School maladjustment: what it is, causes and signs

School maladjustment is a very common phenomenon among modern schoolchildren. A large number of children experience serious problems with adaptation to the educational process, which manifest themselves in various ways. This has a negative impact on their academic performance, interests and relationships with teachers and peers. This disorder often manifests itself in younger schoolchildren who were unable to adapt to educational activities in time, although it is also quite common among adolescents.

School maladaptation - what is it, concept

School maladjustment is a disruption in the functioning of the child’s adaptation mechanisms to the educational process, which affects his productivity and relationships with others. It can be triggered by various factors, which most often come together:

• heredity;
• individual characteristics and neoplasms;
• relationships with family or individuals;
• problems in establishing social contacts, etc.

Schoolchildren who are at risk of school maladaptation experience difficulties in adaptation, have problems with mastering educational material and academic performance. Their relationships with peers and adults are difficult. And personal development proceeds sluggishly: these are often infantile children, they like to lie, they easily fall under the influence of others, and they are poorly aware of their “I”.

Psychogenic school maladaptation is a phenomenon that can begin to develop at any time during education. It occurs especially often during the transition from kindergarten to school, and then during the transition from primary to secondary school. Often, any personality conflicts of the child provoke the occurrence of a violation. Therefore, the problem of social and school maladaptation has long remained relevant in pedagogy and psychology.

Child maladjustment is perceived as difficulty in educating - a child’s resistance to targeted pedagogical influence, caused by a variety of reasons:

• miscalculations of education;
• characteristics of character and temperament;
• personal characteristics.

Disadaptation can be pathogenic (psychogenic), psychosocial, social.

Pathogenic maladaptation is caused by deviations in mental development, neuropsychiatric diseases, which are based on functional and organic lesions of the nervous system.

Pathogenic maladaptation can be persistent. There is psychogenic maladaptation, which can be caused by an unfavorable social, school, family situation (bad habits, enuresis, etc.)

Psychosocial maladaptation is associated with the gender, age and individual psychological characteristics of the child, which determine his non-standard nature and require an individual approach in the conditions of a children's educational institution.

Persistent forms of psychosocial maladjustment

• character accentuations,
• features of the emotional-volitional and motivational-cognitive spheres,
• advanced development of the child, making the child “inconvenient” for students.

Unstable forms of psychosocial maladjustment:

• crisis periods of child development,
• mental states provoked by traumatic circumstances (divorce of parents, conflict, falling in love).

Social maladaptation manifests itself in violations of moral norms, asocial forms of behavior, and deformation of value orientations. There are two stages: pedagogical neglect and social neglect.

Social maladjustment is characterized by the following signs:

• lack of communication skills,
• inadequate assessment of oneself in the communication system,
• high demands on others,
• emotional imbalance,
• attitudes that prevent communication
• anxiety and fear of communication,
• isolation.

In addition to the concept of “maladaptation,” the concept of resocialization is distinguished - an organized socio-pedagogical process of restoring social status, lost or unformed social skills and orientations through inclusion in new positively oriented relationships.

Both family and school can be factors of maladjustment.

The school performs a variety of functions: educates; educates; socializes (spontaneously, purposefully). Once a child enters school, he acquires new factors that influence the child’s relationship to himself, to school, and to the child’s status in the classroom and at home. Not only his first name, but also his last name and nickname appear in his mind; his figure and motor skills acquire new meanings. The motivational-need sphere is being restructured, the claim to recognition from adults and peers occupies an important place in it, and responsibilities appear.

The teacher is the most significant adult for a child at the beginning of school, and the presence of such qualities as perseverance, self-control, self-esteem, good manners leads to the fact that the teacher accepts the student, satisfies his claims or recognition. If these qualities are not formed, the child’s maladjustment is possible.

Research conducted in England has shown that the greatest problems among students arise in schools with unstable teaching staff. A teacher's expectation of only bad things from a student leads to increased maladaptation; classmates adopt the teacher's bad attitude towards a particular student. The following pattern emerges: rude staff – rude children; Corporal punishment is aggression.

The task of the teacher (and psychologist) is to find opportunities to reward weak students for achievements (for improvements); children should receive positive emotions from school, they should feel needed and responsible. Interest in the child’s studies and success (rather than control over studies) on the part of teachers and parents improves academic performance.

