to be of much use to him in later life). And most importantly, he was almost equal to adults in terms of general mental development. Of course, he still lacks life experience, his judgments are too straightforward and correspond, rather, to some ideal than to life reality. However, he himself does not realize this. And well-developed logical thinking allows him to see contradictions in the reasoning of adults. They still consider him a foolish child and continue to keep him at his school desk like a first-grader. During adolescence, the child's perception by adults - primarily his parents - is very different from his self-perception. Adults underestimate his level of psychological maturity; he himself overestimates it. Therefore, it is not surprising that he passionately fights for his “adult” rights. The situation of adolescents is complicated by the fact that in modern society there is no social institution , which would allow them to realize their focus on fully entering the adult world. The school does not provide such an opportunity. It is adequate for primary school age, in which the leading activity is academic. A teenager needs an “arena” for the development of his social activity. The recommendations for parents of teenagers follow the same general direction as for parents of three-year-olds, but of course go much further. Parents need to realize that their child is almost an adult. And this means that he must take a new position in the family, much more equal than before. He should have new rights and new responsibilities. It would be good if the consultant explained not only to the parents, but also to the teenager himself, that rights and responsibilities are inextricably linked. The main right is the right to dispose of oneself; it requires high responsibility, and responsibility arises and is manifested in the conscientious performance of one’s duties. It is advisable that the issue of a teenager’s responsibilities be decided jointly by the parents and himself. However, it is helpful for the counselor to discuss this issue privately with the parents first. Following the usual pattern, they often try to impose on the child responsibilities that are “closed” to himself: cleaning his room, studying conscientiously, etc. However, such demands usually cause irritation in adolescents, since they strive to independently organize their own lives, and this is precisely where least likely to follow adult demands. As a rule, they have much less resistance to responsibilities related to the life of the family as a whole: for example, cleaning not their own but the common room, buying groceries for the whole family, etc. Such responsibilities serve as the best field for instilling responsibility and responsibility in a teenager. independence. As for rights, the first place here is the right to manage your time (of course, within reasonable restrictions agreed upon in advance with the parents). Often, a child of this age views his parents’ desire to regularly receive a comprehensive report about his affairs, relationships and experiences as an encroachment on his freedom. The consultant’s task is to explain to parents that a teenager has the right to his “private life”, not accountable to adults. If they inquire too persistently about his affairs, this will only lead to him starting to deceive them. Of great importance for the development of personality during this period is the involvement of the child in participation in decision-making concerning the whole family (who to invite to visit New Year , how to spend the summer, what to buy first - a stereo system or a new refrigerator, etc.). It is useful for a teenager to imagine, at least in general terms, the financial situation of the family and participate in planning the family budget. Of course, for now he should only have an advisory voice, but it is important that they listen to him, respect his opinion and, if they do not agree with him, then explain why. In addition to intra-family relationships, it is advisable to discuss with parents the problem of the teenager’s relationships with peers. Parents do not always understand how important this area is for a teenager. In particular, we should talk about the possibilities of his participation in a teenage club, studio, etc. After all, it is precisely such secondary, in the opinion of many parents, teenage associations that are a kind of substitute for the social institution that is absent in our society (as already mentioned) could help teenagers realize their goals of entering adulthood. 2.3. HOME-GROWN PEDAGOGICAL CONCEPTS Sometimes general pedagogical recommendations are necessary not because of certain problems in the development and behavior of the child, but because parents have incorrect pedagogical attitudes. The most common are weakly conscious attitudes, some vague ideas that “a child needs to be raised”; that “children should not be spoiled”; that “a child must respect his elders,” and in order to be respected, he “must earn respect”; that “a child must obey his parents,” etc. At first glance, such considerations seem convincing, but upon closer examination they often turn out to be completely untenable. For example, by education, many parents understand only certain purposeful “events”: punishment, “reading morals,” teaching the child to follow 22 certain rules of behavior. In reality, such methods of influence are often useless or even harmful. For the true upbringing of a child, the general atmosphere of the family, the style of communication, and the attitude of family members towards each other are much more important. As for respect, everything is exactly the opposite in relation to popular reasoning. An adult, in order to be respected, must really deserve it: he has had enough time and opportunities for this. A child has the right to respect from others simply due to the fact that he is a person, a person, although he has not yet had time to prove himself in any significant actions. By the way, this is how aristocrats have always been raised. They were respected from birth due to their origin and later sought to justify this respect (this was called “preserving noble honor,” and if there is no honor, then what to preserve?). We will not retell here what has already been said dozens of times by psychologists and teachers. Perhaps most vividly - by Janusz Korczak in the wonderful book “How to Love Children.” But the consultant often has to introduce these pedagogical truths to parents. Literature alone is not enough here. Firstly, the parent will not necessarily want or be able to get it. Secondly, in live communication and discussion, such ideas are absorbed much better than from literature. A conversation with a consultant will prepare the ground for an adequate perception of the book. The consultant has to deal not only with isolated vague ideas about education, but also with conscious pedagogical “concepts”. After all, in pedagogy, almost everyone considers himself an expert. One parent is convinced that the most useful thing is to teach a child to read popular science literature and encyclopedias as early as possible, and filling his head with children's fairy tales and rhymes is a waste of time. Another believes that the child will have to live in a harsh world and needs to be hardened for the future life, which means that the harsher the conditions of his upbringing from childhood, the better. The third read that in Japan, children up to the age of five are allowed absolutely everything, but then almost nothing, and is trying to implement a similar education system in his family. The beginning (but only the beginning!) of the consultant’s work in such cases is criticism of parental misconceptions. Thus, a fan of encyclopedias can be told about studies that have proven that the development of creative thinking is not at all facilitated by a child’s early familiarization with generally accepted ideas about nature (Einstein considered one of the most important circumstances that allowed him to build an unconventional physical theory to be his very late acquaintance with these ideas). A proponent of “psychological hardening” may be interested in learning about numerous statistics showing that resistance to stress is significantly higher in those people who were raised in an atmosphere of love and emotional warmth in childhood than in those whose upbringing was strict and harsh. It is not harmful for a follower of the Japanese parenting style to find out whether he is ready for his son to commit hara-kiri if he feels insulted (and in our conditions it is quite difficult to avoid insults). However, no matter what concept the client professes, the point of the consultant’s work is not to debunk this particular concept. It is necessary to explain the illegality of the general approach to the child as an object of pedagogical experiments. Society has been developing educational approaches and techniques for decades, or even centuries. Scientific pedagogy, when testing new technologies, relies on proven methods for testing their effectiveness and takes the necessary precautions so that the experiment does not harm the child. Parents sometimes experiment completely irresponsibly, without thinking about the possible consequences. The consultant's task is to convince them to abandon such “innovations.” 24 CHAPTER 3 “SYMPTOMATIC” RECOMMENDATIONS “Symptomatic” recommendations are required in cases where the child has a local problem. It can relate to the cognitive or emotional-personal sphere, to behavior, to the sphere of communication. We emphasize that such recommendations are not given in response to a corresponding complaint from the client, but only after the consultant is convinced that this psychological problem really exists. This is important due to the fact that the client does not always correctly understand the real reasons for certain difficulties. For example, a complaint about a child’s poor memory may in fact be explained not by memory impairments, but by a decrease in educational and cognitive motivation or by parents’ inflated expectations. In the vast majority of cases, “symptomatic” recommendations should be supplemented by individualized ones, aimed not at individual specific manifestations, but at the more general causes behind them. This also corresponds to the system of using symptomatic drugs in medicine. Thus, when giving a patient a medicine to relieve a cough, the doctor will probably prescribe general treatment to overcome the disease that caused this symptom. 3.1. LOCAL PROBLEMS IN MENTAL DEVELOPMENT MEMORY IMPAIRMENTS If a psychological examination reveals memory impairments, then it is necessary to carefully check the degree of preservation of its various types: auditory, visual, motor, semantic. This will form the basis for recommendations. So, if auditory memory is most preserved, then it is necessary to advise the child to read aloud the material to be memorized. If the reading technique is insufficient, it is necessary that the text is read not by himself, but by one of the adults - otherwise the efforts spent on the reading process itself will distract him from memorizing the material. Using a tape recorder (dictaphone) can also be of great help in memorizing. If visual memory is most developed, then you need to make maximum use of a variety of visual aids. If motor memory predominates, the child should be recommended to briefly write down (note) the material that needs to be remembered. This method is most suitable for teenagers: for a younger student, note-taking may be an overwhelming task. In case of memory impairment, parents (and especially teachers) should be advised to be especially careful in the selection of material offered to the child for memorization. We must try to minimize its volume, achieving not verbatim memorization, but a general understanding of the material. In cases where verbatim memorization is still required, it must be done in small portions, ensuring that each portion is completely memorized before moving on to the next. For example, when memorizing a poem, it is convenient to learn it one quatrain at a time, without trying to repeat the entire poem. However, before starting to learn, you need to discuss the development of the topic in detail with the child, so that later the quatrains do not change places. All of these tips relate to how to structure learning around memory deficiencies. Another direction of recommendations is related to defect compensation. First of all, you need to explain to the client (parent or teacher) that simple training does little to improve memory. But you can achieve a lot using a variety of mnemonic techniques. Firstly, it is useful to teach the child to figuratively imagine what needs to be remembered, to attract a wide variety of associations. Secondly, you can use the “pictogram” technique for training. In the Bee educational version, unlike the diagnostic version, the child is offered to memorize not individual words, but simple phrases (such as “The girl was given a doll”). To remember each such phrase, the child learns to make some kind of simple and schematic drawing as possible. After this technique has been mastered on specific material, phrases with a more abstract meaning should be given (for example, “It’s never too late to learn”). As a result of such activities, the action of selecting a suitable schematic image is internalized, automated, and subsequently begins to be carried out by the child internally, without creating a corresponding drawing. DISORDERS OF ATTENTION AND SELF-CONTROL The main direction of recommendations for disorders of attention and disorders of self-control are techniques for forming operations for checking and evaluating one’s work. Here is a diagram of one of the simplest methods available to any adult for forming control operations in an inattentive child. First, the adult writes short texts (preferably entertaining for the child) with many gross errors. You cannot make mistakes on spelling rules that are not yet known to the child. You can use not only spelling, but also mathematical material: write out columns of examples with solutions, about a third of which are incorrect. The child must fulfill the role of the teacher: correct mistakes with a red pencil. After the child learns to find at least half of the mistakes made by an adult, he is invited to take on his role: “Now let’s make the mistakes yourself. Today, write down these three sentences, but make more mistakes in them, so that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow you will have something to correct. Just watch so you can guess what was supposed to be written. Otherwise, if you write “aspen” instead of “birch,” then you won’t guess what was there.” Now the child himself writes texts with deliberate errors and puts these tasks aside for himself for several days, and then checks his own work. At the third stage, self-control, organized in a playful form, turns into serious, business-like self-control of homework (until this time, parents check homework). You should instruct your child to check his own homework only after the game checking techniques have been well established. Self-control must be formed in advance: the habit of constant control should be developed only against the backdrop of a sufficiently developed technique. DISORDERS OF PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION OF ACTIVITIES In case of disorders of planning and organization of activities, parents are told how to teach their child to plan their actions. Planning should be a mandatory but short step preceding each action. “Tell me in a nutshell how you will solve this problem” - with such sentences an adult can encourage the child to plan actions. However, highlighting in each child's action a separate stage of planning as preparation for action, the adult must ensure that the plans are implemented, so that the action is not replaced by its planning. You should plan not only mental, but also everyday, everyday activities. So, when starting lessons, the child must decide in what order he will do them. 28 This overall plan you need not only to compile, but also to secure it financially: get everything you need to prepare lessons, put textbooks and notebooks at your workplace in exactly the sequence outlined in the plan. All organizational aspects of activity must be brought to the point of automatism, and such local automatisms make it possible to identify islands of order in the general chaos of the behavior of a disorganized child. Where to start, which area of ​​children's disorganization to streamline and automate first - preparing lessons, the morning ritual of getting ready for school, evening cleaning of toys, collecting a briefcase - parents will decide for themselves. The psychologist’s task is to convince them not to grab onto everything at once and not count on quick success, but to consistently practice each individual automatism. And understand that a child who does not have self-organization skills needs first maximum, and then gradually decreasing help from adults. But if it is always difficult for him to fulfill even the most benevolent organizational demands of adults, then he will not fulfill them. Consequently, demands are too high, adults are in a hurry, and show inappropriate impatience. And, probably, they do not realize that the low level of organization of the student’s activities is the price to pay for their own pedagogical omissions in the preschool education of the child. SLOW PACE OF ACTIVITY If a child has a slow pace of activity, then this feature should simply be taken into account. You cannot blame a child for slowness over which he has no control. It should be understood that with its tempo characteristics it is necessary to regulate the amount of work. Therefore, the volume homework it is possible and necessary to reduce, striving to ensure that the completed part of the task is done well, and not to ensure that everything is done, but poorly. PSYCHOPHYSICAL INFANTILISM The main “recipe” is that the relationship of parents and teachers with the child should correspond to his psychological, and not his passport age. The consultant convinces parents that growing up will inevitably come, that childishness is a quickly passing defect. The general logic of the recommendations: leave the child alone, come to terms with the fact that he is in some ways younger than his peers. See what he really can and cannot do, and not demand much more from him than what he is capable of. For example, if a child, being a real preschooler in his mental make-up, is not ready to do his homework on his own, then, nevertheless, they must be done, but, firstly, together, and secondly, in a playful way. Parents should receive detailed recommendations from a consultant on organizing play activities with their child, sometimes even to the detriment of school homework, because school skills in writing, reading and counting are easily mastered in the game, and mastering the school requirements of self-organization and arbitrariness is not yet available to the child. If an infantile child is just about to start studying at school (in accordance with his passport age), then it should be recommended to postpone the start of education and keep him in kindergarten for another year. In this case, there is a high probability that he will not have problems in his studies later. Sometimes it is not easy to convince parents to make such a decision, especially if the child’s mental development corresponds to his passport age or is even ahead of it. However, even in this case, the general “childishness” will prevent him from studying successfully at school (perhaps difficulties will not begin immediately, but after a while they are almost inevitable). 30 If an infantile child is already in school and is left for the second year, this usually only strengthens the secondary deviations that we wrote about above. The very status of a “repeater” sets an extremely unfavorable position both in the eyes of the child himself and in the eyes of his fellow students. For the same reason, it is extremely undesirable to educate an infantile child in a special school (for children with mental retardation, learning disabilities, or, especially, for the mentally retarded). Transferring to such a school practically means turning temporary and surmountable difficulties into final and insurmountable ones. 3.2. LOCAL EMOTIONAL AND PERSONAL PROBLEMS INCREASED ANXIETY First and most important recommendation with increased anxiety is that the child needs to provide a feeling of success. He must not be allowed to dwell on his failures. He needs to find an activity in which he is able to assert himself. A feeling of success is the best cure for increased anxiety. In addition, the child should feel protected and know that, if necessary, adults (primarily parents) will definitely come to his aid. If the parents themselves are not confident in themselves, full of fears and anxiety, then it is necessary that they, at least, do not demonstrate their uncertainty to the child, do not share their fears with him. In order for a child to feel calmer in various situations that seem unsafe to him, you can use such a classical cultural technique as a talisman. It is best if the consultant talks about using the talisman to the child and parents together. It is useful to recall that people at all times have used talismans. They were taken with them hunting in ancient times, they were worn by soldiers going to war, and even today people who especially need success (pilots, athletes, soldiers, stuntmen) do not neglect them. Explain that the talisman is always given by some very close, loving and beloved person, and therefore the talisman reminds you of this person, gives you the feeling that he is next to you, remembers you and supports you. If the child is old enough, then you can tell him about the principle of association (or conditioned reflex): the talisman evokes a memory of a close and/or especially significant person by association. And this memory calms you down and relieves anxiety. In turn, a calm state greatly increases the chances of success. Therefore, regardless of its magical properties, the talisman brings good luck, and if it also has magical properties- all the better. The talisman should be pleasant in itself. For a girl, a suitable talisman would be a beautiful medallion or a small soft toy that fits comfortably in a pocket. This toy is also good for little boy. For an older boy, it can be a smooth, beautiful and pleasant-to-touch pebble. If the child is religious, then a blessed icon or cross is very good. In any case, it should be presented by a very close or especially significant person - usually one of the parents. At first, you should take the talisman with you in cases where success is practically guaranteed: then, in addition to associations with a loved one, it will also “grow” with soothing associations with good luck and success. If several times in a row it turns out to be associated with failure, for example, with a poorly written test at school, then it must be abandoned, at least for a while, until the association with failure is forgotten. If in some important situation the talisman is forgotten at home, it’s okay. It can easily perform its protective calming function while lying at home, you just need to remember it more often. The loss of a talisman is by no means a tragedy. It only means that his protective power has been exhausted. This is also a motive that is widespread in culture: perhaps, at the cost of leaving, the talisman saved you from some danger unknown to you. Such games with oneself are a common component of psychological self-regulation techniques. All these explanations - important element techniques for working with a talisman. They must be given to the child and parents convincingly, in words they understand. The level of anxiety is closely related to the state of the central nervous system . To reduce it, various water procedures are of great importance. These are baths with special additives - sea salt or herbs (herbal teas that have a calming effect on the nervous system are sold in pharmacies without a prescription). A warm shower before bed has a very good effect, but not hot or cold (both are exciting), but approximately body temperature, pleasant to the skin and felt as “neutral”. Children of preschool and primary school age are recommended to play with water. A basin or large pot of water is placed in the bathroom, and the child is given many small things that can be used for play (scrapers that can be used to “pour from empty to empty,” matchboxes that can be launched as boats, rags that can “ wash"...). Let the child play in the water as much as he wants. The beneficial effect is explained both by the slight irritation of peripheral nerve endings caused by water, and by the activity itself, which does not imply any result and therefore cannot be unsuccessful. Sports activities, especially swimming, are very useful. If the level of anxiety is particularly high, parents can be advised to consult a doctor (psychiatrist or neurologist): medicine has a wide arsenal of medications that reduce anxiety. These are various tranquilizers. Only a doctor can prescribe them, and in no case a psychologist or the parents themselves. Let us repeat once again that this path should only be taken if there is a very strong increase in anxiety. Tranquilizers should not be abused. Firstly, addiction to them occurs over time, manifested in increased tolerance (decreased sensitivity) to them; To achieve the same effect, you have to increase the dose, and at the same time the side effects that are present in all tranquilizers without exception increase. Secondly, their use prevents the development of psychological defense mechanisms, which are formed if anxiety is overcome by purely psychological means. FEARS To combat children's fears, an effective express correction method “Destroying Fear” can be proposed. The psychologist uses this technique in the presence of one of the parents, who will subsequently, if necessary, remind the child of the method shown to him to overcome fear. The technique can be carried out with children starting from senior preschool age (it has no age restrictions “from above”). It should be borne in mind that it is not very effective in cases where fears are used by a child to attract the attention of adults (that is, in the case of hysterical exploitation of fears). The technique includes five stages: a preliminary conversation, creating an image, destroying the image, rationally explaining to the child the meaning of the technique shown, and relaxation (the last stage increases the effectiveness of the technique, but is not mandatory). The implementation of each stage varies in accordance with the age of the child, his mental make-up, state, attitude to the task, etc. Stage I consists of a conversation with the child about whether he is scared, if so, what exactly he is afraid of does not interfere Should he sleep or not... The conversation is conducted in a calm, relaxed tone. If fears are revealed by a psychological examination or by stories from relatives, but the child himself does not recognize their presence, then you can tell him that small children are always afraid of something and ask: “What were you afraid of when you were little? “Further, work will be carried out with fears that are supposedly no longer present, but were once present. The usefulness of this work can be explained by the fact that sometimes anyone, even an adult, becomes scared, and therefore it is useful to learn how to cope with fear. Stage II - discussion of how fear can be depicted (drawn) and the subsequent creation of such a drawing. For this you need paper and a set of colored pencils or markers. The following difficulties may arise at this stage. > The child refuses the activity, claiming that he will not be able to draw what is needed. In this case, it is necessary to explain that the drawing does not have to be good at all. On the contrary, it is better to draw fears poorly, since they themselves are bad and there is no need to decorate them. > The child does not name specific fears, so the subject of the image is not clear. In this case, one of two techniques can be recommended: a) personification of fear in the form of some very unpleasant, scary animal or character of the child’s choice (this technique is advisable when working with rationalistic children); b) an abstract drawing that directly expresses an emotional state (when working with emotional children). The drawing may be preceded by a discussion like: “What color do you think fear should be? What color would suit him best? etc. If difficulties continue, a sample drawing can be given: “I would probably start drawing fear like this,” - with these words the psychologist draws several sharp black strokes, or puts a blot of black ink on the sheet, or something else. or creates a shapeless black spot. Then the child continues the drawing himself. 35 Stage III - destruction of the drawing. First of all, you need to get the child to admit that the drawing really depicts his fear (real or existing before, “when he was little”), and, therefore, now this fear is not inside (in the head, or in the heart, or in the chest ), and outside. And this means that now it is easy to drive it away, to destroy it: to do this, it is enough to tear the drawing. The child is asked to do this. While the child is tearing up the drawing, the psychologist makes an indirect suggestion, emotionally commenting on his actions: “That’s it, tear it into small pieces so that nothing remains!” So that the fear completely goes away and never returns. Tear even smaller - so that all the fears themselves become frightened of you and run away. Like this! So that there is absolutely nothing left of fear!” etc. If the child is constrained and inhibited, then a psychologist can take part in tearing up the drawing (“I’ll help you drive out the fear so that it goes away and never comes back to you!”). After the drawing is torn, the psychologist collects the scraps, emphasizing that he collects them all, so that not a single one is left. Having crumpled up the scraps, he throws them away with an energetic gesture (“Like this, so that there’s absolutely nothing left!”). All this is done emotionally, seriously and with concentration. Stage IV - a rational explanation to the child of the meaning of the technique shown to him. They explain to the child that now he knows how to drive away fear. This means that if he becomes scared again, he will not be afraid, but will simply draw his fear and drive it away, as he just did. To do this, you don’t even have to actually draw and tear the drawing, you just need to imagine how you do it. It is useful for rationalistic children (especially teenagers) to present the entire procedure as a psychotechnical tool, emphasizing that this is a technique that helps a person manage himself and his state of mind. Stage V (optional) - relaxation accompanied by suggestion in a waking or drowsy state. Suggestion 36 includes two main themes, repeated several times with different variations: > Fear has been overcome and will not return. Now the child will not be afraid of anything and will sleep peacefully. > The child knows what to do if he suddenly becomes scared again: he can easily drive away the fear by drawing it and tearing it up, or just imagining how he does it. You should not be embarrassed that these topics contradict each other. Children do not notice such contradictions, especially in a state of relaxation, which reduces the level of control. It is necessary to point out the possibility of the return of fear, since otherwise the very first appearance of this feeling will remove the effect of correctional work. REDUCED MOOD, SUBDEPRESSION If the child’s mood is low, subdepression, parents can be shown and recommended for subsequent regular implementation of the “Drawing Enrichment” technique, which is part of the art therapy arsenal. It is applicable to children starting from early preschool age and has no upper age restrictions. Its psychocorrective effect is based on the actualization of emotional ideas associated with different colors and color combinations. The child is asked to draw with colored pencils what he wants. As he draws, questions are asked that encourage him to develop the plot of the drawing and enrich the palette of color tones used. If the questions do not help achieve this result, then direct instructions are given: “Let’s draw a boy next to the house who went out for a walk,” “Let’s make the clothes bright, colorful,” etc. The task is to develop the plot in as detailed a manner as possible, increase the density and brightness of color, expressiveness color combinations, using a wide 37 variety of color tones, mostly warm - from red to green. When working with schoolchildren and older preschoolers, it is advisable to combine this technique with composing a story (fairy tale), the plot of which is based on the first picture, and is subsequently illustrated by the following. The effectiveness of the technique can be increased due to previous relaxation, which creates a favorable initial emotional background . In turn, “enrichment of the picture” helps stabilize this background. Asthenia When working with an asthenic child, it is important to strictly dose the load. In any activity (especially those related to mental activity), it is necessary to take fairly frequent breaks so that the child can rest. These breaks should be filled with either active movement (such as playing catch) or relaxation. Parents should be shown simple relaxation techniques. In case of particularly severe asthenia, it is necessary to reduce the amount of homework assigned to the child. It is also recommended to give him an additional day off in the middle of the school week. With asthenia, proper organization of the daily routine and sufficiently long sleep are of particular importance. All classes should be concentrated in the first half of the day. To restore a favorable state of the nervous system, water procedures are recommended (see recommendations for increased anxiety), playing sports (especially swimming), ensuring that the child spends as much time as possible in the air and receives a sufficient amount of vitamins. For an asthenic child, any stimulus seems to be stronger than for other children. It is advisable to protect him from overly strong impressions (do not shout at the child, do not allow him to watch horror films, try to avoid traumatic situations such as funerals or wakes, etc.). INCREASED DEMONSTRATIVITY It is important that parents and teachers understand that the child has an increased need for attention to himself and that it is necessary to find forms in which it could be successfully satisfied. It can be very difficult to satisfy a demonstrative child’s insatiable need for attention. It is necessary to find an area in which he can realize his demonstrativeness. Various types of artistic activity (in the broad sense of the word) are most suitable for this. By expressing himself in creativity, the child thereby attracts the attention of others to his emotional manifestations, fantasies, etc. It is desirable that these activities be collective (club, studio). For a demonstrative child, theater classes are especially beneficial and sometimes almost irreplaceable. Such a child always plays some kind of role - so we need to let him play it not in life, but on stage. There is no need to take special care of its success. He will almost certainly be able to achieve success on stage without any help: acting is his element. However, if high demonstrativeness is combined with communication disorders or increased anxiety, then recommending a stage to a child must be done with great caution. If he lacks self-confidence and is highly shy, then he will be constrained on stage and will not be able to perform successfully. And a feeling of success, attention, emotional support are necessary conditions for the “therapeutic” effect of creativity. Therefore, in this case, it is better to recommend some other activity related to art - say, a drawing group or a literary studio (for teenagers). Part 39 It is necessary to remember the tendency of highly demonstrative children to aggravate (emphasizing the symptoms of any diseases they have) and the danger of subsequent development of the hysterical type. If, from the parents’ story, one gets the impression that the child is really moving in this direction, then it is necessary to outline the general principles of attitude towards diseases. Their point is that treatment should not be pleasant. All necessary medical procedures must be carried out, but any entertainment during illness must be extremely limited so that the illness in no case becomes a pleasant pastime. On the contrary, when a child is healthy, you should try to communicate with him more and make his life as interesting and eventful as possible. Listening to the recommendations of a psychologist, parents and teachers often express concerns that with constant praise and increased attention to children’s successes, the child may develop “conceit.” They are afraid that he may begin to demand even more attention to himself, i.e. that he personal characteristics will further aggravate. We have to explain that a high need for attention to oneself is not a flaw, but a personal trait. Like any other personality trait, it leads to positive or negative manifestations depending on the circumstances of the child’s life. It develops very early and can then develop either naturally (if it meets the understanding of others) or in perverted forms. The feeling of success does not lead to “conceit” at all, but to a stable positive self-esteem, which encourages the child to courageously overcome difficulties and failures, to achieve real, not imaginary, achievements. It is well known in psychology that a driven inside, unrealized need for attention to oneself can give rise to one of the serious mental illnesses - hysteria. Usually we do not tell our parents about this, for fear of causing them unnecessary fears that could harm the normal upbringing of the child. However, for other parents, those who too stubbornly insist that “a girl should be modest” or that “praising children is harmful,” the psychologist is forced to describe such an unfavorable scenario. Sometimes such an explanation is the only way to lead them to understand what problems their pedagogical views are fraught with for the child. LACK OF COGNITIVE INTERESTS This complaint is rarely encountered at the beginning of schooling. However, by the second year of study, academic motivation and cognitive interests decline in many children. Of course, it is not the children who are to blame for this, but the adults who create an atmosphere of coercion and joylessness around studying. In these cases, the main line of recommendations is a variety of techniques for joint activities between children and adults, including cognitive elements. If, as a result of a psychological examination of a child, a complete lack of cognitive orientation is revealed, then it can be assumed that adults have never conducted joint cognitive activities with him, and this often hides the lack of cognitive values ​​in the family. However, if the consultant manages to convince the parents that the development of cognitive interests is the main means of helping their child, then adults, at least for a while, can “simulate” a cognitive interest that they themselves do not have (for example, become keenly interested in the process of plant growth and begin to work together with child corresponding experiments). The reason for a child’s lack of cognitive interests can also be the opposite: parents, overly concerned about his development, begin to “stuff” him with knowledge too early and in inappropriate forms, teaching him to read, write and count. 