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Features and correction of the emotional-volitional sphere of children with developmental disorders. Violation of the emotional-volitional sphere: causes, symptoms, psychological consultation and correction with treatment, if necessary


Quite often, parental care is mainly focused on the physical health of their child, while the emotional component is left almost unattended. This is due to the fact that most parents consider the early symptoms of emotional disorders to be temporary, and therefore harmless.

The place of emotional disorders in the mental development of a child seems to be one of the key aspects of his life, due to the fact that these disorders affect his attitude towards his parents and his environment in general. To date, there is a tendency towards an increase in emotional disorders in children, in the form of reduced social adaptation and a tendency to aggressive behavior.

There are many reasons for the occurrence of emotional disorders in a child, so parents should be especially careful when various pathological signs appear. As a rule, specialists establish the final diagnosis when registering 3 signs of emotional instability.

The most common causes of emotional disturbances are:

  • Physical features, taking into account past diseases in infancy;
  • Inhibition of mental and mental development;
  • Improper upbringing of the child in the preschool period;
  • Improper nutrition, namely insufficient intake of necessary substances, which significantly affects the development of the baby;

Also, these above reasons are divided into two large groups:

  1. Biological.

This causal group includes a characteristic type of nervous system. For example, in the presence of attention deficit disorder, a child may subsequently develop a pathological process in the brain, which is formed as a result of a difficult course of pregnancy and childbirth of his mother.

  1. Social

This group determines the process of interaction of the child with other people and the environment. For example, if a child already has experience of communicating with the age group of people, his peers and the primary group for him - the family, then in some cases such socialization can also harm him.

If a child is constantly subjected to denial by adults, then he unconsciously begins to displace the information received, which comes from the environment.

The emergence of new experiences that do not coincide with his conceptual structure, they begin to be perceived negatively, which eventually forms a certain stress for him.

In the absence of understanding from peers, the child develops emotional experiences (rage, resentment, disappointment), which are characterized by acuteness and duration. Also, constant conflicts in the family, demands on the child, lack of understanding of his interests, also causes emotional disturbances in the mental development of the child.

Classifications of emotional disorders and their symptoms

The difficulty in identifying emotional-volitional disorders resulted in the fact that a number of psychologists have formed different views on these types of disorders. For example, the psychologist G. Sukhareva noted that emotional disturbances in primary school age are often observed in children suffering from neurasthenia, which was distinguished by his excessive excitability.

Psychologist Y. Milanich had a different idea of ​​these disorders. He found that 3 groups of emotional disorders belong to emotional-volitional disorders;

  • Acute emotional reactions, which are characterized by the coloring of certain conflict situations, which manifested itself in aggression, hysteria, reactions of fear or resentment;
  • A state of increased tension - anxiety, timidity, decreased mood.
  • Dysfunction of the emotional state, which manifested itself in a sharp transition from positive emotional phenomena to negative ones and also in the reverse order.

However, the most detailed clinical picture of emotional disorders was made by N.I. Kosterin. She divides emotional disorders into 2 large groups, which are characterized by an increase in the level of emotionality and, accordingly, its decrease.

The first group includes such states as:

  • Euphoria, which is characterized by an inadequate increase in mood. A child in this state, as a rule, has increased impulsivity, impatience and a desire for dominance.
  • Dysphoria is the opposite form of euphoria, characterized by the manifestation of such emotions as: anger, irritability, aggressiveness. It is a type of depressive disorder.
  • Depression is a pathological condition characterized by the manifestation of negative emotions and behavioral passivity. The child in this state feels depressed and dreary mood.
  • Anxiety syndrome is a condition in which a child feels unreasonable anxiety and pronounced nervous tension. It is expressed in a constant change of mood, tearfulness, lack of appetite, hypersensitivity. Often this syndrome develops into a phobia.
  • Apathy is a serious condition in which the child feels indifference to everything that is happening around, and is also characterized by a sharp decrease in initiative functions. Most psychologists argue that the loss of emotional reactions is combined with a decrease or complete loss of volitional impulses.
  • Paratamia is a characteristic disorder of the emotional background, in which the experience of one specific emotion is accompanied by external manifestations of absolutely opposite emotions. Often seen in children with schizophrenia.

The second group includes:

  • The syndrome of hyperactivity and attention deficit is distinguished by such symptoms as motor disorientation, impulsivity. It follows that the key features of this syndrome are distractibility and excessive motor activity.
  • Aggression. This emotional manifestation is formed as part of a character trait or as a reaction to environmental influences. In any case, the above violations need to be corrected. However, before correcting pathological manifestations, the main causes of diseases are first identified.

Diagnosis of violations

For the subsequent therapy of disorders and its effectiveness, it is very important to timely diagnose the emotional development of the child and his disorders. There are many special methods and tests that assess the development and psychological state of the child, taking into account his age characteristics.

Diagnosis of preschool children includes:

  • Diagnosis of the level of anxiety and its assessment;
  • Study of the psycho-emotional state;
  • Luscher color test;
  • The study of self-esteem and personality characteristics of the child;
  • The study of the development of volitional qualities.

Seeking psychological help is necessary if the child experiences certain difficulties in learning, communicating with peers, behavior, or he has certain phobias.

Also, parents should pay attention if the child experiences any emotional experiences, feelings, and also if his condition is characterized as depressed.

Ways to correct emotional disorders

A number of domestic and foreign scientists in the field of psychology distinguish a number of techniques that allow correcting emotional and volitional disorders in children. These methods are usually divided into 2 main groups: individual and group, but this division does not reflect the main goal of correcting mental disorders.

Mental correction of affective disorders in children is an organized system of psychological influences. This correction is mainly aimed at:

  • Alleviate emotional discomfort
  • Increasing activity and independence
  • Suppression of secondary personal reactions (aggressiveness, excessive excitability, anxiety, etc.).
  • Self-esteem correction;
  • Formation of emotional stability.

World psychology includes 2 main approaches to the psychological correction of a child, namely:

  • psychodynamic approach. He advocates the creation of conditions that allow the suppression of external social barriers, using methods such as psychoanalysis, play therapy and art therapy.
  • behavioral approach. This approach allows you to stimulate the child to learn new reactions aimed at the formation of adaptive behavioral forms and vice versa, suppresses non-adaptive forms of behavior, if any. It includes such methods of influence as behavioral and psycho-regulatory trainings, which allow the baby to consolidate the learned reactions.

When choosing a method of psychological correction of emotional disorders, one should proceed from the specifics of the disorder, which determines the deterioration of the emotional state. If a child has intrapersonal disorders, then an excellent way would be to use game therapy (not computer), and the method of family psychocorrection has also proven itself well.

