Current problems in elementary school. School difficulties of ordinary children: problems and solutions

Preparing homework

The basic practice when we were growing up was the same: “You will do your homework yourself, and if you have difficulties, you will ask me, and I will help you.” Now the entire education system in primary school is designed for parents to do homework with their child.

And here there is a certain dilemma: how to ensure that the child successfully masters the school curriculum, despite the fact that:

• The programs have changed a lot - even in Russian, mathematics and reading.
• The initial level of knowledge of first-graders has changed greatly - many schools are expecting children who can already read.
• Teaching a foreign language begins in grades 1–2, the programs are designed so that an adult will help the child master them, but most of us started learning the language in grades 4–5.
• In Russia, the number of unemployed mothers who are ready to devote all their time to a child who has become a schoolchild has sharply increased, as a result of which the level of independence of children has decreased. No one walks around with a key around their neck and warms up their own lunch.

In my opinion, these changes are:

• They are inconvenient for parents, as they make them directly responsible for their children’s educational success.
• In the long term, the relationship between children and parents is very adversely affected.
• Decreased independence in learning in primary school slows down the volitional maturation of children, reduces motivation to learn, up to a complete reluctance to learn and the inability to do it on their own - without parental urging and mother sitting next to them.

Now, at the first parent-teacher meetings in first grade, teachers directly warn parents that they will now have to study with their children.

Teachers, by default, assume that you will be responsible for the quality and quantity of homework throughout elementary school. If previously the teacher’s task was to teach, now the teacher’s task is to give tasks, and the parents’ task (presumably) is to complete these tasks.

Foreign language programs are generally designed in such a way that a child, in principle, cannot do them without an adult. Rudely: “I don’t understand - I’m a fool myself.” I explain the material, and if the child doesn’t understand, then either go to additional classes, or the parents will explain.” You need to be prepared for such a situation.

This means that parents must sit down and do homework with a first-grader, a second-grader, a third-grader, a fourth-grader. But now maturation begins quite early, and already at 9–10 years old one can observe all the symptoms of adolescence. By the 5th–6th grade, this opportunity to sit and do homework with your child will disappear. This situation will become impossible, and after four years the child will get used to the fact that the mother is responsible for the lessons, and he himself cannot and does not know how to take on this responsibility.

You can, at the cost of losing the relationship, continue to force him until he is 14–15 years old, as long as you have enough strength. The conflict will be postponed for several years, and the child will still be unable to take responsibility for his assignments. At the age of 14–15, the protest will already be very strong - and with a break in relations.

There are indicators that children who were almost excellent students in elementary school, because their mother and father did everything for them, sharply decline in their studies in middle school, because they are no longer ready to accept help, and they lack the ability to learn.

This system, imposed by many elementary school teachers, is for the child to do everything perfectly at home, that is, with the help of his parents.

If the child is behind, the teacher can present a complaint to the parents: you are not paying attention! Only old, experienced teachers adhere to the classical system - so that the child does everything himself, even with mistakes, and they themselves are ready to teach and correct.

“How are we doing?”

Formation of the correct educational stereotype

You need to understand what kind of teacher you will be dealing with and what his position is. And, depending on the rigidity of this position, bend the line of independence.

The most important things that can be taught to a child in elementary school are responsibility, the ability to work, and the ability to take a task as their own.

At first, if you are moving towards developing academic independence, your academic performance will be lower. Lack of independence is especially acute in only children in the family, and here you need to be especially careful.

The child writes his first hooks - and is immediately subjected to pressure from his parents: “I put my pen in the wrong place! You're making fun of us! You will be a janitor! The child's level of motivation is low - the parents' level of motivation is off the charts.

And at school the teacher says: “Why can’t the child connect the letters?” You don’t come to the teacher, but he forces you to study with your child. Having explained the material at school, he assumes that you will study regularly and get advice on what and how to do. And a stable lexical connection is formed: “How are we doing?”, which speaks of the ongoing symbiosis of mother and child. Then, in the 9th grade, the child says: “I don’t know who I want to be,” - he didn’t have a sense of himself in school.

If a child is always insured, he will not learn to do anything on his own; he knows that “mom will think of something”, that in any situation the parents will find a way out.

But parents often have fear: “Won’t teaching independence result in a confrontation between the child and the teacher, with the system?”

At first there may be delays, but then the child achieves success. There is an initial loss, but this loss does not occur in grades 4–5. If during this period the academic performance of artificially excellent students drops sharply, then the academic performance of such children increases sharply.

There are children who still need help. These are children who are chronically absent-minded, the child is “not here” in his thoughts (albeit within the norm).

These children need a little more help. If a child, in principle, has the ability to self-organize, they need to be included. The question with lessons is very simple: either he will take responsibility for them, or he will not.

The picture emerges quite early, even from the “preparation”. It is better to create conditions for the emergence of independence, and it is necessary to form the correct educational stereotype associated with the lessons.

School characters

If there are many teachers

It is easier for a child to get used to one teacher who teaches several subjects. If the teachers are different, you need to help the child figure out “what is the name of which aunt.” Aunts are different, they have patronymics, but first-graders have a hard time understanding patronymics - it’s hard to remember, it’s not easy to pronounce.

Here we may need some kind of home training: we cut out a figurine of aunt so-and-so - she teaches mathematics, her name is so-and-so.