41 Pedagogically illiterate teaching can firmly discourage a child from engaging in any such things. The solution in this case is the same: joint classes with a cognitive focus, and not one-sided learning from the position of a teacher “drilling” knowledge into a careless student. The simplest options for joint cognitive activities with a child are, for example, observing germinating plants (a very convenient and accessible object for such observations is beans); recording changes in nature, when from early spring to late autumn a child, together with his parents, walking through the nearest forest, identifies plants using the simplest school identification guide and writes down what new types of flowers appear every week; attempts to independently forecast the weather in accordance with known signs that the child and his parents will find in the natural calendar; examining various little things through a microscope; observations of domestic animals with obligatory records of their discoveries; experiments with the “Young Chemist” set. An activity (or several activities) from the proposed set or something independently invented taking into account specific family conditions becomes the first bridge leading to the restoration of educational motivation. A group with a cognitive focus can help adults compensate for the deficit in cognitive values ​​at home. It is especially successful if one of the older children who is already passionate about astronomy, computers, history or insects introduces the child to the circle. But joint educational activities should be in the nature of involving one child in the sphere of interests of another, and not the usual “pull up” of someone lagging behind, say, in mathematics. The significance of communication with an older child may be a condition for the “launch” of cognitive motives. The place where children work together does not have to be a circle; At home, parents can organize something like a “club of interests” for their children, in which they themselves take part as much as possible. 42 3.3. LOCAL BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS HYPERACTIVITY The increased excitability of a hyperactive child gives rise to many difficulties. Such a child needs constant supervision. However, this control should not be expressed in comments and “reading notations.” It should provide useful directions for the application of children's strength and energy, that is, go not along the path of limiting activity, but along the path of its productive use. Sports activities are especially beneficial for such a child. The most suitable sports include swimming, which reduces the excitability of the nervous system, and martial arts, which instill the skills of self-control and self-discipline (of course, if the coach is not limited to their purely external side). In general, the formation of self-control and organization of activities is the most important task for such a child. A hyperactive child often finds himself in a situation of constant punishment, since not five minutes pass without him doing something illegal. Only one conclusion follows from this: all minor violations should be ignored and, in any case, should not entail punishment. A common cause of hyperactivity is increased intracranial pressure. Its external signs are a “melon-shaped” shape of the head with a predominance of the cranial part over the facial part, a convex forehead, a pronounced venous network on the temples and sometimes on the bridge of the nose. If such signs are present, consultation with a neurologist should be recommended. Lying When complaining that a child often lies, it is necessary, first of all, to help the client realize the extreme prevalence of such behavior among both children and adults. “Do you never ask your husband (wife) to say on the phone that you are not at home, when in reality you simply don’t want to come over for some reason? Never say that you were late due to transport delays, when in fact there was some other reason? Never refer to poor health or illness when you are completely healthy? If not, then this means that you are a rare exception. But your child follows the general rule, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” The next group of tips relates to the general building of relationships with your child. If he lies especially a lot, this is usually a sign that his parents are trying to control him too much, and he has to assert his independence through lies. In this case, you need to convince the parents to reduce the level of control, give the child more independence, so that he no longer needs lies. Similarly, if a lie is generated by inflated demands and, accordingly, a frequent negative assessment of the child’s actions, then parents should be advised to change their approach to the child and stop scolding him. In some cases, the impression of deceit is created as a result of hypertrophied development of the imagination. It often reflects a child's tendency to engage in defensive fantasy. Such a lie is not aimed at obtaining any benefit, it is disinterested and should be perceived as a kind of work of art, which in these cases it essentially is. THEFT Complaints about child theft are very common. And this is the first thing that needs to be explained to parents. They usually believe that they are faced with a rare and therefore particularly severe deviation in childhood development. This idea is caused by the fact that it is not customary to talk about the theft of one’s own child, and therefore, parents did not have to hear about it from their friends. In order for them to realize this, it is useful to find out from them: “Have you yourself told your friends that your son is stealing? No? You see, and they don’t tell you.” Many complaints about child theft are simply inadequate. So, if such a complaint relates to a preschooler, then its correct wording should be completely different: “The child takes things without asking” (or “Takes things that he was forbidden to take”). The fact is that theft is usually understood as a conscious violation of the corresponding moral norm, while preschoolers do not yet know moral norms at all. The “theft” of a preschooler should be treated in the same way as any of his other offenses; this offense is no more serious than any self-indulgence. Whatever the reason for the thefts and whatever age they were committed, parents should be warned against accusations like “you are a thief” or “you will grow up to be a thief”, etc. In general, it is advisable to refrain from using the words “thief”, “theft” ”, “theft” and use softer expressions: “take someone else’s”, “take what does not belong to you”, etc. Otherwise, the child may develop a negative self-esteem, which will encourage him to commit further offenses (“Since I’m all If I’m already a thief, then I will continue to steal”). Another aspect of parental behavior should be related to preventing the opportunity to use stolen money or things and get pleasure from it. For example, if a child took money out of his mother’s wallet and managed to spend it, then he must cancel the next planned entertainment or the planned purchase of a desired item: the money intended for this has already been spent. If the loss was discovered on time and the money was returned, then there is no need to cancel the entertainment or purchase, it is enough to postpone it for a while. If things of unknown origin appear at home, which the child, in his words, “found,” then there is no need to arrange proceedings to find out whether they were stolen from someone. However, in any case, any use of such things (even if they are actually found) should be prohibited. If it is not known who owns this item and to whom it should be returned, then the parents can take it for themselves, throw it away, or give it to someone else (but not allow the child to give it as it may become too attractive for him). During adolescence, stealing is sometimes a way for children to get money for drugs. Therefore, if there is a complaint about theft, it is recommended to check during the examination whether there are any indications that the teenager is using drugs (indirect indicators include pronounced antisocial themes, signs of impaired drives, and pronounced emotional disturbances). AGGRESSION It is hardly possible to simply reduce true aggressiveness, behind which there is an orientation towards destruction. But this orientation can be manipulated and given socially acceptable forms. Thus, it is possible to channel effective aggression into verbal (verbal) aggression, which poses less danger to others. Verbal aggression (for example, reprimands for misconduct) is a completely acceptable, socially permitted form of aggression. And if a person has a high, but “cultivated” level of aggressiveness, then he simply likes to make such comments to others. Say, if a girl beats her younger brother, then it is useful to instruct her to monitor his behavior and reprimand him when he behaves incorrectly; any physical aggression should be strictly prohibited and should be assessed as a complete failure of the “pedagogical mission” entrusted to the older sister (such an assessment will be very offensive for her and will force her to refrain from assault in the future). 46 An even more acceptable form of sublimation of true aggression is the focus on overcoming and destroying external obstacles. However, it is necessary not only to find common ways to channel aggressive tendencies, but also to give vent to momentary aggression. There are simple techniques for this: allow the child to furiously tear paper, cut plasticine with a plastic knife, and perform harmless destructive actions that, in a fit of aggression, the child can do for a long time and with pleasure. Sometimes parents fear that the destructive actions taken by the child will lead to development and increased aggressiveness. It is necessary to explain to them that, on the contrary, defusing aggression reduces the level of its tension. After such a release, calming activities such as playing with sand, water and/or relaxation are useful. And only after the immediate aggressive impulse has been worked out, joint activities are possible in which the child’s destructive impulses can be redirected from the partner to external obstacles on the way to a common goal. For aggressive boys with a pronounced masculine (male) type of values, it is advisable to directly work with the ideal of a “real man”, connecting to other ideas about the standard of masculinity such qualities as restraint and self-control. With defensive aggression, it is recommended, first of all, to work on teaching communication tools (see relevant recommendations below). In addition, it is necessary to relieve anxiety, which is facilitated by the warm emotional atmosphere of home communication and spiritual comfort, because behind defensive aggression there is a feeling of insecurity, a threat from the outside world. There is no need to analyze defensive aggression, since it has a different energy: aggressive behavior is prompted not by destructive, but by defensive tendencies. In cases of pronounced defensive aggression, it is useful to teach a child martial art as a holistic set of techniques for self-control, relaxation and self-defense. This can give a boy who is afraid of an attack confidence. 47 3.4. PROBLEMS OF COMMUNICATION WITH PEERS Parents should be told how an adult can purposefully build communication with a small group of children. At first, the child must be taught to communicate and cooperate with one or two partners. General principle participation of an adult in children's communication - as inconspicuous help as possible, a hint in case of conflict or falling out of the common cause. Let's say the children can't figure out what to do on their own. Then the adult should tell them some interesting game . As soon as they begin to play, he steps aside, leaving the further initiative to them. But suddenly a difficulty arises again: for example, two guys argued which of them would get the most interesting role. Here the adult again intervenes, helps resolve the dispute (say, offers to introduce another equally attractive role into the game) and again moves into the background. It is easiest for children to communicate with the eldest child: he willingly takes on the role of leader, and the rest are only required to follow his instructions. Younger people almost never argue with this, recognizing the unconditional authority of age. Therefore, it is useful for a child who has communication difficulties to first provide the opportunity for contact with older children. The next stage in the development of communication skills is contacts with juniors. Now he himself acts as the elder, and the authority of age ensures the success of his still not very skillful attempts to organize some kind of joint activity. The most difficult thing is communicating with peers. Here you yourself have to find the “golden mean” between command and submission, all the time correlating your intentions with the desires of other children. Starting from pre-adolescence, we can recommend, in addition to games, rational means of analyzing communication situations, modeling and analyzing various cases of conflicts with the child, and looking for ways to resolve them constructively. 48 4 PSYCHOLOGICAL SYNDROMES CHAPTER 4.1. STRUCTURE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SYNDROME Individualized recommendations are always based on one or another typology of mental development options. Next, a typology is proposed that includes not only the psychological characteristics of the child, but also the system of his relationships with others. This typology is most convenient for developing effective recommendations. As shown in the works of L. S. Vygotsky and his followers (A. N. Leontyev, D. B. Elkonin, A. V. Zaporozhets), in each age period there is a social development situation specific to it, that is, a system of relationships between the child and society (in particular, with one’s own parents, kindergarten teacher, school teachers, etc.). It is realized in the leading activity of a given period (at an early age - subject-based, in preschool - play, in primary school - educational, in adolescence - in interpersonal communication activities). The social development situation corresponding to a particular age is developed in the course of the historical development of society. Just like culture as a whole, it is not chosen by the child, but accepted by him. However, in each individual case it has its own specifics, depending on the specific relationships that a given child develops with the people around him (parents, teachers, peers). We call this specific system of relations, that is, the specific embodiment of the social situation of development, the interpersonal situation of development. It is this that determines the emergence and subsequent changes in individual psychological characteristics. The “contribution” of the child himself to the interpersonal situation of his development is determined by the characteristics of his behavior and activities. Thus, now we will have to consider not age-wide leading activities, but specific features of the activities of a given child. The object of our special attention will also be the contribution to the interpersonal situation made by others: parents, teachers, peers, psychologists, brothers, sisters, etc. The entire course of the child’s mental development greatly depends on their actions. When describing “psychological diagnoses” we will use the term “syndrome”. This term is borrowed from medicine. It is used to denote a set of interrelated symptoms that form a particular disease. We will talk about psychological syndromes. In medicine, this approach has long proven its high practical effectiveness. A. R. Luria successfully used it in studies on the neuropsychological analysis of brain functions. In psychology, the syndrome approach was outlined by L. S. Vygotsky already 60 years ago, but it still remained rather poorly developed. Vygotsky proposed using as a unit of psychological analysis not a set of individual symptoms, but a “psychological syndrome,” which is a set of naturally interconnected symptoms that have their own developmental logic. He described, in particular, a number of syndromes characteristic of abnormal development, during which a primary defect leads to the appearance of various secondary defects. For example, a mentally retarded child is often unable to successfully build relationships with peers, which leads to a reduced level of socialization. In this case, insufficient socialization is a secondary defect (in contrast to autism, in which reduced socialization is a manifestation of a primary defect). A complete syndrome is formed by a combination of primary and secondary defects. The development of such a syndrome (i.e., the occurrence of secondary defects) can be prevented through targeted preventive and corrective work (in the example given, through the organization of communication between a mentally retarded child and his peers). In this book, the syndromic approach is used to analyze various options for the development of a normal child and to describe a number of borderline states (neurosis, psychopathic-like behavior, etc.). A psychological syndrome is a complex of interrelated manifestations (symptoms). It is characterized by certain conditions of its origin, high stability and a specific direction of development, during which some symptoms are naturally replaced by others. A general diagram reflecting the development of the psychological syndrome is presented in Fig. 1. Fig. 1. Scheme of development of a psychological syndrome 51 The sources of the syndrome are those factors that are essential for its occurrence. They can have a very diverse nature - genetic, social, medical. These may be the child’s personal characteristics (for example, his increased need for attention from others or his low level of sensitivity to social norms); expectations and attitudes of parents (for example, their negative attitude towards the existing social order, their own pedagogical concept or confidence in their child’s giftedness); living conditions (for example, the inability to find a group of peers with similar interests), etc. During the development of the syndrome, its sources do not undergo any natural changes. The factors included in the core of a psychological syndrome naturally change during its development. Let's take a closer look at them. As can be seen in the diagram, the specificity of a particular psychological syndrome is determined by the interaction of three main blocks. The psychological profile of a child is a combination of both his personal characteristics and indicators related to cognitive processes. For different syndromes, different features of the psychological profile may be of primary importance. As a rule, the most important role is played by certain character accentuations - such as an anxious-suspicious character, hysterical or schizoid accentuations. The characteristics of a child’s activity depend on his psychological profile (in the diagram this dependence is indicated by an arrow). These features may relate to the intensity and effectiveness of the activity, its success, the degree of its compliance with social norms, etc. The main focus of the activity is especially important - whether it is primarily aimed at communication, practical achievements, knowledge or any other aspects of reality. It is important to remember that the same psychological feature 52 can give rise to different behavioral manifestations depending on the degree of its severity, on other psychological features, on living conditions, the behavior of others, etc. In turn, the same (or very similar) behavioral manifestations can be caused by different psychological characteristics. The reaction of the social environment here is understood as the response of the social environment (parents, teachers, peers) to the characteristics of the activity of a given child (the relationship between these blocks is indicated by an arrow). The reaction of the social environment may consist in encouraging some forms of behavior and punishing others, in the general assessment of the child, in the intensity of communication with him, etc. Obviously, the connection of this reaction with the manifestations themselves is ambiguous and depends on the views, habits, personal characteristics and pedagogical attitudes of adults raising a child. There is a circular relationship between the described blocks: the picture of the child’s behavior is connected (albeit ambiguously) with his psychological profile; it determines (albeit, again, ambiguously) the reaction of others; in turn, this reaction causes certain changes in psychological characteristics. Influence social relations on the child’s psychological profile (marked on the diagram with an arrow, as before) provides feedback. In cybernetics, the concept of positive and negative feedback has been developed. Negative feedback normalizes the mode in which the system operates. Positive feedback (“vicious circle”) puts the system out of balance and can lead to its destruction. A psychological syndrome is such an imbalance. It occurs when there is positive feedback, that is, when the reactions of the social environment aggravate the very psychological problem (unfavorable specificity of the psychological profile) that gave rise to these reactions. In the absence of positive feedback, a stable psychological syndrome does not develop. In this case, only a relatively short-term state can arise, which can be easily modified and overcome. The proposed method for analyzing psychological syndromes allows not only to successfully identify them, but also to determine effective ways of their correction and prevention. The correctional approach is based on the destruction of positive feedback and replacing it with negative feedback, normalizing the system of relations between the child and his social environment. The syndromic approach does not reject or remove the classical typology of accentuations of character and general personality. However, unlike the latter, it takes into account not only the “internal” psychological characteristics of the child, but also their manifestation in activities, as well as the system of social relations, which makes this approach more productive in developing recommendations. There is a natural, although ambiguous, relationship between character accentuations and psychological syndromes: with one accentuation, some syndromes are more typical, with another, others. However, character accentuations do not necessarily give rise to any holistic psychological syndrome. They can also be found in a relatively “pure” form. 4.2. CHRONIC FAILURE AND TOTAL REGRESSION CHRONIC FAILURE The psychological syndrome of chronic failure develops at the end of preschool or primary school age. The interpersonal developmental situation in this syndrome is characterized by a discrepancy between the expectations of adults and the child’s achievements. The risk of its occurrence appears when systematic classes begin with a child, the results of which do not satisfy the parents and/or teacher. 54 As a rule, in early and middle preschool age, adults do not show increased interest in how successfully the child copes with certain tasks. The attitude towards him, his assessment as “good” or “bad” is determined by completely different things - whether he behaves well, whether he obeys his parents and teacher, etc. During the period of preparation for studying at school or a little later - at the beginning school education - the attitude of adults to the successes and failures of the child changes. A “good” child is, first of all, a child who knows a lot, studies successfully, and solves problems with ease. Parents often have a sharply negative attitude towards the difficulties and failures that are almost inevitable at the beginning of schooling. Children in need of correctional assistance (due to a sensory defect or mental retardation) often find themselves in a similar situation already at the age of three. A similar effect is possible when parents have high expectations, are concerned about the child’s achievements from early childhood, begin to teach him to read and write at the age of three, and are dissatisfied with his insufficiently rapid progress. The reaction of the social environment, specific to chronic failure, is a constant negative assessment, comments, dissatisfaction from parents and teachers. As a result, the child develops and maintains a high level of anxiety. His self-confidence decreases and his self-esteem decreases. The position of a junior student with chronic failure is the idea of ​​himself as a hopelessly bad student. These are the main features of the psychological profile in this syndrome. The natural consequences of a high level of anxiety are unproductive waste of time on unimportant details, distraction from work by reasoning about “how bad it will be if I fail again, if I get a bad grade again,” refusal of tasks that already seem too difficult for the child. 55 The constant fear of making a mistake distracts the child’s attention from the meaning of the tasks he performs; he fixates on random trifles, losing sight of the main thing. Fears force him to check his work repeatedly, which leads to additional unnecessary waste of time and effort. Failure to know effective methods of checking also makes it pointless, since it still does not help to find and correct the error. Trying to do the best job possible (perfectionism) ends up making things worse. Low performance (an inevitable consequence of a constant state of anxiety) is a central feature of activity in the presence of chronic failure. This creates a vicious circle: anxiety, disrupting the child’s activities, leads to failure and negative evaluations from others. Failure breeds anxiety, helping to perpetuate failure. The further you go, the more difficult it becomes to break this circle, which is why failure becomes “chronic”. The more responsible work a child does, the more worried he becomes. If the level of anxiety is already elevated, then its additional increase (excitement) further reduces work results. Because of this, important tests and exams are performed not better, but worse than everyday tasks. A dependence arises that surprises many parents and teachers: as motivation increases, achievement decreases. The general scheme of the psychological syndrome of chronic failure is as follows: a sharply increased level of anxiety leads to disorganization of actions and low performance; Constant negative evaluation keeps anxiety high. This diagram is shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 2. Scheme of development of chronic failure 56 In addition to increased anxiety, there is one more condition, without which chronic failure does not occur. This is a fairly high degree of socialization of the child, an attitude towards diligence, obedience, and uncritical fulfillment of the demands of adults. If there is no such attitude, then he is more or less indifferent to the discrepancy between his achievements and the expectations of adults. Of course, such a child’s anxiety level may also increase, but for different reasons. Parents themselves often talk about whether a child has a performance mindset, telling them how long he sits at lessons (although he may be constantly distracted from the tasks at hand). A psychological examination reveals the child’s emphasis on strictly fulfilling the examiner’s requirements, as well as a desire to avoid unusual and ambiguous tasks that are assessed by the child as particularly difficult. Anya B. is 9 years old. She is in third grade and for the second year now she has been known as a “B student,” but for some reason both her parents and her teacher have put up with this for some reason. Now the teacher's patience has run out. She said that Anya should either be retained for the second year or transferred to a school for the mentally retarded. A psychological examination showed that Anya has a low, but normal level of mental development for her age. The stock of knowledge is somewhat below the norm, but not so much as to make it impossible to study in a public school. Increased fatigue, decreased performance. This is probably a consequence of overload: the girl’s father says that she has a lot of extra classes - this, in his opinion, is the only way to teach her what the school curriculum requires. Anya's main psychological feature is a very high level of anxiety and restlessness. She is always afraid of making a mistake. Because of this, sometimes she completely refuses to complete tasks that she is quite capable of. Sometimes, having nevertheless taken up a task, she pays so much attention to the little things that she no longer has the strength or time left for the main thing. When drawing, she uses an eraser more than a pencil. This doesn’t make much sense, since the new line she draws is usually no better than the erased one, but she spends twice or three times as much time on each drawing as necessary. The primary reasons that ultimately lead to chronic failure can be different. The most common prerequisite is the child’s insufficient preparation for school, which leads to difficulties from the first days of school. For example, underdevelopment of fine motor skills (the ability to control fine movements of the fingers and hand) immediately causes failures in learning to write. The lack of formation of voluntary attention leads to difficulties in organizing all the work in the lesson; the child does not remember, “ignores” the teacher’s assignments and instructions. Often the cause of the first failures is a learning disability (mental retardation) or a discrepancy between the teaching methods used and the child’s capabilities. In the future, chronic failure develops on this basis and, even if the delay has already been compensated, educational achievements do not increase: now they are supported by an increased level of anxiety. In cases of particularly severe mental retardation, and especially in cases of mental retardation, chronic failure syndrome does not arise: in these cases, the child’s criticality is reduced, and he simply does not notice his own failures and lagging behind other children. In some cases, the “weak link” that triggers the vicious circle is parents’ inflated expectations. The normal, average school successes of a child who was considered a “prodigy” are perceived by parents (and therefore by himself) as failures. Real achievements are not noticed or are not appreciated enough

