According to L.S. Vygotsky, it can easily seem that an infant is a completely or almost asocial creature. He is deprived the main means of social communication is speech. His livelihood is largely depleted satisfaction of the simplest life needs... He is in much to a greater extent is an object than a subject, i.e. an active participant in social interaction.

In fact, a careful study shows that in infancy we are dealing with a completely specific, deeply peculiar sociality of the child, which follows from the only and unique social situation of development, the originality of which is determined by two points.

The first is that the baby is distinguished by complete biological helplessness... The baby is not able to satisfy any of his vital needs. The most elementary and basic life needs of an infant can only be met with the help of adults caring for him. Objects appear and disappear from the child's field of vision thanks to the adult. The child moves in space on the wrong hands... A change in his position, even a simple overturn, is again entangled in the social situation. Elimination of irritations interfering with the child is again determined in the same way.

Thus, paths through others, through adults – the main path of the child's activity at this age... Absolutely everything in the behavior of the infant is interwoven and woven into the social. All contacts of the child with social reality are completely and completely socially mediated. Thanks to all this and there is such a unique and inimitable dependence of the child on adults, the fusion of the child and the adult.

The second feature that characterizes the social situation of development in infancy is that with the maximum dependence on adults, with the complete intertwining and wovenness of the entire infant's behavior into the social, the child is still deprived of the basic means of social communication in the form of human speech. It is this second trait, in conjunction with the first, that gives the originality of the social situation in which the baby is. By the whole organization of life, he is forced to maximum communication with adults. But this communication is wordless, often silent, communication of a completely peculiar kind.

In the contradiction between the maximum sociality of the infant and the minimum opportunities for communication, the basis for the entire development of the child in infancy is laid. The social situation of development at a young age is as follows: "child-adult". Social situation mental development a child of infancy - a situation of inseparable unity of a child and an adult, the social situation "WE", the social situation of comfort. The lack of communication in infancy has a negative impact on all subsequent mental development of the child.

Social developmental situation at an early age.

By the end of the first year of life, the social situation of complete fusion of a child with an adult literally explodes from the inside: two appear in it - a child and an adult. At that time the child acquires some degree of autonomy and independence, but, of course, within very limited limits. On the verge between ages in the crisis of the first year of life, a number of contradictions - as preconditions for the transition to a qualitatively new stage of development.

At first how the resolution of the contradiction becomes the most important acquisition (neoplasm) of age speech development , which is understood by others and is used as a means of communicating with others and managing oneself.

Secondly, until now, in almost every action that a child performs with an object, an adult is, as it were, present. As D. B. Elkonin, not a single human subject has a public way of using it, so it should be revealed to the child on purpose.

This contradiction is resolved when building a new social situation of development, namely - situations of joint activity with an adult. The child seeks to ensure that the adult does not act in his place, but together with him. The social situation of development at an early age is as follows: "child-object-adult".

This contradiction must be resolved in a new type of activity - objective activity aimed at the active assimilation of socially developed methods of action with objects (the second main new formation of early childhood). In this activity, speech, the semantic designation of things, a generalized-categorical perception of the objective world, visual-active thinking also arise.

Characteristics of full-fledged communication of an early age child with adults: - initiative in relation to the elder, the desire to draw his attention to his actions; - preference for substantive cooperation with an adult, an insistent demand from an adult to participate in their own affairs; - gullibility, openness and emotionality of attitude towards an adult, manifestation of love for him and a willing response to affection; -sensitivity to the attitude of an adult, to his assessment and restructuring of his behavior depending on the behavior of an adult, a subtle distinction between praise and censure; - active use of speech in interaction.

At first glance, it can easily seem that the infant is a completely or almost antisocial being. He is still deprived of the main means of social communication - human speech. His vital activity is largely exhausted by the satisfaction of the simplest vital needs. He is much more an object than a subject, that is, an active participant in social relations. Hence, the impression easily arises that infancy is a period of asocial development of the child, that the infant is a purely biological being, still devoid of specific human properties, and first of all the most basic of them - sociality. It is this belief that underlies a number of erroneous theories of infancy, which we will turn to below.

In fact, both this impression and the opinion based on it about the asocial ™ of the infant are deeply misleading. A careful study shows that we meet in infancy with a completely specific, deeply peculiar sociality of the child, which follows from the only and unique social situation of development, the originality of which is determined by two main points. The first of them consists in the totality of the infant's characteristics, which is striking at first glance, which is usually characterized as his complete biological helplessness. The baby is not able to satisfy any vital need on its own. The most elementary and basic life needs of an infant can only be met with the help of

INFANT AGE

adults caring for him. Feeding and moving the baby, even turning it from side to side, is carried out only in cooperation with adults. The path through others, through adults, is the main path of activity of the child at this age. Absolutely everything in the behavior of the infant is interwoven and woven into the social. This is the objective situation of its development. It remains for us only to reveal what corresponds to this objective situation in the consciousness of the subject of development itself, i.e. e. baby.

