Features of the development of communication abilities
Mother tongue plays a unique role in shaping human personality. Language and speech, memory, emotions are considered in psychology, philosophy and pedagogy as a node in which all lines of mental development converge: Thinking, imagination.
From early childhood, human life is connected with language. The child is not yet a year old, but he already listens to the sounds of speech, lullabies and begins to learn and understand his native language. By one year - the first words, at two - phrases, and by three years the baby uses about 1000 words, the language becomes a full-fledged means of communication.
A number of studies note that communication skills contribute to the mental development of a preschool child (A.V. Zaporozhets, M.I. Lysina, A.G. Ruzskaya) and affect the overall level of his activity (Z.M. Boguslavskaya, D.B. Elkonin).
The importance of developing communication skills becomes more obvious at the stage of the child’s transition to school (M.I. Lysina, A.G. Ruzskaya, V.A. Petrovsky, G.G. Kravtsov, E.E. Shuleshko). If the lack of basic skills makes it difficult for a child to communicate with peers and adults, this leads to increased anxiety and violates the priority basis for ensuring the continuity of the preschool learning process as a whole. The development of communication is also a primary general education, a necessary condition for the success of educational activities, the main direction of social and personal development [16].
Communication abilities allow you to distinguish between one or another communication situation, understand the state of other people in various situations and, on this basis, adequately build your behavior. When a child with developed communicative abilities finds himself in a situation of communication with adults or peers (in kindergarten, on the street, in transport, etc.), he can understand what the external features of this situation are and by what rules he should behave in it . If a conflict or other tense situation arises, such a child will find positive ways to transform it.
Communication skills are the ability to communicate and need to be developed from an early age.
Communication skills in preschool children include: the desire to establish contact, the ability to organize communication, knowledge of norms and rules in communicating with peers and adults (Klyueva, Kasatkina, 1997). One of the main types of such activities is role-playing play.
Role-playing provides great opportunities for developing communication skills in preschoolers. Organizing a role-playing game presupposes that children come into contact and communicate with both peers and adults, and the more often the game is organized, the more the desire to play more and more arises. Thus, by organizing a role-playing game, the teacher involves children in direct communication.
For most preschoolers, it is incredibly difficult to act friendly and kindly towards other children in order to achieve anything together. Children who do not possess these qualities are capable of provoking conflicts. Therefore, the teacher plays a huge role in the proper organization of communication in the game.
The rules of behavior that are mandatory during role-playing games awaken in children the ability to control their behavior, limit impulsiveness, and negotiate with partners, which contributes to the formation of character.
According to L.S. Vygotsky, play creates a “zone of proximal development”—the opportunity for a child to transition from what he can already do in collaboration to what he can do independently. This opportunity characterizes the dynamics of development and success of each child. In play, children form their relationships with each other and become aware of them for the first time; Through play, children learn to understand the nature of relationships and acquire the necessary communication skills and abilities. The game develops actions in performance, orientation in relationships between people, and the first skills of cooperation.
Gender approach
The gender approach is based on the theory of the social construction of reality by Peter Berger (1929) and Thomas Luckmann (1927). The “revolutionary” position of this approach is the idea that gender roles are not innate, but are created in the process of interaction of individuals in society. Accordingly, the formation of a person’s gender, family, and citizenship should take into account, first of all, his individual psychological characteristics (character, temperament, interests, abilities, etc.), and not gender. Both women and men can perform those activities in which they are more interested. In modern society, for example, male fashion designers, female managers, etc. have long become commonplace. Nevertheless, stereotypical thinking regarding gender roles in society continues to exist.
Thus, supporters of the gender approach pursue the idea that the formation of gender in preschool children should be determined primarily by their personal characteristics. The boy will not be instilled with the idea that crying is unmanly, and tears are an indicator of weakness. In turn, the girl will not think that she should be neat “because she is a girl” - since neatness is not a purely feminine trait. When choosing toys for their child, parents (if they are supporters of a gender approach) will not be guided by the hackneyed scheme according to which, as a rule, the gender identity of preschoolers is formed in the traditional education system: boys - cars, girls - dolls. A little girl can be interested in cars in the same way, and a guy can be interested in a doll, and this one will not be forbidden. At the same time, the girl will not become “less of a girl,” and the boy will not become “less of a boy.”
Polytyping and social learning theory
Unlike psychoanalysis, social learning theory emphasizes the significant role of the reward-punishment system in the development of a child’s gender identity. If a child is punished for behavior that the parents consider unacceptable for his gender (or, conversely, is encouraged for what is acceptable), then the process of consolidating certain behavior patterns in the child’s mind occurs. The second significant aspect in the theory of social learning is the processes of observation and modeling.
Accordingly, social learning theory considers the source of sex typification in the sphere of socialization differentiated by sex. One of the advantages of this theory is the application to the development of female and male psychology of a general learning principle that is well known in relation to the development of many other types of behavior.
