The child's younger school age is considered to be the age from six to seven years, when the child starts attending school, and continues until ten or eleven years old. The main activity at this age is training. This period in the life of the child has a special significance in psychology, since this time is a qualitatively new stage in the psychological development of each person.
In this period, the child is actively developing intelligence. Thinking develops, which as a result contributes to a qualitative reconstruction of memory and perception, making of them regulated, arbitrary processes. At this age, the child thinks in specific categories. By the end of the primary school age, children should already be able to reason, compare and analyze, draw conclusions, be able to distinguish between general and particular, to determine simple patterns.
In the process of learning, memory develops in two directions: there is an intensification of the role of semantic and verbal-logical memorization. At the time of the beginning of schooling, the child is dominated by visually-shaped memory, the children remember due to mechanical repetition, not realizing the semantic connections. And it is during this period that it is necessary to teach the child to distinguish between memorization tasks: something must be memorized accurately and verbatim, and something is enough in general terms. Thus, the child begins to learn to manage his memory consciously and regulate its manifestations (reproduction, remembering, remembering).
At this time, it is important to properly motivate the child, because this largely depends on the productivity of memorization. Arbitrary memory for girls is better, but because they know how to force themselves. Boys are more successful in mastering the methods of memorization.
In the process of teaching the student not only perceives information, he is already able to analyze it, that is, perception already becomes in the form of organized observation. The task of the teacher to organize the activities of schoolchildren in the perception of various objects, he must teach to identify important signs and properties of phenomena and objects. One of the most effective methods for developing perception in children is comparison. With this method of development, perception becomes deeper, and the appearance of errors is significantly reduced.
The schoolboy of younger age can not regulate his attention with his strong-willed decision. Unlike an older schoolboy who knows how to focus on complex, uninteresting work to achieve the desired result in the future, a junior high school student can force himself to work hard only if there is a "close" motivation, for example, in the form of praise or a positive mark. Attention becomes more or less concentrated and sustainable only at the time when teaching materials are highlighted with clarity and clarity, thereby causing the child to have an emotional attitude. The internal position of schoolchildren is also changing. During this period, children have claims to a certain position in the system of personal and business relationships of the class. The emotional sphere of schoolchildren is increasingly influenced by how relationships develop with classmates, and not just communication with the teacher and academic success.
The nature of the child at this age is characterized by the following features: the propensity to act immediately, without weighing all the circumstances and without thinking, impulsiveness (this is due to weak willful regulation of behavior); general lack of will, since a child at this age can not with perseverance overcome all difficulties in order to achieve the intended goal. Stubbornness and capriciousness, as a rule, are the result of upbringing, this behavior is a kind of protest against the demands made by the school system, against the need to do what is "necessary", not what "wants". As a result, during the period of education at a younger age, the child should have the following qualities: thinking in concepts, reflection, arbitrariness; the child must successfully master the school curriculum; the relationship with friends and teachers should be on a new, "adult" level.