Peculiarities of personal attitude of senior pre-school children to nature

Psychological analysis of the interaction between man and nature is an important issue for modern researches due to the problem of the global ecological crisis. Formation of the basis of this interaction should start in pre-school childhood. Despite the theoretical and the methodological work on the child's ecological education, there is a special need in researching the role of personal relation to nature in a complex process of the development of child's ecological consciousness. The aim of this scientific research is a theoretical analysis and an empirical study of personal relation to nature in the structure of ecological consciousness. The article suggests a notion that we should rely on a child's empathy and psychological mechanisms of identification and subjectification of nature objects, to form pre-school children's relation to nature. The article describes the diagnostic program for examining the features of the components of a child's relation to nature at the age of 5-7. The authors of the article describe and show the empirical results of the research. It was found out that most children perceive nature objects as equal to people subjects of common activities and communication, but they almost do not have empathy or psychological identification toward them. The results of the research are the basis for constructing the psycho-pedagogical program that will help to develop children's ability to have an empathy toward nature objects, to perceive them as subjects.