Sex and gender
In modern society, it is customary to distinguish between the concepts of sex and gender. Gender is a biological characteristic of an individual that determines the distinctive characteristics of a man and a woman at the chromosomal, anatomical, hormonal and reproductive levels. Gender usually means the social sex of an individual, the differences between men and women depending on social conditions. Such conditions may include social functions, a system of social division of labor, cultural stereotypes, etc. Thus, gender acts as a sociocultural phenomenon, meaning what it means to be a man/woman in a certain society. For example, if a man does not work, but is engaged in raising his children, then in a traditional society his behavior will be considered atypical (unmasculine) in terms of gender roles. However, despite this, according to biological characteristics, this individual does not become “less of a man.”
As for the acceptability of certain norms that determine an individual’s gender, they are initially set by society itself and its culture. In American sociological theory, the concept of gender developed gradually. At the same time, at different stages of development of this concept, various aspects were in the focus:
- gender from the perspective of the social roles of men and women,
- gender as an expression of power relations,
- gender as control over the behavior of men and women,
— gender as a special social institution.
The social roles of men and women are usually considered in two directions - vertical and horizontal. Thus, in the first case, gender is considered in the context of such concepts as income and wealth, power, prestige, etc. From the position of the horizontal approach, the institutional aspect of differentiation (politics, economics, education, family) and functional (division of responsibilities in the process of implementation) is considered. labor).
According to the concept of Sandra Bem (1944), three types of gender should be distinguished: masculine, feminine and androgynous.
Gender patterns in child development. Polytyping process
The formation of femininity/masculinity in children occurs at an early age. Thus, by approximately 4-5 years of age, gender identity is fixed (in the second youngest group of kindergarten). Children begin to show preferences for typical games that match their gender. This correspondence, as already mentioned, is determined by the cultural norms of society. Also, the formation of gender in preschoolers is manifested in the fact that children prefer to play more with children of the same gender. Sex-typing is called sex-typing in psychological science. It is accompanied by the individual’s acquisition of preferences, personal attitudes, skills, “I”-concept, etc. The significance of sex-typing, which determines the formation of gender, family, and citizenship in preschoolers, is considered differently in various psychological theories of development.
Androgynous type
Androgynous gender implies a combination of masculine and feminine traits. It is believed that from the point of view of adaptability, this position is the most optimal - the personality, as it were, absorbs all the best from the two types. Numerous studies have shown that masculinity and femininity are not, in a strict sense, opposites of each other - their strict opposition is erroneous. It has been found that persons who strictly adhere to the characteristics traditionally attributed to their sex are often poorly adapted to life conditions. The following patterns were identified:
- women with low levels of masculinity and men with high levels of femininity are often anxious, helpless, passive and more prone to depression;
— women and men with a high level of masculinity have difficulty establishing and maintaining interpersonal contacts;
— young married couples who strictly adhere to traditional models of male/female behavior often have sexual and psychological disharmony in the family, as well as sexual disorders;
— androgyny, as a psychological characteristic, has a positive relationship with the level of self-esteem, motivation to achieve, a sense of internal well-being, etc.
An androgynous personality has a rich set of gender-role behavior, using it flexibly depending on the dynamics of changing social situations.
The formation of children's gender identity can take place in accordance with the gender role or gender position of the immediate environment. And here we should distinguish between two fundamental approaches: sex-role and gender.
Sex-role approach
The basis of this approach is the theory of structural functionalism, developed by American sociologists Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) and Robert Bales. The authors use strict differentiation of roles between individuals, in accordance with their gender. Thus, the man was assigned the role of breadwinner, and the woman the role of mother and housewife. This version of the distribution of roles was considered by the authors to be optimal for the functioning of the family and society as a whole. The gender role approach is an example of a traditional patriarchal model of behavior that became widespread and consolidated within the framework of pre-industrial society.
In accordance with the gender-role approach, the formation of gender identity in the process of socialization of a child should occur through the assimilation of typical characteristics of one’s gender. Thus, boys are oriented towards creation (instrumental role) and creation, and girls are oriented towards caring and serving. It is believed that this is provided for by nature itself. In relation to American society, the instrumental role primarily meant financial support for the family. In turn, the woman, while the man works, takes care of the children and home, maintaining an atmosphere of mutual love and support. At the same time, the inclinations and interests of the individual himself, which also determine the education of gender regardless of sex, were not taken into account. More precisely, they could simply coincide if a man or woman had inclinations and interests that corresponded to their gender role positions. If this did not happen (a man or woman showed interest in activities that were not typical for their gender), then they simply had to come to terms with established patterns of behavior. Thus, the task of society is to educate men and women in accordance with traditional gender roles determined by their biological affiliation.
Feminine type
Often seen as the opposite of the masculine type. Feminine gender implies the presence in an individual of such traits as:
- femininity,
- responsiveness,
- passivity,
- softness,
- emotionality,
- compliance, etc.
At the same time, it was traditionally believed that femininity, like masculinity, is biologically determined. Accordingly, the dominant opinion was that these were purely feminine qualities, and every woman, to one degree or another, should correspond to them. The presence of such qualities in the male part of the population was considered, at best, strange, and at worst, unacceptable. However, feminist research has led to the discovery of a new view of the nature of femininity: it is not so much biologically determined as it is constructed from childhood. If a girl is not feminine enough, she is condemned by others. According to the concept of French feminist theorists E. Cixous and J. Kristeva, femininity is an arbitrary category that is assigned to women by patriarchy.
