Introduction
In recent years, scientific interest in the problems of child aggression has increased significantly. Therefore, the issue of aggressive behavior of children is extremely relevant for modern society. Educators and teachers note that there are more and more aggressive children every year, it is difficult to work with them, and, often, teachers do not know how to cope with their behavior. The problem of child aggression and aggressive behavior requires an immediate and urgent solution. Due to the current situation, a modern teacher-psychologist working in the field of education is obliged to possess effective technologies for working with aggressive schoolchildren. At the same time, the work of a teacher-psychologist on timely diagnosis, prevention, and correction of aggressive behavior should begin already in elementary school, since, according to the results of recent years, aggression has significantly rejuvenated. If earlier it was about the initial manifestations of aggressiveness, mainly in adolescence, now this problem has become relevant for primary school, and the beginnings of militancy in children’s behavior are increasingly observed already in preschool age.
The Definition of Aggression
To consider the problem of overcoming child aggression in the old preschool age, it is necessary first to explain the general concept of aggression, its structure, and nature. The word “aggression” comes from the word adgradi (ad-on, gradus-step), which literally means “to move on”, “to advance”. There are a number of definitions of aggression in the psychological and pedagogical literature. According to one of the definitions, aggression is any behavior that contains a threat or harms others (Ogundele, 2018). When defining the concept of aggression, many researchers rely on the study of objectively observed and measurable phenomena, which are most often acts of human behavior.
Reasons of Aggressive Disorders in Childhood
A modern child lives in a world that is complex in its content and trends of socialization. The personality of a child is formed not by itself but in its environment. Children receive information about aggression from the family, from communication with peers, and from the media. Thus, the negative microclimate in many families causes the emergence of aggressive behavior, rudeness, hostility to peers and adults. Perhaps the child does not know how to do otherwise because the behavioral experience of children is still small. Aggression can also be a consequence of improper upbringing or internal discomfort of a child who has not been taught to respond adequately to the events he has to deal with.
The Way of Expression
According to the way of expression, there is aggression: arbitrary, arising from the desire, intention to hinder, harm someone, treat someone unfairly, offend someone. For example, a teenager who does not want his parents to come into his room expresses his dissatisfaction with them in a rather rude form. This also includes hatching plans for revenge for an insult, waiting for a convenient moment to strike back; involuntary, which is an unfocused and rapidly ceasing explosion of anger or rage when the action is beyond the control of the subject and proceeds according to the type of effect (Ogundele, 2018). The most illustrative may be a child’s tantrum when a child throws everything that comes to hand at the offender.
The Theories of Aggressive Behavior
The theories of aggressive behavior of children and adolescents that have received the most widespread and support in the United States are the theory of social learning and the cognitive-behavioral approach. According to social learning theory, aggressive behaviors are learned either through direct experience or from observation. The cognitive-behavioral model develops this position and considers anger as an intense emotional reaction to frustration or provocation, characterized by increased involuntary arousal, changes in the activity of the central nervous system, and cognitive designation of physiological arousal as anger (Verhoef et al., 2019). Thus, aggression is understood as only one of the possible open expressions of the subjective experience of anger.
Preventing Aggressive Behavior in Preschool Children
Methods
Methods of preventing aggressive behavior in preschool children include play therapy, projective drawing, doll therapy, music therapy, and dance therapy. Play therapy is a method of correcting emotional disorders, as well as behavioral disorders in children. Based on the name, this method is based on the game, the leading activity in preschool age. This concept includes many techniques that are based on the fact that the game has a great potential for influencing the child’s personality. With the help of the game, you can reduce aggressive behavior, anxiety, tension, and fear and contribute to creating close, friendly, and trusting relationships between people. Also, the game allows you to increase the level of self-esteem, will enable you to test yourself in various communication situations, removing the danger of socially significant consequences (Grazioplene et al., 2020). The game, first of all, is an attractive and close activity for preschoolers since it comes from direct interests and needs arising from their contact with the outside world, in which children are included from the very beginning.