If there is a predominance of interpersonal conflicts, group psychocorrection is used, which allows you to optimize interpersonal relationships. When choosing any method, the severity of the child's emotional instability must be taken into account.

Such methods of psychological correction as game therapy, fairy tale therapy, etc. work effectively if they correspond to the mental characteristics of the child and the therapist.

The age of a child up to 6 years (preschool period) is the most important period of its development, since it is during this period that the child’s personal foundations, volitional qualities are formed, and the emotional sphere is rapidly developing.

Volitional qualities develop mainly due to conscious control over behavior, while maintaining certain behavioral rules in memory.

The development of these qualities is characterized as the general development of the personality, that is, mainly by forming the will, emotions and feelings.

Therefore, for a successful emotional-volitional upbringing of a child, parents and teachers need to pay special attention to creating a positive atmosphere of mutual understanding. Therefore, many experts recommend that parents form the following criteria for their child:

  • In communicating with a child, it is necessary to observe absolute calmness and in every possible way show your benevolence;
  • You should try to communicate with the child more often, ask him about something, empathize, and be interested in his hobbies;
  • Joint physical labor, play, drawing, etc. will safely affect the condition of the child, so try to give him as much attention as possible.
  • It is necessary to ensure that the child does not watch films and does not play games with elements of violence, as this will only aggravate his emotional state;
  • Support your child in every possible way and help him build confidence in himself and in his abilities.

Of course, all loving parents care about the health of their babies. However, often moms and dads pay attention exclusively to the physical development of the child, for some reason not paying due attention to the emotional state of the baby. That's just emotions play in a person's life far from the last role. Emotions appear from the first days of a baby's life, with their help the child communicates with his parents, making it clear that he is upset, in pain or feels good.

As the child develops, his emotions also undergo changes and it is important to prevent emotional disturbances in children during this period. The kid learns not only to speak, walk or run, but also to feel. From simple emotions that he experiences in infancy, he moves on to more complex sensory perception, begins to get acquainted with the entire emotional palette.

As the child grows older, he not only tells his parents that he is uncomfortable because he is hungry or has a stomachache, but also begins to show more complex emotions.

Like an adult, a baby learns to rejoice, admire, be sad, surprised or angry. True, the main difference between a five-year-old child and a one-year-old baby is not only that he knows how to feel "widely", but also that he knows how to control his emotions.

In modern society, experts are increasingly trying to draw attention to such a serious problem as emotional disorders in children.

Causes and consequences of emotional disorders in children

According to medical statistics, in 50% of cases, emotional disturbances in children who have graduated from elementary school are expressed in the development of nervous diseases. This is a very alarming result, especially given the fact that we are talking about nervous diseases in children who have not even reached 16 years of age.

Child psychologists believe that the main causes of emotional disorders in children can be:

  • illnesses and stresses transferred in childhood;
  • features of the physical and psycho-emotional development of the child, including delays, impairments or lags in intellectual development;
  • microclimate in the family, as well as features of education;
  • social and living conditions of the child, his close environment.

Emotional disorders in children can also be caused by other factors. For example, films that he watches or computer games that he plays can cause psychological trauma to a child's body. Emotional disturbances in children appear most often in critical periods of development.

A vivid example of such mentally unstable behavior is the so-called "transitional age". Young people always rebel, but this is especially noticeable in adolescence, when the child begins to determine his desires and evaluates his own capabilities.

The most common manifestations of emotional disorders in children are:

  • general anxiety of the child, as well as the presence of fears and excessive timidity;
  • emotional exhaustion;
  • aggression, and sometimes causeless;
  • problems in communicating and interacting with other children or adults;
  • depression.

Correction of emotional-volitional disorders in children

Before talking about methods for correcting emotional-volitional disorders in children, it is worth defining this problem. The emotional-volitional sphere or, in other words, the psycho-emotional state of a person is the dynamics of the development of his feelings, as well as emotions. Therefore, emotional-volitional disorders in children are nothing more than disorders of the mental state.

If the emotional sphere is disturbed, children develop a feeling of severe anxiety or apathy, the mood becomes gloomy and the child withdraws into himself, begins to show aggression or become depressed. In order to improve the condition of a child suffering from emotional disorders, you should contact a specialized specialist. He, in turn, will begin individual or group work with the child, and will also tell parents how to behave correctly when the child is mentally unstable.

Psycho-emotional disorders can be successfully treated in case of early detection and a competent approach to their correction.

A few tips for parents who are dealing with emotional disturbances in children:

  • in dealing with a traumatized child, try to remain absolutely calm and show your benevolent attitude;
  • communicate with the child more often, ask him questions, empathize, in general, be interested in what he feels;
  • play or do physical labor together, draw, pay more attention to the child;
  • be sure to follow the children's daily routine;
  • try not to expose the child to stress and unnecessary worries;
  • watch what your child watches, violence on the TV screen or in a computer game will only exacerbate emotional disturbances;
  • support the child, help build self-confidence.

A child psychologist will help to eliminate violations of the emotional sphere in children, who, with the help of special educational games, will explain to the child how to properly respond to emerging stressful situations and control their feelings. However, no one can replace the participation of parents in the treatment of psycho-emotional disorders of children, since kids trust their parents and, of course, take an example from them.

Therefore, if in the future you want to avoid the development of severe mental illness in a child, then immediately begin to take an active part in his treatment.

The decisive factor in the correction of psycho-emotional disorders is the attention of adults. Learn to pay more attention to your child, help him sort out feelings and emotions. You should not demand from the baby that he stop worrying, but you should support him in any experiences and help him sort out complex emotions. Patience, care and boundless parental love will help keep your children mentally healthy.

The emotional-volitional sphere is the properties of a person that determine the content, quality and dynamics of his emotions and feelings, as well as volitional processes. Emotions and will carry the regulatory function of the mental activity of the child.

The place of the emotional-volitional sphere in the psychological structure of the personality, the connection with other aspects of the psyche is considered in the works of K. Izard P.K. Anokhin, A.R. Luria, A.V. Zaporozhets, Ya.Z. Neverovich, S.L. Rubinstein, A.N. Leontiev, V.N. Myasishcheva, A.Ts. Puni, P.V. Simonov and other scientists.

Emotions are an extensive class of processes of internal regulation of mental activity, which can be expressed in the following manifestations: experiences, sensations of pleasant or unpleasant, a person’s attitude to the world around him. The group of emotions includes affect, mood, stress, passion. A person's emotions reflect his inner state; by analyzing the child's emotional state, you can better understand him, tune in to interaction and communication. With the help of emotional manifestations, a person can also influence the one to whom they are directed. The volitional regulation of a person is responsible for controlling emotions.