Communication styles between teachers and students can be different: authoritarian, democratic, permissive. Children need direction and guidance, so an authoritarian (or democratic) approach in the early grades is preferable to a permissive one. In high school, the best results are achieved by the democratic style.

Claims for recognition among peers cause children to have ambivalent relationships (friendship - rivalry), the desire to be like everyone else and better than everyone else; pronounced comfortable reactions and the desire to assert oneself among peers; (feelings of schadenfreude and envy) lead to the fact that the failure of others can cause a feeling of superiority. Teacher's comparison of students with each other leads to alienation among children, which can cause rivalry and difficulties in relationships.

The lack of communication skills and significant skills and abilities can lead to disruptions in relationships with peers, which will lead to increased difficulties both in communicating with peers and adults, and to the emergence of problems with learning. Violation of the child’s relationships with other children is an indicator of anomalies in the process of mental development and can serve as a kind of “litmus test” for the child’s adaptation to the conditions of existence at school. Sympathy more often arises in the neighborhood (in the classroom, in the yard, in extracurricular activities), which a teacher and psychologist can use to improve the relationships of difficult children with their peers. It is important to identify the position of the child and adolescent in the reference group for him, since it greatly influences the behavior of the student, and the increased conformity of children in relation to the attitudes and group norms of the reference groups is known. The claim to recognition among peers is an important aspect of a child’s relationships within school, and these relationships are often characterized by ambivalence (friendship - rivalry), the child simultaneously needs to be like everyone else and better than everyone else. Pronounced conformist reactions and the desire to assert oneself among peers - this is a possible picture of a child’s personal conflict, leading to feelings of schadenfreude and envy: the failure of others can cause a feeling of superiority. The teacher's comparison of students with each other leads to alienation among children and drowns out the feeling of empathy.

Violation of relationships with other children is an indicator of abnormalities in the process of mental development. The lack of communication skills, significant skills and abilities can lead to disruptions in relationships with peers and increases school difficulties.

Internal factors of school maladjustment:

• somatic weakness;
• MMD (minimal cerebral dysfunction), impaired formation of certain mental functions, impaired cognitive processes (attention, memory, thinking, speech, motor skills);
• characteristics of temperament (weak nervous system, explosive nature of reactions);
• personal characteristics of the child (character accentuations): features of self-regulation of behavior,
• anxiety level,
• high intellectual activity,
• verbalism,
• schizoid.

Features of temperament that interfere with the successful adaptation of children to school:

• increased reactivity (reduced volitional moments),
• high activity,
• hyperexcitability,
• lethargy,
• psychomotor instability,
• age-related characteristics of temperament.

Correction of a child’s social maladaptation can be carried out in the following areas:

• development of communication skills,
• harmonization of family relationships,
• correction of some personal characteristics,
• correction of the child's self-esteem.

An adult often acts as the instigator of a child’s maladaptation at school, and the maladaptive influence of parents on a child is noticeably more serious than the similar influence of a teacher and other significant adults. The following factors of influence of an adult on children's maladjustment can be identified:

• Family system factors.
• Medical and sanitary factors (parental diseases, heredity, etc.).
• Socio-economic factors (material, living conditions).
• Socio-demographic factors (single-parent, large families, elderly parents, remarriages, stepchildren).
• Social and psychological factors (conflicts in the family, pedagogical failure of parents, low educational level, deformed value orientations).
• Criminal factors (alcoholism, drug addiction, cruelty, sadism, etc.).

In addition to the identified factors, other features of the family system and the immediate social environment also influence the possible maladjustment of the child, for example, a “problem” child, acting as a connecting factor of the family system according to the role assigned to him in the family, becomes less adapted than a child in whose family there is no pronounced problem areas associated with the child. An important factor may be the birth order of children and their role positions in the family, which can lead to children's jealousy and inadequate ways to compensate for it. An adult’s childhood has a strong influence on his pedagogical activity and attitude towards his own child or student.