Whatever happens to the baby, he always finds himself in a situation related to the adults caring for him. Thanks to this, a completely original form of social relations arises between the child and the adults around him. It is through immaturity biological functions all that will subsequently be related to the sphere of the child's individual adaptations and be carried out by him independently can now be accomplished only through others, not otherwise than in a situation of cooperation. Thus, the child's first contact with reality (even when performing the most elementary biological functions) turns out to be entirely and completely socially mediated.

Objects appear and disappear from the child's field of vision, always thanks to the participation of adults. The child always moves in space on the wrong hands. A change in his position, even a simple overturn, is again entangled in the social situation. The elimination of irritations interfering with the child, the satisfaction of his basic needs is always accomplished (in the same way) through others. Thanks to all this, such a unique and inimitable dependence of the child on adults arises, which permeates and permeates, as already mentioned, the most seemingly individual biological needs and needs of the infant. The dependence of the infant on adults creates a completely unique character of the child's relationship to reality (and to himself): these relationships always turn out to be mediated by others, always refracted through the prism of relations with another person.

Thus, the child's relation to reality is from the very beginning a social relation. In this sense, the infant can be called the most social being. Any, even the simplest, relationship of a child to the external world is always a relationship refracted through a relationship to another person. The whole life of an infant is organized in such a way that in every situation, visibly or invisibly another person is present. This can be expressed in another way by saying that every relation of a child to things is a relation carried out with the help or through another person.

The second feature that characterizes the social situation of development in infancy is that, with maximum dependence on adults, with full intertwining and woven into the entire infant's social behavior, the child is still deprived of

L. S. VYGOTSKY

the main means of social communication in the form of human speech. It is this second trait, in combination with the first, that gives the originality of the social situation in which we find the baby. By the whole organization of life, he is forced to maximum communication with adults. But this communication is wordless, often silent, communication of a completely peculiar kind. In the contradiction between the maximum sociality of the infant (the situation in which the infant is) and the minimum opportunities for communication, the foundation of the entire development of the child in infancy is laid.

At first glance, it may seem that the baby is not a social being at all. He does not yet possess the main means of human communication (speech), his life activity is limited to the satisfaction of the simplest vital needs, he is rather an object of care than a subject of social life. This easily gives the impression that the infant is a purely biological being, devoid of all specifically human properties. In fact, the infant lives in a very specific and deeply peculiar social developmental situation. This situation is determined by the complete helplessness of the baby and the lack of any means of independent existence and satisfaction of his needs. The only such "means" is another person - an adult, who mediates absolutely all the manifestations of the baby. Whatever happens to the baby, he is always in a situation related to the adult caring for him. Objects appear and disappear from the child's field of vision always thanks to the participation of other people; the child always moves in space on someone else's legs and arms; the elimination of irritants interfering with the infant and the satisfaction of his basic needs is always done through others. The baby's objective dependence on adults creates a completely unique character of the child's relationship to reality (and to himself). These relationships are always mediated by others, always refracted through the prism of relationships with people. Therefore, the child's relation to reality is from the very beginning a social relation. In this sense, L. S. Vygotsky called the infant “the most social being”. Any, even the simplest, relationship of a child to things or in general to the external world is always carried out with the help or through another person.

The adult is the center of all situations in infancy. Therefore, removing it immediately means for the child a sharp change in the situation in which he finds himself. In the absence of an adult, the infant finds himself in a situation of complete helplessness: his activity is, as it were, paralyzed or extremely limited. In the presence of an adult, the most ordinary and natural way for the realization of his activity - through another person. That is why the meaning of any situation for an infant is primarily determined by the presence of an adult - his closeness, attitude towards the child, attention to him, etc.

The uniqueness of its reflection by the child is also connected with the objective social situation of the infant's development. L. S. Vygotsky suggested that, physically separating from the mother, the child is not separated from her either biologically or psychologically. This fusion with the mother continues until the end of infancy, until the child learns to walk independently, and his psychological emancipation from the mother comes even later. Therefore, he designates the main neoplasm of infancy with the term "pra-we", and means by it the initial mental community of mother and child. This initial experience of the fusion of oneself and the other precedes the emergence of consciousness of one's own personality, that is, awareness of one's own separate self. L. S. Vygotsky argued this point of view with two well-known facts.

The first concerns the infant's ideas about his own body: at first, the child does not distinguish his body from the world of things around him. He perceives and is aware of external objects earlier. First, he considers arms and legs as foreign objects and only then comes to the realization that these are parts of his own body.

