The development of thinking of a preschooler goes through three stages.
Up to three years, the crumbs develop visual-effective thinking. It is important for a child to see simplifying ratios worksheet and do. Therefore, he grabs everything, puts it in his mouth, pulls and, as it seems to us adults, spoils everything: he breaks toys, tears books, scratches pieces of furniture. In fact, he shows an exploratory interest and studies how the world works. The kid learns that the paper is torn, but the cardboard is not. That the bread is soft and the cube is hard. That a live cat, if pulled by its tail, scratches, and a toy cat is inactive. That the water in the bath is warm, and in the autumn puddle it is cold. The more such “discoveries” happen to your baby, the richer his understanding of the world will be. Parents have three tasks:
do not interfere with the child’s study of the surrounding objects (and this is grass, and stones, and clothes, and mother’s jewelry, and grandmother’s glasses);
provide him with an adequate degree of safety (burns are too much, but the baby will be able to understand that hot is unpleasant);
create conditions for improvised means to help the baby make new discoveries: the lid from the pan rattles and rolls, stools have metal and wooden legs, semolina pours interestingly, boots are leather and rubber. Let not everyone become Einsteins, but you can help in the development of thinking with the most ordinary household items.
From the age of three or four, visual-figurative thinking is formed.
Visual support still plays an important role. This is especially true when listening to books. A four-year-old child cannot simply imagine how fairy-tale characters and the events described look like, he needs to see them. Therefore, recommendations for the development of thinking of preschoolers include reading books with colorful illustrations. But with what joy adults then leaf through books with fairy tales and favorite pictures and fun questions to ask kids from their childhood!
By the age of five, the child’s interest in the role-playing game increases, where more complex actions appear with other children. In most cases, in their games, boys and girls imitate the behavior of adults: “go to the store”, “have their hair cut”, “cook food”, “drive a car”. Unlike younger children, five-year-olds in the game do not rely on toys, but on the role they have taken on. They can already replace semantic toys with objects that do not carry a specific function. So, for example, often in role-playing games, instead of papers and coins, children use leaves from trees as money and “lunch” with empty dishes, only imitating the actions of the eater.
The level of speech development is related to the degree of development of thinking. By the age of five, speech becomes more complex and clearer. At the same time, vocabulary is developing. The child not only learns and copies the speech of adults, but also analyzes their words and forms his own on the basis of this. For example, a five-year-old girl, who had been in a hot bath for the first time, coyly said: “Oh, I felt sick from the fever.” Explaining what hot weather is, the girl said: “Well, sometimes it’s warm, and then there’s cold and hot weather.”
A preschooler comprehends the causes of various phenomena and events, giving them a variety of explanations. He asks many questions: why the leaves are falling and the fairies are not visible, why the plane is not falling and winter is coming. At the same time, children’s assumptions surprisingly combine scientific expressions, references to technical analogies and naive ideas. A textbook example is the answer to the question “Where did the rivers come from?” boy Roma five and a half years old. The kid answered: “Hydrogen mixed with oxygen, and water turned out, then they dug a hole.” Given that this version was expressed by a child in an experiment in the 1970s, it is not surprising that today’s children give out more “technogenic” and “computerized” assumptions. In them, adults will see a combination of magical ideas and the logic of direct perception.
Features of the development of thinking in preschoolers are also manifested through visual activity. Most middle school children are interested in drawing. Not everyone at this age draws a neck, ears, eyebrows, eyelashes, five fingers, clothes and shoes in little men. It is important that the child depicts the head, torso and limbs in the form of sticks, as well as eyes, mouth and hair.
The child learns to independently find and assimilate common ways of solving problems and use different forms of generalization. With the help of speech, he expresses logical conclusions and argues his thoughts. Fully conceptual thinking will be formed by adolescence.
In elementary school, situations are not uncommon when a child solves problems well with the help of one type of thinking and experiences difficulties if the problem is formulated differently. In children, figurative thinking still dominates. Their reasoning is illogical when comparing, for example, the number and size of objects. Therefore, parents should pay attention to the development of verbal-logical thinking in preschoolers. The sooner adults begin to develop this kind of thinking, based on the feelings and perceptions of the child, the easier it will be for the baby to learn at school.
The development of logical thinking in preschoolers, as in adults, is determined by the ability to use multiplication games for 3rd grade and multiplication games for 3rd grade mental operations:
analysis is the mental division of the whole into its component parts. For example, a child at 4 years old already knows that chamomile has a root, a stem, leaves, an “eye” and petals. A more complex form of analysis is the understanding that, for example, to play hairdresser, you need to prepare a “workplace”, the necessary toy tools and tools. In addition, you need not only a hairdresser, but also his client. Having analyzed and properly prepared for the game, the preschooler during the “customer service” will not be distracted by the fact that he is missing something;
synthesis is the reverse operation, when a preschooler collects various parts into a single whole. The most striking example of synthesis is the folding of letters and sounds into syllables, from syllables – words, from words – sentences, from sentences – text;
comparison is the establishment of similarities and differences between objects. The child understands that an apple and a cherry are round and red, but at the same time the fruit is large and has seeds, and the berry is small and has a stone inside;
generalization – a union of objects based on essential features. For example, a three-year-old child cannot yet summarize shoes, boots and sandals and call them in one word “shoes”. But he will guess to take a stick as a spoon;
classification is the identification of similarities and differences in objects and phenomena. A five-six-year-old child can already classify flowers, highlighting indoor, field, garden and forest.
With a child, you can play dominoes, puzzles and other board games that make the baby think and analyze: “Opposites”, “Edible – inedible”, “Confusion”, “Find a similar figure” and others. The development of logical thinking of preschoolers through educational games is easy and natural. Give the baby different pictures so that he describes and compares the plots. Tasks with Kos cubes and their modifications (cubes with faces of two or four different colors; two colors are located diagonally on two faces) develop hand-eye coordination, spatial perception and constructive abilities of the child. This is facilitated by the games-constructors “Tangram” and “Columbus egg”. The parts from which a square or an oval is assembled must be folded so that other figures are obtained from them, for example, a hare, a turtle, a kangaroo. An important condition: it is necessary to use all the details of the original figure, while they should not overlap each other.
For the development of thinking of older preschoolers, it is not necessary to use only learning situations. A simple walk can be educational. On the way home, you can compare high and low houses, trees or people. Discuss with your child how trams, trolleybuses and trains are similar and different. Watch the change of seasons and seasonal changes in clothes and shoes. When hanging New Year’s decorations on the Christmas tree, discuss what materials they are made of, what shape the toys are and why they are not hung, for example, on a birch. At such moments, when moms and dads come up with tasks on the go to develop the thinking of preschoolers, the authority of a smart parent with whom it is interesting to communicate is consolidated.
As you can see, there is nothing difficult in helping your baby develop thinking, no. All that is required from parents is love, consistency and diligence. Then your child will not only develop his abilities, which will help him in life, but will also remember his childhood with gratitude.