Diagnosis of preschoolers: methods, tests (examples)

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-08 23:38

Preschoolers are tested by various methods both in kindergartens and before entering school. Tests for preschoolers help to learn a lot of useful information about the child, which in the future will help to identify shortcomings in education and training; psychological factors that may interfere with the child's normal development; features to look out for when entering school and further education.

Testing has become mandatory in most schools. The educational process is constantly changing, adjustments are being made, the educational plan is becoming more complicated or simplified, schools are switching to special forms of education. All this requires from the child efforts, the ability to adapt. And parents are not always able to provide their children with qualified assistance in this matter, even if only because they do not know what exactly they should help with. That's what preschool tests are for.

In this article we will analyze the types of diagnostics, what all these tests can tell us about our children, what we should pay special attention to and what advice to listen to.

Why do we need diagnosticspreschoolers

Diagnostics of preschool children, methods of various types and directions have been introduced everywhere, starting with admission to kindergarten. They are a kind of testing. Different methods work differently, but they have one thing in common. All of them help parents and teachers to understand the emotional and psychological state of the child, to determine his readiness for school or kindergarten, the level of knowledge, intelligence and much more.

For example, some tests may show a particular predisposition of a future student to certain subjects. Then it makes sense to send the child to a specialized school with an emphasis on foreign languages, mathematics, linguistics, computer science, and so on. If testing shows insufficient knowledge and skills, you can always prepare in advance for admission to an educational institution and catch up for any reason.

Testing also helps to understand interpersonal relationships, complexes, problems in the family, various psychological deviations from the norm, find ways to solve the problem and, most importantly, the root cause of the violation.

The following are some of the most popular diagnostic techniques for various target areas.

Psychological readiness for school

Diagnostics of preschoolers, methods of testing readiness for school is a very important point when entering an educational institution. It is noted that all children develop in their own way,with your speed and diligence. Some parents believe that the sooner the child goes to school, the faster and better it will develop. Remembering their own experience, people often regret that they did not go to school a year or even two earlier, as there is a feeling of wasted time. However, such a statement of the question is not always true. Children may simply not be ready for the schooling process. By the time of entering the school, some qualities should appear, without which study will be given quite hard. For example, perseverance, curiosity, the ability to memorize and analyze incoming information.

In order to assess the readiness for learning, there is a diagnosis of preschoolers. The following methods are suggested:

• The Kern-Jerasek test is the most comprehensive test that covers many aspects of a child's development.
• "Draw tails for mice" and "Draw handles for umbrellas" - the test helps to determine how developed fine motor skills of hands are.
• Interpretation of proverbs - helps to see the development of thinking and the ability to explain phenomena in your own words.

Diagnosis of cognitive sphere and attention

It is very important for the learning process to take into account the degree of attentiveness of the child. Diagnosis of preschoolers, methods for determining mindfulness are quite widely and widely distributed in the pedagogical environment. There are a lot of tasks of various content on this topic, and all of them areefficient and revealing.

To determine mindfulness, the following tests are used for children 5 years old: "Find and cross out", "Correction test", "Triangles". In the first test, the child is given a sheet with various geometric shapes drawn on it. For a certain period of time, it is necessary to cross out figures of a certain type in a special way. At the end of the lesson, the total is calculated using the formula:

S=(0, 5N – 2, 8n): t, where

S is the final result, i.e. the child’s perseverance and receptivity coefficient, N is the number of scanned figures, n - number of errors, t - time to complete the job.

At the "Correction test" letters are printed on the sheet. The child must cross out the three named by the teacher in each line.

"Triangle" requires the preschooler to draw a certain type of this shape on each line. The psychologist fixes the mistakes and the time of the work, on the basis of which he then announces the result.

Such tests include graphical dictation by cells for preschoolers. The child, under dictation, draws lines and figures arranged in a special way given by the teacher.

Diagnostics of mathematical development

Mathematics for a student is not only a discipline. A developed mathematical mindset allows the child to analyze incoming information, absorb it much faster, and also apply it in practice. Therefore, diagnosispreschoolers, the methods of mathematical development of which are an integral part, must be carried out in educational institutions of different levels of training.

Among game diagnostics are such as "Find the same", "Collect the beads", "Collect the picture". At this stage, it is important to find out how much the child is able to make up a big picture from different fragments, find the similarity of objects, match color, size and geometric shapes.

Diagnosis of the emotional sphere of preschoolers: methods

A stable emotional and psychological state is the key to productive learning, quick assimilation in an unfamiliar environment, the ability to self-realization and building social ties. In the process of studying at school or kindergarten, the child acquires not only knowledge about the world around him in the course of studying specific disciplines, but also learns to be aware of his own personality, his position in society, to contact people (peers and teachers).

Diagnosis of the emotional sphere of preschoolers has a variety of methods. Their goal is to clarify the child's self-positioning in the surrounding world and society, as well as finding ways to correct possible complexes and failures. Diagnosis of younger preschoolers is carried out by the following methods:

• Role-playing - the child is invited to accept and play a certain role (animal, family members, inanimate objects, fairy tale characters).
• Psycho-gymnastic games - in the process of such games in childrenthe acceptance of one's own name and qualities of character, the ability to self-knowledge is formed.
• Communication games - these games help children learn how to verbalize their relationship to other people, express their own opinions and needs, provide support, contact with the surrounding society.