The second fact confirming this point of view is the dependence of the child's reactions on the spatial arrangement of things. The physical distance of an object also means its psychological distance. Having moved away at a certain distance, the previously attractive object loses all interest for the baby. An object at a distance does not seem to exist for him at all. But interest revives with renewed vigor, as soon as an adult appears next to an object - in the same optical field with it. This is an extremely important phenomenon. It would seem that nothing has changed in the objective situation: the child perceives the object as remote and unattainable as before. But the affective attractiveness of an object at a distance depends on the presence of an adult next to this object. Moreover, the child does not yet understand that he can turn to an adult to get desired item... An adult is needed here not in order to get an inaccessible object, but for this object to become attractive to a child. If the first fact characterizes the infant's inability to isolate from the surrounding world and become aware of his own body and his autonomous existence, then the second suggests that the child's social relations and his relationship to external objects are inseparable for the child: the objective and social content is still fused for the infant. Both facts may indicate that the child's own mental life is realized only under the condition of mental community, in the conditions of the consciousness of the "right-we".

This view of the social situation of the infant's development radically changes the idea of ​​his development. In traditional scientific concepts, the infant was considered as a completely autonomous being, knowing nothing but himself, and completely immersed in the world of his own experiences. According to this view, the undeveloped psyche of the child is maximally isolated, incapable of social relations and reacts only to primitive irritations from the outside world. Only later does the baby gradually become a social being, socializing his desires, thoughts and actions. LS Vygotsky categorically refutes this view.

The child's psyche from the first moment of his life is included in the common being with other people. The child initially reacts not to individual sensations, but to the people around him, and it is through them that he perceives and learns the world... The baby lives not so much among lifeless external stimuli as in internal communion with other people. An adult for a baby is not an external environment, not a perceived and cognizable object of the external world, but the internal content of his mental life. At first, the baby seems to live in another, he is merged with him from the inside. And only in the future there is a gradual psychological separation from the adult. The autonomy, independence and independence of the child are the result of his further development... But in the first months of life, he lives (perceives the world around him and himself, moves in space, satisfies his needs, etc.) only in his immediate communion with a close adult.

This psychological commonality can explain the propensity of young children to imitate. The child, as it were, directly merges in his activity with the one whom he imitates. It is noticed that the child never imitates the movements of inanimate objects (for example, swinging a pendulum, rolling a ball, etc.). His imitative actions arise only when there is a personal community between the infant and the one whom he imitates. Moreover, the movements reproduced after the adult can significantly outstrip the child's own capabilities. This is the essential difference between imitation in animals and in children. The imitation of an animal is always limited by the limits of its own capabilities, so it cannot learn anything new through imitation. The child, on the contrary, with the help of imitation, develops new actions for him, which have never been encountered in his experience before. Therefore, young children learn a lot precisely through unconscious imitation of an adult. Numerous studies of the interaction between mother and child have revealed the specific activity of the child in this pair. The infant is able not only to passively obey the mother, but also to actively regulate his interaction with her. He can attract her attention to himself, direct her gaze to a certain object, control her actions. There is amazing consistency and reciprocity in the interaction between mother and baby. Numerous studies show the interdependence between gazes, vocalizations, facial expressions of mother and child.

For example, in a study by H. R. Schaffer, mother and child were placed in a bright room with many bright toys. In the course of the experiment, great similarities were revealed in their behavior. Mother and child had a clear tendency to look at the same object, and the child himself determined the direction of gaze, and the mother adjusted to his actions. K. Harvey studied the stereotypical games of an adult and an infant in the first months of life and found that the infant acts in them as an active partner, controlling the behavior of an adult with the help of a glance. The baby then looks at the adult, then looks away, then looks at him again, as if prompting him to look in the direction he needs. The experiments of V. Condon and L. Solder discovered the ability of a newborn to move synchronously with the rhythm of speech of adults already in the first days of life. Moreover, the synchronization of the infant's movements occurred only in response to the sounds of meaningful speech. Neither a meaningless array of syllables, nor a pure tone or musical phrase evoked similar movements in the infant. Such involuntary movements, synchronous with the sounds of speech, the author called "elusive ballet". Another artistic image that characterizes the harmony of interaction between mother and baby is associated with the image of a waltz. It was with the waltz that V. Stern compared the rhythmic mutual approach and distance between mother and baby during their interaction. This interaction is based on the exchange of calls and the alternation of roles: the mother and the baby alternately use facial expressions, gaze and vocalizations, rhythmically turning on their activity and stopping it when the partner calls.