Approaches to solving the problem

Currently, teachers together with psychologists have developed three approaches to the concept of school and social maladjustment and resolution of this problem:

1. School maladjustment is defined as a mental personality disorder, which can only be overcome through psychiatric treatment.
2. School maladjustment is considered as a pedagogical phenomenon, where the main factor in its occurrence is the relationship with teachers (their style of teaching and education, manner of communication). In this case, it is they who must correct the violation.
3. A broader approach, which is considered as a socio-psychological process of the formation and development of conflict between the child and school requirements. In this case, the solution is an integrated approach to solving the problem.

The third option looks the most optimal and comprehensive in its logic and validity. But, despite this, experts still have disputes, because the vastness of the problem does not allow finding universal ways to solve it.

Levels of development of school maladjustment

In the process of development of school maladjustment in a child, 3 different levels can be distinguished and traced.

Pedagogical

If a student finds himself in an uncomfortable or conflict situation, he experiences a number of physiological problems, such as:

• inability to concentrate on one mental or physical operation for a long time;
• irritability from loud sounds, flashes of light, strong odors;
• restlessness;
• sudden mood swings;
• fast fatiguability;
• difficulty waking up and falling asleep, etc.

All of these problems are not permanent; they are only caused by a conflict situation. When solved, they disappear and are easily corrected.

Psychological

If at the previous level the child systematically does not receive support and does not cope with the difficulties that arise, then the psyche begins to defend itself with the help of antisocial actions. The student refuses to go to the board, talks rudely to others, does not want to go to school, refuses to complete assignments and requirements. Teachers and parents often make the situation worse when they react to such behavior with shouts, ultimatums, and bad grades.

This leads to the fact that all the problems mentioned above become permanent and become even more pronounced. Poor sleep can develop into insomnia, refusal of lunch or dinner turns into serious eating disorders, etc. The child now makes attempts to protect himself and isolate himself from everyone outside of school.

This condition should be corrected with the help of a psychologist. If this does not happen in time, then the student turns into a “difficult child with antisocial behavior.”

Physiological

The next level of school maladjustment, which occurs if the child is still left alone with problems. Everyone around him now experiences negativity from him: a conflict with one of the teachers develops into conflicts with all teachers. Not only his own parents do not understand the student, but also all adults. The skill of self-control is lost, the child no longer even tries to restrain himself.

Antisocial behavior leaves its mark on the student’s health. He suffers from chronic neuroses, and this has a negative impact on all systems in the body, making them even more difficult to cure.

There are no clear intervals for each level; forms of school maladjustment are individual for each child. Therefore, the sooner he gets help, the easier it will be to cope with the disorder and not get health complications.

Individual adaptation potential

Psychologists proceed from the fact that each person has a certain adaptive potential, which can decrease due to various negative impacts:

• pedagogical neglect;
• conflicts;
• difficult intra-family microclimate.

Such potential is a set of qualities and character traits of a person that help a person to successfully integrate into the society of other people. The positive point is that maladaptation in most cases can be corrected and, if desired, adaptive potential can be restored.

However, adaptability does not remain constant and unchanged throughout a person’s life. For example, children adapt less well to changing conditions and when moving to a new team, their personal characteristics in such a situation undergo some transformations.

To prevent the development of a state of maladjustment in a person (especially in children), it is necessary to create conditions for the harmonious development of the individual.

Adjustment and maladaptation of hysteroid

Maladjustment in psychology is a reaction to a stressful communication situation. In order to help a person more easily adapt to a new situation and environment, you should focus on his personality type. The hysteroid is characterized by such character traits as endless egocentrism, the desire to be in the center of events and attention, and exaggeration of one’s own importance.

Among all the psychotypes, the hysteroid is the easiest to win over . For such people, flattery and admiration are important, then they will be favorably disposed towards their interlocutor. During the conversation, you can be interested in their life, health and affairs, which will allow you to get closer to them.

Most children and teenagers, to one degree or another, have the traits of a hysteroid, since up to a certain age they are extremely self-centered, so winning over a child is actually not so difficult.

A hysterical deprived of attention, on the contrary, experiences severe mental discomfort, since his nature requires recognition and admiration. Also, people of this type do not cope well with uncertainty and long waits. This causes them distress and loss of balance.