It is also worth helping your child learn the first and last names of his classmates. Until the child knows the names of his classmates and teachers, he feels uncomfortable.

Focusing on the child’s abilities, helping to remember “school characters” - children and adults - is an important parental task.

Daily worries

The student needs help organizing the learning process

If in your family there are children's household responsibilities, if you have at least some semblance of a routine or rhythm of life, there is some kind of daily chain of events that repeats (we get up at about the same time, go to bed at the same time) - the child will It’s easier to get used to the school rhythm.

Household responsibilities teach you to take on daily responsibility. And flowers and pets are very good here, taking out the trash is something that needs to be done regularly. Flowers visibly wither, cats meow and ask for a drink, and the trash can cannot be used. Adults should not “save” the child and not perform duties in his place.

By the time a child gets to school, he should have regular responsibilities, what he does daily: brushes teeth, makes bed, folds clothes. Against this background, other daily responsibilities - school ones - are added to household responsibilities.

It is useful for the student:

1. Be able to collect things for classes in sections and fold your briefcase yourself. You need to start doing this a year before school - at least. Boys are generally worse at this than girls. At first, the child will do this with your help, with a sequence prompt. While your child is not reading, you can hang a drawn list of what should be in the briefcase on the wall. If a child has forgotten something, there is no need to correct him: let him find himself with the missing item once, but he will be able to remember it.
2. If you know that your child will still forget something at home, you can help him check portfolio. “Let's check if you've collected everything. Show me if everything is in the briefcase.”
3. Know where clothes and shoes for school are. He must evaluate whether the clothes are clean or dirty, and put the dirty ones in dirty linen. Here, too, responsibility is formed: there is nothing difficult, check your clothes for stains.
4. "Children's time management": not only pack your briefcase, but also get ready for class on time. This is a basic skill, without which starting school is very difficult. This skill, which will become a stepping stone to the next one, also needs to be developed not in 1st grade, but in the year before it, when classes are quite relaxed and not in the morning.
5. Know what days what preparation takes place. It's good to use calendars for this. You can write under the days what activities are on that day, coloring them in different colors so that the child knows what exactly needs to be collected.

If you did not have time to give your child all these skills before school, do the same in 1st grade.

How to do homework

School time management

There must be a certain time to do homework. We need a daily schedule: get up, wash, get dressed - the outline of the day, and allocated time - do homework.

It’s easier for a child when everything is rhythmic. A dynamic stereotype arises (according to Pavlov) - a system of reaction to time: the child prepares in advance to move on to the next action.

This system is easier for about 85% of children who are classified as “rhythmic.” There are 15% rhythmless, with a chaotic temporary structure. They are visible from infancy, and they remain like this even at school.

After school there should be an hour of rest (this rule should be observed), and then there may be lesson time.

You can show your child his father’s and mother’s schedule in a weekly, diary, and then write his schedule, explaining that this happens to people, and this is an attribute of adulthood. Everything that is an attribute of adulthood is preferable.

One of the diseases of our time is lessons stretched out over an inordinate amount of time. This means that people did not take simple actions to help both the child and themselves.

1. You need to know that a child does not feel time. A 6-7 year old child does not feel time the way adults do; he does not know how much has passed.
2. The longer a child sits at lessons, the lower his efficiency.

The norm for doing homework for a first grader is: 40 minutes - 1 hour;
2nd grade - 1 hour - 1.5 hours;
3–4 grades - 1.5 - 2 hours (not 5 hours);
By grades 5–6, this norm goes to 2–3 hours.

but more than 3.5 hours should not be spent on lessons.

If a child takes longer to do his homework, then he has not been taught how to work, or he is a chronic “slower,” and they especially need to be taught how to work. The child does not feel time, and parents should help him feel time.

The adequate period for doing homework for a first grader is 20–25 minutes, for preparatory work it is even less - 15 minutes, for children who are exhausted - maybe even less.

But if you sit your child down for longer than necessary, you are simply wasting time - both yours and his. You don’t have to help with homework, but it’s still worthwhile with “time management.”

In order to feel the time, there are different ways to help your child. For example, different types of timers:

• there may be an hourglass (not suitable for dreamers - dreamers will watch the sand pour in);
• there may be electronic devices that beep after a certain time;
• sports watches that have a stopwatch, timer, and programmed signals;
• kitchen timers;
• The sound of a school bell recorded on a phone.

When preparing your homework, you need to make a plan for completing it. Usually they start with a lesson that comes quite easily. The written assignments are done first, and then the oral ones. You start with what is easier; the child is working out - break.

In order for a child to work actively, a change in activities is needed, a break: ran into the kitchen, squeezed the juice with you and drank it; I buttered my sandwich; ran around the table five times; I did a few exercises and switched gears.

But The child’s workplace is not in the kitchen. He must have a specific place, and he can come to the kitchen during his “break.” It is necessary to teach the student to keep the workplace in order. Good ecology of the educational place is a very important matter. There should be a place for toys, a place to sleep, and a place for activities can be organized even from 4 years old.

You agree in advance that if the child does his homework in the allotted hour, then you will then have time to do a lot of things: read a book, play a board game, draw, make something, watch your favorite movie, take a walk - whatever you like. It should be interesting and beneficial for the child to do his homework during this time.

