Early Infancy Learning. Test tasks in the discipline of psychological and pedagogical foundations of upbringing of young children

R.S. Nemov

PSYCHOLOGY

In three books

PSYCHOLOGY

EDUCATION

2nd edition

EDUCATION><ВЛАДОС> 1995

At the disposal of psychological and pedagogical data as evidence of the minimum possible level of psychological development, which can be achieved by an ordinary, physically healthy child in not very favorable socio-psychological conditions.

As for the maximum possible level of achievement in the development of our children, it is currently impossible to judge it for at least two reasons. First, this level depends on the state of society, which is not stable and is changing rapidly. Secondly, this level is in direct connection with the applied methods of teaching and upbringing, the further improvement of which will almost certainly reveal significant unused reserves. mental development children.

In the part of the book that deals with age features children, there is a special logic of presentation of the material. The laws of actual age development are here separated from the consideration of issues of education and upbringing of children. Cognitive processes and personality in all sections of the textbook concerning developmental and educational psychology are analyzed independently of each other in order to trace their independent development in childhood. changes in the child's psyche and behavior In order to avoid this, it was considered advisable to systematically describe all psychological neoplasms of each age at the conclusion of its consideration. This, in particular, was done in almost all the concluding paragraphs of individual chapters of the second book of the textbook. the organization and presentation of the materials are in the same style as the first book of the textbook.

Let us recall that each of its chapters begins with a brief presentation of its content, ends with a list of topics and questions for discussion at seminars, approximate titles> abstracts, topics for independent research work of students and a list of references. At the end of this book, like the first, there is a dictionary of the basic psychological concepts used in it. It includes not only new concepts that are introduced in the corresponding sections of the course, but also a number of concepts that have already entered the dictionary of the first book, but due to their difficulty for assimilation or novelty, they can pose a problem for the student. If some already known concept here receives a different definition, revealing it from a little-known side. it is also included in the terminological dictionary.

Part 1. AGE FEATURES OF CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT

Section 1. PSYCHOLOGY OF AGE DEVELOPMENT.

SUBJECT, PROBLEMS AND RESEARCH METHODS> IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AGE DEVELOPMENT

The subject of developmental psychology. The concept of developmental psychology and developmental psychology, general and different in their content. Definition of the subject of developmental psychology. Age-related evolutionary, revolutionary and situational changes in the psychology and behavior of children. Age combination of psychology and individual behavior as a subject of research in psychology. Of age development. Movement forces, conditions and laws of mental development as a subject of developmental psychology.

Problems of the psychology of age-related development. The problem of organic (organismic) and environmental conditioning of mental development. The problem of the comparative impact of spontaneous and organized education and upbringing on the development of children. The problem of the balance of inclinations and abilities in development. The problem of comparative influence on the development of revolutionary, evolutionary and situational transformations of the psyche and behavior of the child. The problem of the relationship between intelligence and personality in the general development of a person.

Research methods in developmental psychology. The complex nature of the methods used in the psychology of developmental development, their origin from different psychological sciences. The main branches of psychology contributing to the methodology of developmental psychology. Observation method in working with children. Using the survey in children's research. An experiment in developmental psychology. Tests and testing in developmental psychology.

SUBJECT OF AGE PSYCHOLOGY

Open new chapter in the studied psychology course makes sense with the difference that the reader has probably already noticed in the title of the first part and the first chapter and its individual paragraphs. On the one hand, the area of expertise in question is called<Возрастные особенности развития детей>on the other hand, here the same area of knowledge is referred to as developmental psychology. This discrepancy is not accidental. The fact is that, according to the tradition that has developed in our country and abroad, different names have been assigned to the corresponding field of knowledge: developmental psychology and developmental psychology, although in essence they mean the same or rather close in content to each other areas of knowledge , where we are talking about the age characteristics of the mental and behavioral development of children. We will deliberately use both names in the text, arbitrarily moving from one to the other so that the reader perceives them as practically synonymous, especially when we turn to the analysis of not only domestic scientific sources, but also foreign ones.

However, these two names have some differences. Developmental psychology is a field of knowledge that focuses on psychological characteristics children of different ages, while developmental psychology is a field of knowledge that contains information mainly about the laws of age transformation in the psychology of children. Developmental psychology cannot be imagined outside of development, as something unchanging. In the same way, development is unthinkable without highlighting its age characteristics. In the real-life area of knowledge about the age-related development of children, both of these points are merged.

The subject of developmental psychology, or developmental psychology, is the study and presentation in the form of scientific facts and corresponding theories of the main features of the mental development of children during their transition from one age to another, including detailed and versatile content. psychological characteristics children belonging to different age groups.

Developmental psychology notes those relatively slow, but fundamental quantitative and qualitative changes that occur in the psyche and behavior of children during their transition from one age group to another. Typically, these changes span significant periods of life, from a few months for infants to a number of years for older children. These changes depend on the so-called<постоянно действующих>factors: biological maturation and psychophysiological state of the child's body, its place in the system of human social relations, the achieved level of intellectual and personal development.

Age-related changes in psychology and behavior of this type are called evolutionary, since they are associated with relatively slow quantitative and qualitative transformations. They should be distinguished from revolutionary ones, which, being deeper, occur quickly and in a relatively short term... Such changes are usually confined to crises of age development that arise at the turn of the ages between relatively calm periods of evolutionary changes in the psyche and behavior. The presence of crises of age development and associated with them revolutionary transformations of the psyche and behavior of the child was one of the grounds for dividing childhood into periods of age development.

Another type of change that can be considered a sign of development is associated with the influence of a specific social situation. They can be called situational. Such changes include what happens in the psyche and behavior of the child under the influence of organized or unorganized education and upbringing.

Age-related evolutionary and revolutionary changes in the psyche and behavior are usually stable, irreversible and do not require systematic reinforcement, while situational changes in the psychology and behavior of the individual are unstable, reversible and imply their consolidation in subsequent exercises. Evolutionary and revolutionary changes transform the psychology of a person as a person, and situational ones leave it without visible changes, affecting only particular forms of behavior, knowledge, skills and abilities.

Another component of the subject of developmental psychology is a specific combination of psychology and individual behavior, denoted by the concept<возраст>(see: psychological age). It is assumed that at each age a person has a unique, characteristic only combination of psychological and behavioral characteristics, which is never repeated beyond this age.

Concept<возраст>in psychology it is associated not with the number of years a person has lived, but with the peculiarities of his psychology and behavior. A child may look like an adult beyond his years in his judgments and actions; a teenager or young man can manifest himself in many ways as children. The cognitive processes of a person, his perception, memory, thinking, speech and others have their own age characteristics. Even more than in cognitive processes, the age of a person is manifested in the characteristics of his personality, in interests, judgments, views, motives of behavior. A psychologically correctly defined concept of age serves as the basis for establishing age norms in the intellectual and personal development of children; it is widely used in various tests as a starting point for establishing the level of mental development of a child.

The third component of the subject of developmental psychology and at the same time the psychology of developmental development are the driving forces, conditions and laws of human mental and behavioral development. The driving forces of mental development are understood as those ((<акторы, которые определяют собой поступательное развитие ребенка, являются его причинами, содержат в себе энергетические, побудительные источники развития, направляют его в нужное русло. Условия определяют собой те внутренние и внешние постоянно действующие факторы, которые, не выступая в качестве движущих сил развития, тем не менее влияют на него, направляя ход развития, формируя его динамику и определяя конечные результаты. Что же касается законов психического развития, то они определяют собой те общие и частные закономерности, с помощью которых можно описать психическое развитие человека и опираясь на которые можйо этим развитием управлять.

PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOLOGY OF AGE DEVELOPMENT

In accordance with the subject areas of research in developmental psychology outlined above, its main problems can be identified. "One of these problems is the question of

"A problem is called an intractable question in science, to which it is impossible at present to get an unambiguous and indisputable answer.

what more determines the mental and behavioral development of children: "maturation and anatomical and physiological state of the organism or the influence of the external environment. This problem can be described as a problem of organic (organismic) and environmental conditioning. mental and behavioral development of a person.

On the one hand, this development certainly depends on the organism; since only the anatomical and physiological structure of the human body makes a person the owner of consciousness, allows him to have speech and a highly developed intellect. Anomalies in the anatomical and physiological state of the body, which arose genetically or as a result of a serious illness, affect mental development, delaying it. Until the child's brain is sufficiently mature, it is impossible for him to form verbal speech and many other related abilities.

On the other hand, it is just as obvious that the mental and behavioral development of an organism depends on yreda, and, as many modern scientists rightly believe, to a much greater extent than “on the organism. If this were not so, then the existence of all the educational system would lose its meaning, and the same applies to improving the content and methods of teaching and upbringing.

However, it is not possible to say exactly to what extent a child's mental development at one stage or another depends on the organism or the environment. ”This is the essence of the problem under discussion.

The second problem concerns the relative impact of spontaneous and organized education and upbringing on the development of children. By spontaneous training and upbringing is understood that which is carried out without deliberately set goals, a certain content and well-thought-out methods under the influence of a person's stay in society among people and randomly developing relations with them that do not pursue educational goals. Organized is the kind of education and upbringing that is purposefully carried out by a special private non-state education system, starting from the family and ending with higher educational institutions. Here development goals are more or less clearly defined and consistently implemented. For them, programs are drawn up and methods of teaching and upbringing of children are selected.

There is no doubt that a person psychologically develops under the influence of spontaneous and organized influences of the environment, but which of them is stronger and has a greater impact on his behavior, still remains problematic. One of the specific varieties of this problem is the relative influence of family and school, school and society on the development of children.

The next problem is the balance of inclinations and abilities. It can be presented in the form of a number of particular questions, each of which is difficult enough to solve, and all of them taken together constitute a real psychological and pedagogical problem. What are the inclinations on which the development of the child's abilities depends? Do they include only genotypically determined characteristics of the organism, or should they also include some acquired psychological and behavioral properties of a person? What does the development of a child's abilities largely depend on: on existing inclinations or properly organized training and upbringing? Is it possible to form highly developed abilities in a child for a certain type of activity, for example, musical, if he did not have it from birth? expressed inclinations, say, absolute hearing?

The fourth problem concerns the comparative influence on the development of the evolutionary, revolutionary and situational changes in the psyche and behavior of the child discussed above. Indeed, what is to be understood by development: only that which represents deep transformations of a revolutionary and evolutionary nature, or also include in it what happens under the influence of the situation? What are the development criteria? Can any change in the child's psyche and behavior be considered his development, or only one that is irreversible, that is, does not disappear without reinforcement and in the event of the termination of the action of the factors that caused it? Related to this problem is the question of what has a greater impact on development over time: evolutionary, revolutionary, or situational transformations? The former are usually slow, the latter are short-lived and do not occur very often in a person's life, and the third, as a rule, are shallow. These are their shortcomings, and their advantages, accordingly, lie in the irreversibility of evolutionary changes, the depth of revolutionary changes and the continuity of situational changes in the child's psyche and behavior. So what influences development more: slow but reversible evolutionary changes, fast and deep, but relatively rare revolutionary transformations or continuously operating but changeable situational changes? This is the essence of the fourth of the problems we have outlined.