The development of emotions is closely connected with the development of behavioral motives, with the emergence of new needs and interests in the child. (A. N. Leontiev, L. I. Bozhovich). During preschool age, not only a profound restructuring of organic needs takes place, but also the assimilation of material and spiritual values ​​created by society, which, under certain conditions, become the content of the child's internal motives. However, emotions not only express certain features of the motivation of the child's behavior, but also play a significant role in the implementation of these motives.

The emotional state affects all components of the psyche: perception, imagination, memory, thinking. Volitional processes are also closely related to emotions. Emotions affect the awareness of the motive, decision-making and deployment of the process of achieving the goal. Therefore, for the development of the personality of the child, his psyche, it is necessary to maintain the normal development of the emotional-volitional sphere of the child.

Will is one of the mental functions and is considered as an independent process, which consists in the ability to arbitrarily control one's behavior. Volitional action is a purposeful action that is formed in a person in the process of activity aimed at achieving a goal. It requires purposefulness and regulation of the course of action in accordance with the goal.

Studying volitional processes, volitional components of mental processes are considered. The volitional process is directly included in the action and is inextricably linked with it. Therefore, the study of the volitional act goes directly into the study of action.

The presence of a person's will is associated with the presence of significant goals and objectives for him. The more significant and attractive these goals are for a person, the stronger his will will be, other things being equal.

The functional components of the volitional regulation system are manifested in: goal setting (system-forming component);

modeling (highlighting the necessary conditions that are important for achieving the goal); programming (presentation of the composition of actions, the ways in which they will be carried out, and the actual sequence of implementation of the planned actions); evaluating and correcting the results (at each stage of achieving the goal, the results are compared with the predicted parameters, a decision is made on the possibility of moving on to the next stages).

The main patterns of development of perception, ideas, memory, thinking, activity, established in the study of a normally developing child, apply to a child with developmental disorders (L.V. Zankov, T.A. Vlasova, I.M. Solovyeva, T.V. Rozanova, Zh.I. Shif).

The emotional-volitional sphere also develops in accordance with age norms. Domestic psychologists present the development of the emotional-volitional sphere as a complex natural process of complication and enrichment of this sphere in the context of the general socialization of the child.

A child already at birth has some affective reactions, which during ontogenesis are transformed into complex emotional processes, which is the essence of the subsequent development of human feelings.

There are various approaches to characterizing the development of the child's emotional sphere in ontogeny. The founder of research in the ontogenesis of the emotional sphere is D. Watson (behavioral scientific and theoretical approach, behaviorism). He defined emotion as a hereditary stereotyped reaction of an organism to a certain situation (stimulus) that exists at the earliest stages of ontogenesis. .

From the point of view of the activity approach, the normative-age field of the child's emotional development is constituted by emotional neoplasms. . The ontogenesis of emotional development consists in the appearance of a number of regular changes in the emotional sphere, due to its complication and enrichment. “Throughout childhood, emotions go through a path of progressive development. Acquiring ever richer content and ever more complex forms of manifestation under the influence of social conditions of life and upbringing.

Violations in the development of the emotional-volitional sphere can be noticed even in infancy in the child's behavior, a smile, interest in a human face, and recognition of loved ones are not formed in time. The parents of the baby notice a small reaction of the child to external influences, passivity or excessive excitability in interaction with the outside world. However, these manifestations of a child's relatives are often associated with his character, and not with deviations in emotional development. Usually, features of emotional development become apparent towards the end of early age (by 3 years) - the time when parents seek medical and educational help.

The range of violations of the emotional-volitional sphere in childhood is extremely large. Most often they are manifested by increased emotional excitability in combination with a pronounced instability of vegetative functions, increased sensitivity to stimuli that act on the sense organs, and increased exhaustion of the nervous system. Affective arousal can occur even under the influence of ordinary tactile, visual and auditory stimuli, especially intensifying in an environment that is unusual for the child. At preschool age, children are characterized by excessive impressionability, a tendency to fear, and in some, increased emotional excitability, irritability, motor disinhibition predominate, in others timidity, shyness, lethargy. Most often, there are combinations of increased emotional lability with inertia of emotional reactions.

It should be noted that when studying emotional-volitional disorders, it is problematic to distinguish a clear boundary between the normal and disturbed state of the emotional-volitional sphere, since certain behavioral characteristics can be the cause of: age-related characteristics; temporary manifestations due to a specific situation; deviations in the emotional-volitional sphere; as a quality of character; as an individual feature.

There are 3 most pronounced groups of so-called difficult children who have problems in the emotional-volitional sphere.

4. Aggressive children. Most children sometimes show aggression, however, in this case, attention is paid to the degree of manifestation of an aggressive reaction, the duration of the action and the nature of the possible causes that caused affective behavior.

5. Emotionally disinhibited children. Children belonging to this type react too violently to everything: if they express delight, then as a result of their expressive behavior they turn on the whole class; if they suffer, their cries and groans will be too loud and defiant.

6. Too shy, vulnerable, touchy, timid, anxious children. Children of this group will be ashamed to express their emotions loudly and clearly, they will quietly experience their problems, being afraid to draw attention to themselves.

Violations of the emotional-volitional sphere can also be divided into the following groups: mood disorders and behavioral disorders.

There is also a clinical approach to the classification of emotional disorders, described in detail in the International Classification of Diseases 10th revision (ICD-10).

Violations of emotional and volitional regulation are more often manifested in such groups of disorders as mental retardation, autism, etc. However, the most severe manifestations of violations of the emotional and volitional sphere are observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Autism as a symptom occurs in quite a few mental disorders, but in some cases it manifests itself very early, takes a central, leading place in the clinical picture and has a severe negative impact on the entire mental development of the child. In such cases, they talk about the syndrome of early childhood autism (RAA), which is considered a clinical model of a special - distorted variant of mental development disorders.

In a number of cases, not all the clinical characteristics required for the diagnosis of RDA are observed, although there is no doubt that the correction should be based on the methods adopted in working with autistic children; in such a situation, one often speaks of autistic personality traits. For the first time, autism was identified as a separate disorder and described by the Austrian scientist G. Asperger in 1944, by the Russian researcher S. S. Mnukhin in 1947, and in 1943 by the American clinician L.

Kanner. Based on these observations, the most striking manifestations of autism were identified:

1. Limitation of the ability to establish emotional connections, communication and social interaction, the so-called

"extreme" loneliness of the child.

2. Monotonous behavior, which is manifested in the child's desire to maintain the habitual stereotype of the environment, resistance to even the slightest changes in life, enthusiasm for monotonous motor and speech actions.

3. An early manifestation of a special type of child's mental development.

There are also criteria for autism, identified by the World Health Organization, included in the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases):

1. certain violations in the field of social behavior;

2. violations in the field of communication and verbal abilities;

3. narrowing of interests and activities that are both specific to the individual and often repeated.