It is preferable to do homework before it gets dark. After school, rest. Do not leave lessons until after clubs until you have developed a skill. In order to have time for extra classes (swimming pool, dancing), you need to learn how to do homework quickly and efficiently. If you do this, there will be no stretching for the rest of the day.

If the evening is endless, and homework can be done until lights out, then a “donkey” situation arises: he got up, stubbornly, doesn’t expect anything good, don’t scold him much - you don’t have to do it. Usually children realize that they can’t spend the whole day on this boring mission, but that there is something else in life. It is important that life does not end with going to school: the first part of the day is classes, and the second is homework until the night, and the child is used to it all being smeared like semolina on a plate, and cannot think of anything else. Usually time boundaries and good consequences work great.

The final consequences need to be changed periodically: replace board games with listening to a fairy tale or something else pleasant. In the daily schedule, lessons come first, and then free time, that is, your own life begins, and there is no need to mix it with lessons.

Lessons with enthusiasm?

What is homework? A continuation of what happened at school or a separate matter at home?

Psychologically, this is training a skill: they explained it in class, and practiced it themselves at home. If there is no strong failure, then it is better to treat this as something after which life begins. There is no need to expect enthusiasm from a child (although there are some children who are potential excellent students). We need to teach you to treat lessons as an intermediate stage, even fun - you worked hard, and then there will be joy. If another stereotype has not formed (lessons until late with tears and swearing), then this is enough.

Tasks cannot be duplicated (adding more than what is given) - they must be small so that the desire to learn is maintained, so that the child does not overwork. All “over-” are much more dangerous than “under-”.

Usually the child is able to hold himself at the table for 15–20 minutes, and the skill of doing homework at a pace arises. If a child does not keep up in the allotted time, and the mother sits over him, catches him and forces him to continue, then the student receives a negative experience. Our task is not to torment the child, but to let him understand that he missed something.

If a child was faced with time restrictions before school - in some classes, got ready on his own or was engaged in some specific activity within a clearly allocated time frame, then he has already developed some skill.

Facing these complex time skills for the first time in 1st grade can be a big challenge. It’s better to start with “preparation”, and even better from 5 - 5.5 years.

If assignments are not assigned at school, then you still need to invite the child to do a certain amount of assignments in a certain amount of time on his own.

Parents themselves also do not need to show excessive enthusiasm and sit over their heads. We are all very worried about our child's success, and the reaction to mistakes can be turbulent - and relationships deteriorate.

You need to be prepared that not everything will be perfect, that there will be mistakes, but gradually there will be fewer of them.

The lack of grades in 1st grade is encouraging. While the skills of doing homework are being developed, the child picks up on his own, in the 2nd grade he turns on, and the grading system immediately puts everything in its place. We must allow ourselves to make mistakes. Perfect expectations that everything will be “excellent” right away must be restrained.

Wherein need a lot of praise When the child took on independence, he tried to praise him for what he did himself. Praise not the result, but the effort. From any parent, strictness towards school success is perceived as a blow to self-esteem. In middle school, a child already understands that if a parent scolds, then he means well. A junior schoolchild perceives criticism as a blow: “I’m trying, but here you are saying something against...”. Focus on effort.

It’s good if the teacher is also inclined to evaluate effort rather than success. But, unfortunately, many teachers believe that reprimand is the best way to promote a person to greater success.

Special situations

1. It is especially difficult if a child immediately begins to speak English in 1st grade.

If you choose such a school, it is better to start English a year before school. This is a very heavy load - mastering two written languages ​​and two grammars at the same time. You definitely need help with preparing your English homework. It is advisable to have a tutor or teacher. If a parent wants to teach the child himself, then he should try to maintain a good-natured mood, not get angry, and if this is not to the detriment of the family as a whole. But it’s better not to replace yourself as a teacher.

2. If there are a lot of questions at school, and the child does not understand what to do? Should I help him?

It is advisable to avoid such a situation. It’s better not to do homework with a child, but still keep an eye on what’s happening: “Tell me what happened at school, what did you study? How do you solve problems? This situation is possible if you went to a stronger school than you were shown. Usually a normal child without any special needs at a school of his level understands everything, although he may overhear and babble. Use the help of a teacher and take extra classes at school. Teach your child that the teacher gives knowledge, and if you don’t understand, you need to ask him. In situations of misunderstanding, you need to deal with it specifically: talk to the child, to the teacher. Usually, after preschool training, the child has already developed the ability to hear and perceive in a group.

3. In 1st grade, the child is still poorly able to read the assignment.

Decide that he still reads the task first, then you read it. This won't happen in 2nd grade. In 1st grade, explain that for now you are writing down the assignment because he doesn’t know how to write well, but later you won’t do it. Set time limits on how long this situation will last.

4. The child makes a lot of mistakes when doing his homework, and teachers demand excellent finishing.

Checking homework is still necessary, but if you hand in tasks that you have completed perfectly, teachers will not understand that the child is lacking in something.

Your position depends on the sanity of the teacher. If the teacher is sane, then you can explain to him that you are for independence, for the opportunity to make mistakes. This question can be raised directly at the parent meeting.

If, when checking, you see that everything was done wrong, then next time do it with a pencil, find the most beautiful letter and focus on it. Let the child do the tasks himself on a rough draft and bring them to you to check if he wants. If he refuses, then it will be his mistake. As much as he can do it himself, let him do it, let him make mistakes.