The fifth problem is “to clarify the relationship between intellectual and personal changes in the general psychological development of the child. What determines it to a greater extent: age-related changes in the child’s personality or intellectual growth? Can an increase in the level of intellectual development in itself lead to a change in the child’s personality, and vice versa; are personal changes capable of influencing intellectual development? How do both sides of development - intellectual and personal - determine it as a whole?

Here is a range of questions with which you can outline the contours of the problem under discussion.

All the listed problems and questions will be discussed further on the pages of this book with varying degrees of depth. But their problematic nature makes it possible to predict in advance that a completely satisfactory and exhaustive solution to them will hardly be found in a textbook, since it does not exist in science either.

RESEARCH METHODS IN AGE PSYCHOLOGY

The complex of research methods that scientists use when studying the process of age-related development of a child consists of several blocks of techniques. One part of the methods in developmental psychology is borrowed from general psychology, another from differential psychology, and the third from social psychology. "

All the methods that are used to study the cognitive processes and personality of the child came from general psychology to developmental psychology. These methods are mostly adapted to the age of the child and are aimed at studying perception, attention, memory, imagination, thinking and speech. With the help of these methods, in developmental psychology, the same tasks are solved as in general psychology: information is obtained about the age characteristics of the cognitive processes of children and about the transformations of these processes that occur during the transition of a child from one age group to another.

Differential psychology provides developmental psychology with methods that are used to study individual and age differences in children. A special place among this group of methods is occupied by the method of twins, which is widely used in developmental psychology. With the help of this method, the similarities and differences between homozygous and heterozygous twins are investigated and conclusions are drawn that allow one to approach the solution of one of the most important problems of developmental psychology, about the organic (genotypic) and environmental conditioning of the psyche and behavior of the child.

From social psychology to the psychology of developmental development came a group of methods through which interpersonal relationships in various children's groups, as well as the relationship between children and adults, are studied. In this case, the socio-psychological research methods "used in developmental psychology are also, as a rule, adapted to the age of children. These are observation, polling, interviews, socio-psychological methods, a socio-psychological experiment. research methods, such as observation, questioning, experiment and testing. in developmental psychology. The observation method is one of the main in psychological and pedagogical research, in working with children. Many methods usually used in the study of adults - tests, experiment, survey - have limited scope for research on children because of their complexity and are generally not available to children, especially infants and young children.

"Here, only the main branches of psychological science are named that make the greatest contribution to the methodology of psychology, although it practically uses methods borrowed from other psychological and borderline psychology" auks.

Observation has many different options, which together make it possible to obtain sufficiently diverse and reliable information about children. Any observation must be carried out purposefully, according to a specific program and plan. Before starting to observe what and how children are doing, it is necessary to establish the purpose of observation, answer the questions about why it is being carried out and what results it will ultimately have to give. Then it is necessary to draw up a program of observation, develop a plan designed to lead the researcher to the desired goal.

In order to obtain the results necessary for generalization, the observation must be carried out more or less regularly. Children grow up very quickly, their psychology and behavior change before our eyes, and it is enough, for example, to skip just one month in infancy and two or three months in early childhood to get a tangible gap in the history of the child's individual development.

The intervals at which children should be monitored depend on their age. In the period from birth to two to three months, it is advisable to monitor the child daily; at the age of two to three months to one year - weekly; in early childhood, from one to three years - monthly; in preschool childhood, from three to six to seven years - at least once every six months; at primary school age - once a year, etc. The earlier we take the age, the less should be the time interval between the next observations (meaning scientific observations, accompanied by the maintenance of systematic records, analysis and generalization of observation results). On the one hand, it is easier to observe children than adults, since a child under supervision is usually more natural, does not play special social roles inherent in adults. On the other hand, children, especially preschoolers, have increased responsiveness and insufficiently sustained attention, and are often distracted from the work they are doing. Therefore, in research work with children, it is sometimes recommended to use covert observation, designed so that during observation the child does not see the adult observing him.

Significant difficulties can arise when the survey method is used in work with children in its various forms: oral and written. These difficulties can be caused by the fact that the child does not always correctly understand the questions addressed to him.

There are many facts that indicate that the system of concepts used by children up to adolescence is significantly different from that used by adults. Using his concepts in a conversation with children or in the content of written questions addressed to them, an adult may face the illusion of full understanding, which consists in the fact that the child intelligently answers the questions posed to him, but

actually gives them a slightly different meaning than an adult asking him questions. For this reason, in psychological research related to the use of interrogation, it is recommended first of all to make sure that the child understands the questions addressed to him correctly and only after that to interpret and discuss the answers given by him.

In research work with children, experiment is often one of the most reliable methods of obtaining reliable information about the psychology and behavior of a child, especially when observation is difficult and the results of the survey may be questionable. The inclusion of a child in an experimental play situation allows one to obtain the child's immediate reactions to stimuli and, on the basis of these reactions, to judge what the child is hiding from observation or is not able to verbalize when questioned. The immediacy of children's behavior in play, the inability of children to consciously play a certain social role for a long time, their emotional responsiveness and excitement enable the researcher to see what he is not able to obtain with the help of other methods.

An experiment in working with children allows you to get the best results when it is organized and carried out in the form of a game in which the immediate interests and actual needs of the child are expressed. The last two circumstances are especially important, since the child's lack of direct interest in what he is offered to do in a psychological and pedagogical experiment does not allow him to show his intellectual abilities and psychological qualities of interest to the researcher. As a result, the child may appear to the researcher to be less developed than he really is. In addition, it should be borne in mind that the motives for the participation of children in the psychological and pedagogical experiment are simpler than the motives for the participation of adults in similar studies. When entering an experiment, a child usually acts in it more momentarily and spontaneously than an adult, therefore, throughout the study, it is necessary to constantly maintain the child's interest in him.

What was said about the experiment also applies to psychological testing of children. Children demonstrate their intellectual abilities and personal qualities during testing only when their participation in testing is directly stimulated in ways that are attractive to the child, for example, receiving a reward or some kind of reward. For psychodiagnostics of children, tests are usually used that are similar to adults, but simpler and more adapted. Examples of this kind of test include children's variants of the Cattell test and the Wechsler test, as well as some forms of the sociometric test.

Topics and questions for discussion at seminars

Topic 1. Subject of developmental psychology

1. Correlation of concepts<возрастная психология>and<психология возрастного развития>.

2 Evolutionary, revolutionary and situational age-related changes in the psyche and

child behavior.

h. Age characteristics of a person as a subject of developmental psychology. 4 Driving forces, conditions and laws of mental development as a subject of age

Psychology. Topic 2. Problems of the psychology of age-related development "

1. The problem of organic and environmental conditioning of psychology and development

2. The problem of spontaneous and organized social influence on development.

3. The problem of the relationship between the inclinations and abilities of the child in his mental development.

4. The problem of comparative influence on the development of evolutionary, revolutionary and situational changes in the psyche and behavior.

5. The problem of the relationship between intelligence and personality in general mental development

child. Topic 3. Research methods in developmental psychology

1. Sources of methods used in developmental psychology.

2. Application of the observation method in developmental psychology.

3. Survey in psychological and pedagogical research of children.

4. Experiment and features of its application in child psychology.

5. The use of psychological tests in the study of children.

Topics for essays

1. History of research in developmental psychology.

2. Research methods in developmental psychology.

Topics for independent research work

1. The main directions of research in developmental psychology in our country and

abroad.

2. Organization and conduct of a psychological and pedagogical experiment with children.

3. Tests and their use in developmental psychology.

Literature

Aseev V.G. Age psychology. Tutorial. Irkutsk,

(Subject of developmental psychology: 4-9.) Development and educational psychology / Ed. M.V. Gamezo

et al., 1984.

("The subject and tasks of developmental and educational psychology: 10-13. Methods of studying the child's psyche: 14-26. History of developmental and educational psychology: 27-46.)

Developmental and educational psychology / Ed. A.V. Petrovsky.-M., 1979. (From the history of developmental and educational psychology: 5-20.)

Vygotsky L.S.Pedagogical psychology.-M., 1991. (On the pedological analysis of the pedagogical process: 430-449.)

Halperin P. Ya., Zaporozhets A. V., Karpova S. N. Actual problems of developmental psychology. M., 1978. (Introduction to developmental psychology: 4-10.), Dyachenko O. LL., Lavrentieva T. V. Mental development of preschoolers. - M., 1984. (What does child psychology study: 6-9.)

Lashley D. Working with small children.-M., 1991. (Supervision of children: II-67.)

Mukhina V.S.Children's Psychology: A Textbook for Students of Pedagogical Institutes.-M., 1985.

(Child psychology as a science: 10-15. Methods of child psychology: 15-28.) Elkonin D.B. 23-30.)

Cognitive processes and behavior of the child

Chapter 2. THEORY OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Genotypic and environmental conditioning of child development. The importance of the correct solution to this problem for the education and upbringing of children. Different points of view on the relationship between genotypic and environmental influences on development. An evolutionary point of view. A revolutionary point of view. Probabilistic (stochastic) point of view. Functional point of view. L. S. Vygotsky's theory of cultural and historical development of higher mental functions. Possibilities of constructing the theory and practice of teaching and upbringing of children on the basis of facts concerning the genotypic and environmental conditioning of mental properties, states and processes. The main directions in the development of the behavior and psyche of the child. The lengthening of the periods of maturation and development of living beings to their full adaptation to the conditions of life as the anatomical and physiological organization and forms of behavior of these creatures become more complex. Dependence of development on the level of biological maturity of the organism. Examples related to the formation of speech in a child. The influence of the environment on the biological development of the organism. Priority of environmental influences over genotypic ones.

Basic concepts and general issues of child development. The concept of a sensitive developmental period. Driving forces, conditions and factors of development. Leading activity and leading type of communication. Physical (chronological) and psychological age of the child. The concept of a crisis of age-related development. The relationship in the development of behavior, cognitive processes and the personality of the child. The plurality of activities and communication in which the child develops. The frequency and sequence of the emergence of communication and activity as the leading forms of activity in the process of age-related development of children. The concept of objective activity. Change of the leading types of objective activity and interpersonal communication according to D. B. El'ko-nin. The developmental value of children's role-playing games, their features and connection with reality. Semiotic function, its appearance and general significance for the mental development of the child. Play and development of the semiotic function. The role of language "and speech in the cognitive development of the child.

Periodization of age-related development. Two points of view on the development process: continuous and discrete. The staging of the development process. Empirical and theoretical periodization of development. Periodization of child development according to D. B. El'konin and D. I. Feldstein as a compromise between empirical and theoretical approaches. Two main critical periods in development: the crisis of three years and the crisis of adolescence. Allocation of eras, periods and phases in development.