The harmony and synchronicity of the interaction between mother and child is the most important fact of the psychology of infancy. This fact suggests that not only the child "adapts" to the mother, but she also adjusts to the child's actions. The child and the mother mutually change and develop each other. It is in this ability for harmonious interaction and in the general attitude to communicate with an adult that the infant's activity is manifested.

Social situation development. The specific reaction of a smile to the mother's face is an indicator that the social situation of the child's mental development has already taken shape. This is the social situation of a child's bondage with an adult. L.S. Vygotsky called it the “WE” social situation. According to L.S. Vygotsky, the child is like an adult paralytic who says: "We ate," "We took a walk." Here we can talk about the inseparable unity of a child and an adult. A child can do nothing without an adult. The life and activities of the child are, as it were, intertwined with the life and activities of the adult caring for him. In general, this is a situation of comfort, and the central element of this comfort is the adult. As D.B. Elkonin, dummy and wiggle - ersatz, substitutes for an adult, talking to the child: "It's all right!", "I'm here!". The main contradiction of age (developmental task). The social situation of the inseparable unity of a child and an adult contains contradiction: the child needs an adult as much as possible and, at the same time, does not have specific means of influencing him. This contradiction is resolved throughout the entire period of infancy. The resolution of this contradiction leads to the destruction of the old social situation of development that gave rise to it.
Leading type of activity. The social situation of the child's common life with the mother leads to the emergence of a new type of activity - direct emotional communication child and mother. As studies by D.B. Elkonin and M.I. Lisina, a specific feature of this type of activity is that the subject of this activity is another person. But if the subject of activity is another person, then this activity is the essence of communication. What matters is not what people do to each other, emphasized D.B. Elkonin, but the fact that another person becomes the subject of activity. Communication of this type in infancy is very pronounced. From the side of an adult, a child becomes an object of activity. From the side of the child, one can observe the emergence of the first forms of influence on an adult. So, very soon the child's vocal reactions take on the character of an emotionally active call, whining turns into a behavioral act aimed at an adult. This is not yet speech in the proper sense of the word, as long as these are only emotional and expressive reactions. Communication during this period should be emotionally positive. Thus, the child creates an emotionally positive tone, which is a sign of physical and mental health... Is communication the leading activity in infancy? Studies have shown that a lack of communication during this period has a negative impact. So, after the Second World War, the concept of "Hospitalism", with the help of which the mental development of children who lost their parents and ended up in hospitals or orphanages was described. Most researchers (R. Spitz, J. Bowlby, A. Freud and others) noted that the separation of the child from the mother in the first years of life causes significant disturbances in the mental development of the child, which leaves an indelible imprint on his entire life. R. Spitz described numerous symptoms of behavioral disorders in children and delayed mental and physical development of children brought up in children's institutions. Despite the fact that the care, food, and hygiene conditions in these institutions were good, the mortality rate was very high. Many works indicate that in conditions of hospitalism, pre-speech and speech development, separation from the mother affects the development of cognitive functions, on the emotional development of the child. A. Djersidts, describing emotional development children, noted that a child's ability to love others is closely related to how much love he himself received and in what form it was expressed. Anna Freud, tracing the development of children who were orphaned during the war and were brought up in orphanages, found that in adolescence they were not capable of selective attitudes towards adults and peers. Many adolescents have tried to establish a close parent-child relationship with an adult that was not appropriate for their age. Without this, the transition to adulthood became impossible. Observing the development of children in modern closed children's institutions, the Hungarian pediatrician E. Pickler discovered new symptoms of hospitalism. She wrote that the children in these institutions, at first glance, make a good impression. They are obedient, usually busy playing, walking in pairs on the street, do not run away, do not linger, they can be easily undressed or dressed. They do not touch what cannot be touched; they do not interfere with the organizing work of the adult with their demands. Although such a picture gives a feeling of satisfaction, such behavior, according to E. Pickler, is extremely dangerous: these children completely lack volitional behavior, initiative, they only willingly reproduce and perform tasks according to instructions. These children are characterized not only by the absence of volitional manifestations, but also by an impersonal attitude towards an adult. L.S. Vygotsky and his followers believe that the source of development lies not inside, but outside the child, in the products of material and spiritual culture, which is revealed to each child by an adult in the process of communication and specially organized joint activities. Therefore, the child's path to things and to the satisfaction of his own needs, according to L.S. Vygotsky, always runs through the relationship to another person. That is why the beginning of mental life consists in the formation of a specifically human need for communication in a child. In the course of long-term observations and experiments, it has been proved that this need does not arise on the basis of satisfying the organic needs of the child, but is specially formed in the communication between the child and the adult, which is initiated by the adult in the first days of the infant's life. Only such theoretical attitudes made it possible to take important steps in practice, namely, to take children out of the difficult state of hospitalism. In the study of M.Yu. Kistyakovskaya showed that children who were during the war in conditions of a lack of communication and therefore deeply lagged not only in mental, but also in physical development, were returned to life only after they managed to form an emotionally positive attitude towards adults and on this basis, to ensure the full course of mental development.
A special role is played by the teacher's interest in the personality of the child and in the versatile development of children. This is manifested in the adult's orientation towards signs and signals coming from the child, as indicators of the child's activity and participation in interactions. The child's understanding as an adult and the child's understanding of the adult's actions and expectations contribute to the establishment of a stable relationship between them.