A.L.Venger Psychological counseling and diagnostics.

DRAWING OF A PERSON

This subsection describes the content indicators related to the drawing of a person, i.e. the presence/absence and method of depicting various details.

In a drawing of a person it is customary to highlight 4 age stages:

cephalopod; schematic representation; intermediate between schematic and plastic; plastic.

Cephalopod- this is a drawing consisting of a more or less rounded head with eyes and a mouth and sticks extending from it or drawn next to it - arms and legs (their number varies). This is the first form of human drawing, appearing at the age of about 3 years. Starting from the age of 4, such a drawing is an indicator of violations in the development of visual function. Their reason may be mental retardation, learning disability, pedagogical neglect. Sometimes drawings of this type appear in a state of acute stress, with extremely high levels of anxiety, pronounced impulsivity or mental illness.

In the schematic image, a person (having not only a head, but also a torso) seems to be made up of separate parts. The legs are located on the sides of the body. This pattern is common for preschool age. Up to 5 years old, the typical image of the arms and legs is a single line, later – a double line (second arm and legs). By about 6 years of age, the arms begin to be depicted as coming from the upper part of the body (corresponding to the shoulders), and not from its middle, as before (both types of image). At a later age, arms starting from the middle of the body appear in the drawings of children in a state of acute stress, stress at particularly high levels anxiety, at high impulsiveness or with mental illness.

At school age, a schematic representation is a manifestation of a general or partial immaturity or mental retardation. At the same time, a simplified scheme can occur up to adulthood with pronounced intellectualism(predominance verbal-logical thinking over imaginative and emotional processes), as well as during negativity, reduced motivation, formal attitude towards the task. In all these cases, the diagram is extremely simplified, looks clear and definite (“stick man”, or the image of the body is strictly oval, rectangular or triangular).

In a plastic image there is an attempt (not necessarily successful) to convey the real shape of body parts. They are not “Glued” to each other, but organically transform into one another without a clear boundary, as in reality (this is especially noticeable in the transition from the neck to the shoulders, from the shoulders to the arms and from the torso to the legs.

This image is typical for teenagers. At an earlier age, it indicates a high level of development.

An intermediate method of depiction, when some parts of the body are depicted plastically and others schematically, is typical for children aged 7-10 years. In preschool age, he speaks of a good level of mental development, in adolescence - of a lag in the development of visual function, and possibly in general mental development.

General impression, expression.

A clear overall impression remains from the plastic image, but sometimes from the intermediate one. This criterion is usually not applicable to schematic images.

A pleasant overall impression of the drawing is a positive sign, suggesting that the child’s emotional state is favorable (although, of course, there may be some local difficulties). An unpleasant (and even more so repulsive) impression from a drawing is a frequent sign of certain emotional problems. It may occur when negativism, asociality (antisociality), aggressiveness, in a state of acute anxiety, with high impulsivity, depression. This impression is often given by the drawings of mentally ill children.

Image cheerful man- positive sign;

a sad person is often depicted asthenia, depression or subdepression, however, this feature alone is not enough for such a conclusion. A gloomy man is often depicted in a state of depression. Sometimes drawings give this impression epileptoid children. It also often occurs when negativism. An aggressive person is depicted as aggressiveness, and with increased impulsiveness. Sometimes it's a sign asociality or antisociality. In the pictures introverted, and especially - schizoid personalities, a person often looks strange. In some cases, this may be a sign of mental disorder.

Cartoon drawing characteristic of a combination of high demonstrativeness with negativism. It often occurs when negative self-presentation and demonstrative nihilism.

Pose and perspective.

A standing person is the most common type of image. An attempt to convey dynamics (a person walks, runs, or is engaged in some activity) is an indicator of activity and creative orientation. The image of a seated figure is sometimes found in intellectualism(predominance of verbal-logical thinking above the figurative sphere). However, this sign is very unreliable. A reclining figure sometimes speaks of passivity, asthenia.

However, this sign is also not reliable enough.

The most common drawing is full face (front). A profile drawing sometimes speaks of introversion(not a very reliable sign). Three-quarter drawing (parents) is an indicator of artistic direction. It is common among teenagers learning to draw. Image from behind, from the back, typical for negativity, high conflict, communication disorders. This feature does not lose its meaning in cases where the image from the back is justified by the general composition of the picture.

Signs of gender.

For preschoolers and primary schoolchildren, the gender of the person depicted is usually either not clear at all, or is determined only by clothing and hairstyle. Teenagers convey gender more differentiated: in the figure female figure- narrow (sloping) shoulders, chest, thin waist, relatively wide hips; in the drawing of a male figure - broad shoulders, muscles, narrow hips. These signs are often sharply emphasized, which indicates a natural interest in the sexual sphere during adolescence. The absence of these signs in a teenager’s drawing indicates a lag in psychosexual development and unformed sexual identification; According to the author, the picture shows a “girl”).

In a drawing of a male figure made by a boy, particularly broad shoulders and other signs of hyper-masculinity indicate the importance of masculine (male) values. If they are accompanied by signs of anxiety - multiple lines, corrections, etc. (shoulders), then this means that the teenager is not confident in his compliance with the male ideal. The same signs (especially careful drawing of muscles, hair on the body or limbs, stubble on the face) are also possible with high sexuality or with increased aggressiveness, cult of power. In the drawing made by the girl, the same signs serve as an indicator of high interest in the opposite sex.

In the drawing of a female figure, emphasized breasts and hips are a sign of the high significance of the sexual sphere. In the drawing made by the girl, signs of anxiety concentrated on these parts of the body often indicate doubts about one’s feminine attractiveness and a negative assessment of one’s own figure.

The location of the breasts in the drawing of a female figure is significantly higher or lower than it should be, usually indicates trouble in the sexual sphere.

The image of nipples on a male figure, highlighting the area of ​​the body close to the genitals (increased pressure, shading, multiple lines, corrections - regardless of the gender of the character) is a sign of problems in the sexual sphere.

They are common for teenagers; at an earlier age, their cause should be specifically found out.

Image penis- sign asociality or antisociality(except for drawings by children 3-4 years old, who are not yet familiar with the social ban on his image).

An image of a naked figure (in a plastic drawing) can also be a manifestation of high interest in the sexual sphere, and sometimes - asociality. It also occurs in teenagers learning to draw. The high significance of the sexual sphere is also indicated by the effect of “transparent” figure through clothing.

Problems in the sexual sphere often lead to the fact that in the drawing of a person of the opposite sex, signs of anxiety appear much brighter than in the drawing of a person of the same sex (multiple lines, corrections, increased pressure) or that this drawing as a whole is made at a much lower level, more schematic.

The image of a figure with characteristics of the opposite sex (for example, a female figure with emphasized muscles or particularly broad shoulders, a male figure with wide hips) is a sign of unformed gender identification (i.e., an insufficiently clear and unambiguous perception of one’s own gender). This is normal in early adolescence. In adulthood, this is evidence immaturity or problems in the sexual sphere.

Portrayal of certain characters.

Sometimes a child, on his own initiative, draws not “just a person,” but a specific character. This may either be communicated verbally or obvious from the drawing itself; in the latter case, it is useful to clarify with the child who exactly he drew. This approach to the task is typical for demonstrative children with an artistic bent. The type of character matters a lot.

The image of the actor (actress) is typical for especially demonstrative children. When high demonstrativeness is combined with low self-esteem, when negative self-presentation or demonstrative nihilism often there is an image of a jester or clown

The depiction of characters occupying a high social position (king, queen, prince, princess, count, etc.) is typical for children with high level of aspirations. The image of a knight, a hero, is usually for teenagers. At an earlier age, it may indicate that the child has some adolescent traits.

Drunkard, drug addict, criminal and other antisocial characters can talk about negativism, asocial or antisocial trends (especially if the drawing is accompanied by moralizing, condemnation or censure of the depicted character). Such characters are often found during an acute teenage crisis.

Fairy-tale negative characters (Baba Yaga, Koschey, etc.) are interpreted similarly.

The unemployed, the tramp, the beggar, etc. are also frequent characters in the drawings of children with negativism, with antisocial trends. However, they often occur when depressed or subdepressive condition. The image of an old man (old woman) is also typical for these conditions.

The image of a rich or poor person speaks of the importance of one’s financial situation (usually of acute satisfaction with one’s financial situation).

The image of a military man is common among boys during adolescence. In a girl, it may indicate a masculine character, aggressiveness, insufficient femininity. The image of a hero can speak about the importance of masculine (male) values, sometimes - about aggressiveness. It often occurs in rigid children.

The image of a robot or alien is most typical of adolescence. It occurs with introverted personality type , schizoid accentuation, communication problems. In some cases, similar drawings are found in mental disorders.

Head and facial features.

The head is almost always present in a drawing of a person, with the exception of very rare cases when the drawing is started from the feet and placed so poorly that in the end the head does not fit on the sheet. In this case, we can assume that the child has a grossly impaired planning of actions. Missing head typical for particularly high impulsiveness, hyperactivity, mental illness.

A greatly exaggerated or understated head size is a sign of a low level of development of the visual function. Sometimes a particularly large head is found in the drawings of children who attach great importance to mental activity, and a particularly small one (gorilla dad) - who attach great importance to physical strength and little importance to mental activity.

Eyes(in the profile picture - one eye) are present in most drawings of a person. Lack of eyes may be a sign negativism, decreased motivation, negative attitude towards the survey. It also occurs with deep introversion or autism. Sometimes it talks about asthenia, loss of strength or depressive (subdepressive) condition. In some cases, this is a manifestation of violations attention And self-control, related

with organic brain damage or with impulsiveness,

hyperactivity.

Exaggerated eye size is found in drawings demonstrative children. They are also characterized by a particularly carefully drawn eye shape and careful depiction of eyelashes.

Empty eyes(without iris and pupils) occur when asthenia or if you have fears.

An even more expressive sign of fear (phobias) - these are the eyes with blackened iris or (especially) completely blackened.

No mouth is generally interpreted in the same way as the absence of eyes, but is more common, so this sign has slightly less weight. Emphasized lips (especially thick or very carefully drawn ones) (“Lena”) are soft, socially acceptable sexual symbolism (association with a kiss). The image of the teeth indicates a tendency to verbal aggression, especially if they are highlighted with a line with strong pressure. Tongue image may be associated with speech difficulties. Sometimes this is a manifestation negativism("show tongue"),

Cheeks in the form of circles in the drawing of a child over 9-10 years old is a sign of some immaturity.

Highlighting of the nose and/or ears (especially large; drawn with strong pressure, etc.) is often found in children who are dissatisfied with their appearance. Emphasized ears can also indicate suspicion, wariness, and a desire to hear everything.

Long hair, a carefully drawn hairstyle or a hat is a sign demonstrativeness.

Body, figure.

In schematic and intermediate between schematic and plastic drawings, the body is usually depicted as round or in the form of a somewhat rounded rectangle. A rectangular or triangular body, with clearly defined corners, is found in drawings introverted children with a high level of originality, originality and communication difficulties. The depiction of the body with strokes (without an outline) is sometimes found in a state of acute anxiety.

In a plastic drawing, the body shape is realistic, but various variations are possible. A “long”, thin, elongated figure with very narrow shoulders is often asthenicity, psychasthenic accentuation, introversion. A particularly full figure is often found with cycloid type. Sometimes it indicates a negative assessment of her appearance.

The image of an angular figure is typical of a teenage crisis. Sometimes it talks about introversion, difficulties in communication. In some cases, angularity occurs due to motor difficulties caused by organic brain damage.

A gross distortion of the body shape, a grossly asymmetrical figure, an incorrect arrangement of individual parts of the body, or a gross violation of proportions may indicate sensorimotor disorders caused by organic brain damage oh high impulsiveness, acute condition stress or mental illness.

The image of a deliberately ugly figure is typical when negativism and often occurs during an acute teenage crisis. It often indicates antisocial or antisocial trends

Hands.

Method of depicting hands (especially - brushes, fingers) is the most important indicator of the characteristics of the sphere of communication. No hands in the figure may indicate serious violations in this area.

The most standard position of the arms is to depict them freely lowered along the body (but not pressed to the body). Hands spread wide apart are a sign extroversion. Hands pressed to the body are a sign introversion.

Hands hidden behind your back or in your pockets may indicate a fear of communication, autism. Sometimes it's a sign negativism, withdrawal from communication. Negativism and withdrawal from communication are even more expressively manifested in the image of hands crossed on the chest or rested on the sides

A favorable state of the sphere of communication is reflected in the image of a hand and fingers of normal size, without signs of psychological stress. A greatly reduced hand, very short fingers are a sign of lack of communication, inability to communicate or autism. Widely spaced arms without hands or with reduced hands brushes - an indicator of broad but formal communication. Signs of anxiety (multiple lines, corrections) when depicting the hand and fingers indicate the child’s anxiety in connection with the sphere of communication. Blackened hand (fingers)) - a sign of conflict, tension in contacts. Strongly exaggerated brush size, very long fingers often indicate a high unmet need for communication.

