Socialization is the assimilation by man of morality, moral norms and values, as well as the rules of behavior in the society that surrounds him. Socialization is carried out mainly through communication, and since the first person with whom the child begins to communicate and feel the need for it is the mother (or the person replacing it), the family acts as the first and main "institution of socialization".
Socialization of preschool children is a long and multifaceted process. This is an important step on the way to entering the outside world - ambiguous and unfamiliar. Depending on the success of the adaptation process, the child gradually assumes a role in society, learns to behave in accordance with the requirements of society, constantly groping for a shaky balance between them and their own needs. These features in pedagogy are called factors of socialization.
Factors of socialization of the personality of the preschool child
- external factors - determine the content and form of the socialization of preschoolers, determine the vectors for their further development. These include the aforementioned family, children's collective, for example, in the courtyard, early development centers, interest clubs, preschools, and the culture and religion of a social group;
- internal factors - the individual characteristics of the child, which directly affect the formation of his picture of the world and determine the style of experiencing interpersonal relationships.
The problem of the socialization of the personality of preschool children is one of the basic problems in pedagogy and age psychology, since its success determines the ability of an individual to function fully in society as an active subject. From the degree of socialization depends on how harmoniously developed the preschool child will be, assimilating at the initial stages of the socialization process the norms and attitudes necessary to become a full and equal member of his social environment.
Features of socialization of children of preschool age
Ways and means of socialization of the preschooler's personality directly depend on the age stage of development and are determined by the type of leading activity. Depending on age, the main thing in the child's personal development is the following:
- For children up to a year the most important is communication within the family. It is through the prism of family relations and values that they perceive and assimilate basic information about the external world, formulate patterns of behavior;
- after a year and up to about 3 years, children need to communicate in a children's team. That is why it is important to create conditions for the possibility of full-fledged interpersonal communications-that is, to take the child to early development groups, to playgrounds, to the garden . There, children learn to communicate with their own kind, teach each other simple norms of coexistence in society, for example, the need to be friends , share, empathize;
- from 3 to 6 years, the main means of cognizing the world for a child is his own speech: he learns to ask questions, build a dialogue, and analyze knowledge obtained verbally.
It is important to remember that at any age, the preschooler's socialization takes place mainly through play. That is why new methods of development are constantly being developed and improved, aimed at providing information in a simple, accessible, playful form - that is, one that will be interesting.
Gender socialization of preschool children
Gender is a social gender, so gender socialization is the definition in the process of socialization of belonging to a particular sex and the assimilation of appropriate norms of behavior.
Sexual socialization in the preschool age begins in the family, where the child assimilates the social roles of mother (woman) and father (men) and projects it on their own interpersonal relationships. A good example of gender socialization of pre-school children is the game "Daughters-mothers", which is a kind of indicator of the learned sex-role norms.