Development of children's thinking. Vygotsky's concept of the development of children's speech and thinking. Different genetic roots of thinking and speech. Pre-intellectual stage in the development of speech. The combination of words with thought and the influence of this fact on the further development of speech, its semantic enrichment. Development of the dialogical form of speech and its influence on thinking. The theory of the development of intelligence in children by J. Piaget. The concepts of schema, operation, assimilation, accommodation and balance. The main stages of the intellectual development of children according to J. Piaget: the preoperative stage, the stage of specific operations, the stage of formal operations. Examples for illustration. The theory of intellectual development of the child according to J. Bruner. Criticism of Piaget's theory, the main arguments of this criticism. Further development of Piaget's views in the works of modern scientists Pascual-Leone, R. Keyes.

GENOTYPICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS OF CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT

The problem of the genotypic environmental conditionality of the development of the psyche and behavior is confused with the clarification of how the characteristics of the organism given to a person from birth and the genetically determined laws of its maturation are related to the possibilities of development, education, upbringing, acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities, with the development of intellectual abilities. with the formation of the personal qualities of the child. The fundamental formulation and practical solution of the question of what and how a person can be taught (and taught) depends on how this problem is solved in theory.

All modern scientists recognize that the psyche and human behavior in many of their manifestations are innate. However, in the form in which they are presented in a developed or developing person, the psyche and behavior are for the most part the product of training and education.

Development is the transition of a growing organism to a higher level, and this transition can depend on both maturation and learning. The main question is to find out how these two processes relate to each other. One of the points of view on this problem, which is currently mainly of historical interest, is the assertion that the formation of the human psyche and behavior is the result of an evolutionary transformation of the possibilities genetically inherent in the body since birth, existing in the form of inclinations. In the process of ontogenetic psychological and behavioral development of an organism, according to this point of view, there is nothing that, at least in the embryo, was not contained in the genotype. Everything that appears further in the development process is initially in the form of inclinations, which, being transformed and developing, turn into abilities, mainly according to the laws of biological maturation of the organism. This concept is called evolutionary development theory. One of the meanings of the word<эволюция>- deployment.

Another and also not very popular theory today is called

revolutionary development theory. It represents the other extreme in positions and almost completely rejects any significance of genetic factors in development. Supporters of this theory reduce all development to a variety of environmental influences and argue that 1 / any person, regardless of his natural anatomical and physiological characteristics, can form any psychological and behavioral properties, bringing their development to any level with the help of training and education.

The beginning of an early age is the entry into sensitive period of speech development. Between the ages of one and three years, the child is most susceptible to language acquisition. Here the formation of those prerequisites for mastering human speech, which arose in infancy, is completed - speech hearing, the ability to understand speech, including the language of facial expressions, gestures and pantomime. Passive perception and response to the speech of an adult, for which the child is practically already prepared by the end of infancy, is replaced in early preschool childhood by active mastery of speech.

The development of a child's speech in the initial period of its active use is based on operant and vicarious learning, outwardly acting as an imitation of the speech of adults. In the second year of life, the child's interest in the world around him sharply increases. Children want to know everything, touch, hold in their hands. At this age, they are especially interested in the names of new objects and phenomena, the names of the people around them, they expect appropriate explanations from adults. Having mastered the first words, children often ask adults the questions “what is it?”, “Who is it?”, “What is it called?”. These questions must not be ignored, and must always be answered as fully as possible in order to satisfy the child's natural curiosity and contribute to his cognitive development.

Incorrect, too fast and slurred speech of adults interferes with the speech development of children. It is necessary to speak with the child slowly, clearly pronouncing and repeating all words and expressions. By carefully observing the actions of adults, a child by the end of the first year of life already reacts animatedly to his facial expressions, gestures and pantomime. From them, he catches the meaning of those words that are pronounced by an adult. Therefore, when talking with young children, especially at the beginning of the assimilation of active speech, it is necessary to widely use the language of facial expressions and gestures in communication.

Children imitate their parents, brothers and sisters in the process of speech development more than other people. The more often, communicating with the child, his closest relatives talk to him, the faster the child himself learns speech. Support and approval of the child's own speech activity from the surrounding people play an important role in the development of his speech. It is best to teach and practically assess the level of speech development achieved by the child, the mother can. If she utters the same words, then the child understands them better and reacts more reasonably to them than to similar statements of other people.

Parents who observe the speech development of children sometimes have anxiety about delays in the onset of their active speech. If a child up to about two years old speaks little, but understands well the words of an adult addressed to him, then there should be no serious grounds for worries about his speech development. Children who previously spoke little, between two and three years of age often show a significant and rapid increase in their own speech activity, catching up with their peers. There are significant, normal individual differences in the nature and pace of the child's assimilation of active speech, which should not cause concern.

At the age of about three years, the child begins to listen carefully and with obvious interest to what adults are talking about among themselves. In this regard, their speech should be varied and so that it is understandable for the child.

Another important point associated with the speech development of a young child is the ability of children to master two languages at the same time: native and non-native. It can be assumed that the most favorable period of time for the beginning of the parallel study of two languages is precisely the early preschool age. However, both languages must be taught here using the same methods. It is important that certain people constantly speak to the child in different languages, consistently, without passing from one language to another, in different situations. In this case, the phenomenon of linguistic interference will not arise or will be rather soon and successfully overcome.

We have already noted that young children are characterized by increased curiosity. Her support leads to the rapid intellectual development of the child, to the acquisition of the necessary knowledge, abilities and skills, and the mental development of children of this age is carried out in different types of activities: in games, in classes with adults, in communication with peers, in the process of careful observation that surrounds the child. Toys are of particular importance for the development of a child's curiosity. Among those toys that are at the disposal of children, there should be many such, with the help of which children, imitating adults, could join the world of human relations. Here, there should be plenty of dolls depicting people and animals, cubes from which you can create various designs, household items, furniture, kitchen utensils, garden tools (all in a toy version), a variety of tools for making simple crafts.

The presence of tools in the hands of a young child is especially important for improving his intellect, creative imagination and for the development of abilities. The child, with the help of the tools at his disposal, must first of all learn to put in order, repair his own toys. If the toy is accidentally broken, then it should not be thrown away, even if the parents are able to buy a new one. Better to ask the kid and help him fix the toy. Of course, at this age, Children are hardly able to do it on their own. It is important, however, something else: from an early age to accustom children to accuracy, hard work and frugality.

Another important question is connected with the education and upbringing of children of early preschool age: how stable the consequences of early sensory-motor deprivation can become for the further psychological and behavioral development of the child, i.e. depriving the child of the necessary stimuli for his psychophysical development. If we are talking about purely motor skills, that is, about a certain deficit of opportunities for free movement in space, then delays in this regard, observed at an early age, over time, as a rule, are overcome without any serious consequences. In other areas of development, such as speech, emotions, intellectual abilities, the consequences of early sensory deprivation may be more serious and persistent. Children whose possibilities in relation to these mental functions were significantly limited between the ages of birth and two or three years of life, that is, those with whom adults had little contact in early preschool childhood, who, for example, did not read books, were not encouraged to do so In order to actively study the world around them, which did not have the opportunity to play, these children, as a rule, lag significantly behind their peers in psychological development. Of these, so-called pedagogically neglected children often grow up.

Parallel work of different analyzers helps the development of the child's abilities. Every human ability is a combination and joint, coordinated work of many mental functions, each of which develops and improves in various types of activity and learning. Conditioned learning has a positive effect on the ability of the senses to distinguish between physical stimuli (differential sensory ability). Operant learning allows you to actively improve your movements. Vicarious learning improves observation, and verbal learning develops thinking and speech. If in teaching a child we use all four types of learning, then at the same time he will develop perception, motor skills, thinking and speech. That is why, from early childhood, when starting to teach children, it is necessary to strive for a combination of different types of learning.

The main areas of teaching children in infancy are movements, mental processes: perception and memory, speech hearing and visual-active thinking. The development of the child's motor activity is necessary to expand the possibilities of his independent movement in space, for the study and knowledge of the world around him. Without the acquisition of human properties by the corresponding processes, further development of the child's own human abilities is impossible.
If from the very first days of life it was possible to begin active educational and educational work with the child, aimed at the development of his cognitive processes and speech, then this should be done by starting to teach the child immediately after his birth. However, we know that in the early days of its existence, the human infant is one of the most helpless creatures in the world and, above all, requires physical care. Therefore, it is necessary to take care of his physical education first of all. It is not recommended, for example, to swaddle the baby too much and keep him in this state for a long time. The arms and legs of the child should be able to move freely for h, two to three weeks of age. The development of his motor abilities, skills and abilities in the future may depend on the baby's movements in the first days and months of life.
Until the baby stands on his own legs and learns to move independently, it is necessary to regularly carry out special physical exercises with him, starting from the age of one and a half months. At the age of 1.5 to 3 months, this can be a light, stroking massage of the baby's arms, legs, back and abdomen. From three to four months, it is recommended to apply rubbing and warm-up of the same parts of the body, free passive movement of the child's arms and legs, their flexion and extension by the adult's hands.
From four to six months, an adult should already carefully observe the child's own attempts to independently perform a variety of purposeful movements and stimulate them in every possible way. Such movements that require support can be reaching and grabbing objects, turning from side to side, trying to take a sitting position, get down on all fours, kneel, stand on your own, and take the first steps. An approximate set of physical exercises for an infant 6-7 months of age should mainly include helping the child in movements performed by him on his own initiative. At 9-12 months, it is especially important to stimulate the child's own efforts to get up and walk.
All physical exercises are recommended to be done daily during waking hours, 20-30 minutes before feeding or 30-40 minutes after it, in the morning, afternoon and evening, but not later than 3-4 hours before bedtime. Physical activity with your child should be done on a smooth, hard surface covered with a soft, clean rug or duvet with a diaper or sheet on top. At the same time, the hands of an adult should be dry and clean.
It is advisable that physical activities with children are constantly conducted by the same person, not necessarily the mother. It is even better if the father does it while the mother is busy with some other business. During classes, it is necessary to keep the child in a good mood and talk to him affectionately.
With age, as the movements improve and develop, it is necessary to stimulate the child's activity aimed at eating, dressing and undressing on his own. For hardening and physical development of the child, bathing and swimming with the help of an adult or in special swimming accessories that support the baby on the surface of the water is useful.
A child from two to three months should not only be surrounded by bright, colorful, beautiful and attractive toys that emit various and pleasant sounds, but also be able to touch them, pick them up, move, turn, generate certain visual and auditory effects. ... All manipulative actions of the child with objects should not be hindered, since with the help of these actions the infant actively learns the world around him. This is where the formation of voluntary movements and cognitive interests begins. Maintaining and consolidating them at this age in the future can lead to the formation of an important need for a modern civilized person in acquiring new knowledge.
In the second half of life, children begin to reproduce and repeat the movements of adults. Thus, they demonstrate a readiness for vicarious learning with repeated independent exercises. This circumstance is of fundamental importance for the further general development of the child, in particular for the formation of his speech. Under the influence of the speech of adults, the child first develops a special speech hearing. It includes a number of sequentially formed elementary and more complex abilities: phonemic hearing (familiarization with the sounds of speech that make up words); rules for combining phonemes into syllables and words (assimilation of phonological rules); the ability to distinguish the main significant units of the language (morphemic hearing) in the speech stream; mastering the rules for combining them (syntax).
In order for the infant's speech hearing to develop as soon as possible, it is necessary, starting from two months, to talk to the baby as much as possible while feeding and performing other caring tasks. At the same time, the child should clearly see the face and hands of the person pronouncing the words, since through facial expressions and gestures they convey information about what is simultaneously indicated with the help of words.
The infant connects the words spoken by an adult with what he himself feels, sees and hears. This is how the primary teaching of complex speech perception occurs, the ability to distinguish its elements and understand is formed.
Along with the assimilation of words denoting objects, it is necessary to ensure that the child learns to understand words related to the actions and signs of objects. They should be used in communication with a child from about 8-9 months of age, when he has already learned how to independently perform elementary voluntary movements associated, for example, with changing posture, grabbing, moving objects, turning his own body, moving his parts: hands, legs, head. During the formation of a child's speech, special attention should be paid to the development of hand movements. In the vocabulary of an adult communicating with an infant, there should be enough words denoting such movements. These are words such as "give", "take", "lift", "throw", "bring", "take", etc. The success of the assimilation and understanding of speech increases significantly if, along with the actual speech communication with the adult and during his time, the child has the opportunity to actively manipulate objects called by the adult, independently explore them, and carefully study.
The main thing that a child should acquire by the end of infancy is upright posture and various hand movements. Under natural conditions, this occurs to one degree or another in all children, but with certain individual differences, sometimes reaching two to three months in time. With the help of certain actions, the motor development of children can be accelerated. Such actions should be based on the child's natural internal urges to perform certain movements.
Almost from the first days of life, a baby has a special supporting motor reflex, which consists in the fact that when the palm touches the lower surface of the foot, the child automatically unbends and straightens the legs. This reflex can be used to actively develop his leg muscles, gradually preparing the child to stand on them.
For the development of movements of the arms and legs of the child and his accelerated preparation for upright posture, coordination of hand and foot movements is very important. It is important that the child, being in a state of wakefulness, can simultaneously touch surrounding objects with his feet, leaning on them, grab with his hands, first lying down, and then sitting and moving on the surface. This will prepare the coordinated movements of his arms and legs and the corresponding muscle groups.
Approximately by the beginning of the second half of life, the child's perception and memory, his motor activity reach such a level of development that he is quite capable of solving elementary tasks in a visual-effective plan. From this moment it is time to take care of the development of visual-active thinking in the child. It is now necessary for the infant to more often set various kinds of tasks for the visual and motor search for familiar and attractive objects. For example, in front of a child's eyes, you can hide a toy, distract his attention for a few seconds, and then ask him to find the hidden thing. Such questions and games with children not only develop memory well, but have a beneficial effect on thinking.