The main psychological neoplasms of infancy. The period of infancy consists of two sub-periods: I sub-period - up to 5-6 months, II sub-period - from 5-6 to 12 months. First sub-period characterized by the fact that there is an extremely intensive development of sensory systems. N.M. Schelovanov noticed a pattern: in humans, sensory processes in their development outstrip the development of the motor system. Kittens are born blind so that they do not run away from their mother. Birds have a pronounced imprinting mechanism that ties them to their mother. The child does not have such mechanisms. His behavior is built under the control of sensing.
The general pattern of any behavioral act: first to orient yourself, and then to act. In a human child, at the very beginning of life, this is provided by nature. In the first six months of life, extremely intensive development of sensory mechanisms, elementary forms of future orienting reactions: concentration, tracking, circular movements. At 4 months, there is a reaction to novelty (according to M.P.Denisova). The reaction to novelty is a diverse sensory reaction, it, among other things, consists in the duration of keeping the gaze on a new object. Self-reinforced circular reactions arise when an object changes its properties every minute. Auditory perception develops. Reactions to the mother's voice appear. Tactile sensitivity develops, which is important for the occurrence of the act of grasping and examining the object. Develop child's voice reactions... The first calls appear - attempts to attract an adult with the help of a voice, which indicates a restructuring of vocal reactions into behavioral acts. Already in the first months of life, different types of vocal reactions develop: humming, humming, babbling. With correct and sufficient communication between a child and an adult, the phonemic composition of babbling corresponds to the phonemic composition of native speech. The movements of the articulatory apparatus are ahead of all other movements at this age due to communication.
At about 5 months, a breakdown occurs in the development of the child, and begins second sub-period infancy. It is associated with the emergence grabbing act- the first organized, directed action. This is a real revolution in the development of a child of the first year of life. The act of grasping is prepared by the child's entire life preceding it. It is organized by an adult and is born as cooperative activity a child with an adult, but this is usually not noticed.
The crisis of the first year of life. By 9 months - the beginning of the crisis of the 1st year - the child gets on his feet, begins to walk. As D.B. Elkonin, the main thing in the act of walking is not only that the child's space expands, but also that the child separates himself from the adult. For the first time there is a fragmentation of a single social situation "We", now it is not the mother who leads the child, but he leads the mother wherever he wants. Walking is the first major neoplasm of infancy, marking a break in the old developmental situation. The second main neoplasm of this age is the appearance of the first word. The peculiarity of the first words is that they have the character of pointing gestures. Walking and enriching object-related actions require speech that would satisfy communication about objects. Speech, like all neoplasms of age, is of a transitional nature. This is an autonomous, situational, emotionally colored speech that is understandable only to those close to you. This speech is specific in its structure, consisting of scraps of words. Researchers call it "the language of nannies." But whatever this speech may be, it represents a new quality that can serve as a criterion for the fact that the old social situation of the child's development has disintegrated. Where there was unity, there were two: an adult and a child.

Smirnova E.O. Attachment theory: concept and experiment // Questions of psychology. - 1995. - No. 1.
Freud Z. Introduction to psychoanalysis. - M., 1991.
Elkonin D. B. Child psychology. - M., 1960.
Elkonin D. B. On the problem of periodization of mental development in childhood // Questions of psychology. - 1971. - No. 1.
Elkonin D. B. The nature of childhood and its periodization // Izbr. psychological works. - M., 1989.
Erickson E. Childhood and Society. - M., 1992.

Part 2
Psychological features of infancy (first year of life)