The study of this syndrome, the search for opportunities for corrective work with autistic children was carried out by many specialists in various fields. The prevalence of the syndrome, its place among other disorders, the first early manifestations, their development with age were clarified, the diagnostic criteria were specified. However, much remains unclear in the clinical and psychological structure of RDA. No primary, biological defect was identified.

The most reasonable is the point of view belonging to V.V. Lebedinsky and O.S. Nikolskaya. In their opinion, the child’s ability to establish interaction with the outside world is limited due to the child’s low mental tone: interaction is limited by too fast satiety, so the formation of a continuous, holistic picture of the world around becomes difficult, and often impossible. This state of the child is the cause of many fears, sensory overload, when the impressions familiar to most people become sources of discomfort, unpleasant sensations.

The psychological mechanisms of development of a child with autism were reflected in the works of V.V. Lebedinsky, O.S. Nikolskaya, E.R. Baenskaya, M.M. Liebnitz and others. These researchers identified different groups of children with autism, depending on the intensity of damage to the basal affective sphere. Autism can manifest itself in four forms:

1) complete detachment from the outside world;

2) active rejection of the surrounding world, rejection of any contacts;

3) capture by autistic interests;

4) the extreme difficulty of organizing communication and interaction.

These groups of children are characterized by completely different types of behavior. These groups also represent different levels in the development of interaction with the outside world. With effective corrective work, the child rises up these levels, acquiring the ability to organize more and more complex and active forms of interaction. With the deterioration of internal and external circumstances, one can observe a simplification of these forms. The first manifestations of autism can be seen in a child under the age of 1 year and is usually finalized by the age of 3 years.

The psychological and pedagogical characteristics of autistic children of primary preschool age include:

1. Increased sensory sensitivity: the child cannot tolerate familiar everyday sounds, such as the sound of working household items, musical toys; avoids tactile contact even with the closest people; squeamish about playing with water, sand, etc.; feels uncomfortable in a brightly lit room, etc. Along with hypersensitivity to certain sensory stimuli, there is a pronounced fascination with individual impressions: tactile, visual, auditory, vestibular, which the child seeks to receive as often as possible. It should be noted that it is extremely problematic for an adult to connect to the child's repetitive games, as he prefers to play alone.

2. Peculiarities of interaction with close people: the child develops a “complex of revival” late; the child takes an uncharacteristic posture during feeding, seems inflexible, non-plastic; the child does not fix his gaze on the face of loved ones, looks as if “through”; attachment disorder.

3. Features of motor development: the formation of walking skill is delayed; gait disturbances are noted: walking on toes, waving arms, bouncing; movements of children are angular, pretentious, disproportionate in strength and amplitude, and features of fine motor skills are also observed.

4. Features of the need for contacts with other people: the child is quickly fed up, avoids contacts in every possible way, also an autistic child may not respond to the intrusion of another person, his touch, addressed speech.

5. Features of intellectual development: unevenness, partiality of development - for example, excellent computing abilities are combined with an inability to understand the meaning of a simple task. In a child with autism, the degree of intellectual impairment can vary from normal intellectual development to moderate and even severe intellectual disability.

6. Features of speech development: mutism (complete absence of speech) may appear; echolalia (repetition of words, phrases); stamp words; phonographic (“parrot”) speech, which can give the impression of a developed speech; lack of address in speech; inability to maintain a simple dialogue; late appearance of personal pronouns and their misuse; violations of the semantics of words, the grammatical structure of speech; sound pronunciation and other speech disorders. These violations, as a rule, are due to the underdevelopment of the communicative function of speech.

7. Features of the game: games are stereotyped, more often based on sensory experience, role-playing game is not formed independently.

This developmental disorder can be compensated to a greater or lesser extent, sometimes with the help of the effective work of specialists it is possible to achieve a very high level of social adaptation, but some autistic features still remain.

So, analyzing all approaches to the consideration of violations of the emotional-volitional sphere, it is worth noting that the authors identify a number of mental characteristics inherent in children of this category. Behavioral manifestations are also numerous and varied. These disorders are more often manifested with a delay in the mental development of hyperactivity, autism and other disorders. The most severe manifestations of disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere are observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

teenagers

Educational questions.

    Typology of violations in the development of the emotional-volitional sphere.

    Psychological and pedagogical characteristics of children and adolescents with disabilities

emotional-volitional sphere.

    Psychopathy in children and adolescents.

    Accentuations of character as a factor contributing to the emergence of emotional and volitional disorders.

    Children with early childhood autism (RA).

    The concept of violation of the emotional-volitional sphere in defectology defines neuropsychic disorders (mainly of mild and moderate severity). *

The main types of disorders in the development of the emotional-volitional sphere in children and adolescents include reactive states (hyperactivity syndrome), conflict experiences, psychasthenia and psychopathy (psychopathic forms of behavior), and early childhood autism.

As you know, the child's personality is formed under the influence of hereditarily determined (conditioned) qualities and factors of the external (primarily social) environment. Since the process of development largely depends on environmental factors, it is obvious that unfavorable environmental influences can cause temporary behavioral disorders, which, once fixed, can lead to abnormal (distorted) development of the personality.

Just as for normal somatic development, an appropriate amount of calories, proteins, minerals and vitamins is necessary, so for normal mental development, the presence of certain emotional and psychological factors is necessary. These include, first of all, the love of neighbors, a sense of security (provided by the care of parents), the education of correct self-esteem, and along with the development of independence in actions and behavior) adult guidance, which includes, in addition to love and care, a certain set of prohibitions. Only with the right balance of attention and prohibitions, appropriate connections are formed between the “I” of the child and the outside world, and a small person, while maintaining his individuality, develops into a person who will definitely find his place in society.

The versatility of emotional needs that ensure the development of the child, in itself indicates the possibility of a significant number of adverse factors in the external (social) environment, which can cause disturbances in the development of the emotional-volitional sphere and deviations in the behavior of children.

    Reactive States are defined in special psychology as neuropsychiatric disorders caused by adverse situations (developmental conditions) and not associated with an organic lesion of the central nervous system. The most striking manifestation of reactive states (MS) is hyperactivity syndrome, acting against the background of a "prolonged" state of general mental excitability and psychomotor disinhibition. The causes of MS can be varied. So, the circumstances that traumatize the child's psyche include such a psychophysiological disorder as enuresis (bedwetting that persists or often recurs after the 3rd year of life), often observed in somatically weakened and nervous children. Enuresis can occur after a severe nervous shock, fright, after a debilitating somatic disease. In the occurrence of enuresis, there are also such reasons as conflict situations in the family, excessive severity of parents, too deep sleep, etc. Aggravate reactive states with enuresis ridicule, punishment, hostile attitude of others towards the child.

