Communication skills in children and adults. Skill development

Communication skills are a set of human abilities that ensure effective interaction with other people. Effective communication comes down to two main principles: the ability to correctly understand the interlocutor, that is, to correctly explain to oneself what he said, and the ability to correctly convey information, that is, to express exactly the thought that was planned.

Communication with other people, that is, communication, according to many psychologists, for example, Vygotsky, Elkonin, is the basis of human development and, in particular, the foundation of personality formation. In addition, communication is responsible for a number of other functions. These include managing one’s own behavior, fulfilling the need for communication, ensuring psychological well-being, organizing joint activities with other people, etc.

Communication skills are a necessity for a person living in society, since he has to interact with a large number of people, solving problems from different areas of life: from going grocery shopping to complex business negotiations. Communication skills are also responsible for the success of completing the task.

Low communicative competence leads to interpersonal conflicts and the appearance in a child or adult of a feeling of alienation, isolation, and uselessness, therefore the development of communication skills is important from a person’s earliest childhood.

In addition, there are a number of professions in which communication is the main method of work. These include professions from the fields of journalism, psychology, pedagogy, marketing and many others. Employees in these areas are required to have highly developed communication skills. However, it is also important for people not associated with these areas to develop effective communication skills, which will become the basis for social fulfillment, psychological satisfaction and help in the formation of interpersonal connections.

Formation of communication skills

The foundations of communication skills are laid in preschool age, when the child actively communicates with parents, peers and other people. In the process of communicating with adults, the child perceives and assimilates the model of interaction, and in communication he learns norms and rules of behavior. The child is actively exploring the social world, and he needs an adult who will explain the laws of this world and expand the child’s ideas about the space around him. Thus, the child assimilates those images that are inherent in the adult with whom the child interacts. He adopts facial expressions, gestures, vocalizations, the way of speaking and thinking of an adult. In addition, he copies the behavior of an adult in certain situations.

Also, the communication skills of a preschooler are formed in play, role-playing activities, which are leading for this age. During play, the child’s social, personal and mental development occurs. During the game, he reproduces situations in which adults participated and tries out their roles. In this way, the child participates in an imaginary social life and develops his communication skills.

When communicating, the child tries out various verbal and nonverbal behavior, learns models of effective interaction in various situations, learns to start, maintain and end a dialogue, develops the ability to listen to another person, formulate and ask a question, support a group conversation, etc.

Text of the book “Personal and communicative competence of a modern preschooler”

Tatyana Avdulova, Guzeliya Khuzeeva Personal and communicative competence of a modern preschooler: A textbook

Reviewers:
E. Yu. Uvarina,

Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Senior Researcher

N. V. Golubeva,

Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Researcher

Introduction

One of the main conditions and factors for the successful socialization of children in kindergarten and preparation for school is the formation of communicative and moral competence in the space of interaction of the child with peers and with adults. Modern primary school education, in the context of the implementation of federal state standards of the new generation, confronts teachers with the task of personal, social, moral and spiritual development of the child, focusing on the formation of communicative competence, moral feelings, emotional responsiveness, understanding and empathy for other people, the development of cooperation skills and citizenship . However, specific ways of developing communicative competence and personal competence in school conditions remain insufficiently developed.

The moral development of personality and the formation of communicative competence are directly related to each other, stem from common sources, and are imbued with common mechanisms. Morality arises from people's interaction with each other, socialization and focus on the other person. Communication is based on accepting each other, observing the rules of prosocial interaction and developing social motives. Morality reflects a holistic system of views on social life. Communicative competence is a semantic aspect of social interaction.

The relevance of solving the problems of communicative and moral development of older preschoolers is enhanced by issues of interethnic interaction in educational institutions, when various social, cultural and moral systems come into contact with each other in children’s interpersonal relationships, cooperation and play interaction. The task is also determined by the objective growth of individualism in ideology, which requires the identification of additional, supporting mechanisms of communicative and moral development that strengthen the internal regulation of the individual against the backdrop of weakening external, social control.

In the competency-based approach, personality development is understood as an extremely complex and multi-level process, the conditions of which lie in the planes of pedagogical influence, psychological support, social regulation, family relationships and are realized in the cognitive, emotional and social development of the child. Moral development includes the formation of moral thinking, moral decentration, the appropriation of moral models, the formation of value orientations and ethical emotions. Communicative competence includes the formation of the ability to cooperate and coordinate different positions, the ability to understand different opinions and expectations, set the goal of communication and achieve results, the ability to negotiate and use various strategies for resolving conflict situations.

