The level of mental development in children attending private preschools

Abstract

Today, private preschool education has to deal with a large number of children in one age group who fail to settle into public preschools. Such children may have difficulties with adapting to and completing an educational program. It is noted that children find it hard to sit through a lesson and often get distracted. This leads to challenges with understanding the assignment and assimilating the learning material. As a result, teachers and educators encounter difficulties with planning classes and organizing daily routine in preschool. The purpose of this study is therefore to identify the level of psychological development in children attending a private preschool in order to create an individual progress pathway. The study involved 44 children aged 3 to 7 who attended a private preschool in Saint Petersburg. Their perception, visual and auditory memory, attention, thinking, fine motor skills, and volitional sphere were assessed using the Seven-Colored Flower diagnostic complex edited by N. Yu. Kurazheva and the projective Lüscher Color Test. This article presents data concerning the level of attention development and the results of the color test. The study detected low attention concentration in 14% children, low attention stability in 36%, low attention distribution in 34%, low development of the volitional sphere in 65%, and reduced performance in 77%. These data stress the need to adjust classes and psychological and pedagogical measures to the specifics of the contingent involved in the private educational sector. The article concludes with recommendations including a list of specialist literature: a collection of playground games, nursery rhymes, and neurogymnastic exercises that can be integrated into a preschool day. The data obtained are of practical value to educators, children’s psychologists, and teachers who plan to work in private education.