Analysis of advisory inquiries from modern parents raising preschool children

Statement of the problem. The authors study the possibilities of organizing and providing psychological, pedagogical, methodological and consulting assistance to families with children, taking into account new social conditions, based on the analysis of advisory inquiries from modern parents raising preschool children. The purpose of the article is to identify the specific difficulties of modern parents in upbringing, education and development of preschool children and to substantiate effective consulting models, including preventive ones, contributing to the improvement of parental competence. Research methodology. The research consists of scientific concepts reflecting the general and specific patterns of mental development of children, presented in the works of Vygotsky L.S., Leontiev A.N.; Smirnova E.O., Ovcharova R.V., characterizing the communication and relationships of preschool children with adults from their environment; the works of Varga A.Ya., Spivakovskaya A.S., Gippenreiter Yu.B., substantiating the importance of psychological support of the family to ensure the full mental and personal development of a child. The main method of research was the content analysis of parents’ inquiries to the psychological service of the KSPU named after V.P. Astafyev for advice on upbringing, education and development of children. The analysis of 335 remote inquiries of parents raising preschool children was carried out. Research results. The study of parents’ requests allowed us to identify typical groups of inquiries, as well as their share ratio. The most typical requests are related to appearance of negative behaviors in a child, ensuring the development of positive personal qualities of a child, better organization of a child’s life, transition of a child to new social conditions. There is a large proportion of inquiries when parents simply show interest in the characteristics of the age development of a child and effective methods of raising him/her. Conclusion. The need of modern parents for professional and non-commercial assistance in raising children is growing. Based on the analysis of typical inquiries of parents, it is proposed to make changes in the nature of the provision of advisory assistance to parents, to give it a preventive character, which will help to provide parents with psychological education on the main age characteristics of a child, to prevent destructive actions in the process of raising children.