The presence of certain physical and psychophysiological defects in a child (strabismus, deformities of the limbs, the presence of lameness, severe scoliosis, etc.) can lead to a reactive state, especially if the attitude of others is incorrect.

A common cause of psychogenic reactions in young children is a sudden strong irritation of a frightening nature (fire, attack by an angry dog, etc.). Increased susceptibility to mental trauma is observed in children with residual effects after infections and injuries, in excitable, weakened, emotionally unstable children. The most susceptible to mental trauma are children belonging to a weak type of higher nervous activity, easily excitable children.

The main distinguishing feature of MS is inadequate (excessively expressed) personal reactions to influences from the environment (primarily social) environment. For reactive states, the state is characteristic psychological stress and discomfort. MS can manifest as depression (a sad, depressed state). In other cases, the main symptoms of MS are: psychomotor agitation, disinhibition, inappropriate actions and actions.

In severe cases, there may be a disorder of consciousness (clouding of consciousness, impaired orientation in the environment), causeless fear, temporary "loss" of some functions (deafness, mutism).

Despite the difference in manifestations, a common symptom that connects all cases of reactive states is a severe, oppressive psycho-emotional state that causes an overstrain of nervous processes and a violation of their mobility. This largely determines the increased tendency to affective reactions.

Mental developmental disorders may be associated with severe internal conflict experiences when opposite attitudes towards close people or to a particular social situation that have great personal significance for the child collide in the mind of the child. Conflict experiences (as a psychopathological disorder) are long-term, socially conditioned; they acquire dominant importance in the mental life of the child and have a sharp negative impact on his characterological features and behavioral reactions. The causes of conflict experiences are most often: the unfavorable position of the child in the family (conflicts in the family, family breakdown, the appearance of a stepmother or stepfather, parents' alcoholism, etc.). Conflict experiences can arise in children abandoned by parents, adopted and in other cases. Another reason for persistent conflict experiences can be the above-mentioned shortcomings of psychophysical development, in particular, stuttering.

The manifestations of severe conflict experiences are most often isolation, irritability, negativism (in many forms of its manifestation, including speech negativism), depressive states; in some cases, the result of conflict experiences is a delay in the cognitive development of the child.

Persistent conflict experiences are often accompanied by violations ( deviations) behavior. Quite often, the cause of behavioral disorders in this category of children is the improper upbringing of the child (excessive guardianship, excessive freedom or, on the contrary, lack of love, excessive severity and unreasonable demands, without taking into account his personal - intellectual and psychophysical capabilities, determined by the stage of age development). A particularly serious mistake in the upbringing of a child is the constant pejorative comparison of him with children with better abilities and the desire to achieve great achievements from a child who does not have pronounced intellectual inclinations. A child who is humiliated and often punished may develop feelings of inferiority, reactions of fear, timidity, anger and hatred. Such children, who are in constant tension, often develop enuresis, headaches, fatigue, etc. At an older age, such children may rebel against the dominant authority of adults, which is one of the reasons for antisocial behavior.

Conflict experiences can also be caused by traumatic situations in the conditions of the school team. Of course, the emergence and severity of conflict situations is influenced by the individual personality and psychological characteristics of children (the state of the nervous system, personal claims, range of interests, impressionability, etc.), as well as the conditions of upbringing and development.

Also quite a complex neuropsychiatric disorder is psychasthenia- a violation of mental and intellectual activity, due to weakness and a violation of the dynamics of the processes of higher nervous activity, a general weakening of the neuropsychic and cognitive processes. The causes of psychasthenia can be severe violations of somatic health, violations of the general constitutional development (due to dystrophy, metabolic disorders in the body, hormonal disorders, etc.). At the same time, factors of hereditary conditioning, dysfunctions of the central nervous system of various origins, the presence of minimal brain dysfunction, etc., play an important role in the occurrence of psychasthenia.

The main manifestations of psychasthenia are: a decrease in overall mental activity, slowness and rapid exhaustion of mental and intellectual activity, decreased performance, phenomena of mental retardation and inertia, increased fatigue during psychological stress. Psychoasthenic children are extremely slowly involved in educational work and get tired very quickly when performing tasks related to the performance of mental and mnemonic actions.

Children of this category are distinguished by such specific character traits as indecision, increased impressionability, a tendency to constant doubts, timidity, suspiciousness, and anxiety. Often, the symptoms of psychasthenia are also a state of depression and autistic manifestations. psychopathic development by psychasthenic type in childhood is manifested in increased suspiciousness, in obsessive fears, in anxiety. At an older age, obsessive doubts, fears, hypochondria, increased suspiciousness are observed.

3.Psychopathy(from Greek - psyche- soul, pathos disease) is defined in special psychology as pathological temperament, manifested in unbalanced behavior, poor adaptability to changing environmental conditions, inability to obey external requirements, increased reactivity. Psychopathy is a distorted version of the formation of personality, it is a disharmonic development of the personality with sufficient (as a rule) safety of the intellect. Studies by domestic scientists (V.A. Gilyarovskiy, V.R. Myasishchev, G.E. Sukhareva, V.V. Kovalev and others) showed the dialectical interaction of social and biological factors in the origin of psychopathy. Most of the psychopathy is due to external pathological factors that acted in utero or in early childhood. The most common causes of psychopathy are: infections - general and brain, craniocerebral injuries - intrauterine, birth and acquired in the first years of life; toxic factors (for example, chronic gastrointestinal diseases), intrauterine development disorders due to alcohol intoxication, exposure to radiation, etc. Pathological heredity also plays a certain role in the formation of psychopathy.

However, for the development of psychopathy, along with the main ( predisposing) the cause that causes congenital or early acquired insufficiency of the nervous system is the presence of another factor - the unfavorable social environment and the absence of corrective influences in raising a child.

Purposeful positive influence of the environment can more or less correct the child's deviations, while under adverse conditions of upbringing and development, even mild deviations in mental development can be transformed into a severe form of psychopathy (G.E. Sukhareva, 1954, etc.). In this regard, biological factors are considered as initial moments,background that can cause psychopathic development of the personality; play a decisive role social factors, mainly conditions for the upbringing and development of the child.

Psychopathy is very diverse in its manifestations, therefore, its various forms are distinguished in the clinic (organic psychopathy, epileptoid psychopathy, etc.). Common to all forms of psychopathy is a violation of the development of the emotional-volitional sphere, specific anomalies of character. The psychopathic development of the personality is characterized by: weakness of will, impulsiveness of actions, gross affective reactions. The underdevelopment of the emotional-volitional sphere is also manifested in a certain decrease in working capacity associated with the inability to concentrate, to overcome the difficulties encountered in the performance of tasks.