Currently, little attention is paid to the communicative and moral development of preschool children. Most often, peer relationships are built spontaneously. In modern society, children have less and less access to free communication with peers. Children are rarely specially trained, shown how to communicate correctly and effectively with peers, what norms and values of communication to follow. Practice shows that a child of senior preschool age experiences the greatest difficulties in the area of communication and interaction with peers. This manifests itself in increased anxiety, aggression, inability to come to an agreement, to see the characteristics of a peer, the inability to carry out joint activities, and lack of formed value orientations.

An alarming signal is the fact that a large number of preschoolers prefer communication with a computer to real communication and joint play with peers. Research shows that 40% of modern preschoolers, when asked “What games do you like to play most?” They answer that they prefer computer games.

What underlies the formation of communicative and moral competence of preschool children, what are the means of diagnosis and development? We will answer these questions in our work. Of course, this is only one way to understand this problem. Issues of communicative and moral development of modern preschoolers require close attention and further comprehensive development.

Section 1 Theoretical aspects of communicative competence

1.1. Communicative activity of children in preschool age as the basis for the formation of communicative competence

Communication activity is crucial in the mental development and in the process of socialization of a preschool child.

In the studies of M. I. Lisina, E. O. Smirnova, communication

is defined as a special type of activity (
communicative activity
) that has its own specific structural components: needs, subject, motives and means.

In developmental psychology, three main areas of study of communication can be distinguished.

First

direction of research is aimed at identifying
the importance of communication in mental development
at different stages of ontogenesis. For example, within the framework of this area, the phenomenon of hospitalism was studied. Numerous studies of this phenomenon have shown that lack of communication leads to disruption of all aspects of development: physical, mental, social.

Second

the direction studies
the conditions and factors influencing communication at different stages of ontogenesis
. For example, we study how the style of communication between an adult and a child influences the formation and development of his need for communication. Also, within the framework of this direction, the phenomenon of popularity in a peer group is studied as a result of successful communication. Here it becomes clear which factors contribute and which prevent the child from fully communicating and achieving a high status among peers.

Third

direction of research is studying
the characteristics of the development of communication at each stage of development.
Traditionally, the development of communication is considered along several main lines. This is communication with adults and communication with peers in childhood.

Let us dwell on the description of these directions in more detail.

The importance of communication in mental development

Communication influences the development of all aspects of mental development. First of all, communication affects the development of the cognitive sphere (the development of higher mental functions), the emotional well-being of a person and self-knowledge and knowledge of the laws of relationships between people. If the importance of communication in the cognitive and emotional sphere decreases with age, then communication in the process of learning oneself and social reality throughout life does not lose its importance.

In Russian psychology, communication was considered, on the one hand, as a condition for the development of higher mental functions (L. S. Vygotsky), on the other hand, communication was considered as a special type of activity necessary for knowing oneself and others (M. I. Lisina).

Within the framework of the cultural-historical concept of L. S. Vygotsky, communication is considered as one of the necessary conditions for the formation of higher mental functions

.
According to the law of the formation of higher mental functions, a person is born with a natural psyche, the distinctive features of which are spontaneity, unconsciousness, and involuntariness. Higher mental functions, which are distinguished by arbitrariness, awareness, and mediation, are formed as a result of the appropriation of cultural and historical experience and go through two stages. For the first time, from the point of view of L. S. Vygotsky, HMFs appear in terms of interaction between an adult and a child, that is, in terms of communication. An adult is a bearer of cultural and historical experience. The second time HMFs appear on the internal plane, that is, they become part of a person’s consciousness. Communication, according to L. S. Vygotsky, involves not only the influence of an adult as a bearer of a sign function, but also the child’s attitude to the surrounding reality. L. S. Vygotsky defines the system of significant relationships of the child with the surrounding reality at each age stage as a social situation of development
.
In each age period, L. S. Vygotsky believes, there is its own special social development situation, which, in his opinion, determines the nature of communication and interaction between a child and an adult. Thus, communication is considered as a necessary condition for the development of the cognitive sphere
(L. S. Vygotsky, M. I. Lisina, J. Piaget and others).