Especially big palm(and especially a fist) indicates a tendency to aggression. This sign is even more significant if the palm or fist is drawn with a strong by pressing raised up (particularly when the palm is raised in a greeting gesture). About aggressiveness(often hidden) pointed nails also speak, especially if they are drawn with pressure.

Legs.

Legs, pushed together- sign introversion, arranged - extroversion. Exaggerated leg length often with asthenic, sensitive type personalities, psychasthenic accentuation. Absence of legs or too small feet are common in the drawings of children with weak home orientation. Swelling of the feet (exaggerated size, signs of anxiety, strong pressure) often occurs with an increased need for support, a feeling of instability of one’s position in life.

Availability of support lines under your feet (representing the earth) is considered as a sign of good everyday orientation (its absence does not mean anything).

Additional details.

Of the additional details, the most common is the image of clothing. Drawing on clothes, pockets, trim, etc. speaks of demonstrativeness. The same is evidenced by jewelry (earrings in the figure), especially when they are depicted in large quantities, as well as additional non-functional objects (flower, ball, flag...)

Flag, toy and others baby accessories in the picture of a teenager - a sign immaturity(toy car in the picture). The teenager’s depiction of buttons in the absence of other clothing details also speaks of immaturity.

Image weapons(especially cold ones), as well as cutting or chopping tools - a sign aggressiveness. Image cigarettes, pipes, glasses, bottles, etc. occurs when negativity, in particular, teenage , antisociality or antisociality.

Detailed background image(grass, house, car, realistic image of the earth, etc.) is typical for people with artistic inclinations.

Image internal organs typically with hypochondria(increased concern about one's own health). Sometimes it shows about neurosis or more serious mental disorder.

Assessment of mental development.

A drawing of a person allows you to give a preliminary assessment of mental development. How older child, the less directly the level of drawing is related to the general level of development. Therefore, with age, the reliability of conclusions about mental development decreases (and the reliability of conclusions about personal and emotional characteristics, on the contrary, increases).

An important indicator of mental development is the presence of basic details. The following indicative standards for the availability of parts can be used as a guide:

from 5 years old- head, eyes, mouth, torso, arms and legs.

From 6 years old also the nose and fingers (the number is not important).

From 7 years old- neck, hair (or hat), clothes (at least in an extremely schematic form); arms and legs are depicted with double lines.

From 8 years old- ears and feet, 5 fingers each. The absence of any of the details, except for the head, eyes and torso, can be compensated by the presence of details related to the following ages, but not additional, optional ones (such as a navel, buttons, etc.).

The absence of any detail in the picture may not be due to intellectual impairments, but to the child’s personal problems or distraction. Therefore, you need to find out whether all the drawings are defective.

For comparison, drawings made by the child independently and brought by parents, the “Family Drawing” technique, etc. can be used. It is enough if this detail is present in at least one of the drawings.

The second most important indicator of the level of mental development is image method. Usually, plastic the drawing indicates a normal level of mental development, even in the absence of certain details typical for the age of the subject. For a preschooler, drawing is also an indicator of a normal level of mental development. intermediate between schematic and plastic.

Quantification can be obtained as follows. If the drawing lacks a head or torso, then the score is 0 points. If there is a head and a torso, then 2 points are given for each of the following details: eyes (one or two), mouth, nose, arms (one or two), legs (one or two). 1 point is given for each of the details: ears, hair (or hat), neck, fingers, clothes, feet (shoes). For the correct number of fingers (5 on each hand) another 2 points are awarded. For the plastic method of depiction, 8 additional points are given; for intermediate - 4 points; if the method of representation is schematic and the arms and legs are depicted with double lines, then

2 extra points. No additional points will be awarded for a schematic representation in which the arms or legs are shown as a single line or are absent.

Thus, minimum score - 0, maximum(if all the listed parts are present and there is a plastic image) - 26 . Approximate age standards:

5 years - 4-11 points;

6 years - 7-14;

7 years -12-16;

8 years -17-21;

9 years -20-23;

10 years-22-25;

starting from 11 years old - 24-26.

UDC 159.923 (075.8) BBK 88ya 73 V 29
Wenger A. L.
B 29 Psychological counseling and diagnostics.
Practical guide. Part 1. - M.: Genesis, 2001. - 160 p.
ISBN 5-85297-031-Х
This manual is intended for psychologists working with children and adolescents. It contains specific recommendations for conducting a diagnostic examination of a child, interpreting the results, and counseling parents and teachers. The first part is mainly devoted to diagnostic problems.
When choosing methodological tools, preference is given to simple and informative tests that do not require special materials and equipment. The manual is equipped with numerous illustrations to help the reader master the interpretation of survey results.
© Wenger A. L., 2001
ISBN 5-85297-031-Х ©Genesis Publishing House, 2001
2

Guide to the book
Both concepts included in the title of the book are very familiar to every psychologist. In recent years, many works have been published in Russia devoted to both psychodiagnostics and psychological counseling. The specificity of this book is that it represents practical guidance on the use of diagnostics in
consulting. Why do you need a consultant? psychological tests?
Which tests to choose? How to test? What conclusions can be drawn based on the results obtained and what recommendations can be given to the client as a result? The book provides specific and, if possible, detailed answers to all these questions.
First part devoted to diagnostic problems. It will be of interest not only to psychologist-consultants, but also to specialists who use tests for other purposes.
In the first chapter The place occupied by diagnostics in the counseling process is determined. Chapter two quite unusual for practical guides. It provides a brief overview of the concepts used in interpreting diagnostic results. They are also important when choosing techniques that are most adequate to the client’s request and the expected psychological problem, therefore their description precedes the description of the techniques themselves. The reader who is well acquainted with psychological terminology can omit this chapter.
Chapters three and four are devoted to a detailed description of recommended diagnostic techniques, techniques for their implementation and interpretation of results. Test material is given in the Appendix.
Helps you master the interpretation of drawing tests 25 illustrations, also given in the Appendix.
3

After reading the book, it is convenient to use it as reference book
on interpretation of drawing tests. For this purpose, the Appendix contains Summary list of test indicators(more than 200) and Dictionary
terms, containing 160 brief definitions with pages (in parentheses) providing more detailed descriptions this concept. These terms are highlighted in the main text in italics.
In second part The book will provide a detailed description of the psychological problems that a consulting psychologist most often encounters. It describes the signs by which you can identify a particular problem, and recommendations for overcoming it.
4

Chapter 1
DIAGNOSTIC TASKS IN
CONSULTING
1.1. COUNSELING PROCESS
ABOUT
GENERAL
NOTES
The main feature of counseling in child psychology is that the direct “recipient” of psychological help (client) is not its final recipient - the child - but the adult who sought consultation (parent, teacher). Thus, the consultant psychologist has only an indirect effect on the child. He only gives some advice; It is the client’s task to implement them.
When conducting counseling, a psychologist has to focus on two subjects simultaneously: the child and the client. Accordingly, the counseling process itself is divided into two components.
First, it is necessary to understand what pedagogical measures (for example: remedial education, changing the style of communication in the family or, say, classes in an art club) can help the child overcome existing problems. Secondly, you need to be able to develop such recommendations and present them to the client in such a way that he accepts them and is able to implement them.
Diagnostics in the counseling process is aimed, first of all, at solving the first of these problems, which will be the main subject of our consideration. However, first we will have to at least briefly touch on the second aspect of counseling.
5

E
TAPES
CONSULTING
The initial stage of counseling is initial conversation with a client asking for help. During this process, the consultant finds out the reason for the request and outlines a preliminary program of further actions. In particular, he decides for himself the question of what psychological characteristics of the child he needs to determine in order to competently answer the question. request client. In one case, this is, first of all, the level of development cognitive processes in the other - personal characteristics, in the third - the child’s attitude to one or another area of ​​reality (to school, to the family situation, etc.). During the initial conversation, there is usually also a meeting anamnesis(information about the previous progress of the child’s development).
As a rule, the next stage of counseling is psychological diagnostics. The exception is when the client asks questions that are not related to the child’s individual characteristics (for example, what games can be useful for the mental development of a preschooler). The bulk of the book will be devoted to this stage, so for now we will not dwell on it in more detail.
A separate and very important stage of counseling is the analysis of the data obtained and the compilation of a holistic “psychological portrait” of the child. This takes into account both test data and observations of the child, and information obtained in initial conversation. If this stage is omitted, then counseling comes down to the fact that the client is informed of the diagnostic results that are difficult to understand.
After the “psychological portrait” is built, you can begin to develop recommendations. Typically, the consultant independently formulates recommendations only in the most general form, and their specification occurs in the process of joint discussion with the client at the stage
final conversation. During this conversation, it is very important to ensure that the psychologist’s conclusions and advice are clear to the client. His adequate participation in the specification of recommendations serves as an indicator of their correctness.
6

understanding. On the contrary, comments like: “I understand everything and will try to do everything as you said” are not such an indicator. The client often creates only the illusion of understanding.
1.2. COMPLAINT, PROBLEM, REQUEST
AND
ALOBA
When seeking psychological advice, parents and teachers usually do not have a very clear idea of ​​what exactly they expect from it. In a preliminary conversation, as a rule, they can only talk about those manifestations of the child that bother them (state
complaint), but is not able to formulate independently request, i.e. that specific request with which they turn to a psychologist. Sometimes even a complaint is not isolated from the general story about how the child’s development has been since his birth, what the family situation is like as a whole, etc.
During initial conversation Don't try to get more information from the client. Your main task is to hear him, to understand how he sees the problem, how he perceives the child and the current situation. It is useful to get acquainted with the typical behavioral manifestations of a child and find out how people around him (adults and children) usually react to them. All essential details must be recorded in a protocol, which must indicate the date of the examination, the child’s last name and first name (on each sheet). It makes no sense to try to collect a complete history in all cases. This takes a lot of time, and much of the information is often unnecessary.
During the conversation, it is important to keep in mind that you are not getting an objective picture, but the client’s perception of it. For example, he may regard the child’s academic failure as a consequence of mental development disorders, while in this case it is explained by emotional deviations.
7

problems or decreased motivation. The possibility of deliberate concealment or distortion of information should also not be excluded. For example, parents sometimes do not report that the child has already been previously diagnosed with a diagnosis (for example, mental retardation). Sometimes they test the psychologist in this way (in which there is nothing offensive to him), sometimes they are embarrassed to talk about something that they consider shameful for themselves, sometimes they hope for a miracle: if they don’t say it, then, you see, it turns out that there is nothing terrible.
Unfortunately, in our society there is no network of psychological services capable of dealing with the prevention and hygiene of the mental health of every child, and not just belated help in case of acute distress. On the other hand, in the mass everyday consciousness there is no minimum psychological culture at which it is possible to correctly and timely pose to specialists the problems of teaching and raising a child. As a result, parents and teachers most often turn to a consultant in situations of persistent failure to achieve their pedagogical goals. Such situations are always affective. Therefore, it is often useful to simply give the client a chance to talk. The psychotherapeutic effect of talking through personal problems in front of an attentive, friendly, understanding (due to professional authority) listener is well known.
To achieve a psychotherapeutic effect, a calm, but not indifferent attitude of the consultant to the complaints being listened to is very important. His general position during initial conversation- this is a friendly, interested and sympathetic listening to the client, but not identification with him or criticism of his statements.
P
SYCHOLOGICAL
PROBLEM
Based on the client’s complaints, the consultant formulates a hypothesis for himself. psychological problem(what already
8

noted, it may have to be revised in the future). You can use the following fairly generally accepted classification of problems:
> problems associated with mental development: poor academic performance, poor memory, attention problems, difficulties in understanding educational material and so on.;
> behavioral problems: uncontrollability, rudeness, deceit,
antisocial behavior (aggressiveness, theft, vandalism) and so on.;
> emotional and personal problems: low mood, increased excitability, frequent mood swings, fears, irritability, lack of will, lack of focus, etc.;
> communication problems: isolation, inadequate claims to leadership, increased sensitivity, inability to “stand up for yourself,” etc.;
> neurological problems: tics(involuntary muscle twitching), obsessive movements, enuresis(night or daytime urinary incontinence), increased fatigue, sleep disturbances, headaches, etc.
The presence of a certain complaint does not always mean that the child has a corresponding problem. Thus, a complaint that a child is not studying well may be caused by inflated expectations and demands of parents who are not satisfied with the completely normal, average successes of their son or daughter. Anything can be behind the complaint of laziness - from a decrease in educational motivation to mental retardation. In advisory practice, complaints about inattention and absent-mindedness are very common, but behind them they are often simply the parents’ ignorance of age norms (they consider the normal level of attention development for a given age to be insufficient).
The most common behavioral complaint is the child’s uncontrollability and disobedience, but even here adults often take what they want as the norm, and the reality as a deviation. We are talking about cases when in fact the child is obedient and obedient.
9

We control exactly to the same extent as most of his peers, but to my parents it seems like “uncontrollability.” Errors of this kind most often relate to periods of age-related crises (2-3 years, 6-7 years, 12-13 years), when almost every child becomes less obedient than he was before. Complaints about disobedience are most typical for parents with
rigid type individuals who themselves are highly punctual and expect the same from their child.
Sometimes, as a result of a conversation with the client and/or a psychological examination of the child, the consultant comes to the conclusion that the problem is not psychological (or not only psychological). For example, he may suspect a nervous or mental illness
(neurological or psychiatric problem), mental retardation
(defectological problem), etc. In these cases, it is necessary to recommend that the client contact an appropriate specialist for additional advice.
Z
APROS
Towards the end of the preliminary conversation with the client, it is useful to lead him to formulate request. For example, you can briefly summarize the complaints he expressed by concluding your summary with the words: “It is unlikely that you expect that as a result of this consultation all problems will immediately disappear. You're probably hoping for some other effect.
Please try to describe which one, at least approximately.” It happens that in response to such a request, the client begins to restate complaints(often adding new ones to them). In this case, you have to repeat the question again, and sometimes suggest possible options answer. Practice shows that the following types of requests are most often encountered (individually or in certain combinations):
> receive recommendations on communicating with a child and raising him in the family;
10

> get recommendations on communicating with your child at school (kindergarten);
> receive recommendations for overcoming specific learning or behavioral problems;
> determine the most suitable type of education for the child
(mass or auxiliary school; mass school plus additional individual lessons, etc.);
> get help in solving everyday issues (how best to spend the school holidays; does it make sense to send the child to a boarding school; which parent who is divorced is better for the child to live with, etc.); > determine the cause of existing disorders (in particular, find out whether the child has a mental illness);
> determine the child’s level of development, its compliance or non-compliance with the age norm (in particular, determine whether a six-year-old child is ready for school);
> get a forecast of further development;
>learn to understand your child better.
Clients often formulate some types of requests immediately, without a special question from the consultant (to get help in solving everyday issues, to determine the level of development of a child, to learn to understand him better). Such a request may not be accompanied by complaints. However, as a result of a psychological examination, it may well be possible to reveal some serious psychological problem, the existence of which the client did not suspect.
Based on the above considerations, we can identify the following tasks, for the solution of which the counseling process is used: diagnostics:
>definition (clarification) of a psychological problem;
> identifying the child’s reaction to the current situation; identification of those psychological characteristics of the child that may influence the implementation of recommendations related to the main problem.
11

CHAPTER
2
WHAT DO THE TESTS REVEAL?
In this chapter the reader will find a system concepts, used in describing individual psychological characteristics of a person and in interpreting diagnostic results. Proposed system
eclectic, that is, the concepts are borrowed from various, sometimes incompatible psychological concepts. This approach is dictated by the practical focus of this manual. I am convinced that eclecticism, which is destructive for theoretical research, is both inevitable and necessary in practical work. Different scientific concepts focus on different types of psychological problems, while the practitioner has to deal with them all. If the appeal is caused by difficulties in tying shoelaces, then there is no point in looking for answers in depth psychology: it does not deal with these problems; but production skills studied in detail by behaviorists. On the contrary, if the appeal is related to ambivalent relationship of the child to the father, then it is pointless to appeal to behaviorism: this problem has been studied incomparably more deeply in depth psychology. Based on these considerations, the author consistently pursues an inconsistent eclectic approach in this book.
2.1. COGNITIVE FEATURES
As a rule, identifying features cognitive (cognitive)
processes required for requests related to
12

with learning problems. In these cases, it is usually most important to check the condition verbal-logical And imaginative thinking, memory And attention.
Perception, imagination, visual-effective thinking are less important for successful study, although in other types of activities (in particular, both in artistic and scientific creativity) they play a vital role.
Verbal and logical thinking
Verbal-logical thinking (verbal intelligence) - This is the ability to draw correct conclusions from existing premises. The level of its development can be assessed according to the following parameters:
> the structure of concepts is well formed;
>adequacy of ideas;
> ability to perform mental operations (in particular, comparison and generalization).
Structure concepts, which a child operates on is not always accurately reflected in his speech. There are common cases when he masters a particular concept, although he uses the wrong words to express it.
The opposite situation is also not uncommon, when a child uses quite “scientific” words, but does not attach to them the meaning that they have for adults.
As L. S. Vygotsky showed, until adolescence, concepts and pseudo-concepts. The latter are characterized by the fact that the child, naming a certain set of objects with the same word, combines these objects on the basis of surface features determined by his personal experience, and not on the basis of significant
(conceptual) signs.
Under adequacy of ideas understand their compliance with life reality and generally accepted (socially specified) standards.
For example, a common belief among preschoolers is that the wind is caused by
13

the swaying of trees is inadequate because it contradicts reality.
The belief that one of my clients had that the main organ of the human body is the spleen is also inadequate, although it is difficult to verify its compliance with reality. But it is quite clear that it does not coincide with generally accepted ideas, according to which this role is usually assigned, depending on individual preferences, to the heart, brain, or, at worst, the stomach.
Operation comparisons provides identification of similarities and differences between objects. The level of formation of a comparison is determined, first of all, by whether it is based on essential or random features. Thus, the statement that the similarity of a cow with a dog is determined by the presence of a tail, and the difference is that one moos and the other barks, than the search for similarities in the fact that both of them feed their young with milk, and the differences in the fact that the cow treats to ungulates, and a dog to carnivores.
Operation generalizations ensures the association of objects into a group based on certain characteristics. The basis for generalization is comparison.
However, even having correctly identified a common feature (i.e., successfully made a comparison), a person is not always able to independently use it to combine objects into a group (carry out a correct generalization).
For example, even if he establishes that both a cow and a dog feed their young with milk, he may not be able to conclude from this that they both belong to the class of mammals.

"A. L. Wenger Psychological counseling and diagnostics practical guide PART I Moscow “GENESIS” 2001 UDC 159.923 (075.8) ... "

-- [ Page 1 ] --

A. L. Wenger

Psychological counseling and

diagnostics

practical guide

"GENESIS" 2001

UDC 159.923 (075.8) BBK 88ya 73 V 29

Wenger A. L.

B 29 Psychological counseling and diagnostics.

Practical guide. Part 1. - M.: Genesis, 2001. - 160 p.

ISBN 5-85297-031-Х

This manual is intended for psychologists working with children.

diagnostic examination of the child, interpretation of results and counseling of parents and teachers. The first part is mainly devoted to diagnostic problems.

When choosing methodological tools, preference is given to simple and informative tests that do not require special materials and equipment. The manual is equipped with numerous illustrations to help the reader master the interpretation of survey results.

© Wenger A. L., 2001 ISBN 5-85297-031-X © Genesis Publishing House, 2001 Guide to the book Both concepts included in the title of the book are well known to every psychologist. In recent years, many works have been published in Russia devoted to both psychodiagnostics and psychological counseling. The specificity of this book is that it is a practical guide to the use of diagnostics in counseling. Why does a consultant need psychological tests?

Which tests to choose? How to test? What conclusions can be drawn based on the results obtained and what recommendations can be given to the client as a result? The book provides specific and, if possible, detailed answers to all these questions.

The first part is devoted to diagnostic problems. It will be of interest not only to psychologist-consultants, but also to specialists who use tests for other purposes.

The first chapter defines the place occupied by diagnostics in the counseling process. The second chapter is quite unusual for how-to guides. It provides a brief overview of the concepts used in interpreting diagnostic results. They are also important when choosing techniques that are most adequate to the client’s request and the expected psychological problem, therefore their description precedes the description of the techniques themselves. The reader who is well acquainted with psychological terminology can omit this chapter.

The third and fourth chapters are devoted to a detailed description of recommended diagnostic techniques, techniques for their implementation and interpretation of results. Test material is given in the Appendix.

25 illustrations, also given in the Appendix, help you master the interpretation of drawing tests.

After reading the book, it is convenient to use it as a reference for interpreting drawing tests. For this purpose, the Appendix contains a Summary list of test indicators (more than 200) and a Glossary of terms containing 160 brief definitions with pages (in brackets) that provide a more detailed description of this concept. In the main text, these terms are highlighted in italics.

The second part of the book will provide a detailed description of the psychological problems that a consulting psychologist most often encounters. It describes the signs by which you can identify a particular problem, and recommendations for overcoming it.

–  –  –

1.1. COUNSELING PROCESS

GENERAL REMARKS

The main feature of counseling in child psychology is that the direct “recipient” of psychological help (client) is not its final recipient - the child - but the adult who sought consultation (parent, teacher). Thus, the psychologist has only an indirect effect on the child. He only gives some advice; It is the client’s task to implement them.