Throughout early childhood, the child's intellect is improved, a transition from visual-effective to visual-figurative thinking occurs. Practical actions with material objects are gradually replaced by actions with images of these objects. The child takes another and very important step on the path of his intellectual development. In order for this development to continue at an accelerated pace, young children need to be given as many tasks for the imagination as possible. Their independence and striving for artistic and technical design, creativity, in particular drawing, should be especially encouraged. Communication with adults, joint creative games with them act as the main conditions for the development of the child's abilities.
The beginning of an early age is the entry into the sensitive period of speech development. Between the ages of one and three years, the child is most susceptible to language acquisition. Here the formation of those prerequisites for mastering human speech, which arose in infancy, is completed - speech hearing, the ability to understand speech, including the language of facial expressions, gestures and pantomime. Passive perception and response to the speech of an adult, for which the child is practically already prepared by the end of infancy, is replaced in early preschool childhood by active mastery of speech.
The development of a child's speech in the initial period of its active use is based on operant and vicarious learning, outwardly acting as an imitation of the speech of adults. In the second year of life, the child's interest in the world around him sharply increases. Children want to know everything, touch, hold in their hands. At this age, they are especially interested in the names of new objects and phenomena, the names of the people around them, they expect appropriate explanations from adults. Having mastered the first words, children often ask adults the questions "what is it?", "Who is it?", "What is it called?" These questions must not be ignored, and must always be answered as fully as possible in order to satisfy the child's natural curiosity and contribute to his cognitive development.
Incorrect, too fast and slurred speech of adults interferes with the speech development of children. It is necessary to speak with the child slowly, clearly pronouncing and repeating all words and expressions. By carefully observing the actions of adults, a child by the end of the first year of life already reacts animatedly to his facial expressions, gestures and pantomime. From them, he catches the meaning of those words that are pronounced by an adult. Therefore, when talking with young children, especially at the beginning of the assimilation of active speech, it is necessary to widely use the language of facial expressions and gestures in communication.
Children imitate their parents, brothers and sisters in the process of speech development more than other people. The more often, communicating with the child, his closest relatives talk to him, the faster the child himself learns speech. Support and approval of the child's own speech activity from the surrounding people play an important role in the development of his speech. It is best to teach and practically assess the level of speech development achieved by the child, the mother can. If she utters the same words, then the child understands them better and reacts more reasonably to them than to similar statements of other people.
Parents who observe the speech development of children sometimes have anxiety about delays in the onset of their active speech. If a child up to about two years of age speaks little, but understands well the words of an adult addressed to him, then there should be no serious grounds for worries about his speech development. Children who previously spoke little, between two and three years of age often show a significant and rapid increase in their own speech activity, catching up with their peers. There are significant, normal individual differences in the nature and pace of the child's assimilation of active speech, which should not cause concern.
At the age of about three years, the child begins to listen carefully and with obvious interest to what adults are talking about among themselves. In this regard, their speech should be varied and become such that it is understandable for the child.
Another important point related to the speech development of a young child is the ability of children to assimilate two languages at the same time: native and non-native. It can be assumed that the most favorable period of time for the beginning of the parallel study of two languages is precisely the early preschool age. However, both languages must be taught here using the same methods. It is important that certain people constantly speak to the child in different languages, consistently, without passing from one language to another, in different situations. In this case, the phenomenon of linguistic interference will not arise or will be rather soon and successfully overcome.
We have already noted that increased curiosity is characteristic of young children. Her support leads to the rapid intellectual development of the child, to the acquisition of the necessary knowledge, abilities and skills, and the mental development of children of this age is carried out in different types of activities: in games, in classes with adults, in communication with peers, in the process of careful observation that surrounds the child. Toys are of particular importance for the development of a child's curiosity. Among those toys that are at the disposal of children, there should be many such, with the help of which children, imitating adults, could join the world of human relations. Here, there should be plenty of dolls depicting people and animals, cubes from which you can create various designs, household items, furniture, kitchen utensils, garden tools (all in a toy version), a variety of tools for making simple crafts.
The presence of tools in the hands of a young child is especially important for improving his intellect, creative imagination and for the development of abilities. The child, with the help of the tools at his disposal, must first of all learn to put in order, repair his own toys. If the toy is accidentally broken, then it should not be thrown away, even if the parents are able to buy a new one.
Better to ask the kid and help him fix the toy. Of course, at this age, children are unlikely to be able to do it on their own. It is important, however, something else: from an early age to accustom children to accuracy, hard work and frugality.
Another important question is connected with the education and upbringing of children of early preschool age: how stable the consequences of early sensory-motor deprivation can become for the further psychological and behavioral development of the child, i.e. depriving the child of the necessary stimuli for his psychophysical development. When it comes to purely motor skills, i.e. If there is a certain lack of opportunities for free movement in space, then delays in this regard, observed at an early age, over time, as a rule, are overcome without any serious consequences. In other areas of development, such as speech, emotions, intellectual abilities, the consequences of early sensory deprivation can be more serious and persistent. Children whose possibilities in relation to these mental functions were significantly limited at the age from birth to two or three years of life, i.e. those with whom adults had little contact in early preschool childhood, who, for example, did not read books, were not encouraged to actively study the world around them, who did not have the opportunity to play, these children, as a rule, lag significantly behind their peers in psychological development. Of these, so-called pedagogically neglected children often grow up.

Topic 1. The initial stage of learning
1. The first signs of learning in infants.
2. The special importance of learning in the first year of a child's life.
3. The role of words at the initial stage of learning.
Topic 2. Combination of different forms of learning
1. The need to combine different forms of learning for the accelerated psychological and behavioral development of the child.
2. The optimal combination of different types of learning.
Topic 3. Features of teaching infants
1. The main areas of learning in infants.
2. Improvement of physical activity and physical development of the child during the first year of life.
3. Formation of prerequisites for active speech development.
4. Formation of visual-effective thinking.
Topic 4. Early Learning
1. Factors contributing to the child's transition from visual-effective to visual-figurative thinking.
2. The beginning of the sensitive period in the development of active speech.
3. Ways to stimulate the speech activity of a child of one and a half to two years of age.
4. Organization of communication between a young child and people around him.
5. Development of imagination and speech thinking.
6. The developing value of children's games. Requirements for a child's toys.
7. The problem of early bilingualism and its solution in the initial period of the development of active speech.

Topics for essays

1. Features of teaching children in infancy.
2. Early Learning.

1. Means of accelerated mental and behavioral development of children at an early age.
2. Ways and ways of improving the speech and thinking of a young child.

Literature
I
Psychology of preschool children. The development of cognitive processes. - M., 1964. (Sensory development at an early age (up to a year): 17-35.)
Ranshburg I., Popper P. Secrets of personality. - M., 1983. (Development of motor activity at an early age: 29-41.)
Rutter M. Help to Difficult Children. M., 1987. (Infancy and the first year of life: 82-90. Early age (second year of life): 91-97.)
II
Kyarandashev Yu.N. The development of ideas in children: a textbook. - Minsk, 1987. (Development of ideas in the first year of life: 14-24. Development of ideas in children at an early age: 24-43.)
Carlson L. et al. Child from 0 to 2 years old. Development in interaction with the people around. - M., 1983. (Understanding of each other by adults and children. Cognition of the world by children. Self-knowledge. Mode of life and getting used to new conditions, ". Games of young children.)
Novoselova S.A. Development of thinking at an early age. - M., 1978.

