From the author: I offer material for conversations with parents of future and current first-graders. Adaptation to school is the process of getting used to new school conditions, which every first grader experiences and understands in his own way. Most first-graders come to school from kindergarten. There were games, walks, a quiet routine, naps during the day, and a teacher was always nearby. The current first-graders were the oldest children there! At school, everything is different: here there is work in a rather intense mode and a new strict system of requirements. It takes time and effort to adapt to them. The period of adaptation of a child to school lasts from 2-3 weeks to six months. This depends on many factors: the individual characteristics of the child, the type of educational institution, the level of complexity of educational programs, the degree of readiness of the child for school, etc. The support of relatives is very important - mom, dad, grandparents. The first-grader likes school, he goes there with pleasure, and willingly talks about his successes and failures. At the same time, he understands that the main purpose of his stay at school is learning, and not excursions into nature and not watching hamsters in a living corner (this is ideal, but some children, even after finishing 1st grade, do not realize their main mission in school). A first-grader does not get too tired: he is active, cheerful, curious, rarely gets colds, and sleeps well. A first-grader is quite independent: he has no problems changing clothes for physical education (he easily ties his shoelaces, fastens buttons), confidently navigates the school building (he can buy a bun in the cafeteria, go to the toilet), and, if necessary, will be able to turn to an adult for help. He made friends and classmates, and you know their names. He likes his teacher and most of the extracurricular teachers in the class. To the question: “Maybe it’s better to go back to kindergarten?” he answers decisively: “No!” A child coming to school for the first time will be greeted by a new group of children and adults. He needs to establish contacts with peers and teachers, learn to fulfill the requirements of school discipline, and new responsibilities associated with academic work. Experience shows that not all children are ready for this. Some first-graders, even with a high level of intellectual development, find it difficult to bear the workload that schooling requires. Psychologists point out that for many first-graders, and especially six-year-olds, social adaptation is difficult, since a personality capable of obeying the school regime, mastering school norms of behavior, and recognizing school responsibilities has not yet been formed. The year separating a six-year-old child from a seven-year-old is very important for mental development, because during this period the child develops voluntary regulation of his behavior, orientation towards social norms and requirements. At this time, a new type of mental activity is formed - “I am a schoolboy.” As already mentioned, the initial period of education is quite difficult for all children entering school. In response to the new increased demands on the body of a first-grader in the first weeks and months of school, children may complain of fatigue, headaches, irritability, tearfulness, and sleep disturbances. Children's appetite and body weight decrease. There are also difficulties of a psychological nature, such as, for example, a feeling of fear, a negative attitude towards school, the teacher, and a misconception about one’s abilities and capabilities. The changes described above in the body of a first-grader associated with the start of school are called by some foreign scientists “adaptation disease”, “school shock”, “school stress”. According to the degree of adaptation, children can be divided into three groups. The first group of children adapts during the first two months of training. These children relatively quickly join the team, get used to school, and make new friends. They almost always haveThey are in a good mood, they are calm, friendly, conscientious and fulfill all the teacher’s demands without visible tension. Sometimes they still have difficulties either in contacts with children or in relationships with the teacher, since it is still difficult for them to fulfill all the requirements of the rules of behavior. But by the end of October, the difficulties of these children, as a rule, are overcome, the child is completely accustomed to the new status of a student, and with the new requirements, and with the new regime. The second group of children has a longer period of adaptation; the period of non-compliance of their behavior with the requirements of the school is prolonged. Children cannot accept a new learning situation, communication with the teacher, children. Such schoolchildren can play in class, sort things out with a friend, they do not respond to the teacher’s comments or react with tears or resentment. As a rule, these children also experience difficulties in mastering the curriculum; only by the end of the first half of the year do these children’s reactions become adequate to the requirements of the school and teacher. The third group are children whose socio-psychological adaptation is associated with significant difficulties. They exhibit negative forms of behavior, sharp manifestations of negative emotions, and have great difficulty in mastering educational programs. It is these children that teachers most often complain about: they “disturb” their work in the classroom. What difficulties do parents and teachers face in the first year of their children’s education, what are their main complaints? 