The most distinct violations of the emotional-volitional sphere are expressed in organic psychopathy, which is based on an organic lesion of the subcortical cerebral systems. Clinical manifestations in organic psychopathy are different. In some cases, the first manifestations of a mental disorder are detected already at an early age. In the anamnesis of these children, there is a pronounced fearfulness, fear of sharp sounds, bright light, unfamiliar objects, people. This is accompanied by intense and prolonged screaming and crying. At early and preschool age, psychomotor anxiety, increased sensory and motor excitability come to the fore. At primary school age, psychopathic behavior manifests itself in the form of unbridledness, protest against the rules of social behavior, any regime, in the form of affective outbursts (pugnacity, running around, noisy, and later - school absenteeism, a tendency to vagrancy, etc.).

In other cases of organic psychopathy, attention is drawn to the following feature of the behavioral reactions of children, which sharply distinguishes them from their peers already at preschool age. Relatives and educators note the extreme unevenness of their mood; along with increased excitability, excessive mobility, these children and adolescents often have a low, gloomy-irritable mood. Children of senior preschool and primary school age often complain of vague pain sensations, refuse to eat, sleep poorly, often quarrel and fight with their peers. Increased irritability, negativism in various forms of its manifestation, unfriendly attitude towards others, aggressiveness towards them form a pronounced psychopathological symptomatology of organic psychopathy. Especially clearly these manifestations are expressed at an older age, in the puberty period. Often they are accompanied by a slow pace of intellectual activity, memory loss, increased fatigue. In some cases, organic psychopathy is combined with a delay in the psychomotor development of the child.

G.E. Sukhareva identifies two main groups of organic psychopathy: excitationsmoke(explosive) and brakeless.

At the first (excitable) type, unmotivated mood swings are observed in the form of dysphoria. In response to the slightest remarks, children and adolescents have violent reactions of protest, leaving home and school.

Organic psychopaths of the uninhibited type are characterized by an increased background of mood, euphoria, and uncriticality. All this is a favorable background for the formation of the pathology of drives, a tendency to vagrancy.

With a hereditary burden of epilepsy in children, personality traits characteristic of epileptoid psychopathy. This form of psychopathy is characterized by the fact that in children, with initially intact intelligence and the absence of typical signs of epilepsy (seizures, etc.), the following features of behavior and character are noted: irritability, irascibility, poor switching from one type of activity to another, "stuck" on their experiences, aggressiveness, egocentrism. Along with this, thoroughness and perseverance in the performance of educational tasks are characteristic. These positive features must be used as a support in the process of corrective work.

With a hereditary burden of schizophrenia, schizoid personality traits can form in children. These children are characterized by: poverty of emotions (often underdevelopment of higher emotions: feelings of empathy, compassion, gratitude, etc.), lack of childish spontaneity and cheerfulness, little need for communication with others. The core property of their personality is egocentrism and autistic manifestations. They are characterized by a kind of asynchrony of mental development from early childhood. The development of speech overtakes the development of motor skills, and therefore, children often do not have self-service skills. In games, children prefer solitude or communication with adults and older children. In some cases, the originality of the motor sphere is noted - clumsiness, motor awkwardness, inability to perform practical activities. General emotional lethargy, which is found in children from an early age, lack of need for communication (autistic manifestations), lack of interest in practical activities, and later - isolation, self-doubt, despite a fairly high level of intellectual development, create significant difficulties in education and education of this category of children.

Hysterical psychopathic development is more common in childhood than other forms. It manifests itself in pronounced egocentrism, in increased suggestibility, in demonstrative behavior. At the heart of this variant of psychopathic development is mental immaturity. It manifests itself in a thirst for recognition, in the inability of a child and a teenager to volitional effort, which is the essence of mental disharmony.

Specific features hysteroid psychopathy are manifested in pronounced egocentrism, in the constant demand for increased attention to oneself, in the desire to achieve the desired by any means. In social communication there is a tendency to conflict, to lie. When confronted with life's difficulties, hysterical reactions occur. Children are very capricious, like to play a team role in a peer group and show aggressiveness if they fail to do so. Extreme instability (lability) of mood is noted.

psychopathic development by unstable type can be observed in children with psychophysical infantilism. They are distinguished by immaturity of interests, superficiality, instability of attachments, and impulsiveness. Such children have difficulties in long-term purposeful activity, they are characterized by irresponsibility, instability of moral principles, and socially negative forms of behavior. This variant of psychopathic development can be either constitutional or organic.

In practical special psychology, a certain relationship has been established between incorrect approaches to raising children, pedagogical errors and the formation of psychopathic character traits. Thus, the characterological traits of excitable psychopaths often arise with the so-called "hypo-guardianship" or direct neglect. The formation of “inhibited psychopaths” is favored by the callousness or even cruelty of others, when the child does not see affection, is subjected to humiliation and insults (the social phenomenon of “Cinderella”). Hysterical personality traits are most often formed in conditions of “hyper-custody”, in an atmosphere of constant adoration and admiration, when the child’s relatives fulfill any of his desires and whims (the “family idol” phenomenon).

4. In adolescence there is an intensive transformation of the psyche of a teenager. Significant shifts are observed in the formation of intellectual activity, which is manifested in the desire for knowledge, the formation of abstract thinking, in a creative approach to solving problems. Volitional processes are intensively formed. A teenager is characterized by perseverance, perseverance in achieving the goal, the ability to purposeful volitional activity. Consciousness is actively formed. This age is characterized by disharmony of mental development, which often manifests itself in accentuatednews character. According to A.E. Lichko, the accentuation (sharpness) of individual character traits in students of different types of schools varies from 32 to 68% of the total contingent of schoolchildren (A.E. Lichko, 1983).

Character accentuations these are extreme variants of a normal character, but at the same time they can be a predisposing factor for the development of neuroses, neurotic, pathocharacterological and psychopathic disorders.

Numerous studies by psychologists have shown that the degree of disharmony in adolescents is different, and the very accentuation of character has different qualitative features and manifests itself in different ways in the behavior of adolescents. The main variants of character accentuations include the following.

Dysthymic personality type. The features of this type of accentuation are periodic fluctuations in mood and vitality in adolescents. During the period of mood rise, adolescents of this type are sociable and active. During a period of mood decline, they are laconic, pessimistic, begin to be burdened by a noisy society, become dull, lose their appetite, and suffer from insomnia.

Adolescents of this type of accentuation feel conformably among a small circle of close people who understand and support them. Important for them is the presence of long-term, stable attachments, hobbies.