Numerous foreign and domestic studies prove that communication plays a huge role in the emotional sphere

person. First of all, these are studies studying children who, for one reason or another, experienced deprivation of the need for communication. The concept of hospitalism was introduced by the Austro-American psychoanalyst R. Spits in 1945, who studied its causes, manifestations and consequences in infants who had been in hospitals for a long time. R. Spits noted a special condition in children deprived of maternal communication, calling it “anaclitic depression”; its symptoms were sadness, withdrawal, unresponsiveness, lethargy, and loss of appetite. Thus, M.I. Lisina studied children in the first year of life who were in an orphanage. She proved that insufficient communication primarily affects the emotional sphere of the child. The emotional manifestations of children deprived of personal communication were poor and inexpressive; such children showed less accurate discrimination of adult emotions and a delay in differentiating positive and negative emotional impacts. Emotional development is also influenced by the nature of communication. Foreign studies show that children who were abused by adults experienced emotional problems later in life. Emotional connections with close adults in early childhood determine the degree of emotional well-being of the child, form attachment and a sense of basic trust or distrust in the world around him.

Communication influences emotional well-being throughout life, but is especially important early in life and throughout childhood.

Communication also plays a leading role in the process of knowing oneself and the laws of social reality (knowing other people, features of interaction, relationships between people).

M. I. Lisina considers communication as a certain independent type of activity and as a condition for the formation of personality as a whole. The purpose of communication, in her opinion, is to know oneself and to know other people. Interaction with other people is a central component of a child’s holistic attitude towards himself, towards other people, and towards the objective world as a whole (M. I. Lisina, I. V. Dubrovina, A. G. Ruzskaya, N. N. Avdeeva, M. G. Elagina, S. Yu. Meshcheryakova).

Thus, communication is crucial for the development of the cognitive sphere (development of higher mental functions), for the emotional well-being of a person and for self-knowledge and knowledge of the laws of relationships between people.

Conditions and factors for the development of communication

The development of communication depends on many conditions and factors. Various factors can both contribute to the development of communication and lead to violations in this area.

Within the framework of the activity approach, three characteristics of age are distinguished, which determine the direction of development of communication. These are social situations of development, leading activities and those qualitative changes in the psyche that appear at the end of the age period. Thus, in preschool age, the social situation of development, play and achievements of an early age influence the formation and development of extra-situational-cognitive and extra-situational-personal forms of communication.

Communication that is appropriate to the child’s age is itself the main condition for the success of the development of communicative activities in the future. Thus, the study of children who are brought up in orphanages or in boarding institutions indicates that deprivation of the need for communication leads to disruption of its development in the future

. Research by E. O. Smirnova, V. S. Mukhina, T. N. Schastnaya shows that children in situations of deprivation are unsuccessful in resolving conflicts, they are aggressive, and incapable of empathy. Such children do not know how to establish equal relationships with unfamiliar children, or adequately assess their qualities necessary for selective, friendly communication. M.I. Lisina argues that the lack of communication between a child and an adult leads to hypertrophy, overvaluation of this need, to the dependence of the child’s emotional well-being on the adult’s attitude towards him.

In psychology, there are many conditions and factors influencing the development of communication. The most studied of these is parenting style.

Many researchers point to the influence of the parenting style that parents adhere to in relation to their child. Parenting style influences all stages of a child's development. Features of family education became the subject of research by E. Erickson, I. Maccoby, J. Martin [11]. They identified two criteria, two aspects of parental functioning. This is parental demand

/ control (sometimes called permissiveness / restriction) and
parental acceptance
/ responsiveness.

Demanding/controlling

- this is the amount of demands and control undertaken by parents in relation to their children.

Acceptance/Responsiveness

is the extent to which parents are supportive and sensitive to their children's needs and are willing to provide love and praise when children meet their expectations.

Based on these two criteria, D. Baumrind [11] when studying preschoolers and their parents, identified three styles of family education: authoritative, authoritarian, liberal. In recent years, researchers have identified another type of functioning of parents with children - indifferent style or detached parental functioning.

Authoritarian communication style (high control and low acceptance)

: a restrictive parenting style, characterized by many rules and restrictions, requiring maximum compliance with the expectations of an adult, unconditional respect and obedience, without explanation and little sensitivity to the needs and prospects of the child.

Authoritative communication style (high control and acceptance)

: characterized by reasonable requirements, constantly implemented, with understanding and acceptance of the child.