Chapter 1
General patterns of development of the psyche of an infant

Features of the social situation of infant development

At first glance, it may seem that the baby is not a social being at all. He does not yet possess the main means of human communication (speech), his life activity is limited to the satisfaction of the simplest vital needs, he is more likely an object of care than a subject of social life. This easily gives the impression that the infant is a purely biological being, devoid of all specifically human properties. It is this notion that underlies most of the theories discussed above. In fact, the infant lives in a very specific and deeply peculiar social developmental situation. This situation is determined by the complete helplessness of the baby and the lack of any means for independent existence and satisfaction of his needs. The only such "means" is another person - an adult. Absolutely all manifestations of an infant are mediated by an adult. Whatever happens to the baby, he is always in a situation related to the adult caring for him. Objects appear and disappear from the child's field of vision thanks to the participation of adults; the child moves in space on other people's legs and arms; the elimination of irritants interfering with the infant and the satisfaction of his basic needs is accomplished through others. The baby's objective dependence on adults creates a completely unique character of the child's relationship to reality (and to himself). These relationships are mediated by others. Therefore, the child's relation to reality is from the very beginning a social relation. In this sense, L.S. Vygotsky called the baby "The most social being." Any, even the simplest, relationship of a child to things or in general to the external world is always carried out with the help or through another person.
The adult is the center of every situation in infancy. Therefore, it is natural that the simple proximity or removal of a person immediately means for the child a sharp change in the situation in which he finds himself. In the absence of an adult, the infant finds himself in a situation of complete helplessness: his activity is, as it were, paralyzed or extremely limited. In the presence of an adult, the most usual and natural way for the realization of his activity opens up for the child - through another person. That is why the meaning of any situation for an infant is determined primarily by the presence of an adult - his closeness, attitude towards the child, attention to him, etc.
The uniqueness of its reflection by the child is also connected with the objective social situation of the infant's development. Vygotsky suggests that by physically separating from the mother, the child is not separated from her either biologically or psychologically. This fusion with the mother continues until the end of infancy, until the child learns to walk independently, and his psychological emancipation from the mother comes even later. Therefore, he designates the main neoplasm of infancy with the term "Prams" and means by it the initial psychic community of mother and child. This initial experience of the fusion of oneself and the other precedes the emergence of consciousness of one's own personality, i.e., the awareness of one's own separate and distinguished self.
Vygotsky argued his point of view with the well-known observations about the development of the infant's ideas about his own body: at first, the child does not distinguish his body from the surrounding world of things. He perceives and is aware of external objects earlier than he recognizes his body. At first, he considers his hands and feet as foreign objects and only then comes to the realization that these are parts of his own body.
The second fact confirming this point of view is the dependence of the child's reactions on the spatial arrangement of things. The physical distance of an object also means its psychological distance. A previously attractive object that is distant at a certain distance loses all interest for the baby. An object at a distance does not seem to exist for him at all. But this interest revives with renewed vigor, as soon as an adult appears next to the object, in the immediate vicinity of it, in the same optical field with it. This is an extremely important phenomenon. It would seem that nothing has changed in the objective situation: the child perceives the object as remote and unattainable as before. But the affective attractiveness of an object at a distance depends on the presence of an adult next to this object. Moreover, a small child does not yet understand that he can turn to an adult in order to get the desired subject. An adult is needed here not in order to get an inaccessible object, but for this object to become attractive to a child.
If the first fact characterizes the infant's inability to isolate from the surrounding world and become aware of his own body and his autonomous existence, then the second suggests that the child's social relations and his relationship to external objects are inseparable for the child: the objective and social content are still fused for the infant. Both facts may indicate that the child's own mental life is realized only under the condition of mental community, in the conditions of consciousness of "prama" (community of mother and child).
Such a view of the social situation of the infant's development radically changes the idea of ​​his development. Usually the infant was presented as a completely autonomous being, knowing nothing but himself, and completely immersed in the world of his own experiences. According to this view, the undeveloped psyche of the child is maximally isolated, incapable of social relations and reacts only to primitive irritations of the external world. Only later does the baby gradually become a social being, socializing his desires, thoughts and actions.
LS Vygotsky categorically refutes this view. The psyche of a child from the first moment of his life included in the common being with other people. The child initially reacts not to individual sensations, but to the people around him, and it is through them that he perceives and cognizes the world around him. The baby lives not so much among lifeless external stimuli as in internal, albeit primitive, community with other people. An adult for a baby is not an external environment, not a perceived and cognizable object of the external world, but the inner content of his mental life. At first, the baby, as it were, “lives in another,” he is merged with him from the inside. And only in the future there is a gradual psychological separation from the adult. The autonomy, independence and independence of the child is the result of his further development. But in the first months of life, he perceives the world around him and himself, moves in space, satisfies his needs, etc. only in his immediate community with close adults.
This psychological commonality can explain the propensity of young children to imitate. The child, as it were, directly merges in his activity with the one whom he imitates. It is noticed that the child never imitates the movements of inanimate objects (for example, swinging a pendulum, rolling a ball, etc.). His imitative actions arise only when there is a personal community between the infant and the one whom he imitates. Moreover, the movements reproduced after the adult can significantly outstrip the child's own capabilities. This is the essential difference between imitation in young animals and children. The imitation of an animal is always limited by the limits of its own capabilities, so it cannot learn anything new through imitation. The child, on the contrary, with the help of imitation, develops new actions for him, which have never been encountered in his experience before. Therefore, small children learn a lot precisely through the unconscious while imitating an adult.

