Taking into Account the Individual Characteristics of Those Entering Primary School

Abstract

School readiness is one of the key components that ensure the success of education. The factors determining a child’s readiness for school include parameters reflecting indicators of physical, psychosocial and psychophysiological development. Morpho-functional immaturity of brain systems that provide the possibility of mental and motor activity, perception and processing of information causes various difficulties in learning. There are various methodological approaches that determine the level of readiness of children for systematic schooling. In the work, Kern-Irasek tests for visual activity (drawing on a given topic), logical and categorical thinking were used to assess readiness for school, an analysis of general awareness and the degree of psychosocial maturity was carried out. The work was carried out on students of the 1st grade of a small rural school and a kindergarten preparatory group. Among the 1st grade students at the end of the 2nd quarter, only girls were prepared for school according to all the analyzed indicators. There were no “immature” children among them, whereas for boys the figure was more than 60%. Overall, the number of “immature children” in the whole class was 33.3%. It is significant that the children belonging to the “immature” group were, as a rule, from large families, where they were not given due attention. Among the children of the kindergarten preparatory group, a larger percentage of those belonging to the category of “mature” and “middle-aged” (90%) were identified. At the same time, the test results again revealed the best results among girls. The data obtained should be considered as evidence of earlier psychofunctional development of girls in relation to boys, which is manifested in their more conscious attitude to learning, better abilities to implement conditional reflex activity, cognitive learning, performance indicators in the first years of training. The high percentage of “immature” children among 1st grade students emphasizes the need for mandatory testing of preschool children and the creation of optimal conditions for their physiological and psychosocial development. Keywords: school maturity, preschool children, psychophysiological factors, school readiness. For citation: Gappoeva V.S., Habaeva Z.G. Taking into Account the Individual Characteristics of Those Entering Primary School // Bulletin of the North Ossetian State University named after K.L. Khetagurov. 2021; 4. DOI: 10.29025/1994-7720-2021-4-103-111 (In Russ.).