Emotive personality type. Adolescents of this type are characterized by variability of moods, depth of feelings, increased sensitivity. Emotive teenagers have developed intuition, are sensitive to the assessments of others. They conformally feel in the family circle, understanding and caring adults, constantly striving for confidential communication with significant adults and peers.

alarm type.The main feature of this type of accentuation is anxious suspiciousness, constant fear for oneself and one's loved ones. In childhood, anxious adolescents often have a symbiotic relationship with their mother or other relatives. Adolescents experience a strong fear of new people (teachers, neighbors, etc.). They need warm, caring relationships. The confidence of a teenager that he will be supported, helped in an unexpected, non-standard situation, contributes to the development of initiative, activity.

introverted type. In children and adolescents of this type, there is a tendency to emotional isolation, isolation. They, as a rule, lack the desire to establish close, friendly relations with others. They prefer individual activities. They have a weak expressiveness, a desire for solitude, filled with reading books, fantasizing, and various kinds of hobbies. These children need warm, caring relationships from loved ones. Their psychological comfort increases with acceptance by adults and support for their most unexpected hobbies.

excitable type. With this type of character accentuation in adolescents, there is an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory processes. Adolescents of the excitable type, as a rule, are in a state of dysphoria, which manifests itself in depression with the threat of aggressiveness in relation to the entire outside world. In this state, an excitable teenager is suspicious, lethargic, rigid, prone to affective temper, impulsiveness, unmotivated cruelty towards loved ones. Excitable teenagers need warm emotional relationships with others.

Demonstrative type. Adolescents of this type are distinguished by pronounced egocentrism, a constant desire to be in the center of attention, and a desire to “make an impression”. They are characterized by sociability, high intuition, the ability to adapt. Under favorable conditions, when a “demonstrative” teenager is in the center of attention and accepted by others, he adapts well, is capable of productive, creative activity. In the absence of such conditions, there is a disharmony of personal properties according to the hysteroid type - attracting special attention to oneself by demonstrative behavior, a tendency to lie and fantasize as a defense mechanism.

Pedantic type. As emphasized by E.I. Leonhard, pedantry as an accentuated character trait is manifested in the behavior of the individual. The behavior of a pedantic person does not go beyond the limits of reason, and in these cases the advantages associated with the tendency to solidity, clarity, and completeness often affect. The main features of this type of character accentuation in adolescence are indecision, a tendency to rationalize. Such teenagers are very accurate, conscientious, rational, responsible. However, in some adolescents with increased anxiety, there is indecision in a decision-making situation. Their behavior is characterized by some rigidity, emotional restraint. Such teenagers are characterized by increased fixation on their health.

unstable type. The main characteristic of this type is the pronounced weakness of the volitional components of the personality. Lack of will is manifested, first of all, in the educational or labor activity of a teenager. However, in the process of entertainment, such teenagers can be highly active. Unstable adolescents also have an increased suggestibility, and therefore, their social behavior largely depends on the environment. Increased suggestibility and impulsivity against the background of the immaturity of higher forms of volitional activity often contributes to the formation of their tendency to additive (addictive) behavior: alcoholism, drug addiction, computer addiction, etc. Unstable accentuation manifests itself already in the primary grades of the school. The child completely lacks the desire to learn, unstable behavior is observed. In the personality structure of unstable adolescents, inadequate self-esteem is observed, which manifests itself in the inability to introspection, corresponding to the assessment of their actions. Unstable adolescents are prone to imitative activity, which makes it possible, under favorable conditions, to form socially acceptable forms of behavior in them.

Affectively labile type. An important feature of this type is the extreme variability of mood. Frequent mood swings are combined with a significant depth of their experience. The well-being of a teenager, his ability to work depends on the mood of the moment. Against the background of mood swings, conflicts with peers and adults are possible, short-term and affective outbursts, but then quick repentance follows. In a period of good mood, labile adolescents are sociable, easily adapt to a new environment, and are responsive to requests. They have a well-developed intuition, they are distinguished by sincerity and depth of affection for relatives, friends, relatives, they deeply experience rejection from emotionally significant persons. With a benevolent attitude on the part of teachers and others, such adolescents feel comfortable and are active.

It should be noted that the manifestations of psychopathic development do not always end with the complete formation of psychopathy. In all forms of psychopathic behavior, provided early focused Corrective action in combination (if necessary) with therapeutic measures can achieve significant success in compensating for deviant development in this category of children.

3. Children with early childhood autism syndrome.

Early Childhood Autism (RAD) is one of the most complex disorders of mental development. This syndrome is formed in its full form by the age of three. RDA manifests itself in the following clinical and psychological signs:

    impaired ability to establish emotional contact;

    behavioral stereotyping. It is characterized by the presence in the child's behavior of monotonous actions - motor (swinging, jumping, tapping), speech (pronouncing the same sounds, words or phrases), stereotypical manipulations of an object; monotonous games, stereotyped interests.

    specific disorders of speech development ( mutism, echolalia, speech stamps, stereotyped monologues, the absence of first-person pronouns in speech, etc.), leading to a violation of speech communication.

In early childhood autism, the following are also characteristic:

    Increased sensitivity to sensory stimuli. Already in the first year of life, there is a tendency to sensory discomfort (most often to intense everyday sounds and tactile stimuli), as well as a focus on unpleasant impressions. With insufficient activity aimed at examining the surrounding world, and limiting a variety of sensory contact with it, there is a pronounced “capture”, fascination with certain specific impressions - tactile, visual, auditory, vestibular, which the child seeks to receive again and again. For example, a child's favorite pastime for six months or more may be rustling a plastic bag, watching the movement of a shadow on the wall; the strongest impression can be the light of a lamp, etc. The fundamental difference in autism is the fact that a loved one almost never manages to get involved in the actions with which the child is “enchanted”.

    Violation of the sense of self-preservation is noted in most cases for up to a year. It manifests itself both in overcaution and in the absence of a sense of danger.

