Diagnosing anxiety and using body-oriented therapy: a study of 5th grade pupils

Abstract

Annotation. Modern schoolchildren are often subject to stress, experience difficulties in learning and adapting to new conditions, changes in the learning process. Therefore, we asked ourselves the question of diagnosing the level of anxiety of schoolchildren and the possibility of its prevention with body-oriented methods of therapy. The purpose of the study was to diagnose the level of anxiety of schoolchildren in grade 5 and conduct therapy with body-oriented methods. The article summarizes the approaches to body-oriented therapy, a diagnostic study of anxiety of schoolchildren of the 5th grade is conducted, and methods and a program for the prevention of anxiety are proposed. For the diagnosis, methods were used – an anxiety test (R.Tamml, M. Dorki, V. Amen); child anxiety test (G.P. Lavrentieva, T. M. Titarenko); diagnosis of school anxiety – Phillips questionnaire; technique “Ladder” (V. G. Schur). The study was conducted on the basis of a school in Almaty, it was attended by 55 students of grade 5. Directions of work on prevention include diagnostics, correctional and developmental training, consultations. A training of 7 lessons was developed using body-oriented therapeutic techniques. At the initial stage – 76.6% of schoolchildren in the sample showed a high and medium level of anxiety, 23.4% – a low level. Such results are explained by the transition of students from elementary school, where one teacher teaches, to the middle link, where students need to adapt to different teachers, different classrooms, different requirements of subjects.

Key words: anxiety, adaptation of schoolchildren, body-oriented therapy, prevention and development training.