1. Chronic failure. In practice, there are often cases when difficulties in a child’s adaptation to school are associated with the parents’ ATTITUDE towards school life and the child’s school performance. This, on the one hand, is the parents’ fear of school, the fear that the child will feel bad at school. This is often heard in the speech of parents: “If it were up to me, I would never send him to school.” Fears that the child will be sick or catch a cold. On the other hand, this is the expectation from the child only of very good, high achievements and active demonstration to him dissatisfaction with the fact that he cannot cope, that he cannot do something. During the period of initial education, a change occurs in the attitude of adults towards children, towards their successes and failures. A child who studies successfully, knows a lot, easily solves problems and is considered “good”. copes with educational tasks. Parents who did not expect this react negatively to the difficulties that are inevitable at the beginning of learning (verbally or non-verbally). Under the influence of such assessments, the child’s self-confidence decreases, anxiety increases, which leads to deterioration and disorganization of activity. This leads to failure. , failure increases anxiety, which again disorganizes his activities. The child learns new material and skills worse, and, as a result, failures are reinforced, bad grades appear, which again cause dissatisfaction with the parents, and so on, the further, the more, and break this. the vicious circle becomes increasingly difficult. Failure becomes chronic. 2. Withdrawal from activities. This is when a child sits in class and at the same time seems to be absent, does not hear questions, does not complete the teacher’s assignments. This is not associated with the child’s increased distractibility to foreign objects and activities. This is withdrawal into oneself, into one’s inner world, fantasies. This often happens to children who do not receive enough attention, love and care from parents and adults (often in dysfunctional families). 3. Negativistic demonstrativeness. Characteristic of children with a high need for attention from others and adults. Here there will be complaints not about poor academic performance, but about the child’s behavior. He violates general rules of discipline. Adults punish, but in a paradoxical way: those forms of treatment that adults use to punish turn out to be encouragement for the child. The true punishment is deprivation of attention. Attention in any form is an unconditional value for a child, who is deprived of parental affection, love, understanding, and acceptance. 4. Verbalism. Children developing according to this type are characterized by a high level of speech development and delayed thinking. Verbalism is formed inpreschool age and is primarily associated with the development of cognitive processes. Many parents believe that speech is an important indicator of mental development and make great efforts to ensure that the child learns to speak fluently and smoothly (poems, fairy tales, etc.). The same types of activities that make the main contribution to mental development (the development of abstract, logical, practical thinking - these are role-playing games, drawing, designing) appear in the background. Thinking, especially figurative thinking, lags behind. Brisk speech and clear answers to questions attract the attention of adults who highly value the child. Verbalism, as a rule, is associated with a child’s high self-esteem and adults’ overestimation of his abilities. When school begins, it becomes clear that the child is unable to solve problems, and some activities that require imaginative thinking cause difficulties. Not understanding what the reason is, parents are prone to double extremes: 1) blame the teacher; 2) blame the child (increase demands, force them to study more, show dissatisfaction with the child, which, in turn, causes insecurity, anxiety, activities are disorganized, fear of school and parents increases for their failure, inferiority, and then the path to chronic lack of success. It is necessary: ​​to pay more attention to the development of imaginative thinking: drawings, design, modeling, appliqué, mosaics. The main tactic is to maintain the flow of speech and stimulate productive activity. 5. The child is lazy" - These are very common complaints. Anything can be behind this. whatever. 1) reduced need for cognitive motives; 2) motivation to avoid failure, failure (“and I won’t do it, I won’t succeed, I don’t know how”), that is, the child refuses to do something because he is not confident of success and knows that for a bad assessment, he will not be praised for his work, but will once again be accused of incompetence; 3) a general slowness in the pace of activity associated with his temperament. The child works conscientiously, but slowly, and it seems to the parents that he is “too lazy to move,” they begin to urge him on, get irritated, show dissatisfaction, and at this time the child feels that he is not needed, that he is bad. Anxiety arises, which disorganizes activities. 4) High anxiety as a global problem of self-doubt is also sometimes regarded by parents as laziness. The child does not write a phrase, an example, because... I’m not at all sure how and what to write. He begins to shirk any action if he is not convinced that he is doing the right thing, well, because he already knows that his parents will love him if he does everything well, and if not, then he will not receive the “portion” of love he needs. Less common is laziness in the proper sense, when a child does only what pleases him. This is spoiling. How can I help my child adapt to school? The most important result of such assistance is to restore the child’s positive attitude towards life, including daily school activities, towards all persons involved in the educational process (child - parents - teachers). When learning brings children joy or at least does not cause negative experiences associated with the awareness of oneself as inferior, lacking love, then school is not a problem. A child starting school needs moral and emotional support. He should not just be praised (and scolded less, or better not scolded at all), but praised precisely when he does something. But: 1) under no circumstances compare his mediocre results with the standard, that is, with the requirements of the school curriculum, the achievements of other, more successful students. It is better to never compare your child with other children (remember your childhood). 2) You can compare a child only with himself and praise him only for one thing: improving his own results. If he made 3 mistakes in yesterday’s homework, and 2 in today’s homework, this should be noted as a real success, which!