If you can bring it to the teacher with an error, rejoice. But you can’t argue against the education system. If there is failure in all subjects, then it is better to hire a teacher than to spoil the relationship with the teacher.

The role of a mother is support, care, acceptance. The role of the teacher is control, rigor, discipline. The child perceives all teaching qualities from the mother as offensive, especially in the first two grades, while the student’s position is being formed. He does not perceive correction as correction, but thinks that you are scolding him.

Primary school - learning to learn

Three Factors for Success in Primary School

The main task of a child in elementary school is to learn to learn. He needs to understand that this is his job, for which he is responsible.

Good first teacher- winning lottery ticket. The authority of the first teacher is a very important point. At some stage, his teacher’s authority may be higher than his parents’. He (the authority) greatly helps the child in his studies. If a teacher does something negative: plays favorites, is rude, unfair, parents need to talk to the child and explain so that the student does not lose respect for the teacher.

The key to raising a child is your personal memories. As your child approaches school, it's time to jog your memories. Everyone probably has them; everyone has kept them since they were 5.5–6 years old. It’s useful to ask your parents and find your notebooks.

When sending your child to school, you must tell him: “If something bright, interesting and unusual happens to you or someone else at school, be sure to tell me - I’m very interested in it.” As an example, you can tell him stories from the family archive - stories of grandparents, parents.

Negative experiences and memories can be held back and not projected onto the child. But there is also no need to idealize the school; if you do not intimidate, but explain, then you can usefully share your negative experience.

Relationships with classmates are extremely important. Nowadays, children often study far from school, and after school they are immediately dismantled and taken away. Contacts are not made. Parents need to make contacts with children from the class, go for walks together, and invite them home.

Faktrum wishes success to you and your children!

ADHD is detected when a child's behavior differs from the behavior of other children of the same age and development level over a sufficiently long period of time. These behavioral features appear before the age of 7 years, and subsequently they manifest themselves in various social situations.Kindergarten makes it possible, at a very young age, to accustom a child with ADHD to the same rules: a clear daily routine, mandatory morning developmental classes and rules of behavior during them, which is very important for school.

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Corrective games and exercises with the child,

with learning difficulties

Despite the beginning of a completely different - school life, play activity continues to be the leading one in the child’s life even at school.

The proposed selection of games and exercises is aimed at developing the thinking and memory processes of elementary school students with learning difficulties.

Such children are often said to be “uncontrollable” or “can’t hear anything.” A child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is truly impossible to miss. The first is impulsiveness. . Children with ADHD almost always speak out and do things without thinking about their consequences. Impulsivity prevents them from observing etiquette standards of communication (they almost always talk a lot, but it seems that they don’t know how to listen, they always interrupt others, they often answer questions without listening to them completely.) This always creates additional difficulties at school, where There are strict rules of student behavior towards the teacher.

The second is impatience, which interferes with the teacher during the lesson. Children have difficulty waiting their turn in a game or when answering. They try with all their might to evade boring and annoying tasks that require extreme concentration (cheating, solving monotonous mathematical examples, etc.).

The third is excitability. Children with ADHD are constantly on the move and find it physically difficult to sit through an entire lesson. The child spins around in his chair, tries to get up and walk around the class, run to the blackboard, forgetting about the rules of conduct in class.

Games for the development of auditory and speech memory

1. “Pairs of words”

Target:

Invite your child to memorize several words by presenting each of them paired with another word. For example, you name the pairs “cat - milk”, “boy - car”, “table - pie” and ask you to remember the second words from each pair. Then you name the first word of the pair, and the child must remember and name the second word. The task can be gradually complicated by increasing the number of pairs of words and selecting words with distant semantic connections into pairs.

2. “Restore the missing word.”

Target: development of auditory perception, auditory-speech memory, memory capacity.

The child is read 5-7 words that are not related to each other in meaning: cow, table, wall, letter, flower, bag, head. Then the row is read again with one of the words missing. He must name the missing word.Task option:when reading again, replace one word with another (from the same semantic field, for example, cow - calf; similar in sound, for example, table - groan); the child must find the mistake.

4. “Fish, Bird, Beast”

Target: development of auditory perception, auditory-speech memory, memory capacity, development of mental operations.

The leader (at first it must be an adult) points to each player in turn and says: “Fish, bird, beast, fish, bird...” The player on whom the counting stops must quickly (while the leader counts to three) name in in this case, a bird. If the answer is correct, the leader continues the game; if the answer is incorrect, the child drops out of the game. Names should not be repeated. This game can be played in different ways, whenChildren name, for example, flowers, trees and fruits, furniture and names.

5. “Repeat and continue.”

Target: development of auditory perception, auditory-speech memory, memory capacity, development of mental operations, enrichment and activation of vocabulary.

The child names a word. The next participant in the game repeats this word and adds a new one. Thus, each participant repeats the entire previous row, adding a new word at the end.

Game options : compiling rows of words from one general group (for example, berries, fruits, animals, furniture, dishes, etc.); from definitions to a noun (for example: “What kind of watermelon?” Answers: “Green, striped, juicy, sweet, big, round, ripe, heavy, tasty”, etc.). More difficult is the task of composing a coherent story, when each of the participants, repeating previous sentences, adds his own.