Improving perception, memory and thinking. The concepts of sensory standard and perceptual action. Development of children's perception through the doubling of sensory standards and the formation of perceptual actions. The value of perception for the identification of artistic and graphic and design and technical abilities. The main directions of improving the memory of a preschooler. Giving memory to arbitrariness, mediated character. Development of means of memorization. Imprinting in the game. The need for adequate motivation for memorizing and reproducing material in children of early preschool age. Repetition as a sign of the beginning of voluntary memorization. Improving the ways of repeating the material. Ways to develop the means of memorization. Allocation of a mnemonic goal, formulation and solution of mnemonic tasks. The importance of developing thinking for improving memory. The main stages of the development of thinking as an internal plan of action.
Teaching speech, reading and writing. Ways of speech development in preschool age. Methods for the development of speech in a child, its intellectualization. The role of children's word creation and egocentric speech in the child's verbal development. The beginning of the study of foreign languages. Preschool age as the beginning of a sensitive period in the acquisition of a foreign language. The meaning of correctly placed stress for teaching reading in words and phrases. Graphic and iconic drawings of the child as prerequisites for the development of writing. Opportunities and conditions for teaching writing at an earlier, 3-5 years of age. The importance of adequate motivation for learning to read and write for learning success. The role of the game in this process. Conditions for the successful acquisition of foreign languages by preschool children.
Preparing for school. There are two main factors that determine the psychological readiness of a child to study at school: personal-motivational and intellectual-cognitive. The structure of motivation, ensuring the readiness of the preschooler to master school knowledge, skills and abilities. The role of cognitive interests, the need for self-improvement, in communication, in achieving success, adequate self-esteem and the optimal level of aspirations. The main motivational (acceptance and preservation of the task, attitude to comments and to the proposed help) and structural (structure of activity) signs of a preschooler's readiness for learning activities. Functional signs of readiness: the nature of the indicative, performing and control educational activity.
Developing educational and didactic games and forms of classes with preschool children. Difficulties of a motivational nature that arise when teaching children from 4-5 years of age. The need to generate and maintain in such children a constant interest in knowledge. Ways to overcome these difficulties through teaching in a specially organized educational and didactic games. The main psychological and pedagogical requirements for this kind of games: direct interest in classes; giving children the opportunity to show their abilities; high assessment of children's abilities and their achievements by adults; inclusion of the child in the competition; the possibility of winning the competition by acquiring new knowledge, skills and abilities; availability of simple sources of knowledge, skills and abilities that the child can use independently; stimulating success by emphasizing that it comes from effort and dedication. Basic requirements for individual ifs of children; simplicity, accessibility, constructive character, acquisition of new knowledge, formation of skills and abilities.

The development of the basic cognitive processes of a child in preschool childhood can proceed spontaneously and in a controlled manner, in an organized and disorganized manner, and the level of intelligence achieved by a child by the age of 6-7 years, as well as the degree of his readiness to learn at school, significantly depend on how thoughtful the child's teaching was. family and preschool institutions in the previous three to four years. These years make a great contribution to the cognitive development of children. It is no coincidence that the leading type of activity at this age is play, supplemented, of course, by other types of activity that affect the development of the child, including communication.
At this age, children have great opportunities for improving cognitive processes, primarily perception through the formation of sensory actions, consciously regulated and aimed at transforming perceived reality in order to build its adequate images. Sensory abilities of children, according to LL Wenger, are determined by the number of those perceptual actions that the child possesses46. The formation of perceptual actions, in turn, depends on the selection and assimilation by the child of systems of sensory standards, i.e. sensory properties of objects, allocated during their perception by adults and recorded in the language in the form of concepts. Sensory standards as models of perception have developed historically and do not present any particular difficulty for their assimilation by an adult. At the same time, they are a problem for a preschool child who needs to be specially taught to compare the properties of specific objects perceived through the senses, to correlate them with standards. Such reference samples in the perception of the shape of objects, for example, can be known geometric figures (line, angle, triangle, rectangle, circle, square, etc.); when perceiving color - the spectrum and various shades of its primary colors in terms of saturation and brightness; when perceiving the size of objects - gradations of measures and differences in values (length, area, volume).
Having introduced the child to these standards, he must be taught to use them in practice to establish the corresponding properties of perceived objects, i.e. teach perceptual actions. The improvement of perceptual actions, the mastery of new types of such actions, according to L.A. Venger, provides an improvement in perception with age, the acquisition of greater accuracy, dismemberment and a number of other qualities inherent in the developed perception of an adult. The high quality of perception, in turn, forms the basis for the formation of those special abilities for which perfect perceptual actions are important: artistic, design and others.
In parallel with the development of perception in preschool childhood, there is a process of improving the child's memory, and if for perception the possibilities of development at this age are more or less limited, then for memory they are much wider. Its improvement in preschool children can go in several directions at once. The first is giving the processes of memorization an arbitrary character, the second is the transformation of the child's memory from direct to mediated, the third is the development of means and techniques of both memorization and recall. Let's consider each of these areas separately.
From the younger preschool age to the older one, there are noticeable changes in memory. First of all, by the end of preschool childhood, memory is allocated into a special, independently controlled mental function of the child, which he can control to one degree or another. In the younger and middle preschool age (3-4 years), memorizing and reproducing material is still part of various types of activity, it is carried out mainly involuntarily. In older preschool age, thanks to the setting of special mnemonic tasks for children, a transition to involuntary memory is made. The more such tasks arise for a preschooler in play, communication and work, the faster his memory turns from involuntary to voluntary. In this case, mnemonic actions are singled out in a special group among other types of actions performed in connection with the implementation of a particular activity47. Mnemic are actions aimed at memorizing, preserving and reproducing information.
Especially quickly and easily mnemonic actions arise and stand apart in the game, and in all age groups of preschoolers, starting from three to four years of age. In children of junior and middle preschool age, due to the peculiarities of their psychology and insufficient readiness for serious purposeful activity, in particular educational, the productivity of memorization in the game is noticeably higher than in other types of activity. Sometimes this creates the mistaken impression that the memory of a three to four year old child is weak, especially when they try to check his memory directly using the same methods and under the same conditions that are used to study the memory of adults.
For the development of a child's arbitrary memory, it is important to catch in time and make the most of his desire to remember something. Activities associated with a conscious intention to remember or recall first appear clearly in children around the age of five or six. Outwardly, they are expressed, for example, in the child's deliberate repetition of what he would like to remember. Stimulating repetition plays an important role in the development of memory, and repetition should be encouraged in every possible way. Repetitions provide information transfer from short-term to long-term memory.
When teaching memorization, one must gradually teach children to move from immediate repetition to delayed repetition, from repetition aloud to repetition to oneself. The transition from external to mental repetition is usually intellectualism of memorization and makes it more productive. From the age of four, children can be taught to memorize some things with the help of others, for example, an object or a word with the help of a picture designating it. Initially, an adult offers ready-made means for memorizing the child. When children learn to memorize and recall objects with the help of the means offered to them, one can proceed to setting the task for the child to independently choose the means for memorization.
The course of development and improvement of mnemonic means can be imagined as follows:
1. Transition from concrete mnemonic means (memorizing some objects with the help of others) to abstract ones (memorizing objects with the help of signs, drawings, diagrams, etc.).
2. The transition from mechanical to logical means of memorizing and reproducing material.
3. The transition from external means of memorization to internal.
4. The transition from the use of ready-made or well-known means of memorization to new, original, memorized ones.
Following this course of development in improving the means of memorization and reproduction ensures the gradual formation of mediated and voluntary memorization in the child, at the same time developing mnemotechnical means. The fact that the development of memory in preschoolers in all these areas is quite possible is shown by the experiments conducted by Z.M. Istomina. She found that six to seven-year-old children, even under normal conditions, without the use of special mnemonic training, can independently form mental logical connections between memorized words. The presence of such connections in the child's memory is evidenced by the nature of his reproduction of the material, in particular the fact that, when reproducing from memory, a child of this age can change the order of the Names of objects, combining them by meaning into semantic groups. Consider one illustrative experience in this connection.
Children of different ages are offered the same material with a request to remember it in two different ways: directly or with the help of special auxiliary mnemonic means. An analysis of the techniques that children use for memorization in this case shows that those who solve the problem with the help of auxiliary means structure their operations differently than those who memorize directly. Mediated memorization requires not so much the power of mechanical memory as the ability to intelligently dispose of the material, structure it in a certain way, i.e. not only memory, but also developed thinking.
There is one important point to keep in mind that distinguishes the learning ability of children from the learning ability of adults. A child relatively easily assimilates material only when he has a clearly expressed direct cognitive or consumer interest in this material. This remark also applies to memory. Its development in preschool children from involuntary to voluntary and from immediate to mediated will occur actively only when the child himself is interested in using the appropriate means of memorization, in preserving and reproducing the memorized material. A preschooler, for example, is aware of and identifies mnemonic goals only if he is faced with an interesting task for him, which requires active memorization and recall. This happens, in particular, when the child participates in the game, and the goal to remember something acquires for him a real, concrete and actual meaning that meets the interests of the game.
The most important moment of the child's transition from involuntary to voluntary memorization is the selection and acceptance of a mnemonic goal by him, i.e. the formation of an internal mindset for memorizing material. But this acts only as the first step towards the development of voluntary memory. Further, conscious methods and means of memorization must be worked out, the simplest of which is repetition of the material. It is also necessary to ensure that the child learns to use certain stimuli for recall.
Improvement of voluntary memory in children is associated with the use of mental operations in the processes of memorizing and reproducing material of analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, and the establishment of semantic connections. We can say that the improvement of the child's memory occurs simultaneously with the improvement of his mental activity in direct dependence on it.
If you start teaching a child to use mnemonic techniques before he has the first signs of voluntary memorization in the process of natural development of memory, then it can be achieved that this type of memorization and reproduction of material will begin to take shape in children not by the age of five or six, but earlier. ... It has been established that with properly organized training, a pronounced effect in the development of memory can be achieved already at a young preschool age, i.e. one and a half to two years earlier than usual. However, for this to happen, a number of conditions must be met. At the first stage of training, children must learn to compare and relate to each other the material being studied, form semantic groupings based on the selection of certain essential features, learn how to perform these operations when solving mnemonic problems.
In turn, the formation of the ability to classify material must also go through three stages: practical, speech and completely mental. It is shown that as a result of mastering the techniques of grouping and classification as cognitive actions, it is possible to improve the memory of children of primary preschool age. In middle and senior preschool childhood, such children already, quite consciously, successfully use such techniques when memorizing and reproducing material, thereby demonstrating a pronounced ability to voluntarily memorize and reproduce material.
Discussing the development of memory in children, we approached the problem of thinking. The prospects and limits of the memory development of a preschooler, especially in the preschool years, are ultimately set by his intellectual capabilities. If it is possible to find the key to control the development of the child's thinking, then this means that opportunities are opening up for improving all of his other cognitive processes.
Since the most important feature of the psychological mechanism of human intelligence is the presence of an internal plan of action in it, special attention should be paid to its formation and development in preschool age. N.N. Poddyakov showed that the development of an internal plan of action in preschool children goes through the following stages:
1st stage. The child cannot yet act in the mind, but is already able to manipulate things in a visual-effective plan, transform the objective situation directly perceived by him with the help of practical actions. At this stage, the development of thinking consists in the fact that at first the situation is given to the child visually, in all its essential features, and then some of them are excluded, and the emphasis is placed on the child's memory. Initially, the development of intelligence goes through the development of recalling previously seen or heard, felt or done, through the transfer of once found solutions to a problem to new conditions and situations.
2nd stage. Here speech is already included in the statement of the problem. The task itself can be solved by the child only externally, through direct manipulation of material objects or by trial and error. Some modification of the previously found solution is allowed when it is transferred to new conditions and situations. The discovered solution in verbal form can be expressed by the child, therefore at this stage it is important to get him to understand the verbal instruction, formulation and verbal explanation of the solution found.
3rd stage. The problem is solved already in a visual-figurative plan by manipulating images-representations of objects. The child is required to understand the methods of action aimed at solving the problem, their division into practical ones - the transformation of the objective situation and theoretical - the awareness of the method of the transformation performed.
4th stage. This is the final stage, at which the task is reproduced and implemented according to the internally presented plan following the found its visual-effective and figurative solution. Here, the development of intelligence is reduced to the formation of the child's ability to independently develop a solution to a problem and consciously follow it. Thanks to this learning, there is a transition from the external to the internal plan of action.