Liberal communication style (low control, high acceptance)

: An accepting but casual parenting style in which adults set relatively few expectations, allow children to express themselves freely, do not supervise their activities, and rarely regulate their children's behavior.

Indifferent parenting style (low control and acceptance)

: The undemanding and careless approach of parents who either reject their children or do not have the time or energy to care for their children.

According to many authors, an authoritative parenting style is the most favorable. Children of authoritative parents demonstrate high levels of cognitive (originality of thinking, high achievement motivation, intellectual competition) and social development (sociable, friendly, active, leadership). Children of authoritarian parents showed average, and children of liberal parents showed low achievements in cognitive and social spheres. The advantages of children who were raised in an authoritative family persisted throughout primary school and adolescence. The least successful parenting style is the indifferent or detached type of parenting. Children need both love and boundaries to help them shape and evaluate their own behavior.

Child abuse in the first five years of life also negatively affects communication. G. Craig argues that children who have experienced abuse are in a system of broken relationships; their socialization is carried out through negative communication experiences in the absence of support. Such children tend to be less socially competent than those who have not had such experience.

For a long time, studies of human development were based on the fact that it is parents who influence the nature of communication with the child, that is, the influence goes in one direction, from parent to child. Proponents of this view argued that an authoritative parent ensures positive developmental outcomes. In contrast to this view, proponents of the child influence model argue that the influence of children on parents is greater than that of parents on children. The transactional model recognizes that although children's development depends on their parents, children also have the ability to influence their parents (both positively and negatively).

Brothers and sisters, that is, the presence of siblings, is also one of the factors in the development of communication. Communication between siblings is characterized by extreme frankness. The closer they are in age, the more intense their relationship. Siblings are usually connected by a strong attachment; in communication they help each other to assimilate social concepts and roles [11].

If, within the framework of psychoanalysis, special attention is paid to the nature of the child’s interaction with close adults in early childhood, then many foreign researchers consider the level of development of social cognition as one of the conditions determining the success of the development of communication. The most common theories of social cognition are the cognitive-evolutionary approach of J. Piaget and the theory of role analysis of Robert Selman.

J. Piaget believed that the development of social-cognitive abilities in children is associated with cognitive development in general, in particular with the development of decentration and generalization.

D. Schaeffer identifies several phases in the development of social cognition.

First

The developmental phase of social cognition lasts up to 7 years. Children under 7 years of age characterize familiar people using concrete, observation-based concepts.

Second

phase – phase of behavioral comparisons.
Starting from the age of 7, children use the language of concrete concepts less and less, moving on to psychological descriptions. The use of behavioral comparisons
is most common between 6 and 8 years of age, but declines rapidly after 9 years of age.

Third

phase – the phase of psychological constructs.
One of the results of the behavioral comparison process is
children’s awareness of the systematic behavior of the people around them.
Children begin to attribute stable psychological constructs
. Thus, a 10-year-old child who previously described his acquaintance as the one who drew the best in the class may now say that his acquaintance has excellent artistic ability.

During the period from 14 to 16 years, adolescents not only become aware of the characteristic similarities and differences between people, but also begin to understand that various situational factors

(illness, family conflicts) can prompt a person to express his character [11].

Social cognition develops from taking into account external characteristics of behavior to awareness of the internal characteristics of the individual; from awareness of individual aspects of behavior to the formation of a holistic, coherent idea of the individuality of another person.

According to R. Selman [11], children achieve a much more complete awareness of themselves and others if they have the ability to take the point of view of another. If a child has not yet acquired the skills to acquire a role, then when understanding another, he can only focus on external factors (appearance, specific actions). role-taking skills

associated with the need to accept the point of view of another, to understand the thoughts, feelings, motives and intentions of another.

One of the main conditions for the development of social cognition is human social experience. Social interactions, primarily equal contacts with peers, are of particular importance for social development. They contribute indirectly to the development of role-taking skills and provide experiences that improve understanding of other people. Thus, J. Piaget showed that play interaction between primary schoolchildren contributed to the development of role-taking skills and mature social judgments.

So, the main factors influencing the development of social cognition are cognitive development; the ability to understand the intentions and characteristics of another person; role taking skills; social experience.

Thus, the most studied conditions for the development of communication are such conditions as the style of education, the degree and characteristics of social cognition, and the social experience of a person.

The success of communication is determined using sociometric methods.