6. “Remember the right words.”

Target: development of auditory perception, auditory-speech memory, memory capacity.

From the proposed phrases (stories), the child remembers only those words that mean: weather conditions, transport, plants, etc.

I'll read a short story. And you need to remember all the birds.

“I walk quietly along the path. I watch life in the forest. A squirrel jumped from tree to tree. Orioles circled over the spruce. A woodpecker was knocking on the bark of a pine tree. There is an owl's nest in a hollow oak tree."

7. “Repeat and continue.”

Target: development of auditory perception, auditory-speech memory, memory capacity.

One child says a word, the next one repeats this word and adds his own, etc.

8. “Pictograms”

Target: development of auditory perception, auditory-speech memory, memory capacity, development of mental operations, development of coherent speech utterance.

The text is read to the children. In order to remember it, they must somehow depict (draw) each semantic fragment. Based on the sketches, the children take turns reproducing the story.

Games to develop visual memory

1. “Invisibility hat”

Target:

Within three seconds, you need to remember all the objects collected under the hat, which rises during this time, and then list them.

2 . "Remember and find"

Target: development of visual perception, expansion of short-term visual memory.

Prepare tables depicting objects of geometric shapes. Show your child for 4-5 seconds. a card with objects and ask them to remember them so that they can then find them among others at the bottom of the table. The same goes for geometric shapes.

3. “Remember the figures”

Target: development of visual perception, expansion of short-term visual memory.

Prepare a set of cards with different images. Explain to your child that in order to remember the material well, you can use a technique such as classification, that is, grouping similar objects into groups. For example, in order to remember a number of geometric shapes, they must be divided into groups. The form may depict triangles, circles, squares, crossed out in different ways. Thus, these figures can be divided into groups depending on their shape and/or size.

5. Exercise to find given words (letters) in the text

Target: formation of the ability to perceive holistic visual images of words and rely on them in the search task, development of visual memory.

One or three words (letters) are visually specified, which the child must find in the text as quickly as possible. It is advisable that these words appear several times in the text. Having found them, the child can underline them, cross them out or circle them.

6. "What's missing?"

Target: development of visual perception, expansion of short-term visual memory.

3-6 any objects or thematic pictures that the child must remember are laid out on the table. Then the child closes his eyes and the speech therapist removes one object or picture. The child names what is missing. The game gradually becomes more complicated - 2-3 objects or pictures are removed or replaced with others.

7. "Naughty" Goal: development of visual perception, expansion of the volume of short-term visual memory, development of the ability to reproduce graphic objects from memory.

The teacher writes on the board various lines (continuous, dotted, wavy), images (letters, numbers, shapes), words, phrases or sentences of 3-5 words. The “naughty” sponge erases what he has written almost after him. The child must reproduce from memory what is written on the board in his notebook.

8. Exercise on drawing figures

Target: development of visual perception, expansion of the volume of short-term visual memory, development of the ability to reproduce graphic objects according to a model and after short-term exposure from memory.

The child receives pictures with figures as stimulus material. The adult gives the child instructions to remember the arrangement of the figures and reproduce it in the empty squares.

To begin with, this exercise can be carried out based on stimulus material. With a more complex version, the exposure time of the picture is 20-30 seconds, after which the picture is closed and the child reproduces the arrangement of the figures from memory.

9. Exercise "Copying without spaces"

Target: development of visual memory, development of attention.

The child is asked to copy short texts into his notebook. In the visual example, the texts are given without spaces, for example:

Autumn has come. It rains often. Birds fly away.

Winter has come. Fluffy snow has fallen. The rivers have frozen. What a beautiful winter.

The child must write the texts in the notebook correctly - with spaces.

10. "What has changed"

Target: development of visual memory, perception, analysis and synthesis.

A poster with geometric shapes is fixed on the board. The row of figures is covered by a frame with a window in which only one figure is visible.

Look at the first figure. What is the name of this geometric figure? What color is it? Now look at the next figure (the frame moves to the right). How is it different from the previous one? What has changed (shape, color, size)? What has changed in the third figure?

11. Exercise "Insert the missing words"

Target: development of visual memory, attention and text processing skills.

The child reads a short text once.

For example: How long or short did the prince walk along the path, and finally he saw a small lopsided hut on chicken legs.

After this, the child is given the same text, but with missing words.

For example: How long or short did the prince walk along the path, and finally he _____________ a small lopsided _____________ on chicken legs.

The child must insert the missing words into the text from memory.

Just an hour ago I read the article, if you’re interested, take a look, maybe you’ll find answers to your questions.

Hidden text

6 TYPICAL PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Ekaterina Burmistrova spoke about what happens to children in primary school and how to solve the difficulties that they may have from 1st to 4th grade.

– What are the typical problems of younger schoolchildren?

– If we are talking about urban schoolchildren, then the first and main problem is a learned ININDEPENDENCE, an unformed planning unit. In short, this is called “academic lack of independence that spoils relationships.”

-Where does it come from?

– There are several reasons that lead to the fact that a child cannot do homework on his own, and therefore parents have to sit with him during lessons, which greatly spoils the relationship between parent and child. Now nothing sets up either the parent or the child to develop independence. It does not arise by gravity.