In preschool age, speech development continues. It, as Vygotsky showed, goes along the line of combining speech with thinking and its intellectualization. This is the formation of concepts, logic of reasoning, semantic enrichment of a word, differentiation and generalization of verbal meanings. Speech at preschool age gradually turns into the most important tool of the child's thinking.
In the fifth year of life, children usually have a period of "why", and soon after it begins the age of children's word-creation. Children at this time ask adults many questions of a cognitive nature, show an increased interest in words. Their vocabulary quickly grows, their speech becomes richer, grammatically and syntactically complex.
At this age, which belongs to the sensitive period in the development of speech, the main educational task is to enrich the child's vocabulary, to assimilate concepts, to understand the ambiguity of the words used and their semantic shades. All this is facilitated by the parallel activation and joint use of various types of speech: dialogical, monologic, reproductive, creative, intonationally different. It is necessary for the child to develop and improve the ability to speak and reason aloud, to specifically encourage him to actively use speech in solving problems.
At this age, it is useful to conduct intellectual word games with children on the topics: "What is the name of ...?", "What words do you know that mean ...?", "What word can be used instead of ...?" etc. Children can be given tasks to describe an object after careful consideration, to tell about what the child has heard or seen.
Reading stories and fairy tales, while drawing the child's attention to the new and interesting words encountered in them, is of great benefit in the development of speech. When developing a coherent monologue speech, it is useful to teach the child to retell short read texts, using those new words that are found in them.
It even more contributes to the development of speech and, at the same time, thinking of a preschooler, performing tasks for independently inventing stories and fairy tales. True, not all children of this age are able to cope with such difficult tasks, but the very attempts of this kind bring children great benefits in their development. Various auxiliary objects that the child can observe and use in the process of inventing a story, while transmitting its content, are very helpful in solving verbal problems.
Some psychologists who have studied the development of speech in a preschool child believe that bilingualism is good for children during these years. At this age, it is necessary to begin or actively continue the acquisition of a second language already begun in early childhood, and when studying both languages - native and non-native - it is advisable to simultaneously study the structures of the languages themselves as objectively existing sign systems. It is shown that preschool children are quite capable of mastering the elementary laws of language starting from the middle preschool age, when their linguistic phonemic and grammatical flair is especially developed. The child's age after four to five years is obviously sensitive in terms of language acquisition, in contrast to the age from one to three years, which is a sensitive period in the development of speech. It has been established that, given the correct teaching, four-year-old preschoolers are able to distinguish sounds in a word, distinguish between vowels and consonants, hard and soft, voiced and voiceless sounds. This in older preschool age is largely promoted by children's word creation, learning to read and write.
After the child has learned to read letters and syllables, it is important to teach him how to put stress correctly. On this basis, further learning to read in whole words is carried out. Such reading is successfully formed as a result of isolating and affixing stress in a word, the subsequent perception of the word with an orientation to the stressed vowel sound. Awareness of stress and its word-distinguishing role enriches children's ideas about their native language, contributes to the development of theoretical knowledge about it. Only after reaching the intonationally continuous sounding of the phrase, the child begins to truly understand what he has read.
Learning to read goes through two stages: analytical and synthetic. At the analytical stage, children master the reading of individual parts of words, grasp the relationships that exist between sounds and letters, master the mechanism for reading syllables, combining them into words (syllabic reading). The synthetic stage involves learning to read whole words, phrases, sentences and phrases, as well as mastering the intonation combination of sentences, comprehending a coherent text. By teaching 6-year-olds, you can ensure that they already have synthetic reading skills by the age of 7. To do this, it is necessary to conduct training, highlighting the following stages:
1. Developing attention to the grammatical features of words (prepositions, endings of words, their order in a sentence) and clarifying their role in the connection of words in a sentence.
2. Learning to predict while reading, ie, the ability to guess about the possible semantic and verbal continuation of the text.
3. Teaching continuous reading of words, reduction of unstressed vowels in them.
4. Teaching the selection and continuous reading of the so-called phonetic word (words with adjoining service words and particles).
5. Formation of the ability to combine words into phrases, to read them without re-reading.
6. Teaching the actual reading of the sentence (an explanation of the term "actual" will be given later in the text).
When starting to teach a child to read, it is first of all necessary for him to develop the necessary intonation and tune in to a holistic perception of an ordered sequence of words. N.S. Starzhinskaya, who highlighted the described stages48, believes that when the first word (or the first few words) of a sentence is perceived in the reader's head, a synthetic hypothetical scheme of the sentence arises, into which the readable words are then placed and on the basis of which the meaning of the statement is predicted. In order for a child to learn to read in this way, he must be taught to perceive not only words, but also information grammatical signals, first of all, the endings of words and words connecting them with each other into a sentence, into a single semantic whole. Simultaneously with the unification of words, the sentence should be divided into semantic groups - syntagmas, which are the simplest units of speech expressing a semantic whole. The division of a sentence into syntagmas is called actual division. Actual reading, in turn, is a reading that is built on actual division.
Improvement in reading should be accompanied by the development of writing, and vice versa, the development of writing implies an improvement in reading, since both of these functions are interrelated. Based on the analysis of data obtained in psychological studies of children's symbolic drawings, generalization of observations of the development of written speech in children in its initial forms, Vygotsky came to the following conclusions, which have not lost their significance today.
1. Teaching children to write can and should be transferred from primary school age to preschool age and made it the responsibility of preschool education, since almost 80% of children of primary preschool age already own the operation of arbitrary connection of a drawing sign with a designated object.
With psychologically thought out and properly organized teaching, children of this age are able to combine the word-meaning materialized in the drawing with the object corresponding to it. In any case, almost all six-year-old children are capable of performing operations with abstract signs. As for symbolic writing (drawing-writing), in the overwhelming majority of cases three-year-old children could master it.
2. Reading and writing can be taught to children as early as four to five years of age. The real problems faced by teaching these skills at a given age are not associated with mastering or the ability to master the technique and essence of writing, not with the ability or inability to correlate abstract symbols with specific drawings, but with the child's lack of need for the development of written speech and the use of it. ...
3. The main task of preschool learning to write, as well as teaching other complex, abstract things at an earlier age, is to make what is being learned necessary and interesting for the child, to closely link the material being studied with his actual needs.
4. Reading and writing for a preschooler should become the conditions for satisfying the most important needs in the natural, most attractive form of activity - play.
5. At the beginning, the child must be taught not to write letters, but to teach writing as a special form of expressing the need to say something.
However, it should be borne in mind that the proper result in teaching preschool children to read and write can be achieved only if the teaching methods used themselves take into account the age-related psychophysiological characteristics of children, their interests and needs. Every time, starting to teach a child, one must ask oneself the question: "How to get him interested in acquiring the relevant knowledge, skills and abilities?" It must always be remembered that the basis of a person's natural speech development is his need for communication, stimulated by the need to satisfy other needs.
The same applies to teaching children of this age a second, non-native language. It should also be based on the psychological and pedagogical principle of the actual vital necessity of relevant knowledge for the child. The situation of learning a second language should be, for example, such that, without knowing the appropriate words and expressions, the child would not be able to get what is especially interesting for him.
It has long been noticed that children born and raised in different cultures learn their native language easily and quickly, starting from the age of one. This, in particular, happens because by this time one language is already well known to them. This is the language of facial expressions, gestures and pantomime. Basically, it is congenital, and therefore there is no need for it to be specially trained. Almost all people, including adults and children, can use this language and understand each other on its basis, and without special training. The presence of this universal language of communication and its development in a child is a good basis for mastering more complex, verbal sign languages. When building a methodology for teaching children a foreign language in that period of life, when they have not yet mastered their native language well enough, it is necessary to rely as widely as possible on the language of facial expressions, gestures and pantomime, especially in the first stages of learning.
Mastering the very first sentences of the native language, the child first learns and actively uses the simplest interrogative sentences of the cognitive type: "Who is this?", "What is this?", "What is it called?" These sentences, first of all, should be assimilated by the child when teaching a foreign language, since without them active participation in communication on his part will be difficult. Questions asked independently by children stimulate the people around them, encourage them to use a foreign language in communication. After acquainting children with short and simple phrases such as questions, it is necessary to further provide them with the opportunity to ask these questions to adults. Here it is also advisable to be guided in teaching by the principle: it is not the adult who determines the topics and means of communication for the child, but the child himself, relying on his existing needs and skills, independently and in accordance with natural interests, chooses topics and means of communication, prompting the adult to it. When children learn their native language in this way, then in their vocabulary, individual parts of speech appear one after another in a certain sequence: first nouns, then verbs, then adjectives and service words - conjunctions, prepositions, particles and interjections. In the same sequence, it is advisable to acquire foreign language vocabulary.

The formation and improvement of cognitive processes in preschool childhood provides not only the intellectual development of the child, but also his preparation for school. In addition to achieving a certain level of development of cognitive abilities, such training includes ensuring a sufficiently high level of upbringing of personal qualities, the ability to communicate and interact with people. In addition, attention should be paid to the educational activity formed in the child with all its main characteristics.
The readiness of a preschool child to study at school primarily determines his motivational readiness, which includes a sufficiently developed need for knowledge, skills and a child's expressed desire to improve them. In addition, the idea of motivational readiness includes a fairly high level of development in a child of the need to achieve educational success, in communication with people, the presence of adequate self-esteem and a moderately high level of aspirations. Without motivational readiness, there can be no question of any other readiness of the child for learning, since it is the source of the child's internal desire to acquire knowledge, abilities and skills. It also identifies performance as the primary prerequisite for all human developmental achievement.
The second factor of psychological readiness for learning can be called intellectual and cognitive. It assumes the development of the child's basic mental processes of perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking and speech in terms of the parameters of arbitrariness, mediation, the ability to act both in the external and in the internal planes. We have already talked about how to prepare a child's perception, memory, thinking and speech for learning in the first two sections of this chapter. The means mentioned there are suitable for the development of attention and imagination. We will only add that all cognitive processes in children must develop systematically and systematically, necessarily include both external, practical actions with objects, and internal, mental, associated with the use of symbolic functions and sign systems. The very same activity of children should, as far as possible, be creative.
Another indicator of readiness is the development of the child's very practical activity with material objects, including those of its components that are found in school teaching and learning. In this regard, let us use the scheme of readiness indicators proposed by N.G. Salmina, somewhat modified in comparison with the author's version. This scheme includes two groups of features: functional and structural. The former relate to the process of cognitive activity, its practical functioning in a child, and the latter characterize the structure of activity.
Motivational and structural analysis of the formation of educational activity involves finding out:
- the child's acceptance of the learning task as a guide to action,
- saving the accepted task or sliding to another in the process of its execution,
- retaining or losing interest in the problem in the course of its solution. Another aspect of the motivational-structural analysis of the formation of educational activity is the clarification of:
- the child's attitude to the teacher, which can manifest itself in responding to the teacher's remarks, in accepting or ignoring them, in the student's attitude to the help provided by the teacher.
The functional signs of the formation of educational activity contain the characteristics of the executive part of the activity, as well as its control part.
The characteristic of the orientational part of the activity presupposes the establishment of the presence of the orientation itself (whether the child is able to analyze the given patterns of actions, evaluate the resulting product, and correlate it with a given pattern). This includes asking:
- the nature of orientation (collapsed - expanded, chaotic - thoughtful, organized - unorganized),
- the size of the orientation step (small, operational or large, in whole blocks).
The characteristics of the performing part of the activity include:
- performing activities by trial and error, without analyzing the result obtained or with correlating the result with the conditions of performance,
- presence or absence of self-control of activity,
- copying by a student of the actions of an adult or another student, or independent performance of an activity.
The characteristic of the control part of the activity contains information about whether the child notices mistakes, corrects them, or skips them without noticing.