Adjustment and maladaptation of the epileptoid

The distinctive features of an epileptoid are diligence, frugality, punctuality, and reliability. Among the negative traits of this type of personality are the inability to sympathize with other people, irritability when order is disturbed, and the desire to subjugate oneself.

Such people get lost in situations when:

• someone does not fulfill their promise;
• confusion and chaos is happening around him;
• during the conversation they talk about abstract topics (philosophy, religion) or events in the distant future;
• question his life attitudes and principles.

For epileptoids, information must be presented in a clear, specific and concise form, while avoiding gesticulation and excessive emotionality. In order to win over such a person, you can use the “mirror” technique and unobtrusively repeat his gestures and poses.

Adjustment and maladaptation of the paranoid

Typically, the traits of this psychotype begin to appear not in childhood, but in late adolescence. Such guys are distinguished by their focus on their goal, they can be extremely serious and preoccupied and are eager to achieve what they want at any cost.

The main character traits of paranoiacs are excessive assertiveness and determination. At the same time, the negative aspects of such a personality are irritability, anger, and a tendency toward authoritarianism.

In order to win over such a person, it is necessary to share with her the goals towards which she so stubbornly strives. At the same time, you should not use overt flattery - unlike a hysteroid, a paranoid person regards such deflections as a way to get something from him.

This type is least susceptible to maladjustment, as it has a strong nervous system. It is paranoiacs who become excellent intelligence officers, pilots and special agents.

Only a clear and reasoned demonstration of the unattainability of a goal that has been nurtured for years can cause distress in them.

Schizoid adjustment and decompensation

Schizoids are distinguished from other types by original and specific views on familiar things. In order to win him over, you should be imbued with these ideas.

It is very easy to maladapt such people - just create chaos around them. Moreover, if for an epileptoid chaos is a violation of the usual way of life, then a schizoid is easily enraged by overloading his sensory organs. For him, situations in which he is forced to perceive a large amount of information are unbearable.

He may get tired both from communicating with a large number of people, and from an external inanimate irritant - a grass trimmer whirring all day long, loud music, the work of a bulldozer.

Also, such people cannot stand criticism, especially in a sharply negative way, and when they find themselves in such situations, they withdraw into themselves. The use of gross psychological violence against a schizoid with ridicule and humiliation can entail a serious reaction - it is precisely this type of people who can most often take up arms and take revenge on the offender.

The manifestation of such aggression can often be seen in the behavior of adolescents when they resolve unresolved conflicts radically (shooting, stabbing), which leads to sad and irreparable consequences.

Adjustment and maladaptation of hyperthymia

Hyperthyms are the most attractive people. By nature, they are fun-loving people and cannot stand anything associated with monotony and routine. As a child, it is difficult for such a child to concentrate on tasks that require long-term concentration and scrupulousness.

The state of distress or maladjustment in hyperthymics causes deprivation of his communication, which he vitally needs, as well as the satisfaction of basic needs for food, drink and sleep. In order to relieve stress, hyperthymic people more often than others resort to artificial stimulants - alcohol and drugs.

Unlike a schizoid who withdraws into himself, a hypertim in a state of maladaptation will actively turn to others for help, behaving like a child. In order to overcome stress, it is important for him to restore communication and see a positive feedback reaction from other people.

Adjustment and decompensation of the emotive

Emotives are distinguished by their softness, non-conflict and excessive emotionality. They are highly intelligent and ethics and aesthetics in communication are important to them - it should be polite, cultural and cordial. Decompensation of emotive people can be caused by rudeness and rudeness, as well as topics of conversation that they consider base.

Also, people of this type do not tolerate both physical and psychological stress. A large amount of work that needs to be completed in a short period of time can cause a maladaptive reaction in them and lead them to a nervous breakdown.

Adjustment and disadaptation of asthenics

Asthenic children from an early age are characterized by restless sleep and poor appetite. They cannot stand loud sounds, bright lighting, and are prone to solitude, because even a small number of people around them take away their energy. Because of this, they quickly become tired and tired, and are often irritable. At the same time, asthenics are forgiving, disciplined, modest, friendly and efficient.

In order to win over an asthenic person, you should show him affection and demonstrate understanding. Such individuals become maladapted under unstable life circumstances.