Firstly, the school curriculum makes a significant contribution to this - it is often oversaturated and adjusted not to the age of the children and their abilities, but to the ambitions of the educational institution.

When you and I were studying, it never occurred to anyone to sit with the child during lessons, except in cases of transfer to another stronger school or admission somewhere. Everything was arranged in such a way that the program could be handled. But now everything is arranged in such a way that the program can only be dealt with if everyone listens to it. And I’m talking about ordinary children without educational abilities, without dysgraphia, without attention disorders, without vegetative disorders.

Secondly, not only has the program changed in terms of capacity, but the approach of teachers has changed. Last year, in one of the strong Moscow schools, only one first-grade teacher out of four told parents: “Don’t even try to help the children do their homework, they came to learn on their own,” all the rest said: “Parents, you have entered first grade. In mathematics we have such and such a program, in Russian - such and such, in this quarter we study addition, in the next - subtraction...” And this, too, of course, creates educational independence.

Today, the school shifts some of the responsibility onto the parents, and it is believed that there is some advantage in this. In addition, teachers are terribly nervous about the Federal State Educational Standards and other things. They do not have the task of developing this educational independence - they have many other tasks and difficulties: these are large classes, and huge reporting... The generation of teachers, determined to develop independence, is leaving the working arena.

Another factor contributing to the deterioration of the situation in primary schools is that, following significant changes in education, the number of students per class has increased everywhere. It makes a huge difference for a teacher to teach 25 children in the first grade or 32 or even 40. This greatly affects the way the teacher works. Therefore, one of the serious problems of primary schools is large classes and the accompanying changes in the way teachers work, and as a result, more frequent teacher burnout.

– What contribution do parents make to the formation of lack of independence?

– First of all, parents now have a lot of free time. Today, often, if a family can afford for the mother not to work, she sits with the child throughout elementary school. And sharing homework is partly inspired by the fact that adults now have more free time than before. This is not to say that this is bad - this time can be spent on something wonderful, but it is often spent on lessons, and because of this, relationships do not improve.

– What other reasons are there?

Another one is that we raise tadpoles. We place great emphasis on the development of intellectual abilities. This is facilitated by the large volume of various offers, especially in Moscow, you can choose so many things - just have time to carry them. And as a result, we load children more than necessary. This is a general tendency, and it does not manifest itself on a conscious level - everyone does it.

– What are the symptoms that a child suffers from learning disability?

– The child does not remember what he was given. And all the conditions have been created for this: the paper diary is a thing of the past - we now have teacher blogs, parent chats, groups, electronic diaries, where all this is posted.

The child does not remember that he needs to sit down for his lessons on time. Often the reason is that everything is so tight in his schedule that right after school he goes somewhere, and then somewhere else, and when he gets home, he is simply not able to remember anything.

Only very mature children are able to remember their lessons at 7-8 pm, so parents have to remind them. And this is a classic sign of school independence. A self-sufficient person must take a task, remember that he must do it, and plan a time when it will be done. In the first grade, this skill is just being formed, but by the second or third grade it should already be there. But it does not arise by gravity, and in a modern school nothing and no one shapes it.

The child is basically not trained to be responsible for his time. He is never alone - we take him everywhere. Now no one has a key around their neck - we lead him everywhere by the hand, drive him in the car. If he is late for school, then it is not he who is late, but his mother who is stuck in traffic. He can't plan what time to go out and how long it takes to do something because he just doesn't need to learn it.

– How to treat all this?

– Treatment is painful, no one likes these recommendations, and usually people go to psychologists when they have already reached the limit, they have brought the relationship to such a state that doing homework together turns into hours of agony. Before this, parents are not ready to listen to any recommendations from specialists. And the recommendations are as follows: you need to survive the downward spiral, a serious decline in academic performance, and teach the child to feel responsible for his time and lessons.

– Roughly speaking, you stop controlling the process of leaving the house, reminding him to do his homework, and sit with him during lessons, and courageously endure the temporary wave of bad grades?

– In short, yes. It is advisable to explain to the teacher that you will have this downward dive, but not every teacher can agree on this: one teacher out of ten is able to treat this process with understanding.

The problem is that in elementary school the child is still small, and you can practically force him to sit down for his lessons and hold him back. Difficulties often begin later, in the 6th-7th grade, when he is already a big person, sometimes taller than mom and dad, who already has other interests, puberty things begin and it turns out that he does not know how to manage time at all and is no longer ready to listen to you . He wants independence, but is completely incapable of it.

I exaggerate, and it doesn’t always come to sharp confrontation with my parents, but quite often. While parents can, they hold him, control him, guide him. As they say, the main thing is to bring the child to retirement.

– What other problems do elementary school children have?

– A problem associated with lack of independence is the OVERLOAD OF A CHILD, when everything that can be shoved into him is crammed into him. Every year I meet with mothers who say: “My child’s schedule is more difficult than mine,” and they say this with pride.