Influence of communication with an adult on the development of an infant

The relationship between mother and child was the subject of close study by psychoanalytic psychologists who made an important contribution to the study of infancy (R. Spitz, J. Dunn, J. Bowlby, M. Ainsworth, etc.).

The vital importance of these connections became evident during the Second World War, when many children from infancy were separated from their mothers and placed in various orphanages and orphanages. Despite the normal food and good medical care provided in these institutions, the children in them fell ill with some strange disease. They lost their appetite, their cheerfulness, stopped moving, thumb sucking or genital manipulation became their usual occupation. At the same time, the child's gaze was meaninglessly directed at one point, and the body swayed rhythmically. Life gradually faded away, and often such children died before reaching a year. Psychologists realized that all these symptoms are associated with a lack of communication with an adult. It is not enough for a child to satisfy his organic needs (eat, drink, sleep). He needs to constantly feel a close adult - to see his smile, hear his voice, feel his warmth. It was these "medicines" that helped cure sick children.

The disease that occurs in young children with a lack of communication was called hospitalism. The most severe forms of hospitalism are accompanied by "anaclitic depression", the symptoms of which have been described above.
Psychoanalytic psychologists for the first time drew attention to the fact that when there is a lack of communication with an adult, the mental development of a child is sharply slowed down and distorted. They showed that communication with the mother not only brings the baby a lot of joyful experiences, but is also an absolutely necessary condition for his physical survival and mental development. However, communication itself within the framework of this direction was considered as the realization of innate instincts or libidinal tendencies. The baby was perceived as a purely natural, natural being, which in the future is gradually socialized. A bond with his mother provides him with protection, security, emotional comfort and all his needs are met.
In contrast to this, in the cultural-historical concept, the infant is considered as a “maximally social being” living in a completely unique social situation of development.
So, the baby initially lives in direct communion with the adult. But this does not mean at all that he is a passive receiver of external influences emanating from an adult. From the very beginning, the infant is quite active in responding to the world and the surrounding adults.
Numerous studies of mother-child interactions have revealed specific activity child in this pair. The infant is able not only to passively obey the mother, but also to actively regulate his interaction with her. He can attract her attention to himself, direct her gaze to a certain object, control her actions. There is amazing consistency and reciprocity in the interaction between mother and baby. Numerous studies show the interdependence between the gaze, vocalization and facial expressions of mothers and babies. For example, in the study by H. R. Schaffer, mother and child were placed in a bright room with many bright toys. In the course of the experiment, great similarities were revealed in their behavior. Mother and child had a clear tendency to look at the same object, and the child himself determined the direction of gaze, and the mother adjusted to his actions.
K. Harvey studied the stereotypical games of an adult and an infant in the first months of life and found that the infant acts in them as an active partner, controlling the behavior of an adult with the help of a glance. The baby then looks at the adult, then looks away, then looks at him again, as if prompting him to look in the direction he needs.
The experiments of V. Condon and L. Solder discovered the ability of a newborn to move synchronously with the rhythm of speech of adults already in the first days of life. Moreover, the synchronization of the infant's movements occurred only in response to the sounds of meaningful speech. Neither a meaningless array of syllables, nor a pure tone or musical phrase evoked similar movements in the infant. Such involuntary movements, synchronous with the sounds of speech, the author called "elusive ballet".
Another artistic image that characterizes the harmony of interaction between mother and baby is associated with the image of a waltz. It was with the waltz that V. Stern compared the rhythmic mutual approach and distance between mother and baby during their interaction. This interaction is based on the exchange of calls and the alternation of roles: the mother and the baby alternately use facial expressions, gaze and vocalizations, rhythmically turning on their activity and stopping it when the partner calls.
The harmony and synchronicity of the interaction between mother and child is the most important fact of the psychology of infancy. This fact suggests that not only the child "adapts" to the mother, but she also adjusts to the child's actions. The child and the mother mutually change and develop each other. It is in this ability for harmonious interaction and in the general attitude to communicate with an adult that the infant's activity is manifested.