When conducting counseling, a psychologist has to focus on two subjects simultaneously: the child and the client. Accordingly, the counseling process itself is divided into two components.

First, it is necessary to understand what pedagogical measures (for example:

remedial education, changing the style of communication in the family or, say, classes in an art club) can help the child overcome existing problems. Secondly, you need to be able to develop such recommendations and present them to the client in such a way that he accepts them and is able to implement them.

Diagnostics in the counseling process is aimed, first of all, at solving the first of these problems, which will be the main subject of our consideration. However, first we will have to at least briefly touch on the second aspect of counseling.

STEPS OF COUNSELING

The initial stage of counseling is an initial conversation with the client seeking help. During this process, the consultant finds out the reason for the request and outlines a preliminary program of further actions. In particular, he decides for himself the question of what psychological characteristics of the child he needs to determine in order to competently answer the client’s request. In one case, this is, first of all, the level of development of cognitive processes, in another - personal characteristics, in the third - the child’s attitude to one or another area of ​​reality (to school, to the family situation, etc.). During the initial conversation, an anamnesis (information about the previous course of the child’s development) is usually also collected.

As a rule, the next stage of counseling is psychological diagnosis. The exception is when the client asks questions that are not related to the child’s individual characteristics (for example, what games can be useful for the mental development of a preschooler). The bulk of the book will be devoted to this stage, so for now we will not dwell on it in more detail.

A separate and very important stage of counseling is the analysis of the data obtained and the compilation of a holistic “psychological portrait” of the child. In this case, both test data and observations of the child, and information obtained in the initial conversation are taken into account. If this stage is omitted, then counseling comes down to the fact that the client is told the diagnostic results that are difficult to understand.

After the “psychological portrait” is built, you can begin to develop recommendations. Typically, the consultant independently formulates recommendations only in the most general form, and their specification occurs in the process of joint discussion with the client at the stage of the final conversation. During this conversation, it is very important to ensure that the psychologist’s conclusions and advice are clear to the client. His adequate participation in specifying the recommendations serves as an indicator of their correct understanding. On the contrary, comments like: “I understand everything and will try to do everything as you said” are not such an indicator. The client often creates only the illusion of understanding.

1.2. COMPLAINT, PROBLEM, REQUEST COMPLAINT When seeking psychological advice, parents and teachers usually do not themselves have a very clear idea of ​​what exactly they expect from it. In a preliminary conversation, as a rule, they can only talk about those manifestations of the child that bother them (state a complaint), but are not able to independently formulate a request, that is, the specific request with which they turn to a psychologist. Sometimes even a complaint is not isolated from the general story about how the child’s development has been since his birth, what the family situation is like as a whole, etc.

During the initial conversation, do not try to get more information from the client. Your main task is to hear him, to understand how he sees the problem, how he perceives the child and the current situation. It is useful to get acquainted with the typical behavioral manifestations of a child and find out how people around him (adults and children) usually react to them. All essential details must be recorded in a protocol, which must indicate the date of the examination, the child’s last name and first name (on each sheet). It makes no sense to try to collect a complete history in all cases. This takes a lot of time, and much of the information is often unnecessary.

During the conversation, it is important to keep in mind that you are not getting an objective picture, but the client’s perception of it. For example, he may regard the child’s academic failure as a consequence of mental development disorders, while in this case it is explained by emotional deviations or reduced motivation. The possibility of deliberate concealment or distortion of information should also not be excluded. For example, parents sometimes do not report that the child has previously been diagnosed with something (for example, mental retardation). Sometimes they test the psychologist in this way (in which there is nothing offensive to him), sometimes they are embarrassed to talk about something that they consider shameful for themselves, sometimes they hope for a miracle: if they don’t say it, then, you see, it turns out that there is nothing terrible.

Unfortunately, in our society there is no network of psychological services capable of dealing with the prevention and hygiene of the mental health of every child, and not just belated help in case of acute distress. On the other hand, in the mass everyday consciousness there is no minimum psychological culture at which it is possible to correctly and timely pose to specialists the problems of teaching and raising a child. As a result, parents and teachers most often turn to a consultant in situations of persistent failure to achieve their pedagogical goals. Such situations are always affective. Therefore, it is often useful to simply give the client a chance to talk. The psychotherapeutic effect of talking through personal problems in front of an attentive, friendly, understanding (due to professional authority) listener is well known.

To achieve a psychotherapeutic effect, a calm, but not indifferent attitude of the consultant to the complaints being listened to is very important. His general position during the initial conversation is a friendly, interested and sympathetic listening to the client, but not identifying with him or criticizing his statements.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM

Based on the client’s complaints, the consultant formulates a hypothetical psychological problem for himself (as already noted, it may have to be revised in the future). You can use the following fairly generally accepted classification of problems:

problems associated with mental development: poor academic performance, poor memory, attention problems, difficulties in understanding educational material, etc.;

behavioral problems: uncontrollability, rudeness, deceit, antisocial behavior (aggression, theft, vandalism), etc.;

emotional and personal problems: low mood, increased excitability, frequent mood swings, fears, irritability, lack of will, lack of focus, etc.;

communication problems: isolation, inadequate claims to leadership, increased sensitivity, inability to “stand up for yourself,” etc.;

neurological problems: tics (involuntary muscle twitching), obsessive movements, enuresis (night or daytime urinary incontinence), increased fatigue, sleep disturbances, headaches, etc.

The presence of a certain complaint does not always mean that the child has a corresponding problem. Thus, a complaint that a child is not studying well may be caused by inflated expectations and demands of parents who are not satisfied with the completely normal, average successes of their son or daughter. Anything can be behind the complaint of laziness - from a decrease in educational motivation to mental retardation. In advisory practice, complaints about inattention and absent-mindedness are very common, but behind them they are often simply the parents’ ignorance of age norms (they consider the normal level of attention development for a given age to be insufficient).

The most common behavioral complaint is the child’s uncontrollability and disobedience, but even here adults often take what they want as the norm, and the reality as a deviation. We are talking about cases when, in fact, the child is obedient and controllable to exactly the same extent as most of his peers, but to the parents this seems “uncontrollable.” Errors of this kind most often relate to periods of age-related crises (2-3 years, 6-7 years, 12-13 years), when almost every child becomes less obedient than he was before. Complaints about disobedience are most typical for parents with a rigid personality type, who themselves are highly punctual and expect the same from their child.

Sometimes, as a result of a conversation with the client and/or a psychological examination of the child, the consultant comes to the conclusion that the problem is not psychological (or not only psychological). For example, he may suspect a nervous or mental illness (neurological or psychiatric problem), mental retardation (defectological problem), etc. In these cases, it is necessary to recommend that the client contact an appropriate specialist for additional advice.

REQUEST

Towards the end of the preliminary conversation with the client, it is useful to lead him to formulating a request. For example, you can briefly summarize the complaints he expressed by concluding your summary with the words: “It is unlikely that you expect that as a result of this consultation all problems will immediately disappear. You're probably hoping for some other effect.

Please try to describe which one, at least approximately.” It happens that in response to such a request, the client begins to repeatedly state complaints (often adding new ones to them). In this case, you have to repeat the question again, and sometimes offer possible answers.

Practice shows that the following types of requests are most often encountered (individually or in certain combinations):

determine the most suitable type of education for the child (mass or auxiliary school; mass school plus additional individual lessons, etc.);

get help in solving everyday issues (how best to spend the school holidays; does it make sense to send the child to a boarding school; which of the divorced parents is better for the child to live with, etc.);

determine the cause of existing disorders (in particular, find out whether the child has a mental illness);

determine the level of development of the child, its compliance or non-compliance with the age norm (in particular, determine whether a six-year-old child is ready for school);

get a forecast of further development;

learn to better understand your child.

Clients often formulate some types of requests immediately, without a special question from the consultant (to get help in solving everyday issues, to determine the level of development of a child, to learn to understand him better). Such a request may not be accompanied by complaints. However, as a result of a psychological examination, it may well be possible to reveal some serious psychological problem, the existence of which the client did not suspect.

Based on the above considerations, we can identify the following tasks, for the solution of which diagnostics is used in the counseling process:

definition (clarification) of a psychological problem;

identifying the child’s reaction to the current situation; identification of those psychological characteristics of the child that may influence the implementation of recommendations related to the main problem.

WHAT DO THE TESTS REVEAL?

In this chapter, the reader will find a system of concepts used in describing the individual psychological characteristics of a person and in interpreting diagnostic results. The proposed system is eclectic, that is, the concepts are borrowed from various, sometimes incompatible, psychological concepts. This approach is dictated by the practical focus of this manual. I am convinced that eclecticism, which is destructive for theoretical research, is both inevitable and necessary in practical work. Different scientific concepts focus on different types of psychological problems, while the practitioner has to deal with them all. If the appeal is caused by difficulties in tying shoelaces, then there is no point in looking for answers in depth psychology: it does not deal with these problems; But the development of skills has been studied in detail by behaviorists. On the contrary, if the appeal is associated with the child’s ambivalent attitude towards his father, then it is pointless to appeal to behaviorism: this problem has been studied incomparably more deeply in depth psychology. Based on these considerations, the author consistently pursues an inconsistent eclectic approach in this book.

2.1. COGNITIVE FEATURES As a rule, identifying the characteristics of cognitive (cognitive) processes is required when addressing requests related to educational problems. In these cases, it is usually most important to check the state of verbal-logical and figurative thinking, memory and attention.

Perception, imagination, visual-effective thinking are of less importance for successful study, although in other types of activity (in particular, both in artistic and scientific creativity) they play a vital role.

Verbal and logical thinking

Verbal-logical thinking (verbal intelligence) is the ability to draw correct conclusions from existing premises.

The level of its development can be assessed according to the following parameters:

the formation of the structure of concepts;

adequacy of representations;

the ability to perform mental operations (in particular, comparison and generalization).

The structure of concepts with which a child operates is not always accurately reflected in his speech. There are common cases when he masters a particular concept, although he uses the wrong words to express it.

The opposite situation is also not uncommon, when a child uses quite “scientific”

words, but does not give them the meaning they have for adults.

As L. S. Vygotsky showed, concepts and pseudo-concepts coexist in the thinking of children until adolescence. The latter are characterized by the fact that the child, naming a certain set of objects with the same word, combines these objects on the basis of superficial features determined by his personal experience, and not on the basis of essential (conceptual) features.

The adequacy of ideas is understood as their compliance with life reality and generally accepted (socially specified) standards.

For example, the belief that preschoolers often have that the wind is caused by the swaying of trees is inadequate, since it contradicts reality.

The belief that one of my clients had that the main organ of the human body is the spleen is also inadequate, although it is difficult to verify its compliance with reality. But it is quite clear that it does not coincide with generally accepted ideas, according to which this role is usually assigned, depending on individual preferences, to the heart, brain, or, at worst, the stomach.

The comparison operation identifies similarities and differences between objects. The level of formation of a comparison is determined, first of all, by whether it is based on essential or random features. Thus, the statement that the similarity of a cow with a dog is determined by the presence of a tail, and the difference is that one moos and the other barks, is less meaningful than searching for similarities in the fact that both of them feed their young with milk, and the differences are in that a cow is an ungulate, and a dog is a carnivore.

The generalization operation ensures the unification of objects into a group based on certain characteristics. The basis for generalization is comparison.

However, even having correctly identified a common feature (i.e., successfully made a comparison), a person is not always able to independently use it to combine objects into a group (carry out a correct generalization).

For example, even if he establishes that both a cow and a dog feed their young with milk, he may not be able to conclude from this that they both belong to the class of mammals.

Creative thinking

Imaginative thinking - solving problems using mental manipulation of images - has highest value for the child’s success in academic subjects such as geometry and physics. At the early stage of education, its role is broader, since at the beginning of primary school age, with its help, those problems are also solved that are later solved with the help of verbal-logical thinking (which is not yet sufficiently formed during this period).

In preschool age, the main form of thinking is figurative; It is on its basis that the verbal-logical is later formed.

Therefore, the level of development of imaginative thinking is one of the most important indicators of the general mental development of a preschooler.

The degree of its formation is also one of the main indicators of the intellectual readiness of an older preschooler for school education.

Imaginative thinking allows you to operate not only with specific, but also generalized, schematized images. The ability to draw on such images is especially important. Thanks to their use, it becomes possible to solve very general and abstract problems in a figurative manner, including logical ones. In this case, the image performs the function of a model that displays a wide variety of connections and relationships between any elements.

Memory

Memory is a mental process that ensures the storage of information. It is naturally divided into three more specific processes: memorization, storage and reproduction of information. Their ratio varies from person to person. Some people have difficulty learning material (difficulties at the memorization stage), others quickly remember but soon forget (difficulties at the storage stage), others retain it well, but waste a lot of time when they later need to reproduce it (difficulties during reproduction).

Depending on whether there is a special intention to remember the material, voluntary and involuntary memory are distinguished. Voluntary memory presupposes a conscious intention to remember. Involuntary memorization occurs as if “by itself.” The attractiveness of the material and the emotional attitude towards it are important to him.

Based on whether special means of memorization are used, memory is divided into direct and indirect. Various associations can be used as means, notes - on paper or in the mind, “memory knots”, etc. An adult often uses such means unconsciously, automatically. The child needs training in their use (to one degree or another, this is carried out both at school and by parents).

According to the nature of the material being remembered, memory is divided into verbal and figurative. By modality (correspondence to one or another sense organ) - visual, auditory, motor and semantic (not clearly associated with any modality). For the success of school learning, verbal semantic voluntary memory is of greatest importance, but other types of memory also contribute. Memory impairment is a common cause of academic failure.

Attention and organization of actions

Attention is a mental process that ensures concentration on the activity being carried out at the present moment. By organizing actions we understand more specific skills in constructing one’s work: the ability to plan it, strictly follow the developed plan, check the achieved result and compare it with the required one, etc.

Attention is characterized by such indicators as concentration (the ability to work without distraction), distribution (the ability to simultaneously perform two or more activities), switching (the ease of transition from one activity to another), and the duration of concentration.

Features of attention greatly depend on the state of the person. In particular, all indicators sharply worsen with fatigue, in a state of asthenia, and with neurosis. Certain disturbances of attention are almost inevitable in the presence of organic brain damage. Disturbances in attention and a decrease in the level of organization of actions can also be caused by certain emotional and personality characteristics. In particular, they are observed with a sharp increase in the level of anxiety (in a state of stress), as well as due to impulsivity. These causes of attention disorders will be discussed below in the relevant sections of the book.

2.2. MENTAL DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

The most severe mental development disorders are mental retardation and dementia (decrease in intelligence caused by brain infection, head injury, mental or nervous disease). For practical purposes, differentiating between these types of disorders is usually not particularly important. Dementia in childhood is quite rare, so we will not consider it separately.

Less severe and significantly more frequent cognitive impairments are mental retardation and learning disabilities. Pedagogical neglect is also common in childhood. Finally, a cause of cognitive impairment such as a sensory defect should be mentioned.

Mental retardation

Mental retardation (oligophrenia) is a general intellectual decline that makes it impossible to master the regular school curriculum and fully integrate the child into social life. The word “backwardness” seems to imply the ability to catch up with others over time, but in this case this is not the case. The “ceiling” of development of a mentally retarded child is fundamentally lower than that of his peers with intact intelligence.

The central point in mental retardation is the underdevelopment of logical thinking, but other mental functions also suffer:

figurative thinking, imagination, semantic perception and memory, voluntary attention, organization of actions, self-control. The emotions of a mentally retarded child are rough and poorly differentiated, devoid of subtle nuances.

Based on severity, mental retardation is classified into mild, moderate, severe and profound. With mild mental retardation, the child is capable of learning (according to a special lightweight program) and in the future - simple professional activity. With moderate mental retardation, there is no ability to master any profession, but the child is able to quite fully master self-care skills. With severe mental retardation, self-care skills can only be partially developed, and with severe mental retardation, they practically cannot be developed at all.

The main causes of mental retardation are diseases and hazards during pregnancy, pathology of childbirth (especially asphyxia), and some genetic and chromosomal diseases. However, it is important to remember that these causes do not necessarily lead to mental retardation, so a diagnosis cannot be made based on a history of, for example, asphyxia. Conversely, the absence of an obvious cause that led to a pathology does not mean the absence of this pathology itself.

In many cases, one has to deal with mental retardation, the cause of which cannot be determined.

In case of mental retardation, the child must be educated in a special school. Pedagogical correction can significantly advance a child’s mental development, although, as already indicated, complete compensation of the defect is impossible. Drug treatment of the central disorder in this pathology is impossible, however, in some cases, mental retardation is complicated by additional disorders that can be treated.

Learning disabilities

This subsection will look at learning disabilities and mental retardation (MDD) together. These concepts are very close in meaning. In foreign literature, as a rule, the first term is used, in Soviet literature - the second. In Russia in recent years they are usually used as synonyms.

Learning disabilities are a very common developmental disorder (occurs in approximately 20-25% of primary schoolchildren). Their main feature is local deviations in the development of certain mental functions while maintaining basic intellectual operations. Unlike a mentally retarded child, a child with learning disabilities (mental development delay) is able to master the curriculum of a mass school, but for this he needs specially organized correctional work. Learning disabilities often cause the psychological syndrome of chronic failure.

Typically, the source of learning disabilities (mental retardation) is organic brain damage. They arise due to disturbances in the development of the fetus in the prenatal period, as a result of birth injuries, asphyxia, concussions, brain infections, poisoning, disorders of the blood supply to the brain and for some other reasons. Generally speaking, organic brain damage is caused by the same unfavorable factors as mental retardation, but less pronounced. In this regard, identifying the root cause of learning disabilities is even more difficult than with mental retardation.

One of the most common symptoms of organic brain damage is disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system that controls movements. This leads to disturbances in gross motor skills (walking, running, jumping, etc.) and fine motor skills (movements of the hand and fingers when writing, drawing, working with tools). With organic brain lesions, disturbances in memory, attention, perception and other mental functions are also common.

A specific variant of learning disability is psychophysical infantilism, which some authors consider an independent developmental variant. It is characterized by the fact that, according to both psychological and physiological signs (myelination of nerve fibers, “bone age”, etc.), the child lags behind his actual age in development. With psychophysical infantilism, the preschool level of development sometimes occurs until the beginning of adolescence. Unlike mental retardation, psychophysical infantilism goes away with age, but by this time there are usually already secondary disorders caused by the difficulties of the previous period.

One of the common types of learning disabilities is also a slow pace of activity. It is of a physiological nature (slow progression of nervous processes). The slowness of the pace of activity is especially pronounced when performing the simplest tasks. The speed of solving complex problems largely depends on the degree of mastery of effective methods of action. “Slow-witted” can be a completely capable and even talented person (for example, Darwin and Einstein were distinguished by a slow pace of activity). However, successful study at school requires a high speed of work, so children with a slow pace of activity often end up underachieving in the truest sense of the word.

Pedagogical neglect

Pedagogical neglect occurs in cases where a child with normal potential abilities is deprived of the necessary training and education. It is often based on family or social ill-being, upbringing in closed boarding schools and orphanages, failure to attend school, and serious illnesses that prevented the child from studying normally. Pedagogical neglect is often found in refugee families, in military conflict zones, etc. As a result, the child does not develop the skills that are usually developed as a result of schooling, lacks age-appropriate knowledge, and remains undeveloped interests and hobbies.

Learning disabilities and some other developmental disorders are often complicated by the so-called relative pedagogical neglect. This term refers to the lack of special remedial education that a child needs, even though he received everything that other children receive (for whom this is enough, since they do not have a learning disability).

With pedagogical neglect, specifically school knowledge and skills suffer the most, while the mental processes themselves are not disturbed (or almost not disturbed). In everyday life, a child with pedagogical neglect can be quite smart. In particular, children from areas of social disasters often navigate practical life even better than their peers brought up in prosperous conditions. On the contrary, for children raised in orphanages, it is their orientation in normal practical life that suffers the most, while school knowledge and skills are sometimes relatively well developed.

Sensory defect

A sensory defect is a decrease in vision or hearing. Although its identification and correction are not the task of a psychologist, it is necessary to keep in mind the possibility of such a defect when carrying out differential diagnosis. Thus, unrecognized hearing loss is often the cause of disturbances in speech development, which can be mistakenly regarded as a manifestation of intellectual impairment. Unrecognized vision loss can lead to reading and writing impairments and, as a result, difficulties in mastering educational material, reminiscent of learning disabilities. Total (complete) blindness or deafness, as a rule, are quite obvious and do not cause errors in diagnosis.

2.3. PSYCHOLOGICAL STATES The psychological state, unlike stable personality traits, changes significantly over time. Its duration can be very different: from extremely short-term conditions, changing several times during the day, to long-term ones, lasting for years.

The most important characteristics of the psychological state are the level of activity and the general emotional background.

Activity level

The main indicator of activity level is psychomotor tone. The definition of “psychomotor” emphasizes the dependence of muscle tone on the psychological state. However, changes in muscle tone can also be caused by non-psychological reasons (muscle weakness, physiological disturbances in the regulation of movements, etc.).