This is a certain part of society where the mother is killed and takes the child everywhere herself, or where there is a driver who takes the child everywhere and waits for the child in the car. I have a simple marker of abnormal load: I ask: “How much time per week does your child walk?” When it comes to elementary school, parents often say: “Which one is playing around? He goes for walks during the holidays.” This is an indicator of abnormal load. Another good question is, “What does your child like to play?” - “In Lego.” - “When does he play with Lego?” - "In holiday's"…

By the way, this schedule overload increases the number of children who do not read. If a child has not yet become a fan of reading, has not had time to read, has not discovered reading for himself, then in conditions of intellectual and organizational overload, when he comes home, he will most of all want to turn off the brain, which is working all the time. There is a direct connection here, and when you unload the children, they begin to read.

If we systematically overload a fragile creature that is actively growing, it does not begin to learn better. Therefore, the issue of load is very subtle and individual. There are children who are ready to bear a heavy load, and they feel great, they only get better from it, and there are those who take the load, carry it, but gradually become neurotic because of it. We need to look at the child’s behavior, his condition in the evening and at the end of the week.

– What condition should make parents think and reconsider their child’s workload?

It depends on his psychological type. Melancholic people will suffer, cry quietly and get sick, because this is the most vulnerable and exhausted type, they will only get tired of the number of people in the class and the noise in recreation. Cholerics will scream and throw tantrums by the end of the week.

The most dangerous type are those children who, without external manifestations of overwork, bear the load until it brings them to a somatic breakdown, until they are covered with eczema and spots. This endurance is the most dangerous. You need to be especially careful with them. They really can do a lot, they are very effective, positive, but their internal fuses do not always work, and parents often catch on when the child is already in poor condition. They need to be taught to feel the load.

These are individual indicators, but there are also general ones: a child in elementary school should walk at least three times a week for an hour. And just walking, and not what my parents sometimes tell me: “We walk when we go from one class to another.” In general, there are situations when a child and his mother live in heroic mode: “I feed him soup from a thermos in the car, because he should have a full lunch.”

I hear this quite a lot, and it is often positioned as a great achievement. People have the best intentions and don't feel overscheduled. But childhood is a time when a lot of energy goes into simply growing and maturing.

– Do modern primary schoolchildren have functional problems that interfere with their school life?

– Oddly enough, with all the modern level of awareness and literacy, undetected MINIMUM BRAIN DYSFUNCTION, MMD, is quite common. This is a complex of small disorders that cannot be diagnosed before they appear, but at the same time they interfere terribly. This is not quite hyperactivity and not quite attention deficit - these are smaller things, but a child with MMD is difficult to teach in a regular classroom format. There are also all kinds of speech disorders that are undiagnosed, which greatly affect the development of writing, reading, a foreign language, all kinds of dyslexia and dysgraphia.

-Where does this come from?

– This may have always been there, but before school it didn’t really interfere and didn’t really manifest itself. The reason - perhaps due to induced labor and intervention in labor - when looking for where this comes from, they look at prenatal factors and always find something there.

MMD is a disorder of our time, which, along with allergies and oncology, has become more common. Some of them prevent the child from studying in a general education format.

Few schools have support systems, speech therapists, psychologists who can help the child adapt, but there are a huge number of children who, in the middle of the first, second, third grade, are squeezed out of regular schools because they cannot study there, it is difficult for them. This means that they didn’t call a speech therapist or psychologist on time, didn’t go to a neuropsychologist, didn’t get treatment.

– Minimal brain dysfunction is psychophysiological disorders, but there is another socio-pedagogical problem, which is more pronounced in Moscow and other big cities: today there are many children who are NOT USED TO LIVING IN SOCIETY and are not taught the rules of interaction. They do not learn well in a large class format, simply because they have never been prepared for it.

- So they didn’t walk in the yard, didn’t go to the regular garden, were with the nanny and mom all the time?

– Yes, and everyone always adapted to them. Maybe they had excellent tutors, they have excellent knowledge and study skills, but they are not used to working in a group format. Usually in schools where there is a competition, such children are monitored and they try not to take them or take them with conditions, but in private schools there are a lot of such children. And they can greatly spoil the work of the class.

– Are there new problems associated with the fact that children spend a lot of time with tablets, phones and TVs?

– Yes, there is another type of problem - quite new and little studied in the Russian-speaking space, but for several years now generations have been coming to school who are MORE USED TO WATCHING THAN LISTENING. These are children who heard the main stories not from books their parents read or from relatives, but watched, and for them the visual form of presenting information became the main one. It's a much simpler form and requires much less effort to learn anything from the video. These children at school cannot listen, they listen for two minutes and switch off, their attention floats. They do not have organic disorders - they are simply not accustomed to the form of presenting information accepted at school. The less screen time there is before school, the more likely it is that this won't happen to your child.

– If we talk about the youngest, first-graders, are there any signs that the child went to school too early?

– If a CHILD GOES TO SCHOOL TOO EARLY, then after one and a half to two months, when it should become easier, it becomes, on the contrary, more difficult. These patients come annually in October-November: the child is tired of school, his motivation has gone, at first he wanted to go to school and went with pleasure, but he is exhausted, disappointed, he is not interested in anything, somatic disorders have appeared, he does not respond to the teacher’s requests.

This is very evident in first-graders. By October-November, they should learn to respond correctly to general forms of address when the teacher says: “Children, take your pencils.” Children who are emotionally ready for school take pencils in the general form of address. And if even in November they are told: “Everyone took a pencil, and Masha also took a pencil,” it means that the child’s ability to work independently in a group has not yet matured. This is a sign that he went to school early.

