No abstract

It is well-known that communication is the main source and necessity of human development and activity. It promotes social relationships, self-image and a wide range of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Preschoolers communicate both with their peers and adults. It is traditionally assumed that peer communication greatly depends on the teacher-child interaction, leading role of the adult, and the child's own activity, which are the main elements of the Russian preprimary education system.Changes in social situations, reductions in available play time, greater engagement of children in activities and many other factors can affect modern preschoolers' peer communication. Therefore, the effect of teacher-directed and child-directed teacherchild interactions on preschoolers' peer communication important to study.The following methods were applied: peer-communication observation, the behavioral tests 'Magic room' and 'Mosaic' , and the sociometric procedure 'Two houses' . The sample included 49 Moscow preprimary students aged 4 to 6 year old (25 girls and 24 boys).The research proved that preschoolers showed better results in child-directed interactions, such as playing skills, compared with a similar situation in which the children were directed by the teachers. Additionally, the level of proactiveness, communication success, conflict resolution, prosocial behavior and emotional response to peer influence did not differ among children.Thus, the child-directed approach is more beneficial to preschoolers' communication development than a teacher-directed approach.

We present results of our study, the purpose of which was to find out the connection between the sociocultural components of the school educational environment and the first-graders' learning motivation. Our hypothesis is that the first-graders' learning motivation in a school with a communication-oriented model of the educational environment differs from that of first-graders in schools without communicative orientation. Using the techniques ‘Me at school’, ‘Six stories’ and ‘Let’s talk about school’ we surveyed 180 first-graders at two elementary Moscow schools: 126 children at school with a communicate-oriented model of the educational environment and 54 children at school without such orientation. The results revealed differences in the first-graders' learning motivation at schools with different models of the educational environment. The majority of the first graders at the school with a communicative-oriented model had pronounced social and learning motives and showed high levels of learning motivation. As for the school without communicative orientation, about a half of the first graders displayed motives of high achievements (to occupy a high status position in the future and get high marks) and had an average level of learning motivation.

The review contains detailed and full analysis of the study , which helps to understand some possibilities of psychological development of children who remained with- out parents, in situation of socializing and in adoption family, as well as to understand challenges for such families. This work deals with various aspects of development and upbringing of children in early ages: preschool, elementary school and teenagers. Anal- ysis of important contemporary issues has been done, such as international adoption, professional approach of adoption families, its status, difficulties and problem solving suggested by Russian, Italian and Spanish scientists.

The article describes results of a study on the level of mental abilities in mod- ern children and in their peers from the last third of the 20th century. It was assumed that the mental abilities of modern preschoolers differ from those of their peers who were brought up in the pre-digital era. Developmental levels of sensory and intellectual abilities of preschool children aged 6-7 years (N=156) (studies from the 1970s), preschool children aged 5-6 years (N=100) (studies from the 1990s) were compared to those of children aged 5-6 years (N=184) and children aged 6-7 years (N=236) who attended preschool departments in Moscow, Moscow region, Smolensk and Ivanovo in 2015-2020. The level of development of sensory and intellectual abilities was assessed using specific tests (“Standards”, “Perceptual modeling”, “Schematization”, “Systematization”). The data was processed using statistical methods: descriptive statistics, the Fisher test, the Student’s t-test for samples with equal variances and samples with different variances. The results of the study show that the level of some sensory abilities of 21st-century preschoolers is lower than that of their 20th-century peers. On the other side, the level of intellectual abilities of preschoolers who were brought up in the early 21st century is higher than that of their peers from the 20th century.