To understand the meaning and role of communication in mental development, it is necessary to know the features of communication at different stages of ontogenesis.

Features of communication development

Traditionally, during childhood, two main lines of development of communication are considered, which have different effects on the development and formation of a person’s personality. They distinguish between communication with adults and communication with peers (J. Piaget, W. Hartup, M. I. Lisina, E. O. Smirnova and others).

In psychology, the importance of communication with adults and communication with peers is considered differently. Thus, in Russian theory, in particular L. S. Vygotsky, believed that mental development is determined by communication with adults, while some foreign researchers, in particular J. Piaget, believe that communication with peers is of greater importance in the development of intelligence and moral development than communication with adults.

It is traditionally believed that adults, influencing children, represent power, strength, and knowledge of society.

W. Hartup [11] identifies two areas of relationships: vertical and horizontal.

In the vertical area, the child is provided with protection and security, an internal basic working model of communication, and knowledge of social norms of communication. Horizontal relationships are characterized by equality, social skills are acquired here, and a sense of well-being is ensured.

J. Piaget in his work “Moral Judgment” proved that if through communication with adults rules are set that the child is forced to accept ready-made, then through communication with peers the influence and control of elders is reduced, communication groups expand, the child learns to cooperate and build a system himself rules According to J. Piaget’s definition, peers are individuals who are currently operating at a similar level of behavioral complexity.

Thus, in childhood, communication has two main lines of development, which have different effects on the development and formation of a person’s personality. They distinguish between communication with adults and communication with peers (J. Piaget, W. Hartup, M. I. Lisina, E. O. Smirnova and others).

Let us take a closer look at the stages of development of communicative activity during the first seven years of life.

Features of the development of communication in infancy

All achievements of infancy (the development of movements, the prerequisites for the development of speech, the formation of basic trust, the development of curiosity, and others) are directly related to communication. Lack of communication, lack of responsiveness of an adult, ignoring a child and cruel treatment of him leads to disruption of communication with others and a lag in all aspects of physical, mental and social development.

M.I. Lisina believes that the attitude of adults towards a child as an individual is a decisive condition for the development of communicative activity.

Many foreign and domestic psychologists pay attention to the nature of the attitude of adults towards the child (personal attitude towards the child, emotional availability, adequate response of the mother to the needs and activity of the child, synchronicity of interaction between mother and child, nature of attachment and others).

From the point of view of foreign researchers, emotional communication and the type of parent-child relationship formed during the development of attachment in the first 2 years of life form the basis of all future relationships.

Security of attachment is considered one of the most important conditions for the development of communication. The author of attachment theory is J. Bowlby. Attachment is defined as an emotional bond that is formed between a child and his mother or caregiver. The quality of attachment is measured using the Strange Situation test proposed by M. Ainsworth. The main criteria for determining attachment M. Ainsworth identifies the reaction to the departure / return of the mother and the degree of cognitive activity. According to the authors of attachment theory, the nature of attachment that develops in the first 12 months of life determines the success of communication with adults and peers in the future. According to J. Bowlby and M. Ainsworth, emotional communication is two-way in nature.

Many researchers highlight the importance of synchronicity and harmony in the interaction between mother and child. They believe that synchronicity in action predicts strong relationships at one year of age and becomes the basis for more complex communications. Interdependence and signaling in infancy lay the foundation for stable patterns of interaction. S. Bell, M. Ainsworth (1972) studied the mother's reactions to the baby's crying. Typically, mothers who responded quickly and regularly to their infant's cries in the first few months of life had babies who cried less by the end of the first year and more quickly developed other ways of signaling their mothers.

E. Tronik [11] conducted numerous “stony-face experiments”, with the help of which he studied the mutual expectations of parents and young children. The emotional unavailability of an adult caused negative experiences in the child, although the adult was physically nearby. This experiment demonstrates the importance of emotional communication between parents and three-month-old infants.

Also, for the successful development of communication, a single or similar codification of messages is necessary. From birth, a newborn's sensory system is tuned to perceive the human face. Newborns are exceptionally receptive to the human face [11]. Children begin to recognize their mother's face early. It has been proven that babies as young as two weeks show a preference for their mother's face. J. Carpenter [11], using the preference method, presented each child with an image of the faces of the mother and a stranger. As early as 2 weeks, infants preferred to look at a familiar face. Another example that a child's perception is tuned from birth to the perception of the human face is their ability to imitate facial expression. Imitation occurs even in children 2–3 days old. The ability to gaze at a familiar face and imitate the facial expression of adults are important factors in the development of interactive skills.