– If a child, on the contrary, spent an extra year at home or in kindergarten, what will it look like?

– He will also be bored, but in a different way: he feels smarter than others. And here you need to think about how to choose a workload for your child so that he can stay in class. If those who went to school early can be taken away and returned a year later so that there is a pause, then these children need to be given individual tasks in a class format so that they are interested, and not every teacher is ready to do this.

– Are there any signs that the child is unwell in primary school?

- Certainly. Usually it is difficult for a child during the adaptation period, in the first one and a half to two months, when he either just started first grade, or went to a new class, to a new school, changed staff, teachers. In theory, it should get easier.

– What should a child not have in a normal educational process?

– Neurosis, total depression, apathy. There are a number of neurotic signs that should not exist: biting nails, tearing out hair, gnawing clothes, the appearance of speech disorders, hesitations, stuttering, abdominal pain in the morning, headaches, nausea, which occur only in the morning and go away if the child is left at home , and so on.

After 6-7 weeks of adaptation, there should be no talking in your sleep, and your sleep pattern should not change. We are talking about younger schoolchildren, because in adolescence it is much more difficult to determine where the reason is school, and where some of their personal experiences are.

Not a single school year has gone by lately without parents complaining about complex and incomprehensible elementary school programs, the workload of children, the need to do homework with them, and other difficulties. What are these - problems of individual children or a general situation? An experienced teacher tells.

Unfortunately, in a situation where a child has learning difficulties in elementary school, many parents take a completely unconstructive position - they begin to shame, scold, put pressure on him and punish him in every possible way, implying that these measures will somehow help the child begin to learn better . Do you think that your child does not study well because he is lazy and delays in every possible way the moment of starting his homework? Because he gets distracted and doesn't listen attentively in class? Everything is exactly the opposite: the child does not want to do his homework (and sometimes even go to school) because he understands that he is not successful. He was not prepared enough for school!

It is difficult for him to study; he does not understand much in the teacher’s explanations and homework. But it's not his fault. Programs based on new educational standards have become very complicated, and many children are having difficulty coping with them. Rarely is a child so well prepared for school that he can learn with ease, and the parents of such a child have truly done a tremendous job developing their son or daughter.

I want you to correctly understand the situation and take all measures to help your child cope with school difficulties. That's why I made rules for parents of elementary school students.

1. Calm, just calm!
2. More positive - try to take homework and school work in general easier, with optimism, humor, play, and most importantly, with faith in your child. Encourage him and notice the slightest successes, be sure to praise every step forward, every effort. Without positive reinforcement, a child will never love to learn!
3. Forget everything you remember about your school days, stop comparing! How many years have passed? At least twenty? Everything has changed!
4. Take it for granted: the new state education standards are designed in such a way that parents help their children with their studies, at least in primary school. Whether you like it or not, your child will not master the program without your help. Even if the most serious subjects—Russian language and mathematics—are easy for him, you should definitely listen to how your child reads texts on literary reading and their retellings. Nowadays, schools have a very difficult program for the course “The World around us.” A child can complete many tasks in this subject only with the help of an adult!
5. Never, under any circumstances, speak badly about the school, teachers, principal, programs, textbooks, level of education, etc. in the presence of a child (even if it seems to you that he does not hear). Firstly, the child will have enough of his own negative emotions associated with school. He doesn’t need to add yours. Secondly, to successfully study at school, a child must respect school rules, teachers, principals, and curriculum. How can you respect what your own mother criticizes?
6. Never express doubts about your child's learning abilities! You will undermine the child’s self-confidence, and if the child hears this often, self-esteem will drop, and it’s not far from problems with academic performance.
7. No matter what difficulties your child encounters, your parental duty is to help (and not scold, shame or punish). The child does not have enough resources to master all the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for successful learning; his mental processes are underdeveloped - attention, memory, thinking, but this is not his fault, but a misfortune.
8. Respect your child! Do not shout, do not call names, and do not use physical punishment under any circumstances. You are mortgaging the future of your son or daughter - do you want violence and rudeness in it?
9. Maintain a normal daily routine. An elementary school student should sleep at least 9 hours! If you get up for school at 7.00, the student should go to bed at 22.00. Every day the child needs to walk for at least an hour, and preferably two. Don’t be lazy and don’t replace a walk with visiting clubs and sections. Health is the most important thing!
10. Limit your time watching TV and interacting with the computer and other electronic devices. 60 minutes a day is the maximum! Your child will definitely find more useful activities if you can limit empty time spent on the computer and TV. Take control of this aspect now: the older the child, the less hope there is to turn the situation around.
11. Expand your child's horizons! At least twice a month (and if you can, then more often) go on “cultural trips” - to a museum, to a theater. Use every opportunity to show and tell your child something new, even if at first glance it does not seem so important.
12. Helping your child do his homework does not mean doing it for him or giving him hints. This means being close and attentive to the child, seeing what he can cope with on his own, and where he needs your help. With what you are helping him with now, the child will definitely begin to cope on his own after a while!

I wish you and your children success in your studies and interest in acquiring new knowledge!

Discussion

I think it is very important to prepare a child for a new life. That's what the article says. Fortunately, we had a 21st century elementary school program. There was an adaptation period in first grade. All the children were able to get used to it and start studying without any stress. Our class is now very strong and prepared.