Work associated with changing places or a large flow of people passing through an asthenic person can unsettle him for a long time, which is why most often they work for a long time at the same workplace for many years.

Children of asthenics do not adapt well to a new team; from an early age they avoid noisy entertainment. Such a child is comfortable in a stable environment, among close and well-known people.

Types of school maladjustment

The process of development of school maladaptation is individual for each child, so its type in its pure form is almost impossible to determine. Almost always, varieties can be combined and create a whole complex of deviations. The most common types are:

1. Social. Includes denial of socially accepted attitudes, antisocial behavior, and student self-regulation problems.
2. Psychosocial. Characterized by psychological characteristics of the individual (including gender and age). The less attention and individual approach is given to the child, the more clearly this type of maladjustment manifests itself.
3. Pathogenic. It manifests itself through disturbances in the functioning of the brain, mental disorders, and sometimes phobias that the student has.
4. Intelligent. It often manifests itself not in elementary school, but in older children. Caused by missed and unrecovered knowledge gaps that impact learning.
5. Emotional. It is identified through an increased level of anxiety, a feeling of fear for academic performance. This type occurs in children with high motivation but low self-esteem.

Condition correction

As mentioned earlier, the state of maladjustment is not permanent and can be overcome. To do this, it is necessary to work through internal fears and anxieties. Both children and adults with this problem can and should contact psychologists.

An effective method in combating the fear of communication is to overcome yourself and force yourself to communicate. This will help you cope with your fear of people. You should also develop optimistic, positive thinking, which will facilitate the establishment of new connections and contacts.

Children and adolescents, due to their age, are not able to overcome this condition on their own, therefore they need the support and help of their parents, who, if necessary, can always get specific advice from a psychologist.

The concept of “maladaptation” in psychology means the inability of an individual to adequately and painlessly contact the outside world.

Nowadays, the problem of maladjustment in children and adolescents sometimes arises very acutely, which is associated not only with difficulties in building communication that arose earlier, but also with the negative side of the development of progress, when children from an early age have the opportunity to immerse themselves in virtual reality.

This contributes to even greater detachment and consolidation of antisocial behavior, when a child who has not received timely psychological help in adulthood turns out to be unable to solve emerging problems and prefers an isolated lifestyle.

Causes of school maladjustment

The opinions of psychologists about the possible causes of school maladjustment vary. Some believe that the only problem of school maladaptation is didactogenic disorders: the contradiction between the requirements of the educational environment and the individual psychophysical characteristics of the child. Others are inclined to believe that there are a number of prerequisites for school maladaptation that lead to the occurrence of this phenomenon.

The reasons for school maladaptation of younger schoolchildren include:

• insufficient preparedness for school: lack of basic understanding of the world, the level of development of psychomotor skills is below average, which makes it difficult for a student to keep up with classmates;
• low level of development of cognitive processes and some mental functions (too low or, conversely, too high self-esteem, distracted attention, poor memory);
• behavioral problems: the student cannot sit through an entire lesson without getting distracted or getting up;
• parental influence: overprotection, fear of mistakes and failures, insufficient attention to the child, unfavorable conditions and atmosphere in the family;
• influence from the teacher: authoritarianism, excessive demands, lack of an individual approach to each child or division into favorites and others;
• social aspect: relationships with peers do not work out, they are not recognized in the class;
• any psychological disorders and disorders (including hereditary ones);
• inability to adapt to the curriculum (high pace, complexity, specific features).

Socio-psychological maladjustment

Adaptation literally means adaptation. This is one of the most significant concepts in biology. Widely used in concepts that treat the relationship of individuals with their environment as processes of homeostatic balancing. It is considered from the point of view of its two directions: adaptation of the individual to the new external environment and adaptation as the formation of new personality qualities on this basis.

There are two degrees of subject adaptation: disadaptation or deep adaptation.

Socio-psychological adaptation consists in the interaction of the social environment and the individual, leading to an ideal balance between the values ​​and goals of the group in general and the individual in particular. In the course of such adaptation, the needs and aspirations, interests of the individual are realized, his individuality is discovered and formed, the individual enters a socially new environment. The result of such adaptation is the formation of professional and social qualities of communications, activities and behavioral reactions accepted in a particular society.

