Zone of proximal development of the child

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

There are slightly more children on our planet than adults. A childless society is a degenerate society. The correct development of a child is a prerequisite for the spiritual and practical activity of an adult.

The UN Declaration defines the conditions for the survival and social rights of the child - the right to protection, guardianship, assistance, upbringing and education.

At the present stage of development of the world community, issues related to the concept of the psyche of a small child are problematic. There is a need to turn to the science of child and developmental psychology.

Regular qualitative change of material and ideal objects, necessary and directed - this is development. The definition of development implies the simultaneous presence of these two properties, it is they that distinguish it from other ongoing changes.

The concept of development is considered in various approaches in psychology. According to the cultural-historical theory developed andproposed by domestic psychologists, the source of development is the environment in which the individual exists. It is in the struggle of emerging contradictions, learning and the child's own actions that his ontogeny takes place. L. S. Vygotsky introduced the definition of “zone of proximal development”, meaning the discrepancy between how a child develops at a given moment and his potential.

Developing new educational standards, scientists relied on the activity theory. Never before have the Law “On Education” and standards of education and upbringing been so strongly imbued with psychology. Speaking of what a child should know and be able to do, I mean the zone of actual development.

It is represented by already formed skills that a child has developed without the help of an adult. And when talking about the achievements of students, we mean the zone of proximal development. The activity approach in upbringing and education assumes that children have cognitive motivation, the ability to plan and predict their activities, the formation of control and self-control.

The zone of proximal development is expanding with the help of an adult, since independent skills are in the process of formation. The bottom line is that by completing tasks with the help of an educator, a teacher today, tomorrow the child will be able to do the same on his own. By creating a problem situation for a preschooler and encouraging him to choose ways to solve it, adults thus stimulate his development.

Zoneproximal development is most clearly visible at preschool age, since it is at this stage of development that a large number of sensitive periods occur. Many scientists are inclined to think that if the child's independence is limited, if he is not allowed to develop his own strategy of behavior, if he is not given the opportunity to try and make mistakes, this can lead to a developmental delay. If all actions are performed instead of the child, and not with him, then there is a risk that the skills and abilities characteristic of a particular sensitive period will not appear.