Scientific Justification of Assessment Criteria and Improvement of the Methodology for Assessing School Maturity

One of the critical stages in a child's life is the beginning of school, accompanied by intense intellectual and psycho-emotional stress. The success of educational activities depends on the child's readiness to enter school - his school maturity. The two main components of school maturity are the level of formation of school skills and the physical development of the child in the preschool period. Recent studies show that adaptation is more favorable in children with an average level of physical development (Zhdanova L.A., Rusova T.V., Shishova A.V., 2020), at the same time there is also a reverse effect - children with a delayed type of development are more susceptible to the development of maladaptation. This relationship opens up new opportunities in the development of methods for assessing school maturity, as well as preventive measures for the timely prevention of maladaptation of children to school. The relevance of the topic of the peer-reviewed research work is determined by the need to develop and substantiate modern criteria for assessing school maturity. The purpose of the work is to study the hygienic aspects of children's adaptation to the beginning of school education in order to improve the methodology of comprehensive assessment of school maturity and the development of measures to prevent maladaptation. To solve it, five tasks have been formulated, the essence of which is to study the factors affecting the course of adaptation of the child, to scientifically substantiate the criteria for assessing school maturity and the development of preventive measures for the timely prevention of maladaptation. To solve the tasks set, a study of anthropometric indicators and indicators characterizing school maturity and the level of formation of school skills will be conducted among 1,000 children aged 3-8 years studying in preschool educational and general education organizations of the Samara region. The results of the study will be implemented in the work of preschool educational and general education organizations of the Samara region, and in the future, in the department of hygiene of children and adolescents of the Federal Budgetary Health Institution "Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Samara region".