Let us characterize those types of activities with preschoolers that best provide their psychological preparation for learning and for learning at school, according to the main parameters of educational activity that were described above. It is noticed that the main problem at the beginning of preschoolers' education is their insufficient motivational readiness for learning, which, in turn, is expressed in the absence of a stable interest in learning. If in some way we manage to ensure the child's direct interest in learning, then it and development are proceeding normally. Overcoming the difficulties of the motivational plan is possible only by making learning an interesting activity for the child, i.e. conducting it in the form of special educational and didactic games designed to engage the child and to teach him through the generation of interest in the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities.
The first requirement for educational and didactic games conducted with preschool children is that they develop cognitive interests. From this point of view, games that meet the following requirements are most useful for a child:
a) the ability to generate direct interest in children;
b) giving children the opportunity to show their abilities;
c) involving the child in competition with other people;
d) ensuring independence in the search for knowledge, in the formation of skills and abilities;
e) the availability of sources of new knowledge, abilities and skills in the game for the child;
f) receiving well-deserved rewards for success, and not so much for winning the game in itself, but for demonstrating new knowledge, abilities and skills in it.
Applying ordinary, traditional competitive educational and didactic games with children, it is important to draw their attention to the last three of the listed points: (d), (e) and (f).
By the end of preschool childhood, adults and books should become accessible and relatively simple sources of acquiring new knowledge, abilities and skills for children.
An important role in ensuring the child's intellectual and cognitive readiness for schooling is played by the nature of those toys with which he is dealing. It is necessary to provide preschoolers with as many different toys as possible, which they can freely dispose of. It is important for children to provide an opportunity and encourage them to independently explore their surroundings.
The most useful for a preschool child are educational and didactic games and toys that he can make with his own hands, assemble or disassemble. There is no need to burden children, especially those of three or four years of age, with technically complex and expensive toys. Such toys usually cause only temporary interest in children and are of little use in their intellectual development associated with preparation for schooling. Most of all, children need games in which they discover new knowledge that help develop the child's imagination, memory, thinking and speech, his various abilities, including design, musical, mathematical, linguistic, organizational and many others.

Topics and questions for discussion at seminars

Topic 1. Improving perception, memory and thinking
1. The concepts of sensory standards and perceptual actions.
2. Ways of developing perception in preschoolers.
3. The main directions of improving memory in preschoolers.
4. Development of voluntary memorization.
5. Development of means of memorization and mediated memory.
6. Development of memory in the game.
7. Interconnected development of memory and thinking.
8. The main stages of the formation of thinking as an internal plan of action.
9. Techniques that facilitate the transition of the child from one stage of development of thinking to another.
Topic 2. Teaching speech, reading and writing
1. The main directions of speech development in preschool age.
2. Means of speech development of a preschooler.
3. The use of children's word creation and egocentric speech to improve thinking.
4. Teaching to read and write preschoolers: the possibilities of this age.
5. Techniques for developing reading.
6. Development of writing.
7. Providing effective learning motivation in teaching reading and writing.
8. Conditions for the successful study of a foreign language by children in preschool age.
Topic 3. Preparing for school
1. Three main factors of a child's readiness to learn at school: motivational-cognitive, intellectual and activity.
2. The structure of the preschooler's motivational readiness for learning.
3. Intellectual readiness to learn.
4. The main functional and structural features of readiness for educational activities.
Topic 4. Developing educational and didactic games and forms of classes with preschool children
1. Educational games aimed at strengthening motivational readiness for learning.
2. Psychological and pedagogical requirements for group educational games.
3. Requirements for individual educational and didactic games for preschoolers.

Topics for essays

1. Means of developing perception in preschoolers.
2. Means of memory development.
3. Methods of forming thinking in preschool children.

Topics for independent research work

1. The system of tasks and special exercises aimed at the development of voluntary and mediated memorization in preschool children.
2. Ways of developing speech thinking in preschoolers.

Literature
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Kravtsova E.E. Psychological problems of children's readiness to learn at school. - M., 1991. (Modern interpretations of the preparation of children for school: 4-25.)
Kravtsov G.G., Kravtsova E.E. Six-year-old child: psychological readiness for school. - M., 1987. (Problems of learning six-year-olds: 3-13. Readiness for school: 37-59.)
E.V. Proskura The development of the cognitive abilities of preschoolers. - Kiev, 1985. (Formation of sensory and mental actions in preschoolers: 21-38. Teaching preschoolers to solve cognitive tasks: 38-73.)
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Amonashvili Sha. To school - from the age of six. - M., 1986. (Psychological characteristics of six-year-old children: 13-19. Psychological readiness to learn at school: 34-60. Teaching a foreign language. 131-149.)
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Diagnostics of educational activity and intellectual development of children. - M., 1981. (Psychological readiness to learn at school: 104-130.)
Yu.N. Karandashev The development of ideas in children: a textbook. - Minsk, 1987. (Development of representations in children in preschool age: 43-60.)
Kolominskiy Ya.L., Panko E.A. To the teacher about the psychology of six-year-old children. - M., 1988. (Psychological readiness for school: 5-21. Psychological characteristics of the game of six-year-old children: 51-70. Features of the educational activity of six-year-old children: 70-83. Artistic activity of six-year-old children: 83-96. Personality of a six-year-old child: 97 -114. Individual differences at the age of six: 114-127. Cognitive sphere of a six-year-old child: 128-173. Teacher and six-year-old children: 173-183.)
Kravtsova E.E. Psychological problems of children's readiness to learn at school. - M., 1991. (Communication between a child and an adult and psychological readiness for schooling: 25-89.)
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Lisina M.I., Silvestru A.I. The psychology of self-awareness in preschoolers. - Chisinau, 1983. (Development of self-awareness among preschoolers: 29-59. Self-awareness of preschoolers and its correction: 60-95.)
Obukhova L.F. Jean Piaget's concept: pros and cons. - M., 1981. (Development of thinking in preschool age: 85-88.) Features of the mental development of children 6-7 years of age. - M., 1988. (Development of motives for learning in children 6-7 years of age: 36-45.)
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Introduction.

Chapter 1. KINDS OF TEACHING.

Imprinting. Conditioned reflex. Operant. Vicarnoe. Verbal.

Chapter 2. TEACHING CHILDREN IN INFANT AND EARLY AGE.

2.1. The initial stage of learning.

2.2. Features of teaching children in infancy.

2.3. Teaching children at an early age.

Conclusion.

Bibliography. INTRODUCTION The concept of learning is used when they want to emphasize the result of learning. It characterizes the fact that a person acquires new qualities and properties in the process of learning. Etymologically, this concept comes from the word "learn" and includes everything that an individual can really learn.

First, let us note that not everything that is connected with development can be called learning. For example, it does not include the processes and results that characterize the biological maturation of the organism, unfold and proceed according to biological, in particular genetic, laws. They depend little or little on learning and teaching. For example, the external anatomical and physiological similarities between the child and the parents, the ability to grasp objects with hands, watch them, and a number of others arise mainly according to the laws of maturation.

Any process called learning is not, however, completely independent of maturation. This is recognized by all scientists, and the only question is, what is the measure of this dependence and to what extent development is determined by maturation. It is hardly possible, for example, to teach a child to speak until the time when the necessary organic structures for this will mature: the vocal apparatus, the corresponding parts of the brain responsible for speech, and more. Learning, in addition, depends on the maturation of the organism according to the nature of the course of the process: it can be accelerated or inhibited according to the acceleration or deceleration of the maturation of the organism. Learning is much more dependent on maturation than, on the contrary, maturation from learning, since the possibilities of external influence on genotypically determined processes and structures in the body are very limited.

Chapter 1.

TYPES OF LEARNING

Imprinting

A person has several types of learning. The first and simplest of them unites a person with all other living beings with a developed central nervous system. This is learning by the mechanism of imprinting, that is, fast, automatic, almost instantaneous in comparison with the long process of learning the adaptation of the organism to specific living conditions using practically ready-made forms of behavior. For example: it is enough to touch some solid object to the inner surface of the newborn's palm, as it automatically compresses

The age from birth to three years is one of the key in a child's life, because largely determines his future mental development. At this stage, three most important neoplasms appear: upright walking, which provides the child with a wide orientation in space and an influx of information necessary for his development; verbal communication, which plays a huge role in the development of thinking and self-regulation of behavior, and helps the child to become familiar with human culture; objective activity, thanks to which the child's abilities develop.

Each of these factors is irreplaceable, and all together, they are sufficient for the diversified development of a growing person.

Leading activity in infancy, according to D.B. Elkonin, emotional communication with the mother. Therefore, at this stage, the mother is a key figure in the child's life. First of all, it must fully satisfy all the vital needs of the child: for food, warmth, emotional comfort, bodily contact. It is during this period that the nature of communication with the mother largely depends on how the person's emotional contacts with other people will develop in the future. Thus, at this stage of development, a feeling of basic trust (or distrust) in another person is formed.

The main areas of learning in infancy are movement and mental processes (perception, memory, speech hearing, visual thinking).

In the first year of life, it is very important to take care of the development of the child's motor activity. The arms and legs of the baby should be free for a sufficient amount of time, so it is not recommended to swaddle the baby tightly and hold it for a long time. From one and a half months, you can begin to perform special physical exercises with your child. From the second half of the year, the child can reproduce the movements of adults, i.e. he is ready for vicarious teaching.

From two months of age, you should talk to your baby as much as possible during feeding and nursing. In this case, it is desirable that the child clearly sees the face of the speaker, his facial expressions and gestures. This moment is important because at the same time, there is a primary teaching of complex speech perception. In the same period, the child's phonemic hearing begins to form, which plays a huge role in the development of human speech. At eight to nine months, it is necessary to ensure that the child learns to understand words related to the actions and signs of objects, for which adults must accompany with speech various manipulations with the object environment.