Microperiods of infancy

The younger the child, the faster his mental development takes place. Therefore, the first year of life is the period of the most intense and rapid changes in the child's psyche. In the first 12 months, the baby goes through a truly enormous path in its development. At 2-3 months, he perceives the world around him and close adults in a completely different way than at 10-12 months. Such rapid qualitative changes in the child's attitude to the world and in the nature of his activity prompt the identification of certain stages of development within the first year of life.
MI Lisina, relying on studies of the infant's psyche, identified three microperiods of infancy, each of which is characterized by a peculiar social situation of development, the type of the child's leading activity and the main neoplasm of the given period.
First period- newborn - takes the first month of a child's life. During this period, the baby's body adapts to the outside world and tunes in to the adult's perception. Due to the personal, subjective attitude of the adult and his individual appeal to the baby, at the end of the first month, visual concentration appears on the adult's face and a smile turned to him.
Second period lasts from 1 to 6 months. At this time, the main and leading activity of the infant is direct-emotional or situational-personal communication with an adult, in which there is an intensive development of the personality and all mental processes of the child. At the end of this period, the child's first active actions aimed at the object appear.
Third period takes the second half of the first year of life. At this age, the child develops and comes to the position of leading manipulative activity with objects. The main thing for the child is the situational-business form of communication with an adult.
The following chapters are devoted to a more detailed examination of these periods and the most important lines of development in the first year of life.

Outcomes

The baby can be considered as the most social being, since from the moment of birth his life is included in the common being with other people. All his relationships with the world are mediated by close adults. The psychological separation from the adult occurs in more later periods... In the first year, the child's mental life takes place in interaction with adults. The followers of the psychoanalytic direction discovered the phenomenon of hospitalism, which consists in a sharp lag and deformation of the mental development of a child with a lack of communication with an adult.
The infant is not a passive being that responds to external signals. He not only accepts the influence of the mother, but also actively influences her behavior and is capable of a full-fledged dialogue. This ability to actively influence close adults and forms the basis of the infant's activity.
Infancy is not a uniform period. Within it, three qualitatively unique periods of the child's mental development are distinguished: newborn, the first and second half of the first year of life.

Questions

1. Why an infant can be considered as the most social being?
2. What facts can prove the mental community of an infant and an adult?
3. What is hospitalism and what are the main symptoms and causes of this phenomenon?
4. What is the activity of the baby?
5. What are the main stages of a child's mental development distinguished in the first year of life?

Chapter 2
General characteristics of the neonatal period

Birth crisis

Currently, there is a heated debate about the mental life of a child in the womb. Some doctors and psychologists attribute completely conscious human experiences to the unborn child. Even a special direction has appeared - prenatal pedagogy, the task of which is to organize the most useful external influences for intrauterine mental development. These influences are predominantly music. Listening to good classical music in your mom's belly is supposed to promote intense and effective development psyche of the baby. Now it is difficult to speak about the legitimacy of these assumptions, since these assumptions have not received any clear scientific confirmation (however, as well as refutations). And although it is difficult to talk about conscious aesthetic experiences of the embryo, the unborn child undoubtedly has an elementary sensitivity. He is sensitive to vestibular stimuli during the movements of the mother, which seem to rock him, he freezes and stops moving, and at rest resumes movements with his arms and legs. He has an elementary visual sensitivity. A baby's hearing aid also functions long before it is born. Even in the womb, he hears all the sounds of the mother's voice, catches the beating of the mother's heart, reacts to sounds coming from outside. But all this rather rich sensitivity is, as it were, refracted through the mother's body. Inside the mother's womb, the baby is reliably protected from all sharp and strong influences from the outside world. These influences come to him softened, as if "tamed", having passed through the soft screen of the mother's abdomen.
And so, at one moment everything changes dramatically. In fact, instantly, without any transition, the familiar and safe world collapses, pushes it out, and a stormy stream of strong, sharp and unfamiliar sensations falls on the child. Here is how E. V. Subbotsky dramatically describes the moment of birth:

"Prison", hitherto tenderly embracing the child, rebelled. She squeezes him harder and harder, trying to crush him. The head rests against the wall. An unknown force presses so that death seems inevitable ... Suffering and pain reach their peak.
And suddenly everything explodes. The universe is flooded with light. There is no more "prison", there is no unknown terrible force. The baby was born. He is terrified: nothing more touches his back, his head, nothing supports him ...
“Look at a newborn in the first minutes of his life. This tragic face mask, closed eyes, screaming mouth. This thrown back head, hands that gripped her, legs, tense to the limit. This body, which resembles a spasm, is not all this saying, screaming to us: "Don't touch me, don't touch me!" - and at the same time: "Don't leave me, don't leave me!" ... You say hell doesn't exist? But he is, and not there, not beyond the threshold of life, but at its beginning. What if you were placed naked in the refrigerator upside down, filled with caustic smoke, and then blinded by searchlights to the thunder of explosions? “This is also in bad dream will not dream, ”you say. And nevertheless, isn't it the same experience for a child who sees the light for the first time? "

Of course, in this artistic description, the suffering of the newborn is overly dramatized and psychologized. But there is some truth in it. Birth is always an abrupt transition to something new. This moment and the entire period of neonatal that follows it are crisis, transition period.

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