If we consider the adaptive processes of a subject from the perspective of the socio-psychological process of inclusion in activity, then the main points of activity should be the fixation of interest in it, establishing contacts with individuals who surround, satisfaction with such relationships, inclusion in social life.

The concept of social maladaptation of a person means a breakdown in the processes of interaction between a subject and the environment, which are aimed at maintaining a balance within the body, between the body and the environment. This term appeared relatively recently in psychology and psychiatry. The use of the concept of “maladaptation” is quite contradictory and ambiguous, which can be traced mainly in assessing the place and role of maladaptive states in relation to such categories as “norm” or “pathology”, since the parameters of “norm” and “pathology” in psychology are still little developed.

Social maladaptation of an individual is a rather versatile phenomenon, which is based on certain factors of social maladjustment that complicate the social adaptation of an individual.

Factors of social maladjustment:

• relative cultural and social deprivation (deprivation of necessary goods or vital needs);

• psychological and pedagogical neglect;

• hyperstimulation with new (in content) social incentives;

• insufficient preparedness for self-regulation processes;

• loss of already formed forms of mentoring;

• loss of the usual team;

• low degree of psychological readiness to master the profession;

• breaking dynamic stereotypes;

• cognitive dissonance, which was caused due to a discrepancy between judgments about life and the situation in reality;

• character accentuations;

• psychopathic personality formation.

Thus, speaking about the problems of socio-psychological maladjustment, we mean a change in the internal and external circumstances of socialization. Those. social maladaptation of a person is a relatively short-term situational state, which is a consequence of the influence of new, unusual irritating factors of the changed environment and signals an imbalance between the demands of the environment and mental activity. It can be defined as a difficulty complicated by any adaptive factors to transforming conditions, which is expressed in inadequate reactions and behavior of the subject. It is the most important process of socialization of an individual.

Types of manifestation of school maladjustment

There are 5 types of manifestation of school maladaptation, which differ in the reasons that caused the violation.

Cognitive

This type of maladaptation is expressed in the student’s failure to perform according to the school curriculum, which corresponds to age characteristics. It can be either chronic in all subjects or fragmentary (from time to time). It is difficult for a child to keep up with the pace of the whole class: he is late for lessons, gets tired quickly and takes a long time to complete assignments.

Emotional-evaluative

This type of maladjustment is associated with an emotional and personal attitude towards the entire learning process or to individual subjects. The student violently expresses his emotions, which are caused by a feeling of fear and anxiety in relation to lessons, teachers, and school locations.

Behavioral

The behavioral type of maladaptation is characterized by the child’s inability to control his own behavior and weak self-regulation. He violates social norms of behavior at school: he is aggressive, enters into conflicts with others, and does not want to make any contact. There is no motivation to study and engage in other activities.

Somatic

Another type of school maladjustment, which is associated with various deviations and problems with the physical development and health of the student. Fatigue, diseases of internal organs and weak immunity negatively affect a child’s academic performance and communication.

Communicative

This type of maladjustment occurs due to difficulties in communicating and establishing contacts with peers and teachers. A student may be shy, not be able to carry on a conversation, or not know how to ask for help. All this ends in failures, which make him withdraw into himself even more.

Diagnosis of school maladjustment

Only a teacher can diagnose school maladaptation at the initial level. To do this, you need to evaluate the lessons as a whole, note which of the children have periodic difficulties in mastering the material, the pace of work, and doing homework.

A teacher may notice the following signs of maladjustment in a child:

• rapid exhaustion in class and decreased performance (the child spins around a lot, cannot sit at his desk for a long time, yawns, plays with school supplies, cannot repeat what was just discussed in class);
• increased fatigue (appearance: bright red cheeks, blueness above the upper lip, refusal to play and communicate with classmates, lack of initiative in lessons, aggression towards peers, walking on tiptoes);
• errors in written work (done out of order, many erasures and corrections, rules for keeping notebooks not followed, homework not submitted on time, letters missing in words);
• increased anxiety with good academic performance (afraid of answering at the board, doubts one’s abilities, reacts to comments with tears or aggression, fidgets with clothes when answering, makes a lot of hand movements, often blinks or licks lips).