High purposeful activity, observed in a favorable psychological state, is characterized by moderately high, well-regulated psychomotor tone. In a state of emotional arousal, i.e., particularly high activity, increased readiness for action, increased psychomotor tone is observed.

When having to adapt to unexpected changes in the situation or as a result of being in an unfavorable situation for a long time that cannot be changed, emotional tension is often observed. This is a state of excitement accompanied by a feeling that something needs to be done, but it is not clear what exactly.

If emotional tension continues for too long, exhaustion occurs and various breakdowns are possible:

throwing objects, tears, screaming, etc. In this state, quarrels and conflicts easily arise. Particularly high emotional tension, which has no apparent reason, sometimes serves as a sign of an incipient mental illness.

Pathological arousal, ultra-high activity combined with elevated mood (euphoria) are characteristic of a hypomanic state. It is accompanied by a decrease in the adequacy of behavior and violations of its purposefulness, loss of a sense of tact, a sense of when your activity is appropriate and when it is not. In this state, a person easily enters into conflicts, and aggressiveness often increases.

A hypomanic state is usually a manifestation of a mental illness, but less severe similar states can be the result of certain personality characteristics.

With a decrease in activity, psychomotor tone also decreases, up to pronounced passivity, lethargy, and lack of readiness for action.

One of the most common causes of general passivity is an asthenic state. This is a state of nervous exhaustion, weakness, in which physical and mental fatigue sharply increases and performance decreases. With asthenia, memory and attention deteriorate.

Tearfulness, moodiness, and irritability appear. Asthenia occurs as a result of illnesses (both nervous and general), overwork, lack of vitamins, and lifestyle disorders (lack of sleep, nutrition, walking). Also leads to asthenia long-term stress. Disorders caused by asthenia are reversible. However, if this condition continues for a long time, then secondary deviations accumulate: gaps in knowledge, unfavorable experience in building interpersonal relationships, underestimation of one's capabilities.

Emotional background

Normally, the emotional background varies widely, in accordance with the life situation. With a long stay in an unfavorable situation, an equally long-term decline is possible.

This is an unfavorable psychological factor, but not a sign of pathology.

A pathological decrease in mood, in depth and/or duration that does not correspond to the cause that caused it or has no visible external cause at all, is a sign of a depressive state. With depression, a person is unable to experience positive emotions. His activity drops sharply, and thoughts of suicide are frequent. Suicidal attempts are also possible, which makes depression very dangerous.

It often requires psychiatric intervention. A frequent source of depression is prolonged frustration (dissatisfaction) of a significant need.

There are different types of depression: classical (the main manifestation is a deep decrease in mood), asthenic (with pronounced weakness, severe exhaustion), anxious (including a significant increase in anxiety), agitated (with excitement), etc. In children, depression often occurs in a disguised form when the decrease in mood is not particularly noticeable.

However, even in this case, there is a decrease in the level of activity, a depletion of interests, and some general lethargy. Depression is often accompanied by unpleasant somatic (bodily) sensations and pain that have no obvious physiological cause.

A decrease in mood that does not reach the level of depression is called subdepression. If it is combined with gloomy irritability, then they talk about dysphoria.

A specific emotional state that a consulting psychologist especially often has to deal with is a state of anxiety: restlessness, excitement, a feeling of threat, anticipation of an uncertain danger. The level of anxiety increases in a state of stress (stress caused by the need to adapt to unfavorable or dramatically changing conditions). Acute anxiety leads to a breakdown of goal-directed activity and panicky behavior.

When a high level of anxiety is combined with depressive tendencies, phobias (obsessive fears) often arise - fear of any situations that do not pose an immediate threat: closed rooms, open spaces, heights, depths, etc.

Favorability/Unfavorability of State Psychological states can be roughly divided into four categories:

favorable;

unfavorable within the psychological norm;

border;

pathological.

Borderline conditions are mental deviations that disrupt normal life and activities, but do not lead to disability. These include, in particular, neurotic conditions characterized by asthenia, decreased productivity and emotional disorders (anxiety, depression, etc.). Tics (involuntary muscle twitching), stuttering, enuresis (urinary incontinence), neurotic pain, etc. may be observed. A common cause of a neurotic state is maladaptation - the inability to adapt to changed living conditions. In particular, children often experience school maladaptation, that is, difficulties in adapting to the norms and requirements of school life. In borderline conditions, medical intervention is sometimes helpful.

Pathological conditions (in particular, psychotic ones) are characterized by a more profound mental disorder. They are characterized by inappropriate behavior, disturbances in orientation in space and time, decreased criticality of their condition, and productive symptoms (hallucinations, overvalued or delusional ideas). However, the pathological condition does not always manifest itself so clearly and is sometimes difficult to recognize. The pathological condition in all cases requires medical intervention.

2.4. PERSONALITY FEATURES

Personal characteristics are stable psychological formations that change little over time. Some of them represent a tendency to the occurrence of certain states, others relate to the regulation of these states, mutual transitions between them, and others determine the regulation of activity. For a child’s interaction with his environment, personal characteristics related to social contacts are especially significant. Finally, we will look at some of the compensatory and protective mechanisms used by individuals to cope with unfavorable external factors or their own traits.

Tendency to certain conditions

Many people have a tendency to easily develop certain psychological conditions described above. Thus, depressive tendency is understood as the ease of occurrence of a depressive state. It is determined by a pessimistic view of the world, a feeling of helplessness.

Similarly, asthenicity is a tendency to develop an asthenic state. Loads that are quite normal for another person cause overwork in an asthenic person and can lead to a nervous breakdown. Asthenicity is often caused by increased sensitivity - high sensitivity both to physical stimuli (low thresholds of perception), and to social factors, subtle shades of human relationships, etc.

Anxiety is a personality trait that consists of a particularly easy occurrence of a state of anxiety. With high anxiety, a person is characterized by self-doubt, constant apprehensions, and fears.

Afraid of making a mistake, such a person constantly tries to control himself (anxious hypercontrol), which disrupts the normal implementation of automated actions. The level of anxiety is closely related to the degree of resistance to stress: a situation that is perceived as quite ordinary by a person with low anxiety causes stress with high anxiety.

Regulation of emotional states

The regulation of emotional states is largely determined by such personal characteristics as emotional lability or rigidity. Emotional lability is the ease of mood swings, the short duration and instability of experiences. With high emotional lability, vivid experiences can arise for an unimportant reason and pass without any apparent reason. How younger child, the higher his emotional lability, generally speaking, is, however, there is an exception to this rule: adolescents are characterized by higher lability than younger schoolchildren. For an adult, particularly high emotional lability is a sign of infantility.

Rigidity (“viscosity”) is, on the contrary, a tendency to get stuck for a long time on any experiences, especially unpleasant ones.

Changing the situation often does not lead to a corresponding change in mood and experiences. With emotional rigidity, resentment and vindictiveness easily arise. The decisions made by a rigid person are determined more by his past experiences than by the immediate situation.

Rigidity leads to difficulties switching from one activity to another, to long-term implementation of the same type of actions.

Regulation of activities

For the regulation of activity, the level of aspirations is of great importance - the degree of success to which a person claims.

The result is perceived as success or failure depending on how it relates to the level of aspirations (a student with a high level of aspirations considers a four to be a failure, and a student with a low level considers a three to be a success). If the level of aspiration is too high, a person sets unattainable goals for himself; if the level of aspiration is too low, he sets himself too easy goals. The most unfavorable combination is a high level of aspirations with low self-esteem: the child considers it unworthy to do the job well enough, but believes himself to be unable to perform it at the proper level. As a result, he does nothing at all.

With an inflated level of aspirations, perfectionism is often observed - the desire to perform any work at the highest level.

While bringing some part of the work to perfection, the perfectionist does not have time to finish all the work on time. Unjustified waste of energy and time on trifles often leads to the fact that the main thing is missed.

One of the important personal characteristics that determine the regulation of activity is the level of self-control, i.e. the ability to consciously manage one’s behavior. With high self-control, the child acts purposefully, completes the work, without being distracted by random stimuli. Self-control requires a well-developed planning function, that is, the ability to outline the main stages of work in advance.

The opposite personality trait is impulsiveness, i.e.

e. a tendency to commit rash actions under the influence of random external circumstances or equally random thoughts and emotions, lack or insufficiency of planning one’s actions and self-control.

As noted above, disturbances in the regulation of activity can also arise as a result of higher level anxiety. In this case, a paradoxical pattern is observed: the more significant the activity a person performs, the lower the results he achieves.

For example, on an exam or on an important test, the results are lower than when completing an ordinary task. This is due to the fact that increased importance increases anxiety and excitement, which interfere with successful activities.

Social contacts

A person’s social contacts largely depend on the level of his need for communication. A high need for communication - extroversion - is manifested in sociability and a tendency to make wide contacts. An extroverted personality is relatively unselective in contacts; their quantity is more important to her than depth.

An extrovert easily fits into a new team and makes new friends.

Introversion, on the contrary, is isolation and high selectivity in communication. For an introvert, it is difficult to join a new team and make acquaintances. At the same time, the existing contacts of an introvert are usually deeper and more stable than those of an extrovert.

It is difficult to unequivocally classify most people as extroverts or introverts, and we can only talk about the greater or lesser expression of certain traits in them.

Unlike introversion, autism is a decrease in the need for communication, a weakening of contacts with others, which represents a serious deviation from the psychological norm.

A very specific picture of behavior is generated by demonstrativeness - an increased need for attention to oneself, the desire to always be the center of attention. People with a high level of demonstrativeness are characterized by somewhat deliberate, theatrical behavior and a love of jewelry. A variety of means can be used to attract attention - from defiantly extravagant behavior to emphasized shyness (“look how shy I am!”). As a rule, demonstrative personalities are also characterized by egocentrism - the inability to take the position of another person and understand their point of view.

The characteristics of a person’s contacts depend to a very large extent on the degree of his socialization, i.e., mastery of social norms, adequacy of behavior to the situation. With high socialization, there is a prosocial orientation (a positive attitude towards society), conformity - the desire to be “like everyone else,” up to the lack of one’s own opinion and uncritical submission to the opinion of the majority.

A well-socialized person easily establishes contacts and avoids conflicts. However, an excessive tendency to avoid conflicts often serves as an indicator of overcompensation for insufficient initial socialization. Its decline occurs both as a result of mental disorders and as a result of improper upbringing. For normal socialization, a warm, emotionally rich relationship between a small child and a close adult (mother) is necessary.

Personal characteristics such as increased conflict, explosiveness, aggressiveness, negativism, asociality or antisociality have a negative impact on social contacts.

Explosiveness (explosiveness) occurs as a result of “breakthroughs”

accumulated negative emotions. In particular, it is characteristic of a paradoxical combination of impulsivity and rigidity. For a more or less long time, emotional manifestations are restrained by rigidity, but the accumulated tension sooner or later breaks out in the form of a violent explosion.

Aggression is the desire to harm other people. However, we are not necessarily talking about physical aggression. Along with it, there is also a much less dangerous verbal aggression - a tendency to swear at others, make comments to them, etc. Aggression is often defensive, that is, it is caused by a feeling of threat from others and the desire to protect oneself from them. However, such “protection”

often becomes proactive: expecting an attack, the child hurries to “fight back” in advance.

Negativism - opposition to the demands of others - can act as a protest reaction against an unfair, in a person’s opinion, attitude towards him, excessive demands or an incorrect structure of the world. Sometimes it serves as a means to draw attention to yourself and your problems. During periods of age-related crises (pre-school - 2-3 years, teenage - 12-13 years) this is a way to assert one’s independence, “adulthood”.

Antisociality is a negative attitude towards the rules existing in society (social norms), the desire to counteract them. Asociality is indifference to social norms or lack of understanding of them. Unlike antisociality, there is no desire to oppose norms. With asociality and, especially, with antisociality, psychopathic behavior is often observed, characterized by impulsiveness and violation of generally accepted norms. Behavior that does not correspond to norms is called deviant. It includes such manifestations as aggression, vandalism (destruction or damage of material assets), addiction to alcohol or drugs.

Compensatory and protective mechanisms

Compensation is production psychological mechanisms, helping to overcome the unfavorable characteristics of one’s own psyche. In particular, there are various mechanisms to compensate for increased anxiety. They are helping effective adoption decisions, despite the difficulties that anxiety creates.

Overcompensation is the formation of protective mechanisms that are outwardly opposite to the personality trait for which they are intended to compensate. Thus, overcompensation for low self-esteem and self-doubt can be achieved by demonstrating super-high self-esteem and self-confidence.

In order to maintain a favorable mental state, despite the presence of traumatic factors, the individual develops psychological defense mechanisms. The simplest of them is repression: the process by which things are “removed” from consciousness.

ideas and impressions that could become traumatic.

One’s own unseemly impulses are repressed; failures that indicate failure in any area, unpleasant events, negative assessments given to a person by others, and their negative reaction to his behavior are not noticed or quickly forgotten.

The interlocutor’s statements are easily interpreted in one’s favor.

A more complex mechanism of psychological defense is rationalization - “replacing” one’s unseemly motives with more acceptable ones (for example, a careerist may sincerely think that he cares not about his career, but about the benefits of the business).

Another psychological defense mechanism is projection, i.e.

attributing one’s ideas, experiences and aspirations to other people, some characters and even inanimate objects (for example: “it’s not me who envy others, but, on the contrary, those around me who envy me”). Many personality tests are based on the principle of projection.

In children, compensatory fantasizing often acts as a protective mechanism - immersion in fantasies and dreams, thanks to which the experiences associated with the dissatisfaction of certain needs are mitigated. In adults, this defense mechanism is less common.

2.5. GENERAL PERSONALITY

This subsection will describe the main psychotypes, as well as widespread character accentuations.

A psychotype is a general personality that determines its activities, relationships with other people and with the world as a whole.

Accentuation is a pronounced originality of character, which, however, does not reach the level of pathology. Depending on the predominance of certain character traits, different types of accentuations are distinguished. We will consider, first of all, accentuations, which represent a sharpening of a certain psychotype. Psychotype or accentuation does not necessarily appear in pure form. One and the same personality may combine traits characteristic of different psychotypes or accentuations.

If character deviations are pathological in nature, sharply complicating or making social adaptation impossible, then they speak of psychopathy. The line between character accentuation and psychopathy is largely arbitrary. With the same character traits good choice profession and general lifestyle can lead to satisfactory social adaptation, and unsuccessful ones - to unsatisfactory ones. In the first case, we will have to talk about accentuation, in the second - about psychopathy.

–  –  –

This personality type is characterized by high sensitivity.

People with this psychotype are usually pleasant to talk to. They are delicate and shy. Due to low self-confidence, they often have difficulty communicating, especially when joining a new team. Negative features of the sensitive type include asthenicity and anxiety.

The hypertrophied development of personal characteristics characteristic of the sensitive type leads to psychasthenic accentuation (anxious and suspicious character). It is determined, first of all, by greatly increased anxiety. A person easily experiences anxiety, apprehension, and fear. A lack of self-confidence forces him to give up in advance activities that seem too difficult to him. The results achieved are underestimated. Decision making is difficult, since a person is too fixated on the troubles that this or that decision may entail.

With psychasthenic accentuation, psychosomatic diseases are common, i.e., bodily disorders caused by psychological reasons (gastric or duodenal ulcers, heart diseases, etc.).

Demonstrative type

This psychotype is characterized by a high level of demonstrativeness and emotional lability. In communication, the main thing is to impress the interlocutor (viewers, listeners).

Like any other personality trait, demonstrativeness in itself is not a negative or undesirable trait, although it can sometimes lead to difficulties in raising a child. But it can become a source of very effective motivation: a person with a high level of demonstrativeness is ready to expend great effort on activities that bring him the attention of others and success. For example, the vast majority of excellent students are children with high demonstrativeness. In addition, demonstrativeness is necessary for practicing almost any type of art. If a person does not have a need to attract the attention of others to himself and his experiences, then he is unlikely to be able and will successfully draw, play the guitar or perform on stage (for acting, demonstrativeness is especially important).

The hypertrophied development of features characteristic of the demonstrative type leads to hysterical accentuation. With this personality type, any means can be used to attract attention, including hysterics, which are indeed common among hysterical people, although they are not a mandatory symptom of hysterical accentuation. Hysterical personalities are characterized by highly developed repression: forgetting unpleasant events, the ability not to notice the negative reaction of others to their behavior, etc.

Often, in order to attract additional attention to themselves, hysterical people “exploit” their illnesses: they emphatically demonstrate existing symptoms, behave as if their illness is much more severe than it actually is (aggravate).

This applies not only to physical (somatic) symptoms, but also to mental ones: a hysterical person tends to exaggerately demonstrate his fears, fatigue, and depression. This tendency is fraught with the subsequent development of hysteria, in which, without any physiological reasons, painful symptoms arise, serving as a means for the hysteric to solve social and interpersonal problems (this phenomenon is called conversion).

Introverted type

This personality type is characterized by introversion, originality of thinking, and reduced conformity. For this psychotype, a high development of cognitive motives and a tendency to speculative logical constructions are common. The introverted type is favorable for creative activities in the field of science and technology, but is relatively rarely combined with artistic abilities. This is due to the relatively low emotionality of people of this type.

The hypertrophied development of features characteristic of the introverted type leads to schizoid accentuation. Difficulties in communication (even to the point of autism) are typical for her. The level of socialization is often reduced. The reasoning of a schizoid child may not be sufficiently clear to other children, and sometimes even to adults. The development of the emotional sphere usually lags noticeably behind intellectual development. As a result, a schizoid child can reason “like an adult” and at the same time behave very childishly.

Schizoid accentuation is in many ways the opposite of hysterical. At the same time, a paradoxical combination of these accentuations is often found. To compensate for communication difficulties, a schizoid sometimes develops hysterical forms of communication based on self-demonstration (and which are, in fact, the simplest). In this case, a hysterical facade is formed, in which the main (basic) personal characteristics correspond to schizoid accentuation, while the behavior corresponds to hysterical. Moreover, hysterical manifestations are often especially crude and inadequate, since the schizoid lacks the sensitivity to social situations characteristic of a true hysteroid.

Rigid type

This psychotype is characterized by emotional rigidity, a high level of activity, the desire to do everything “the way it should” and force others to act the same way (at the same time, the person believes that he himself knows exactly “how it should”; the possibility of the existence of other points of view is not taken into account) .

A rigid personality is characterized by punctuality, increased accuracy, a sense of responsibility, purposefulness, and the desire to complete the work started. With this personality type, as a rule, leadership inclinations are expressed, but it happens that they cannot be realized due to high levels of conflict and insufficient flexibility.

With the hypertrophied development of these features, epileptoid accentuation occurs. Excessive attention to detail, suspicion, and explosiveness are common for her. Increased aggressiveness is common.

Cycloid type

This psychotype is characterized by alternating periods of high and low mood. During periods of high mood, activity, sociability, and productivity also increase. During periods of low mood, activity decreases, communication decreases, and productivity decreases. The alternation of ups and downs is often seasonal (for example, in winter and summer - high mood, high activity, in spring and autumn - low mood, passivity).

In cases where fluctuations in mood and activity are especially large (in a decline - subdepression, in a rise - a state close to hypomanic), they speak of cycloid accentuation. In the pathological version, similar, but even more severe fluctuations in mood and activity (alternating depressive and hypomanic phases) are observed in manic-depressive psychosis.

Hyperthymic type

This psychotype is characterized by increased activity, low sensitivity, a tendency to impulsive, rash actions, and decreased self-control. People with this psychotype are often tactless and intrusive. They often have conflicts with their social environment. At the same time, this type of personality is characterized by a high need for communication, extroversion and openness. The experiences of a hyperthymic personality are, as a rule, very vivid, but somewhat superficial. When these features are particularly pronounced, they speak of hyperthymic accentuation.

In childhood, a borderline neuropsychiatric disorder with similar manifestations is often observed - hyperactivity (motor disinhibition). It manifests itself in impulsiveness, restlessness, and distractibility. With hyperactivity, in contrast to productive activity, focus is low. The child does not accept the task set by an adult and jumps from one activity to another, although he can do something he loves for a long time without distraction. Tics and obsessive movements are common.

The cause of hyperactivity is organic brain damage, increased intracranial pressure (hydrocephalus). In many cases, the cause of hyperactivity cannot be determined. With age, it sometimes goes away without special treatment.

Before the psychological examination begins, it is necessary to establish contact with the child and allow him to get comfortable in the room. Features of behavior and communication with the examiner both before and during the examination are briefly reflected in the protocol (for example: “Communicates friendly, but somewhat wary; diligent” or “Active; does not keep a distance in communication with adults; sensitive to praise”).

If the child came with one of the parents, it is necessary to note the characteristics of their behavior (for example:

“Mom often makes comments”).

3.1. PERSONALITY TESTS

Let us immediately make a reservation that there are no methods that would reveal only the mental development or only the personal and emotional characteristics of a child. The division of techniques into “cognitive” and “personal” is arbitrary, but it is useful for practical purposes.

The requirements for tests used in counseling were successfully formulated by R. S. Nemov (Fundamentals of Psychological Counseling.

M., 1999): “In psychological counseling, only the simplest tests should be used,... clear enough for the client...