Drawing
Projective drawing is currently used to prevent and correct psychological problems in children, which may be associated with increased aggressive behavior and various conflicts. It is noted that projective drawing as a preventive method is especially effective in working with older preschool children. Visual art classes can help a child to realize and understand himself, freely express his thoughts and feelings, and be himself. The most important thing is that with the help of creativity, a child can get rid of negative experiences. At the same time, visual creativity is a projection of the child’s characteristics and reflects both the real reality and the desired model. The main task of the projective drawing is to identify and understand the difficult-to-implement difficulties and experiences of preschool children (Grazioplene et al., 2020). The themes of the pictures are selected in such a way as to allow participants to express their feelings and thoughts graphically or by drawing.
Doll Therapy
The method of doll therapy is aimed at actualizing the feelings of the child. As a method, it is based on identifying a child with a favorite cartoon character, fairy tale, or with a favorite toy. The technique of doll therapy is aimed at actualizing the feelings of the child. As a method, it is based on identifying a child with a favorite cartoon character, fairy tale, or with a favorite toy. The therapeutic part of the doll therapy method can be aimed at finding internal resources, increasing self-esteem and self-worth, working with women’s needs, or forming a personal self-image in the future. This is only a small part of the requests that the method of doll therapy and art therapy in particular works with (Grazioplene et al., 2020). The process of creating a doll is always aimed at spiritual healing, healing your inner and outer space, building your own desired future.
Music Therapy
Music therapy is a method of working with preschool children using music in any form. It is used as a means of correction. Classical, jazz, folk music increases a person’s vitality, activates his creative abilities, and generally has a beneficial effect on the psyche. All kinds of rock music are depressing. Dramatically reduce the amount of memory, attention. Flashes similar to epilepsy attacks form in the brain. Quiet and calm sounds – stabilize the psyche. Loud sounds – destabilize the mind. To date, whole software packages have been developed, in which certain musical compositions for preschoolers have been selected. Music therapy may involve the use of music as the main method of influencing a person, as well as an addition to other preventive or corrective techniques to improve work efficiency. Music therapy is actively used to prevent and correct aggressive behavior, emotional deviations, motor and speech disorders, psychosomatic diseases, fears, behavioral variations, communication difficulties, etc.
Dance Therapy
Dance therapy is a method in which dance movements are used as a means of influencing the personality. Dance therapy can prevent aggressive behavior, anxiety, tension, neurosis, and other emotional disorders in children. Dance therapy aims to develop an awareness of one’s own body, create a positive body image, develop communication skills, explore feelings, and gain group experience. Dance therapy will be useful for children who are afraid to communicate and interact with peers; that is, this method will be useful for the development of communication skills in children (Grazioplene et al., 2020). Dance therapy is necessary for developing an emotional, physical, cognitive, or social life.
Conclusion
By way of conclusion, aggressive preschoolers are the age when aggressiveness can be weakened. Misunderstanding and ignorance of the causes of aggression lead to the fact that teachers miss the chance to reduce a charge, and in the future, the child will have problems in socialization. Thus, children’s aggressiveness may be based on a different motivational orientation. Usually, with the assimilation of rules and norms of behavior, the direct manifestations of child aggression give way to prosocial forms of behavior. Therefore, it is impossible to turn a blind eye to problems with aggression in a child.
References
Grazioplene, R., Tseng, W. L., Cimino, K., Kalvin, C., Ibrahim, K., Pelphrey, K. A., & Sukhodolsky, D. G. (2020). Fixel-based diffusion MRI reveals novel associations between white matter microstructure and childhood aggressive behavior. Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 5(5), 490.
Ogundele, M. O. (2018). Behavioural and emotional disorders in childhood: A brief overview for paediatricians.World journal of clinical pediatrics, 7(1), 9.
Verhoef, R. E., Alsem, S. C., Verhulp, E. E., & De Castro, B. O. (2019). Hostile intent attribution and aggressive behavior in children revisited: A meta‐analysis. Child development, 90(5), e525-e547.