If at least one of the signs often begins to appear, then the teacher is obliged to talk with the parents and involve a school psychologist.

Further examination is as follows:

1. The psychologist carries out the necessary diagnostic techniques.
2. Collects and analyzes the received data, criteria for school maladaptation, and, if necessary, talks with the child again.
3. A student is being examined by a doctor.
4. The psychologist talks with the teacher, correlating all the results with observations.
5. The teacher and psychologist convey all the information to parents.

Correction of maladjustment in school-age children

There is no unified method for correcting school maladaptation in school-age children. An individual approach must be taken to each child, because... The factors of school maladaptation and the ways of its correction vary greatly. The child needs qualified help that will simultaneously consider medical, psychological, pedagogical and social aspects.

The main emphasis is on psychological assistance, so a large part of the work is performed by the school psychologist (if necessary, this can be a private psychologist or psychotherapist). He explores in detail the main points associated with the life of a student:

• studies the child’s social environment and the conditions of his development;
• assesses the psychophysical development of the student, takes into account individual characteristics;
• determines the nature of the internal conflict that led to the violation;
• identifies factors that lead to a crisis situation and the appearance of signs of maladjustment;
• draws up an individual plan for psychological and pedagogical correction and brings it to the attention of teachers and parents.

A psychologist practices many methods of correction, most often these can be:

• conversations;
• art therapy;
• group training;
• associative techniques;
• gaming activities aimed at uniting the class team;
• exercises to develop mental processes when necessary.

Teachers are also actively involved in corrective measures for a particular child. They create positive conditions for the student’s adaptation: a comfortable and friendly atmosphere in the classroom, a friendly climate in the classroom, and special attention to the child.

Parents should be involved in the child's life to increase the chance of positive dynamics in the development of the disorder. Without their support, the result may be minimal. The family must build a trusting relationship with the child, encourage and help him in all endeavors, and be sure to praise him. All comments should be kept to a minimum or spoken calmly and accurately. Family members should spend time together and engage in some common activity.

Signs

In children, maladaptive behavior is noticeable to the naked eye, even to a non-specialist. Parents, teachers, school psychologists, and peers see this. In adults it may be more veiled. For example, if a person does not want to lose his job and does not have mental disabilities, he can hide his dissatisfaction, although this can still be seen by some external manifestations (disrespect for colleagues and boss, systematic tardiness, frequent sick leave, depression). Psychologists call the most striking signs of maladjustment:

• irritability, which extends not only to others, but also to one’s own behavior,
• aggression,
• negative thinking (bad thoughts prevail over good ones),
• withdrawal into oneself: lack of new acquaintances, breakup of old relationships, loss of connections with friends and family, replacement of the real world with an illusory one,
• concentration on oneself, complete immersion in one’s own experiences, emptiness,
• partial or complete violation of moral and legal norms, rules in force in the conditions in which he found himself,
• an attempt to adapt the environment to oneself, but not oneself to new conditions,
• maladjusted children (especially teenagers) are characterized by pronounced antisocial, deviant behavior,
• deterioration of mental state: depression, nervousness, inadequate assessment of oneself and what is happening, panic attacks, anxiety,
• deterioration of physical health: pressure surges, increased heart rate, increased sweating and other vegetative-vascular symptom complexes.

The most critical manifestation of maladjustment, according to psychologists, is social phobia, which, if uncorrected, can lead to suicide and, in childhood, autism.

Prevention of school maladjustment

Methods for preventing school maladjustment should also be a set of measures. Today it consists of the following measures:

• compensating classes;
• special methods of correctional training;
• social trainings;
• trainings together with parents and students;
• special consultations for parents.

The main focus of prevention should be on successful adaptation to the school environment. After all, for every schoolchild this is a big stressful process. Both parents and teachers must work together to help the child pass it. The result should be his positive attitude towards life, towards the educational process, towards teachers and classmates. Then the lessons will be positive, with a creative approach, learning activities will bring joy and satisfaction, and school will no longer be a problem.

The process of adaptation to school will be much easier if a trusting and friendly relationship is established between the child and parents. In this case, any life difficulties will be overcome more successfully, and forms of school maladjustment will not appear.