Particular attention should be paid to the development of hand movements and verbal designations associated with them (give, throw, bring, take, etc.). By the second half of the year, the child is already able to solve the simplest visual-efficient tasks to find familiar objects. For example, you might hide a familiar toy, distract your child for a few seconds, and then ask him to find the toy. At the same time, the memory and thinking of the baby develops well.

A ten-year study by Dr. Barton L. White and colleagues on children between eight and eighteen months old showed that the sources of human ability must be sought within the critical developmental period of 8 to 18 months. Everything that a child learns during this period has a greater impact on his future intellectual abilities than a similar experience in another period of life. Therefore, the world around the child should be filled with various bright toys, moving, smelling, making sounds, etc.

Based on the results of his research, Dr. Barton made the following conclusions:

1) the mother is an irreplaceable, most important factor in the child's life than any other external circumstances;

2) the number of words in the "living language", ie. addressed directly to the child (and not television, conversations among themselves, etc.) is vital for the development of basic linguistic, intellectual and social skills and abilities of the child;

3) Children who are provided with free access to the main living space of an apartment or house progress in their development faster than those whose mobility is limited;

4) in order to raise a normal, healthy and capable child, stable friendships of all family members are necessary, both among themselves and in relation to children;

5) The best parent will be those who excel in three key roles:

If they organize and plan the child's environment in the best possible way;

If they will allow the child to contact them, regardless of whether the adult interrupts this activity or not (to calm the baby, give advice, etc.);

If they show firmness in maintaining order and at the same time do not hide their love, affection and care for their children.

The conclusion of the researchers also testifies that: "The best thing that can be done for a child to guarantee him the full development of his abilities and formation of thinking is to provide him with a rich life of impressions and contacts between the ages of one and 15 months."

The leading activity at an early age is subject-manipulative.

Early age is a sensitive period for the acquisition and development of speech. For about one year, the child pronounces individual words, calling things by their proper names, and at this age the child reacts to the word as to an integral system: the word is associated with the environment, the situation. From one and a half to two and a half years, the baby learns to combine words, combines them into 2-3 word phrases. By the age of three, the child already listens to what the adults are talking about among themselves. He likes fairy tales, poems, stories, i.e. the child can perceive the world not only through the senses, but also in its ideal, conceptual reflection. During this period, adults need to take care of diversifying their speech, making it as bright and understandable as possible for the child.

The vocabulary of a child under 1.5 years of age ranges from 30 to 100 words; by the end of the 2nd year - 300 words, and by the 3rd years 1200-1300 words.

Parents often have anxiety about the delay in speech development of the child. If up to two years old the child speaks little, but understands everything, then there is no reason for concern. Often, between two or three years, there is a rapid increase in speech activity. It should be remembered that in the acquisition of speech, there are significant individual differences.

The psychological mechanisms of speech acquisition are:

Imitation (especially affects phonetics);

Conditioned reflex conditioning (associated with the use of various rewards by adults that accelerate the development of speech in children);

Own children's word-creation.

Early bilingual problems. If a child grows up in an environment where two or more languages are spoken, then in order to avoid the phenomenon of "linguistic interference", it is necessary to speak one language in different situations without switching to another. It is desirable that the same people conduct conversations in different languages in different situations.

Early childhood is a period of rapid development of cognitive processes. Children are characterized by increased curiosity, the support of which leads to rapid intellectual development. During this period, the child passes from visual-effective to visual-figurative thinking, and the ability to voluntary regulation of behavior arises.

During early childhood, it is very important to enable the child to explore the world around him (independently or with the help of an adult) and provide him with a variety of impressions as a source of information.

If you want the child's development to proceed at an accelerated pace, then he should be given more tasks for the imagination, encourage the desire for independence, for drawing, design, and creativity. In other words, communication with adults and joint creative games is the main condition for the development of a child's abilities.

The consequences of early sensory-motor deprivation (deprivation of the child of the necessary stimuli for his psychophysical development, for example, free movement in space) are difficult, but can be overcome. But the consequences of speech, emotional and intellectual deprivation are serious and persistent.

Early age is the period when a child first encounters a prohibition, a social norm. First of all, it concerns child toilet training. Gradually, towards the end of early childhood, the beginning of the ability for voluntary regulation of behavior appears.

Therefore, at this age, the main task in the educational aspect is to gradually accustom the child to order, accuracy and thrift. All this is developed when the child interacts with toys (collect them after playing, fix broken ones, etc.). The main thing in this case is not to overdo it and not to forget about the leading needs of the child, in every possible way letting him know that he is loved.

In early childhood, toys occupy a special place in the life of a child, which have an invaluable impact on his intellectual and personal development.

As long as there are no rules and prohibitions in a child's life, it is impossible for a child to understand which objects are “serious” and which objects he can play with himself without asking permission from his parents. The chamber pot is the first "serious" thing in a child's life, which obviously cannot be played with. The emergence of the first "not a toy" is associated with toilet training, i.e. the introduction of a certain norm.

While playing with toys, the child makes the following discoveries: it turns out that there are desires that he can satisfy himself, without the help of his mother, i.e. he is not completely unarmed in the face of his apparent helplessness; The toy makes many experiences that are difficult for the child to be overcome (For example, it is difficult for a child weaned from the mother's body to fall asleep alone. Most children find a way out on their own: they go to bed with a soft toy that replaces the mother's missing body and creates the illusion of the presence of a “friend”).

As a rule, the child is strongly attached to one single soft toy that accompanies the ritual of his going to bed. He values it very much, and parents should learn to value it. It should be remembered that this toy replaces the mother in the forced moments of loneliness and anxiety before the onset of darkness, and a complex set of feelings originally addressed to the mother is transferred to it.

At the stage of mastering the first rules and prohibitions, games with material prevail ("in the sand", "build and destroy", with water, with filling vessels and pouring water, etc.). These games symbolically reflect the need to master the methods of voluntary regulation of the excretory functions of one's own body, because the regulation of the excretion functions is often not immediately possible for the child and is associated with a feeling of anxiety and a feeling of his own "ineptitude".

When playing with the material, both the acceptance of the first rules and the protest against them are satisfied. After all, a child builds something according to a rule or according to a "form"; having built, it can also destroy, protesting against the rule. Thus, the conflicting, ambivalent desires characteristic of the anal phase of the child's development are satisfied. Those educators and parents are mistaken who forbid a child to destroy a house from blocks he has just built or a pyramid.

Each teacher could observe children who were extremely careful with toys and aggressively, and sometimes cruelly, animals and their peers.

At this stage of development, it is extremely important to form in the child the correct ideas about what the destructive (destructive) action can be directed to and what it cannot. The permitted direction of destructive actions can be a safe for the child and those around him, the play space of the “build and destroy” type, and unambiguously forbidden - the direction of destructive actions on people and animals, as well as on objects valuable and loved by other people.

At the stage of the role-playing game, the child makes another discovery, the world of toys undergoes another splitting: it turns out that the same toy can act in completely different qualities (for example, a plate can be called a boat and sent to sail). The child discovers this magical function of the toy himself.

Thus, in playing with material and in role-playing, the child creates a world subject to him and inhabits it with imaginary or real characters, and then the toys acquire a new quality: their pragmatic, utilitarian meaning is split off from the non-pragmatic, non-utilitarian, determined by the child himself.

The role of toys with a fixed value is especially great for children with physical disabilities, mental retardation, or for a long time bedridden due to a long illness. For them, the problem of adaptation to the real world is much more acute than for a healthy child. For them, a toy with a fixed pragmatic meaning fulfills not only a teaching role, but also gives a much-needed feeling of power, competence, "similarity" to other people.

It is more difficult for children with disabilities to exercise their right to play. movement restrictions make it impossible to play with ordinary toys. There are some ways to solve this problem: to make special (electronic, radio-controlled) toys, which is very expensive and not always available for a middle-income family, or to use toys that are already on the market, but with minimal changes in their function, which can be done if desired. any adult seeking to help a child.

Toys offered for children with disabilities are very cute animals or just faces with paws that squeak, smile, crawl, jump and in other ways express sympathy to their owner if he picks them up or presses one of the large keys on the control panel ... This is especially important for a disabled child who is not used to the idea that he can really change something in the world around him. Remote-controlled toys allow such a child to explore the space inaccessible to him, if, for example, he cannot walk.

Any toy represents for the child a visual, crystallized image of one or several qualities of people or objects related to each other. For example, for a child with a speech or vocal impairment, an adult's negative reaction to the sounds he utters is obvious (in this case, it is difficult for parents to suppress the feelings they have, because it is impossible to hide suffering all the time). For such a child, a toy will be indispensable, which turns on to his voice, guarantees him positive feedback and emotional reinforcement, no matter how strange sounds he utters. Such a toy can also come in handy later, for those who are especially shy, who are embarrassed to speak in front of strangers, when an adult addresses them: you can put it in front of a timid child during his answer in kindergarten ..

A child who remains motionless for a long time or who is in the hospital for a long time away from his parents needs, first of all, a life-size toy chicken.

A few words should be said about modern computer games for preschool children, which supposedly contribute to the development of higher mental functions: memory, thinking, attention, perception, ability to concentrate.

The real experience of parents and educators often testifies to the opposite: a child, devoting all his free time to computer games, loses interest in communicating with peers, reading, outdoor and role-playing games. The purposefulness of the child, his ability to volitional effort decreases, the general energy potential decreases, and fatigue increases.

In a computer game, an artificial world of easily achievable goals is created. The skill of immediate action is automated, which immediately follows the perception of the situation on the screen. Because of this, thinking itself is also automated: it becomes stereotyped and convoluted, reactive. The forced pace set by the game encourages the child to experience success primarily from the speed of performing his own action.

In addition, computer games for the most part do not require coordination of efforts with another person, and therefore do not contribute to the development of communication skills. If a child who already has difficulties in establishing contacts with peers is fond of such games, then these difficulties are only exacerbated.

By creating the illusion of an easily achievable goal, computer games reduce the child's motivation and ability to volition in the real world. As a result, the child may become addicted to computer games like a narcotic. In view of the above, one should be attentive to children's computer games and, depending on the individual characteristics of the child, regulate the time of these games in one way or another.

In conclusion, we want to note that for a young child, it is necessary to have toys that introduce them to the world of adults, as well as blocks, materials for crafts, constructors and toys that help them master social roles.

1. Characteristics of the general developmental situation in infancy and early childhood.

2. The main areas and opportunities for learning in infancy.

3. Factors in the formation of a healthy personality.

4. The role of maternal attitudes in the mental and personal development of the child.

5. The main tasks of parents in raising kids.

6. Consequences of early sensory-motor deprivation of children.

7. Regularities and conditions for the development of the child's speech. Delays in speech development.

8. Development of the child's relationship with the outside world.

9. Teaching the child to be accurate and disciplined.

10. The role of toys in the development of children.

11. Features and possibilities of playing in early childhood.

12. Development of imagination in children 2-3 years old.

13. Formation of personality traits and socially important qualities in a child.

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Early Infancy Learning. Test tasks in the discipline of psychological and pedagogical foundations of upbringing of young children

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