    Violation of affective contact with the immediate environment is expressed:

    in relation to the mother's hands. Many autistic children lack anticipatory posture (stretching the arms towards the adult when the child looks at him). In the arms of the mother, such a child may also not feel comfortable: either “hangs like a bag”, or is overly tense, resists caresses, etc .;

    features of fixing the gaze on the face of the mother. Normally, a child early develops an interest in the human face. Communication with the help of a glance is the basis for the development of subsequent forms of communicative behavior. Autistic children are characterized by avoidance of eye contact (look past the face or "through" the face of an adult);

    features of an early smile. The timely appearance of a smile and its direction to a loved one is a sign of the successful effective development of the child. The first smile in most autistic children is not addressed to a person, but rather in response to sensory stimulation that is pleasant for the child (slowing down, bright colors of the mother's clothes, etc.).

    features of the formation of attachment to a loved one. Normally, they manifest themselves as an obvious preference for one of the persons caring for the child, most often the mother, in feelings of separation from her. The autistic child most often does not use positive emotional responses to express affection;

    difficulty in making requests. In many children, at an early stage of development, a directional look and a gesture are formed normally - stretching out a hand in the right direction, which at subsequent stages was transformed into a pointing one. In an autistic child and at later stages of development, such a transformation of gesture does not occur. Even at an older age, when expressing his desire, an autistic child takes the hand of an adult and puts it on the desired object;

    difficulties in the child's arbitrary organization, which can be expressed in the following tendencies:

    the absence or inconsistency of the baby's response to an adult's address to him, to his own name;

    the absence of eye tracking the direction of the adult’s gaze, ignoring his pointing gesture;

    lack of expression of imitative reactions, and more often their complete absence; difficulty in organizing autistic children for simple games that require imitation and display (“patties”);

    the child's great dependence on the influences of the surrounding "mental field". If parents show great persistence and activity, trying to attract attention, then the autistic child either protests or withdraws from contact.

Violation of contact with others, associated with the peculiarities of the development of the forms of the child's address to an adult, find expression in the difficulty of expressing one's own emotional state. Normally, the ability to express one's emotional state, to share it with an adult, is one of the earliest adaptive achievements of a child. It usually appears after two months. The mother perfectly understands the mood of her child and therefore can control it: to comfort the child, relieve discomfort, calm down. Mothers of autistic children often have difficulty even understanding the emotional state of their babies.

As a result of studying this chapter, the student should:

know

  • the nature and essence of the violations under study;
  • theoretical concepts on the problems of disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere and behavior;
  • features of an individual approach to persons of this category;
  • the specifics of diagnostic and corrective work with this category of children and adolescents;

be able to

  • conduct a psychological and pedagogical examination in case of violations of the emotional-volitional sphere and behavior;
  • provide psychological assistance to families with these developmental disorders of the child;
  • provide psychological support for the education and upbringing of children and adolescents with disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere and behavior;

own

  • skills of primary and differential diagnostics;
  • skills and techniques for compiling and implementing correctional and developmental programs.

I differ from other people in that I care what they don't care.

person with autism

Features of development in disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere and behavior. general characteristics

Among children with disabilities, i.e. of those who have various deviations in psychophysical and socio-personal development and need special assistance, children stand out in whom disorders in the emotional-volitional sphere, manifested in their behavior, come to the fore. Behavior is used to denote the type and level of human activity, which is predominantly in the form of external actions and deeds.

Being a manifestation of a person's active attitude to the world, behavior is often considered in the context of leading human activities: such as cognition, communication, play, educational and professional activities.

Based on the definition of behavior, two equivalent components are distinguished in it, namely, the need sphere that causes activity, and the actual nature of this activity. "Access" to the first component is provided, first of all, through the analysis of a person's emotional states, their intensity, positivity and negativity of the emotions experienced. It is the emotions experienced by a person that reflect the significance and attractiveness of ongoing events and the world around him in general. Experienced emotional states are the first signals that speak of the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the actual needs of a person and the "call" for appropriate behavior.

It was the experience that was proposed by L. S. Vygotsky as a "unit of measurement" of the nature of the interaction between the child and the environment. The scientist wrote: “The experience of a child is such a simple unit, in relation to which it is impossible to say what it is - an environmental influence on the child or a feature of the child himself; experience is the unit of personality and environment". “In experiencing, therefore, on the one hand, the environment is given in its relation to me in how I experience this environment; on the other hand, the features of the development of my personality are affected.”

Despite the sufficient variety of classifications of behavioral disorders in general, the basis for qualifying behavior as deviant is the concept of the developmental norm in relation to various manifestations of human activity.

Among the children whom L. S. Vygotsky called "difficult" in the broad sense of the word, scientists singled out a group of children "difficult in the proper sense of the word - delinquents, children with character flaws, psychopaths" . The main feature of such children is a violation or delay in the development of higher socialized forms of behavior, involving interaction with another person, taking into account his thoughts, feelings, behavioral reactions. At the same time, activities not mediated by social interaction, namely, designing, fantasizing, solving intellectual problems, playing alone or on a computer, etc., can proceed at a high level.

According to the widespread classification of behavioral disorders in children and adolescents by R. Jenkins, the following types of behavioral disorders can be distinguished: hyperkinetic reaction, anxiety, autistic withdrawal, unsocialized aggressiveness, flight reaction, group delinquency.

In the International Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders in Children and Adolescents of the latest revision (ICD-10), these disorders are presented under the heading "Behavioral and emotional disorders usually beginning in childhood and adolescence" (F90-F98):

F90 - gynerkinetic disorders.

F91 - conduct disorders.

F91.0 Conduct disorder limited to family environment.

F91.1 - unsocialized conduct disorder.

F91.2 - socialized conduct disorder.

F91.3 Oppositional defiant disorder.

F92 - mixed disorders of behavior and emotions.

F93 - emotional disorders, the onset of which is specific to childhood.

F94 - disorders of social functioning, the onset of which is typical for childhood and adolescence.

F95 - tics.

F98 - Other emotional and behavioral disorders, usually beginning in childhood and adolescence.

Despite the heterogeneity of this group, the following general signs can be distinguished, indicating the presence of various disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere in children:

  • - pronounced affective manifestations in relation to others;
  • - inconsistency of the specific situation that caused the affect of the intensity of affective manifestations;
  • – inability to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships with peers and adults;
  • - a wide range of moods, with predominant dominance of a negative emotional background;
  • - Anxiety-phobic states associated with personal or school problems.

The above features of children and adolescents with disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere and behavior (children with emotional and behavioral disorders- EBD) formed the basis of the law on persons with developmental disabilities in the United States in terms of defining a special group of children and adolescents in need of special assistance. A serious violation in the emotional sphere and behavior, according to this law, is the manifestation of one or more of the following characteristics, observed for a long time and such a pronounced intensity that it negatively affects the effectiveness of the educational process.

A. Learning difficulties not related to intellectual, sensory factors and physical health.

B. Failure to build and maintain interpersonal relationships with peers and educators.

C. Inappropriate (inadequate) ways of behaving or expressing emotions under normal circumstances.

D. Predominant depressive state, feeling unhappy.

E. Tendency to develop physical symptoms of fear associated with personal or school problems.

Thus, a child with severe behavioral disorders or severe emotional disorders exhibits age-inappropriate behavior leading to social conflict.

Behavioral disorders always involve causing disturbance to other people. In any society, unacceptable are: physical aggression, constant manifestation of unhappiness, motor disinhibition or, conversely, pronounced isolation from people, timidity.