Testing should not take too much time... Tests should have a simple... system for processing results” (p. 124). Unfortunately, the author unreasonably denies these qualities to projective tests and recommends questionnaires instead (they are usually cumbersome, difficult to process and incomprehensible to the client).

Perhaps R. S. Nemov is not sufficiently familiar with projective drawing tests, which most closely correspond to the criteria he put forward.

–  –  –

This test was first proposed by F. Goodenough to study cognitive abilities. Subsequently, K. Machover developed criteria for assessing personal characteristics. Since then, the assessment criteria have been revised many times, but the test itself remains one of the most frequently used diagnostic methods. The data obtained using the “Person Drawing” technique is not very reliable and requires additional verification, but it allows you to immediately put forward reasonable hypotheses about what psychological problems the child has.

Carrying out the test. Place a sheet of paper (vertically) and a simple pencil with an eraser in front of the child (the pencil should be soft enough - M or 2M).

Instructions: “Draw a person - all, entirely. Try to draw as best as possible - the way you know how.” If a child asks clarifying questions (“A boy or a girl?”, “Can he wear a hat?”, etc.), then he is told: “Draw the way you want.” If the question contradicts the instructions (“Is it possible to draw only the face?”), then it is partially repeated (“Draw it all, entirely”). It happens that a child refuses to complete a task, claiming that he does not know how to draw.

Then you need to tell him that you (the examiner) are interested in any children’s drawings, that a not very good drawing is better than none.

When examining a teenager, it is useful to give him another sheet of paper after completing the task and ask him to draw a person of the other gender.

House - tree - man

This test was developed by Buck and Hammer. It is an extension of the Human Drawing test and provides additional information about the psychological characteristics of the child. The drawing of the house reflects the child’s attitude towards his “home life”, towards his family. The drawing of a tree reveals the child’s ideas related to growth, development, and connections with the environment.

If the “Drawing a Person” test has already been carried out, then it remains in the same way to invite the child to draw a house on a separate sheet (placed horizontally in front of him), and a tree on another sheet (placed vertically). Additional information is provided by the child's answer to the question about who lives in the house. If a conventional image of a Christmas tree is presented as a drawing of a tree, then the child is asked to draw another tree, this time not a Christmas tree.

Family drawing

This technique was proposed by Hulse and Harris to identify the characteristics of family relationships in the child’s perception. It is carried out in the same way as other drawing tests. A sheet of paper is placed horizontally.

Instructions: “Draw your whole family on this sheet.” If a child asks questions like: “How about drawing a grandmother?”, then the examiner answers: “I don’t know who is in your family. You know this better than me."

A variant of this technique is the “Family in Action” test with additional instructions: “Every family member needs to do something, be busy with something.” In adolescents, this option often produces very expressive drawings (Fig. 22), but its interpretation is more obvious, and if there is a certain attitude, the child can deliberately distort the results.

Animal family

If the child “closes himself off” from the examiner, then this test is more revealing than the “Family Drawing” test, since its focus is less obvious. It can be used instead of or in combination with the Family Drawing Test to obtain additional data. Some family relationships in this test are less obvious: it does not always reflect the real composition of the child’s family (after all, he draws not his own, but an abstract family).

Instructions: “Draw a family consisting of animals - so that all family members are different animals.” Of course, the child is not told that this should be his own family. However, his associations will still be determined by his sense of self in his family.

If a child says that he cannot draw, then they explain to him that if it is not clear who he drew, he will say so, and the examiner will write it down. After each drawing, the examiner finds out what animal it is and who it is in the family (which family member). When asking questions, he does not utter words like “mom”, “dad”, “child”, but uses the neutral phrase “family member”.

Non-existent animal

This technique, developed by M. Z. Dukarevich, is very informative.

A sheet of paper is placed horizontally.

Instructions: “I want to see how you can invent and imagine. Come up with and draw an animal that doesn’t actually exist, has never existed, and that no one has ever invented before you - which doesn’t exist either in fairy tales or in computer games, nor in cartoons."

When the child finishes drawing, he is asked to come up with a name for the animal. It is recorded in the protocol. After this, the psychologist says: “Now tell me about his lifestyle. How does it live? "The story is written down verbatim as much as possible. If it does not contain relevant information, then additional questions are asked: What does it eat? Where does he live? What does it usually do? What does it like to do most? What does it dislike most? Does it live alone or with someone else? Does he have friends? Who?

Does he have any enemies? Who? Why are they his enemies? Is there anything that it is afraid of, or is it not afraid of anything? What size is it?

Then the child is asked to imagine that this animal has met a wizard who is ready to fulfill any three of his wishes, and is asked what these wishes could be. All answers are recorded in the protocol.

Beautiful drawing

This technique is aimed at identifying emotional characteristics.

The nature of the color scheme used by a child can say a lot about his emotional state. To complete the test, you need a sheet of paper (it is placed horizontally in front of the child), a simple pencil and a set of colored pencils (at least twelve, with all primary colors represented; it is better to use a set of 24 pencils). Colored pencils are better than felt-tip pens because they allow you to vary the color density by changing the amount of pressure.

Instructions: “Draw some beautiful picture with colored pencils - whatever you want.” While drawing, the sequence of the child’s use of different colors should be noted in the protocol.

3.2. COGNITIVE TESTS

–  –  –

This technique, proposed by A. R. Luria, allows you to get an idea of ​​the state of various mental processes: thinking, semantic memory, imagination, the level of organization of actions, and the personal and emotional characteristics of the child.

Instructions: “Now we will check how you remember words. To make it easier for you to remember them, make some simple drawing for each word. He doesn't have to be good. You just need him to remind you of this word later. There will be a lot of words; All drawings must fit on this page. You cannot write words or letters” - Then words or simple phrases are read to the child one by one for memorization. After each word (phrase), he is given enough time to make a drawing. If he is working slowly, you can hurry him up: “Finish this drawing, I give you the next word” (but you still have to wait until he finishes).

If the drawings do not fit on one sheet, you need to give a second (and sometimes a third), but remind:

“Try to keep all the drawings on one sheet of paper.”

After completing each drawing, the child is asked: “How will this drawing help you remember the word?” Explanations are recorded in the protocol.

If the child refuses to explain (for example, says:

“He’ll just remind you”), then there’s no need to insist. If he gives explanations himself, without an additional question, then the question, naturally, is not asked.

If the child does not understand the meaning of the task, you can ask him: “What do the words “happy holiday” remind you of? “Suppose he answers: “About the Christmas tree.” Then you say: “So, draw a Christmas tree, and then it will remind you of the words “happy holiday.” The explanation is given only once. If it is not enough, then this technique will have to be abandoned. For the “Pictogram” technique, there are several standard sets of words and phrases. Here is one of them: a fun holiday; disease; hard work; delicious dinner; strict teacher; warm wind; friendship;

deception; blind boy; doubt; family; development.

After the drawing for the last word is completed, the sheet with the drawings is removed. After 30-40 minutes, during which other methods are carried out, the child is again given a sheet with the drawings he has made and asked to remember the words. The protocol records how he reproduces each of the words and phrases.

–  –  –

This test was developed by A. Ray. It assesses the development of perception, spatial awareness, eye-hand coordination, visual memory, organization and planning of actions. We offer a somewhat simplified version, suitable for testing primary schoolchildren and teenagers. The test requires a sample figure, unlined paper, and colored pencils. The sample can be easily prepared in accordance with the Appendix (Fig. 1).

The child is asked to redraw the sample figure on a separate sheet. He is given one of the colored pencils with which the inspector previously wrote the number “1” in the protocol. After about 30 seconds, this pencil is taken away and the child is given the next one, having first written the number “2” in the protocol. Changing pencils continues until the work is completed. Colors help determine the sequence of the image different parts figures.

At the end of the work, the sample and drawing made by the child are removed.

After 15-20 minutes they give him a new sheet of paper and say:

“Try to remember the figure you redrew. Draw everything you can remember on this sheet.” Then the procedure described above is repeated (with changing pencils), but now the sample is missing and the drawing is done from memory. If a child claims that he does not remember anything, then one must say: “No one can remember such a complex figure in its entirety. But you probably remember something from it. Draw this.” In the interval between copying a sample and reproducing it from memory, the child is given tasks that do not require drawing.

Ten words

This technique is aimed at studying verbal auditory memory. It is advisable to carry it out in the first half of the examination so that the child is not tired (fatigue greatly affects the productivity of memorization). Instructions: “Now I will read the words to you. You will listen to them and try to remember them. When I finish reading, you will repeat all the words that you remember. The words can be named in any order." After the message, the instructions are read out. They are read clearly, quite loudly and not very quickly (approximately one word per second). If the child starts playing before reading is completed, then they stop him (preferably with a gesture) and continue reading. During this test, no distractions are allowed (no one should be allowed to get up, enter the experimental room, etc.).

Immediately after finishing reading they say: “Now repeat the words that you remember.” The named words are noted in the first empty column of the protocol (Appendix, Fig. 3). When the child finishes reproducing words, you need to praise him for doing a good job (even if in reality the results of reproduction are low) and say: “Now we will learn the remaining words. I will read them again, and when I finish reading, you will repeat all the words that you remember - both those that you already named the first time and those that you forgot then.” Then the procedure is repeated (all 10 words are read again). The playback results are recorded in the second column of the protocol. If, during reproduction, the child, contrary to the instructions, names only newly memorized words, without naming those that he reproduced for the first time, then he is told: “Those words that you remembered last time must also be named.” Then, if not all words have been learned, the same procedure is repeated a third time. If 9 or all 10 words are now reproduced, then the procedure ends, otherwise it is repeated a fourth time. It is not advisable to repeat the memorization further, even if the child does not remember all the words.

After 30-40 minutes, during which either other techniques are carried out or a final conversation with the client begins, the child is again asked to remember the words that he has learned (this time the words are not read out first). The results are entered in the fifth column of the protocol.

There are several standard sets of words for this technique.

Let's give one of them: house, forest, cat, night, window, hay, honey, needle, horse, bridge.

Coding

This test is aimed at studying attention and pace of activity.

The principle of its construction goes back to Bourdon’s “Corrective Test”.

The proposed modification basically reproduces the version used in the Wechsler test. However, Wexler uses different tasks for children under 8 years of age and after 8 years of age. The option described below is suitable for use throughout school age.

The material is a pencil and a sheet of figures, in each of which the child will have to draw a specific symbol. The test is carried out with time recording, so it requires a stopwatch or (less convenient) a watch with a second hand. The worksheet is presented in the Appendix (Fig. 4) and can be independently reproduced by a psychologist from this sample. The top of the sheet shows which symbol should be drawn inside each of the shapes. The next shortened line is a training one. Next are the test lines.

Instructions: “Different figures are drawn here. Each of them must have its own icon. At the top it is shown in which figure which icon needs to be drawn (the examiner points to the top of the sheet).

Draw the required icons in the shapes inside the Frame (the tester points to the practice line).” If a child makes mistakes during training, the examiner points them out and offers to correct them. After the training figures are completed, the examiner says: “Now put the required icons in the remaining figures. Start with the first figure and move on without missing a single one. Try to do it quickly." When the child begins to fill out the test figures, the tester records the time. A minute later, he notes in the protocol the number of the figure the child is currently filling out. After the second minute, the task is terminated.

Methods for in-depth study of mental development

For a more detailed study of the characteristics of thinking, tests such as “Classification”, Raven's Progressive Matrices, Wechsler test can be recommended. This manual does not provide a detailed description of them. All of them require standard materials and can only be used with special training. Here we only want to note the additional contribution that these tests can make to building a general picture of the child’s psychological characteristics.

The “Classification” technique allows you to characterize in detail the level of generalization and abstraction, the development of the conceptual structure of thinking, criticality and thoughtfulness of actions, logical memory, the presence of qualitative disorders of thinking (diversity of judgments, associations based on weak characteristics, etc.). Along with this, it allows us to identify some personal characteristics, such as an increased level of anxiety, rigidity (viscosity).

Raven's progressive matrices make it possible to assess a child's ability to identify hidden patterns, the level of development of thinking by analogy, and the maturity of logical operations of classification and seriation. The presence of several series makes it possible to assess the child’s capabilities in organizing and systematizing material at various levels: perceptual (visual), concrete (figurative-intuitive), abstract (logical).

The great advantage of the method is the presence of an objective quantitative indicator that can be unambiguously correlated with age norms. The Raven's test is well standardized across different age groups, unlike most of its subsequent modifications (for example, Eysenck matrices).

The Wechsler test is the most widely used method for studying mental development today. It includes 12 subtests that characterize various aspects of verbal (verbal) and nonverbal (actional) thinking. The final result is expressed in three indicators: general IQ (intelligence quotient);

verbal IQ (an indicator of the development of verbal thinking); nonverbal IQ (an indicator of the development of effective thinking). Each of these indicators is calculated using special tables. A value of 100 corresponds to the average age level. Values ​​in the range of 85-115 are considered normal, 70-85 are borderline, below 70 indicate a decrease in intelligence. Values ​​in the range of 115-130 are an indicator of a high level of mental development, above 130 - giftedness. These boundaries are largely arbitrary and can only be considered indicative. The ratio of the three indicators allows us to characterize different aspects mental development. A more detailed description is provided by data analysis for each of the 12 subtests.

The Wechsler test can be very useful when the problem is related to mental development. It differentiates well such disorders as mental retardation, learning disabilities, and pedagogical neglect. This test is also useful for determining the specific direction of correctional activities with a child.

INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

4.1. BEHAVIOR OF THE SUBJECT The process of performing diagnostic tasks provides great opportunities for observing the child's behavior. In the protocol, it is useful to note such behavioral features as: comments about your attitude to the task and your capabilities; attempts to refuse to complete a task; the client’s own assessment of his intermediate results and the final result (for example, a finished drawing). Based on these manifestations, one can judge an individual’s self-esteem, attitude to a given task and to activity in general.

Comments

Statements in the process of completing tasks can be divided into three main groups: evaluative (“I can do this well/badly”, “it turned out well/badly”), autobiographical (for example: “we have drawing at school”) and relational (“I love / I don’t like these kinds of activities.” In addition to the main meaning, any of these statements reveals the child’s characteristic style of communication with others, the way of self-presentation. Such remarks, which sometimes seem casual and of little significance, actually provide rich material for analysis.

A positive assessment of one’s results (“I think it turned out well”) or one’s abilities (“I can do this well”) is common for demonstrative children who are accustomed to the praise of adults. If it manifests itself in a child over 11-12 years old, then this is a sign of infantility. In some cases, such statements indicate inflated self-esteem, but more often they serve as a way of overcompensating for low self-esteem and self-doubt.

A negative assessment of one's results is common for an anxious child who is accustomed to failure. Often we are not talking about absolute failure, but about relative failure - that is, about the discrepancy between the achieved results and the inflated level of aspirations. Sometimes a negative assessment of a drawing is found in children with impaired fine motor skills who adequately assess their difficulties.

Autobiographical statements are a socially accepted way of constructing communication. Its use is evidence of a tendency to establish contacts with others. It is typical for extroverts with an insufficiently satisfied need for communication (due to shyness or lack of a suitable environment). In cases where autobiographical statements are not at all related to the task being performed (“Isn’t it true that my dress is beautiful?”, “We have a budgie”), they become a sign of reasoning, which occurs with verbalism, hyperactivity, and schizoid accentuation.

Positive attitude statements (“I like these activities”) are a socially accepted form of talking about oneself. They allow you to show your positive attitude towards the examination and, thanks to this, please the inspector. They are typical of people with mild demonstrativeness, a cooperative orientation, and a tendency to avoid social conflicts.

Negative attitudinal statements (“I don’t like these activities”) are more often determined by the child’s negative attitude towards the examination than towards this task. They occur with general negativism (in particular, teenage). Often this is a defensive reaction to a foreseeable low assessment by the inspector. This reaction indicates anxiety and a lot of experience of failure.

–  –  –

The most common questions are aimed at clarifying instructions or obtaining an assessment of one’s performance. Numerous clarifications of the instructions indicate increased anxiety.

Interest in the inspector's assessment indicates a desire to communicate.

It is typical for extroverted personalities. Such interest is shown both by demonstrative children seeking to receive praise, and by insecure, anxious children who need the support of others. Interest in the inspector's assessment is especially common when demonstrativeness is combined with anxiety.

Attempts to refuse to complete a task

Such attempts may indicate a decrease in self-esteem, a negative attitude towards the examination, or a tendency to avoid difficulties. The motivations used help determine their meaning more specifically.

Inability to perform a given activity (for example, the inability to draw) is a motivation that often serves as a means of protection against foreseeable negative evaluation. She says that there is a lot of experience of negative assessments from others. This motivation is common in cases of anxiety, a tendency to avoid difficulties, and a combination of a high level of aspirations and low self-esteem.

Dislike for this activity and motivation such as “tired”

or “boring” - evidence of low socialization or a demonstration of a negative attitude towards the examination (such statements do not correspond to socially accepted forms of child-adult relationships). Such statements are frequent with general negativism (in particular, teenage behavior). For preschool age, such motivation is more common and does not indicate any specific personal characteristics.

Fatigue. This motivation can indicate both high exhaustion, asthenia, and a desire to avoid the examination, to “shut down.” Sometimes this is simply a consequence of the fact that the child is very tired on the day of the examination or during it, or that it is carried out at the wrong time (for example, too late in the evening).

Refusal without motivation usually indicates difficulties in communication.

Possible isolation and shyness. Sometimes the reason is that the examiner was unable to establish contact with the child.

Pace of work

The pace of activity indicates the overall level of activity.

Often it allows you to assess the child’s attitude to the task and level of motivation.

A high pace indicates a high level of activity. A particularly high pace combined with negligence is often found in cases of impulsiveness and hyperactivity. This combination may also indicate a desire to quickly get rid of an unpleasant activity (and serves as a manifestation of a negative attitude towards the task or the examination in general).

A decrease in the pace of activity often serves as a manifestation of general passivity and is observed with asthenia, depression (subdepression), and physical malaise. Slowness can occur due to increased thoroughness and “getting stuck” on individual small details, which is typical for people with high rigidity. Sometimes slowness is explained by numerous corrections and clarifications with low self-confidence and high anxiety. If all tasks are performed slowly, then this may be a manifestation of a slow pace of activity, which is of a physiological nature.

A greatly varying pace of activity, when some tasks are performed quickly and others slowly, is a sign of a slight change in emotional state, emotional lability. Slower performance of individual tasks may reflect increased personal significance of the corresponding task. life sphere. Super-fast, careless completion of individual tasks indicates a negative attitude towards the corresponding area of ​​​​life.

4.2. FIGURES: FORMAL INDICATORS

As noted above, drawing tests are most widely used in the practice of psychological counseling.

This subsection will be devoted to the interpretation of these tests.

Let's start the analysis of the pictures with general features that are not related to the content of the images. This is the pressure on the pencil, the style of the lines, the size of the drawings, etc. These features can say a lot about the dynamic personality traits. Based on them, one can judge the level of anxiety, general activity or passivity, etc. None of the signs described below, taken in isolation from the others, can serve as the basis for final conclusions. Each of them is interpreted differently depending on what manifestations it is combined with.

–  –  –

Pressing the pencil allows you to judge the level of psychomotor tone, general activity, and emotional tension. The force of pressure is reflected in the boldness of the lines. For test drawings, it is recommended to use a soft pencil (a hard pencil leaves a thin line even with strong pressure).

When assessing pressure, a very rough scale is sufficient:

particularly weak pressure: the line is sometimes almost invisible;

weak pressure;

average pressure force;

strong pressure: the pencil presses deeply into the paper, leaving a mark on back side leaf;

particularly strong pressure (sometimes it is so strong that in some places the pencil tears the paper).

In the same drawing, the pressure can vary greatly: some lines are drawn with stronger pressure, others with weaker pressure.

There are also cases when the pressure on the pencil varies noticeably from drawing to drawing.

Weak pressure (Appendix, Fig. 7,9,18,27) is characteristic of an asthenic state. It can indicate a lack of self-confidence and is often found in passive, shy children. Very weak pressure often signals a decrease in mood, subdepressive state, or depression. Sometimes particularly weak pressure is explained by muscle weakness.

Strong pressure (Fig. 6, 10, 12, 24) indicates increased psychomotor tone and emotional tension. Occurs in hyperactivity, hyperthymic type or in a hypomanic state.

Uniform, strong pressure is possible with rigidity and a tendency to get stuck on certain experiences. Particularly strong pressure (the pencil tears the paper) often signals high levels of conflict and aggressiveness. Sometimes it serves as a manifestation of an acute stress reaction.

Strongly varying pressure (Fig. 15, 20, 23), as a rule, indicates instability of psychomotor tone. It occurs in children with increased emotional lability, frequent mood swings, and low resistance to stress.

Changes in pressure reflect the relative importance for the subject of the depicted details or plots, and, consequently, the life spheres associated with these details or plots. Increased pressure may indicate psychological stress associated with a certain issue (for example, if it manifests itself only in a family picture, then this is an indicator of trouble in the family sphere). At the same time, variations in pressure can serve as an artistic means of expression and indicate that the child is learning to draw.

Features of the line

Features of the line may indicate such features as an increased level of anxiety, impulsivity, and the presence of organic brain damage.

