The process of physical and psychological development of the child proceeds not uniformly, but as if by jerks and jumps. It is these periods, when the child passes into the next phase of growing up, and called age crises. These crises have both positive and negative sides. On the one hand, the child becomes more mature, new abilities, abilities, and abilities are formed. But, on the other hand, during the periods of age-related crises, the child's behavior can become, to put it mildly, quite unpredictable: he has new, previously uncharacteristic features of character and behavior, which often confounds his parents and creates difficulties in communication.
The crisis of seven years is a crisis connected with the birth of a social "I" child, with the onset of awareness of himself, as a being of the social, living in society, in the collective. First of all it is connected with the beginning of school life. The child, so that he was able to adapt in the school community, should form a new social position - the position of the student. And this requires the child to revalue values: what was significant before, begins to be perceived as a secondary, and vice versa. If the level of psychological maturity of the child to six or seven years is high enough, then the crisis of seven years can pass almost without problems, quickly and smoothly. If, however, the child is not yet psychologically up to school, the crisis can be very violent, accompanied by various excesses.
If a child goes through a crisis of seven years with a creaking, it can have the most unfavorable consequences for him in the future, for example, lead to social maladjustment - inability to adapt to the society, to find his place in the team. Therefore, to help such a child must necessarily come parents and teachers. Especially a lot depends on the parents. But in order to come to the rescue in time, you need to know when this assistance is really needed.
Signs, by which it can be judged that the child has psychological problems and he needs help, are as follows:
- The child tries in every possible way to draw attention to himself, choosing for this sometimes not the best ways: he is capricious, hooligan, arranges hysterics, does not obey.
- In the behavior of the child, mood swings and behavior become very noticeable: the child behaves aggressively, then suddenly becomes shy and timid, then without laughter he starts crying.
- Habitual daily rituals (brushing teeth, cleaning the bed, washing dishes with him) suddenly begin to be ignored by the baby, and even endless reminders do not help much.
- The child becomes unmotivated, irritable, tearful, stubborn, secretive, depressed, locked in himself.
- School performance of the child leaves much to be desired.
- The baby grows thin, pales, becomes quickly tired, drowsy, passive.
What are the reasons for such negative changes in the child's behavior? What can provoke problems and what can parents do in such cases? The reasons can be several:
- Problems in dealing with classmates. In this case, parents, a school psychologist and a class teacher should take all measures to improve the relationship of the child with the team.
- Inability of the baby to cope with the school program. To remedy this problem, parents should either help the child do homework by explaining school material, or hire a tutor. If this does not help, it is better to take the child out of school, pushing the beginning of school life for a year, when the child will be more prepared for learning.
- Weak physical endurance of the child, which leads to increased fatigue and deterioration of school performance. This can be helped by the strict regime of the day, proper rest (the child should regularly walk outdoors, get enough sleep), and also reduce the load on the child (visit the sports section or the music school should be postponed until better times).
According to statistics, the crisis of seven years is easy and without any problems passes only in 25% of children. All other children have some problems that can be solved if the parents behave correctly, do not panic, and try their best to help their child overcome any difficulties that arise, be it poor school performance or conflicts with classmates. We must understand: all problems are temporary, and to overcome them the child needs very little - parental understanding and love.