Intelligence and mental development

Diagnostics of the activities of preschoolers can take place in several ways and tests. Some relate exclusively to the ability to concentrate, others reflect the freedom of fantasy and imagination, others show the ability to compare, and so on. Methods for diagnosing older preschoolers are designed, first of all, to show the child's readiness to enter school, as well as to eliminate possible shortcomings in education and understanding of the world around them in the fastest way. The following activities are often held with preschoolers before graduation from kindergarten:

"Sculpture". This test shows how well the child has visual-effective, visual-figurative, verbal-logical types of thinking. The task consists in the fact that the child is invited to fashion a sculpture from plasticine in 5-10 minutes. For the result, from 0 to 10 points are set:

0-1 - respectively, if the child could not figure out what he would sculpt, for the time allotted for the task;

2-3 points are set for the simplest forms (ball, cube, bar, and so on);

4-5 points - a simple craft with a small number of details;

6-7points - an unusual craft, but without much involvement of imagination;

8-9 - the sculpture is original, with a sufficient number of fragments, but not fully worked out;10 points - all the above conditions are met.

"Recognize the figures". This technique reflects the development of the type of memory responsible for recognition. This species develops at the earliest age and is responsible for the further development of the ability to absorb and store information.

Interpersonal relationships

No personality can be formed in isolation. For a person, the social environment is important, and even more so for a small person. As children grow, they come into contact with parents, relatives, peers, older and younger children, teachers, coaches, and so on. All these relationships affect the formation of personality and its qualities. The future of a child directly depends on his society and environment. To determine how beneficial social relationships are, there are special tests for children 5 years and older.

One of the most famous and frequently used is the Bellac Children's Apperceptive Test. With the help of this study, it is possible to identify the leading motives and needs of the child, how the child perceives his parents and relates to them (including in the aspect of a married couple), the characteristics of relationships with other people, identify intrapersonal conflicts, determine the work of protective psychological mechanisms, recognize fears, phobias, mental disorders, help to cope withtheir negative consequences.

A. L. Wenger: contribution to the diagnostics of the development of schoolchildren

Leonid Abramovich Wenger is one of the most prominent Russian and Soviet psychologists who devoted his life to researching the characteristics of the psychological development of preschoolers. Most modern tests in one way or another refer to the work that was once carried out by A. L. Wenger. The doctor of sciences studied the features of the development of perception of the surrounding world and the sensory education of young children. Based on these data, he created the first methods for diagnosing the development of preschool children. Based on his research, the programs "Development" and "Gifted Child" were created.

These techniques are used everywhere in Russian kindergartens. They consist in teaching children to use and independently create a wide variety of schemes, plans, drawings. The result is the formation of specific imaginative thinking.

One of his most used tests is drawing. Diagnosis of the abilities of preschoolers is determined on the basis of the features of the drawings of a person made by them, existing and fictional animals, dynamic images of the family. From the drawings, one can determine the correspondence of the child's worldview to the actual age, identify social roles and dominant personalities from the environment and in the family, determine serious mental disorders, depression, fears, and so on.

Diagnosis of speech development in preschoolers

Diagnostics of the speech of preschoolers is an important moment for any child, determining his admission to educational institutions andthe ability to interact productively with the world. How well he will master the ability to express his thoughts orally and understand speech will depend on how correctly the people around him (including teachers) will understand him, and how well the information will be absorbed from the outside.

If the graphical dictation by cells for preschoolers reflects how attentive and concentrated the child is, then the diagnosis of oral speech requires its own methods, mainly verbal.

Different age groups use different tests, which is quite natural. At various stages of growing up, the child must master all new abilities, the testing bar must be raised in accordance with age requirements.

So, for the age group from three to six years old, the Vocabulary Mobility method is used. This technique contains about six tasks of different directions and reflects the volume of vocabulary. In addition, it shows how a child can use familiar vocabulary in everyday life and various situations that require an instant reaction.

For the older age group, more complex tests are used, showing the level of speech development, the productivity of associations, the ability to comprehend situations based on visual and auditory perception. These tests include the Ebbinghaus method. In the tasks of this testing method, there are such as "Insert the missing words", "Put periods and commas", retelling the heard fragment of text, retelling the material read, compilingsentences from a given set of words, a description of what is happening in dynamic pictures, the ratio of various syntactic forms of sentences to pictures that reflect their meaning, and so on.

Professional self-determination

Increasingly, today's kindergartens and schools are testing for vocational guidance at the age of five to eight years. The need for this testing is discussed regularly. Methods have their supporters and, of course, opponents. However, this testing was introduced for a reason.

The modern model of education is increasingly trying to make the curriculum compact and highly specialized. Fewer subjects become mandatory, more and more pass into the status of electives and additional classes. Therefore, professional self-determination at such an early age, according to many experts in the educational environment, is a reasonable saving of money and time. Specialized tests help to find out especially pronounced aspects of character and mentality, hobbies, habits, activities that bring the most pleasant sensations, and then help to choose a future profession based on the data obtained.

Sometimes a child cannot decide on his own interests and desires, in which case such a test can tell him what he can do in his free time, what clubs or trainings to sign up for, what subjects to study with a tutor in additional classes. But the preschooler should not be limited by the test results. No matter how the approved system changeseducation, development for the formation of personality requires a comprehensive and complete. Such a test can help determine life hobbies, but certainly should not cut the amount of information required for the harmonious development of a small person.