The “dashed” line looks like it is made up of short pieces (Fig. 7, 26). It does not go from one meaningful point to another, but “stops along the way” many times. This happens because of the fear of getting to the wrong place. While drawing a line, a person repeatedly interrupts the action to check and correct its result. As a result, the accuracy of the lines does not increase, but, on the contrary, decreases, since such alarming hypercontrol disrupts the normal execution of automated actions. The described line type indicates high anxiety. It is characteristic not of a situational increase in the level of anxiety, but of a stable, constant increase (in particular, for psychasthenic accentuation). Sometimes a similar “piecewise” line is found in cases of fine motor skills disorders.

“Sketch” line: first, thin (sketch) lines are drawn, which are then drawn with a thick line (Fig. 15). This line often serves as a sign of increased anxiety, accompanied by a tendency to compensate for it. In this case, anxiety may not manifest itself in a person’s daily behavior, but in stressful situations it inevitably becomes noticeable.

If a person tries to erase and redo the lines after they have been drawn, then this is an indicator of unsuccessful compensation for anxiety. Sometimes a sketch line followed by guidance is also found in children learning to draw.

Multiple lines: instead of one line, several lines are drawn with approximately the same pressure, so it is not clear which of them is the main one (Fig. 5). The multiplicity of lines is characteristic of a situationally determined increase in the level of anxiety. It is often observed under stress, especially in sensitive children. In the case when multiple lines appear only in individual drawings, this indicates that the corresponding sphere has increased significance for the subject: associations associated with it cause a stress reaction in him. At the same time, this is one of the manifestations of reduced resistance to stress (since the stress reaction occurs in response not to a real encounter with a stressor, but to just the memory of it).

If the lines in the figure do not fall into the required point (Fig. 8, 19), then this indicates either motor impairment or a reduced level of self-control and high impulsivity (possibly due to organic brain damage).

A line that generally goes in the right direction, but is not completed, also often serves as a manifestation of increased impulsiveness.

However, in combination with weakened pressure, such a line most likely indicates increased exhaustion, asthenia (Fig. 9).

Gross distortions of the shape of straight lines, when instead of a straight line it turns out to be convex, concave or wavy (Fig. 21), occur with organic damage to the brain. They are also common in mental illness.

Size of drawings

The size of the drawing is assessed in relation to the format of the sheet on which it is made.

You can focus on the following approximate criteria:

enlarged size: the drawing takes up more than 2/3 of the sheet;

medium size: the drawing takes up from 1/3 to 2/3 of the sheet;

reduced size: the drawing takes up less than 1/3 of the sheet.

For tree drawings and multi-storey building the upper limit is higher. We can talk about increasing the size of these drawings only if they occupy almost the entire sheet (in height).

An increase in the size of the drawings (to the point that they do not fit on the sheet) (Fig. 8) is characteristic of a state of emotional arousal. It often occurs with hyperactivity, hyperthymic personality type and hypomania. It is usually associated with a sharp decrease in self-control. An increase in size is also characteristic of a state of anxiety. Extra-large drawings extending beyond the edge of the sheet are common in acute situational anxiety and in a state of stress.

A decrease in the size of the patterns (Fig. 12, 17, 27) is usually a sign of decreased mood and is often found in depressive and subdepressive states. It may also indicate general lethargy, passivity and low self-esteem. Sometimes a decrease in size is caused by a negative attitude towards a given task or towards the examination as a whole.

Sharp fluctuations in the size of the drawings indicate emotional lability and a tendency to frequently change moods. They are characteristic of cycloids with alternating periods of high and low mood.

–  –  –

The placement of drawings on a sheet may indicate the planning function and some features of the emotional state. The standard is to place the drawing more or less in the center of the sheet.

An upward shift is often seen as a sign of high self-esteem (Figure 5). This increase may be true, but more often it is compensatory when self-esteem is very unstable, and dissatisfaction with oneself is hidden behind external bravado and feigned self-praise.

If the drawing is placed in the corner of the sheet, then the upward shift is not a sign of an increase in self-esteem (neither true nor compensatory).

A downward shift (Fig. 7, 10, 27) is a sign of reduced self-esteem and a negative attitude towards oneself. This especially applies to a drawing of a person.

Lateral displacement (Fig. 16) often occurs with unilateral organic brain lesions.

An unsuccessful placement of the drawing on the sheet, so that there is no room left for any significant part of the depicted object (Fig. 8), indicates impulsiveness and lack of planning. Sometimes these disorders are caused by a state of acute anxiety and stress.

Placing the picture in the corner, so that most of the sheet remains empty (Fig. 12), is typical for low mood, depressive and subdepressive states.

Carefulness and detail of drawings

The degree of thoroughness, accuracy and detail of the drawings indicates the attitude towards the task, the level of motivation and self-control.

Deviations in both directions (both decreased and increased thoroughness) may also indicate some other personal and emotional characteristics.

Increased care in the execution of drawings, a large number of similar details (for example, identical leaves on a tree in Fig. 13, bricks in the image of a pipe in Fig. 17) indicate a tendency to monotonous, monotonous activities, and difficulties in switching from one activity to another. Such “viscosity”, a tendency to get stuck, often occurs with high rigidity, epileptoid accentuation, as well as with some types of organic brain lesions.

Particular care, accuracy and detail are often found with perfectionism (striving for perfection), associated with a high level of aspirations. Sometimes increased thoroughness reflects a lack of self-confidence and a habit of negative evaluation of one’s drawings by others (parents, teachers).

A large number of monotonous details are found with high anxiety (psychasthenic accentuation). However, in this case they are usually drawn out less carefully; details that were previously drawn carefully gradually become more and more careless (Fig. 19 - tiles on the roof of a house).

Carelessness in drawing is often found with low motivation. It can serve as an indicator of a negative attitude towards a psychological examination or personally towards the examiner. Sometimes this reflects general negativism (for example, teenage - Fig. 11).

Negligence is also characteristic of hyperactivity and motor disinhibition. It occurs with impulsivity, a reduced level of self-control and attention disorders (Fig. 8, 19). The impression of negligence can also be created by violations of fine motor skills (Fig. 21).

The low detail of the drawings and their sketchiness are typical for a state of reduced activity (Fig. 9, 12). It occurs in asthenic conditions, depression or subdepression. Sometimes the poverty of details indicates an overly intellectualistic approach to the world and little emotionality. Low detail may also indicate a negative attitude towards drawing or the examination in general.

Sharp fluctuations in the level of thoroughness and detail may indicate the high emotional significance of certain topics and areas of life, and the individual’s concentration on these areas. They are also often a consequence of instability of attention and impulsiveness.

Often found in children with increased emotional lability and frequent mood swings.

A positive attitude towards any character or any area of ​​life is manifested in an increase in the number of details, their greater diversity, a negative one - in the poverty of details, sketchiness and deliberate negligence of the image. The appearance of a large number of monotonous details usually indicates a tense attitude towards the corresponding area of ​​life.

Use of color

If you have drawings made in color at your disposal, it is useful to evaluate the features of its use. Drawings made with colored pencils are most suitable for this, but drawings made with felt-tip pens, pastels or paints are also suitable. It is best to evaluate the use of color using the “Beautiful Drawing” test. The nature of the color scheme can say a lot about the emotional state of the child. A favorable emotional state is reflected in the use of bright (but not overly harsh) varied colors, mainly from the warm part of the spectrum (from red to yellow-green).

The predominance of cold tones is a sign of some decrease in mood, usually not reaching the level of depression. With a more pronounced decrease in mood, black or brown are often added to cold tones (blue, cyan).

Using dark colors is a much more serious sign of low mood. It may indicate a depressed or subdepressive state. The constant use of only dark tones is often found in clinical forms of depression. In this regard, the combination of black with brown and blue (or purple) is especially indicative.

A depleted color gamut, reduced density and brightness of color, the use primarily of a simple pencil, despite the presence of colored pencils, is a sign of a decrease in the overall level of activity. It often indicates asthenia, weakness, exhaustion after experiencing stress. Sometimes a depleted color scheme is a sign of depressive tendencies, subdepression (unlike the use of dark tones, it is not characteristic of deep depression). The depletion of the color gamut is especially significant when it is observed in the “Beautiful Drawing” test (usually it is made especially bright and multi-colored).

Close soft tones and subtle gradations of shades indicate high sensitivity (sensitivity) and are characteristic of an increased level of anxiety. They are often found in children with insufficient self-confidence. These tones are more typical for girls; in boys they can serve as a sign of feminine character.

Increased intensity of color, its excessive brightness, sharp contrast of color combinations used, the predominance of bright red or dark red color are characteristic of a state of high emotional tension. As a rule, it signals a situationally determined increase in the level of anxiety. Sometimes excessive brightness and contrast of drawings occurs with increased conflict and aggressiveness.

–  –  –

Numerous erasing and correction of lines is a characteristic sign of increased anxiety and lack of self-confidence.

It is often observed with a high level of aspirations and inappropriate (lowered) self-esteem, with perfectionism (striving for perfection). If corrections concern only individual drawings or details, then this indicates the special significance (and, most often, pain) of the corresponding sphere of life.

Hatching a drawing made with a simple pencil (as if painting it all or part of it with gray color - Fig. 10, 13, 26) is typical for children with a persistently high level of anxiety (psychasthenic accentuation). It is also observed with a situational increase in anxiety in a state of stress. If shading occurs only in some drawings or only certain details of the drawings are shaded, then this indicates increased personal significance of the corresponding life sphere. An important indicator is the thoroughness and accuracy of the shading.

Careless, sweeping shading, sometimes extending beyond the outline of the drawing, is typical for a situational increase in the level of anxiety (Fig. 24).

Particularly indicative is shading with an increasing amplitude of movements (from small strokes the child gradually moves to long, sweeping ones). Particularly careless shading is sometimes a sign of impulsiveness and hyperactivity.

Careful, emphatically neat shading indicates a tendency to get stuck on certain Actions of the same type (Fig.

13). Such stuckness is often a secondary consequence of increased anxiety (“anxious viscosity”). Sometimes it indicates that a person has rigidity of another origin (epileptoid accentuation). In this case, the shading is especially careful and accurate. Such shading is especially typical when anxiety is combined with a rigid personality type.

Hatching with strong pressure, sometimes hiding individual previously drawn details (for example, details of clothing in a drawing of a person), is characteristic of a state of acute anxiety and high emotional tension (Fig. 10, 12). Otherwise, it is interpreted in the same way as particularly strong pressure on a pencil in general.

Deviation from the vertical in images of a person, house, tree and other objects traditionally depicted vertically is a common sign of sensorimotor disorders. They, as a rule, indicate the presence of certain organic brain lesions. When we talk about deviations from the vertical, we mean unintentional errors, and not attempts to convey a specific human pose, the tilt of a tree in the wind, etc. Until the age of five, deviation from the vertical is a normal age-related phenomenon.

Gross violations of symmetry, as a result of which the drawing looks unbalanced, “skewed,” also often indicate organic brain damage. They can also appear as a result of high impulsivity and mental illness.

Motor perseverations when depicting circles or ovals, when a circle (oval) is drawn repeatedly, like a ball of thread (Fig. 8), usually indicate organic damage to the brain.

4.3. DRAWING OF A PERSON This subsection describes the content indicators related to the drawing of a person, i.e. the presence/absence and method of depicting various details.

–  –  –

In a human drawing, it is customary to distinguish 4 age stages:

cephalopod; schematic representation; intermediate between schematic and plastic; plastic.

A cephalopod is a drawing consisting of a more or less rounded head with eyes and a mouth and sticks extending from it or drawn next to it - arms and legs (their number varies). This is the first form of human drawing, appearing at the age of about 3 years. Starting from the age of 4, such a drawing is an indicator of violations in the development of visual function. Their cause may be mental retardation, learning disabilities, or pedagogical neglect. Sometimes drawings of this type appear in a state of acute stress, with extremely high levels of anxiety, pronounced impulsivity, or with mental illness.

In the schematic image, a person (having not only a head, but also a torso) seems to be made up of separate parts. The legs are located on the sides of the body (Fig. 8). This pattern is common for preschool age. Up to 5 years, the typical image of the arms and legs is a single line (arm in Fig. 8), later - a double line (second arm and legs in Fig. 8).

By about 6 years of age, the arms begin to be depicted as coming from the upper part of the body (corresponding to the shoulders), and not from its middle, as before (in Fig. 8 - both types of images). At a later age, arms starting from the middle of the body (Fig. 10) appear in the drawings of children under acute stress, with particularly high levels of anxiety, with high impulsivity, or with mental illness.

At school age, a schematic representation is a manifestation of general or partial infantilism or mental retardation. At the same time, a simplified scheme can occur up to adulthood with pronounced intellectualism (the predominance of verbal-logical thinking over figurative and emotional processes), as well as with negativism, reduced motivation, and a formal attitude to the task. In all these cases, the diagram is extremely simplified, looks clear and definite (“stick man”, or the image of the body is strictly oval, rectangular or triangular).

In a plastic image there is an attempt (not necessarily successful) to convey the real shape of body parts. They are not “glued” to each other, but organically transform into one another without a clear boundary, as in reality (this is especially noticeable at the transition from the neck to the shoulders, from the shoulders to the arms and from the torso to the legs; see Fig. 5 -7, 9, 11, 22, 23). This image is typical for teenagers. At an earlier age, it indicates a high level of development.

The intermediate method of depiction, when some parts of the body are depicted plastically and others schematically (Fig. 10, 20, 21) is typical for children aged 7-10 years. In preschool age, he speaks of a good level of mental development, in adolescence - of a lag in the development of visual function, and possibly in general mental development.

General impression, expression

A clear overall impression remains from the plastic image, but sometimes from the intermediate one. This criterion is usually not applicable to schematic images.

A pleasant overall impression of the drawing (Fig. 6) is a positive sign, suggesting that the child’s emotional state is favorable (although, of course, there may be some local difficulties). An unpleasant (and even more so repulsive) impression from a drawing is a frequent sign of certain emotional problems. It can occur with negativism, asociality (antisociality) (Fig. 11), aggressiveness, in a state of acute anxiety (Fig. 10), with high impulsivity, with depression. This impression is often given by the drawings of mentally ill children.

The image of a cheerful person is a positive sign;

a sad person (Fig. 7, 9) is often depicted with asthenia, depression or subdepression, but this sign alone is not enough for such a conclusion. A gloomy person is often depicted in a state of depression. Sometimes such an impression is produced by the drawings of epileptoid children. It often also occurs with negativism. An aggressive person is depicted as both aggressive and increased impulsiveness. Sometimes this is a sign of asociality or antisociality. In the drawings of introverted, and especially schizoid personalities, a person often looks strange. In some cases, this may be a sign of mental disorder.

A cartoon drawing is typical for a combination of high demonstrativeness and negativism (Fig. 22). It is often found with negative self-presentation and demonstrative nihilism.

Pose and angle

A standing person is the most common type of image.

An attempt to convey dynamics ( man walking, running or engaged in some activity) - an indicator of activity, creative orientation.

The image of a seated figure is sometimes found with intellectualism (the predominance of verbal-logical thinking over the figurative sphere).

However, this sign is very unreliable. A reclining figure sometimes speaks of passivity and asthenia. However, this sign is also not reliable enough.

The most common drawing is full face (front). A profile drawing sometimes indicates introversion (not a very reliable sign).

tr. / under general ed. A.A. Zalevskaya. – Tver: Tver. state Univ., 2014. – Issue. 14. – pp. 216-219. ISSN 2226-2369. ASSOCIATIVE PROPERTIES OF WORDS CLOSED IN MEANING AS A REFLECTION...” RAS A. K. Matveeva. We present to your attention a report read by the hero of the day at the extended meeting...” Candidate of Philosophy, Senior Researcher, Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. PEIKOVA Z...” “MUTUALLY FULL OF PSYCHOSOCIAL...” requires from the artisan a high level of social-communicative competence...” of many of Schiller’s plays, including “Song of the Bell.” For a long time we did not hear about her new literary works. We thought...” of the time “past – present – ​​future”, which receives a specific conceptualization in the texts of dialect discourse, not marked by intellectual elaboration and personal...”

“Newspaper of the University of Practical Psychology -! No. 3, February 1, 2011 Time is ticking! Oops, new semester! First of all, congratulations! Happy New Year, which has already come into its own, with the second semester, which began so eloquently at UPP, with new coaches, with...”

“FOUR IMMEASURES. LECTURE 1. I am very glad to see all of you, residents of Tuva, after a long break. There are no seats available, so if there is any space available anywhere, please raise your hands. Please come forward and sit on this side. Come forward everyone who is standing. So, as always, generate the right motivation first. Receive teaching with motivation to learn...”

2017 www.site - “Free digital library- various documents"

The materials on this site are posted for informational purposes only, all rights belong to their authors.
If you do not agree that your material is posted on this site, please write to us, we will remove it within 1-2 business days.

The book is intended for parents of three-, four-, and five-year-old children.

It contains tasks aimed at the mental education of the child: at the development of his perception, thinking, and imagination. The tasks are given in a playful way that is attractive to children of this age. For children with whom their parents have not previously worked, introductory tasks are given.

Home School of Thinking (for 5 year olds)

This is the third book in the “Home School of Thinking” series. Its addressee is parents of five-year-old children.

Five years is the beginning of senior preschool age. At this age, the child is already capable of conscious reasoning; he can identify the main thing in phenomena, making generalizations based on essential features (of course, on the simplest material). At the same time, the possibilities of analysis and highlighting the diverse unique features of an individual object or phenomenon increase.

The purpose of this book is to help parents create conditions conducive to the intensive development of the cognitive abilities of five-year-old children, primarily a generalized, but at the same time differentiated perception and understanding of reality.

What are you complaining about?

What are you complaining about? Identification and correction of unfavorable options for the personality development of children and adolescents.

A psychologist who conducts practical work with children and adolescents (diagnostic, advisory, psychotherapeutic) has at his disposal a wide variety of techniques. However, it can sometimes be very difficult to decide which of them will be useful in a particular case. Only the experience and intuition of a specialist helps you go from identifying a problem to eliminating it, from a client’s complaint to the recommendations of a psychologist.

This book will serve as a guide, which, of course, cannot completely replace intuition, but at least it will provide useful guidelines.

Psychological assistance to children and adolescents after the Beslan tragedy

“In this book we describe our experience in providing psychological assistance to victims.

We hope that it will be useful to specialists who work with children and adolescents who have experienced various psychological traumas - not necessarily as severe as those suffered by the Beslan hostages.

The book characterizes the condition of children and adolescents who came to us, describes the psychotherapeutic methods and approaches used, and organizational forms of work. We focused on the practical aspects of psychological assistance to victims. Theoretical issues related to stress and post-stress conditions and their correction are covered only to the extent necessary for understanding practical material. This explains the minimization of literary references given in the book.”

Psychological drawing tests

From a person’s drawings, one can determine the make-up of his personality and understand his attitude to different aspects of reality. The drawings allow one to assess the psychological state and level of mental development, and diagnose mental illness. All over the world, drawing tests have become the main tool of practical psychologists.

Psychological counseling and diagnostics. Part 1

Specific recommendations for conducting a diagnostic examination of a child, interpreting the results and counseling parents and teachers. The first part is mainly devoted to diagnostic problems. Numerous illustrations to help interpret survey results.

Psychological counseling and diagnostics. Part 2

The second part describes the most common types of complaints and typical causes leading to behavioral difficulties, school failure and emotional disturbances. The direction of counseling is proposed in accordance with the client’s complaints and the psychological characteristics of the child.

Psychological examination of junior schoolchildren

In the practical manual for conducting a psychological examination of primary schoolchildren and analyzing the data obtained, special attention is paid to recommendations that can be given to teachers and parents based on the examination results.

The book is intended for school psychologists, employees of psychological and pedagogical consultations, as well as teachers working with primary schoolchildren.

Development of educational independence

What kind of pedagogical assistance does a schoolchild need to learn to learn independently, to be proactive in setting and solving new problems, and independent in monitoring and evaluating their educational achievements?

Based on data from a ten-year longitudinal study, it has been proven that the source of a student’s educational independence is a joint search for ways to solve new problems. It is shown how a teacher can manage children's search. The characteristics of the ability to learn at different levels of schooling and individual trajectories of the development of educational independence of primary schoolchildren and adolescents are described.

The book is addressed to all those who are interested in the problems of the connection between learning and the development of children's independence, who are engaged in assessing and diagnosing the developmental effects of education, who design and build education that develops the ability to learn independently.

Scheme of individual examination of children of primary school age

The published scheme of individual psychological consultation was developed by Alexander Leonidovich Wenger during many years of practical work and is outlined in his lectures for novice psychologists-consultants.

This brochure was prepared in the laboratory of student personality development at the VNIK “School” on the basis of tape recordings of lectures by A.L. Wenger and a number of his written materials.

Perception and learning (preschool age)

How does a child perceive the world around him? What determines the completeness and accuracy of its perception? How does it change with age?

These questions have long worried psychologists and educators. Studying the development of perception in children is key to understanding the mechanisms of perception in adults.

The book examines the patterns of development of perception in children of early and preschool age, provides a psychological assessment of various methods of developing perception, previously used and currently used in preschool pedagogy.