Thus, the harmony and synchronicity of interaction

mother and child, which are determined by both the activity of the adult and the activity of the child, are one of the main conditions for the successful development of communication.

The need for communication, according to M. I. Lisina, is formed during life, that is, it is not innate and develops in the first two months of life on the basis of primary organic needs and the need for new impressions. The researcher identified four criteria

the formation of the need to communicate with adults and peers:

1. attention and interest in another person;

2. emotional attitude towards him;

3. the desire to attract the attention of another;

4. sensitivity to its effects.

Communication with adults, believes M. I. Lisina, is formed in the direction: from non-verbal to verbal, from situational to extra-situational. M. I. Lisina presented the development of communication with adults in children under 7 years of age as a change in several integral forms of communication, which differ:

– time of occurrence of this form;

– the content of the need for communication, satisfied

children during this form of communication;

– motives that stimulate communicative activity;

– means of communication with the help of which communicative activities are carried out.

In the first half of life, direct-emotional, or situational-personal communication between an infant and an adult develops. The basis of situational and personal communication is the satisfaction of the child’s need for the friendly attention of adults. The motives that prompt him to communicate are personal, that is, the child is not interested in the specific qualities of an adult, but in his presence and attention to him. The main means of communication are expressive and facial means, that is, components of the revitalization complex.

In the second half of the year, a situational business form of communication arises. This form of communication satisfies the child’s need for cooperation with an adult. The child is no longer satisfied with pure communication; he is interested in communication about objects, that is, the motives for communication are business. Means of communication are objective-active and locomotor.

Studies of infants have shown that their need to communicate with peers has not yet developed. E. O. Smirnova believes that the other child is perceived as an object, and not an interaction partner. Many studies have proven that the success of communication with adults in the first year of life determines the subsequent success of communication with peers. Thus, the nature of communication with peers is subsequently influenced by the nature of attachment formed in the first year of life. Popular children have secure attachments with adults.

Thus: Communication in the first year of life is a necessary condition for full mental development. It stimulates the development of the brain, influences the formation of movements, the emotional self-awareness of the child, and communication also determines the development of the prerequisites for speech.

• The main conditions for the development of communication are the adult’s attitude towards the child as an individual, the nature of the interaction between the adult and the child (degree of attachment, synchrony, etc.).

• The need for communication is not innate, but is formed in the first 2 months of life on the basis of physiological needs and the need for external impressions. During infancy, the child develops and replaces each other with two forms of communication: situational-personal and situational-business.

• The success of communication with adults in the first year of life determines the subsequent success of communication with peers.

Features of the development of communication at an early age

The existence of situational business communication determines the transition from manipulative actions to the mastery of objective actions, the appropriation of a socially developed method of action. Communication also determines the pace and quality of mastering the phonetics and grammar of the native language. In situational business communication with an adult, the child’s first words appear. In order to get the object of interest, the child must name it and pronounce the right word. The task of saying this or that word is set by an adult.

Adult communication skills

The formation of communication skills begins in preschool age, but the process of their transformation, correction and improvement continues into adulthood.

The communicative competence of an adult is ensured by a set of abilities. These include:

Ability to establish and maintain contacts with others;
The ability to predict a communication situation and its features;
Ability to respond appropriately to critical statements or provoking behavior;
Ability to follow a given communication goal;
Ability to argue your position;
The ability to refuse, to ask;
The ability to manage interactions to obtain the necessary information from the interlocutor;
Ability to provide and receive attention, sympathy, support;
Ability to make contact and respond correctly to attempts to make contact;
The ability to create an atmosphere of trust and cohesion in the work team, among family or friends.

Disorders of development of communication skills

The development of communication skills is influenced by various factors, including upbringing, lifestyle, and the quality of family relationships. There are disturbances in the formation of communication abilities that may arise due to environmental influences. Independent communication skills disorders include:

No need for communication;
Tendency to monologue instead of dialogue;
Failure to take into account the context in which communication occurs;
The predominance of value judgments instead of providing adequate information, etc.

Impaired communication skills may be part of the pathological symptoms of diseases or developmental deficiencies. In this case, communicative apraxia, communication disorders, and psychotic disorders of communication processes may be noticed.

Diseases characterized by the presence of communication disorders include autism spectrum disorder (ASD), autism, mental retardation, mental retardation, Internet addiction, addiction to mobile devices, etc. People with general underdevelopment of speech, vision and hearing also have difficulties in acquiring successful communication skills.

The importance of the communication process in human life

Most of a person's life as a social being is devoted to communication.
It is in communication that people have a direct impact on each other, which differs in complexity. This can be a simple influence in the form of a request or offer, or a complex one, manifested in various types of manipulation. Success in various matters and activities in general depends on how well a person masters the art of communication. Note 1

The art of communication includes many components: the ability to hear your interlocutor, understand his messages, structure your speech and form a line of behavior in accordance with situations.

Diagnostics of communication skills

Assessing the ability of adults to communicate effectively is carried out primarily when selecting personnel for a field of activity in which communication is an important tool. Prospective personnel are given a series of psychological tests to determine communication skills, sociability, organizational abilities, and individual components of communicative competence.

In addition, diagnostics of the communication skills of adults can be carried out by a psychologist upon appropriate request in the context of personal consultations to solve various problems, during an examination to identify professional orientation, etc.

Children’s communication skills are diagnosed by a specialist in order to determine whether the child’s development corresponds to normative development and, if necessary, to draw up a psychological correction program. In addition, diagnostics are carried out to determine the most effective method of developing communication skills in a particular child. For example, it has been proven that the communication skills of preschoolers develop better in a role-playing game than in a situation, for example, educational activity or personal communication, since it is the game that is the leading activity of the preschooler, which means that it is in the game that the child’s effective learning and knowledge of the environment takes place peace. But for some children it will be more effective to use art therapy or fairy tale therapy.

Diagnosis of children’s ability to effectively communicate is also carried out if they have developmental disorders in order to identify communication features. Based on this, it is possible to draw up a plan for the child’s adaptation to society, give recommendations to parents, and build a correctional route.

Ways to develop children's communication skills

The easiest way to develop effective communication skills in preschoolers is through play. For this purpose, didactic and board games are used, as well as joint play activities with older children, adults and teachers. During it, children learn interpersonal communication, cooperation, can express emotions and relieve internal tension (for example, the exercise “Roar, lion, roar - knock, train, knock”). Children overcome shyness, develop team spirit, and their enthusiasm for communication and interaction grows (for example, the “Magic Wand” exercise).

The socio-game method is also popular for developing the communication skills of preschoolers, which involves organizing activities as a life-game between microgroups of children. The teaching methodology is aimed at developing the individual qualities of children and revealing their creative potential.

Work in microgroups consists of several stages:

Grouping according to various principles (by gender, month of birth, color of clothing, counting rhyme, etc.);
Coming up with a name for the team;
Appointment of a messenger who receives an assignment from the teacher;
Group independent work process;
Presentation of results and their joint discussion.

Activities for working in a microgroup can be different. For example, as a task to create a working atmosphere, children can fill out a “Mood Map”, in which children note in what mood they came to class, draw a sun, a leaf or a cloud.

Another example of a game is “Writing by Air.” The leader, whom the children choose themselves, “writes” a number, letter or geometric figure in the air, and other children from the team guess what was written or drawn. At the end of each lesson, children exchange impressions.

In the process of such joint work, cooperation skills, the ability to hear another, the ability to make contact and other important components of a complex of communication skills are effectively developed.

From experience in creating a social project

We developed the “Feed the Winter Birds” project.

Relevance of the project: the formation of a positive attitude towards nature, the development of responsibility towards it for one’s actions.

Goal : to activate communication skills in younger schoolchildren, to awaken in them the need for energetic communication.

Tasks:

Formation of communication skills and creative abilities;
To help younger schoolchildren realize the importance of their behavior for their lives and the life of the world around them;
Carrying out joint creative activities with active communication in the process of creating feeders.

Project focus: students in grades 3 and 4, as well as children of middle preschool age, should take part in the project.

Partners in the project: teacher and educators.

Using the project:

Students in grades 3-4 were able to act as mentors, helping younger children complete a project.
Carrying out joint work on the manufacture of feeders.
Formation of communication skills in children during joint project activities.

The results of the study led to the conclusion that the students taking part in the experiment significantly increased their level of communication skills. Therefore, we can assume that social projects are effective in this area of pedagogical work.