Development mental functions in children early age. Attention and memory. Part 4

At an early age, all the child’s mental functions—attention, memory, and cognitive sphere—are formed.

The relationship between mental functions is formed in the process of activity, as well as as a result of communication and the guiding role of an adult.

It is well known that children learn from the moment they are born. Already at the beginning of the first year of life, they learn to take a toy from the hands of an adult, understand the names of individual objects and actions, and imitate sound combinations and words. All these skills are formed on the basis of attention, which causes the concentration necessary to perform certain actions. However, it is not always possible to obtain the necessary responses from children. And, despite the fact that, as L.S. wrote. Vygotsky, a child at an early age is “sensitive in everything”; he often does not realize his potential. In addition, studies by psychologists note that voluntary attention is formed only in preschool age. Then how does a baby achieve extraordinary success in his development in three years? Naturally, there are many reasons for this. But it cannot be denied that this requires attention, even if it is involuntary. However, in the practice of raising and teaching young children, the use of special techniques that evoke involuntary attention, and even more so the establishment of connections between it and voluntary attention, is often not taken into account.

It is known that currently there are a large number of preschool and school age with attention deficit, which is why it is so important not to miss the unique opportunities characteristic of young children, timely shaping the development of their mental functions.

Development of attention

So, attention is the direction and concentration of mental activity on a specific object, while being distracted from others. The physiological basis of attention is the orienting reflex “what is it?” as a biological defense reaction of the body to exposure environment(strong sound, bright light). Already in the first three months, based on attention, the child develops visual and auditory concentration, tracking a moving object, and finding the source of a sound. By 5-6 months. As a result of communication with an adult, visual and auditory differentiations are formed. The baby recognizes loved ones, first of all the mother, the voice, and then the tone of address. Based on the development of involuntary attention, orienting activity is formed.

So, attention can be involuntary, which predominates in young children (Fig. 13). To practice raising children, you need to know and master techniques that cause involuntary attention. Naturally, one of the leading motivations that contribute to the emergence of attention to an object is interest, which is based on an indicative reaction. It is especially important not to miss the period of the 2nd year of a child’s life, when sensory development occupies a dominant role and is characterized by special sensitivity to speech perception and speech learning. At the same time, this is the period of mastering walking and being “in the power of visual perceptions” (according to L.S. Vygotsky). Drawing a child's attention to the desired object can be very difficult. Therefore, taking into account the interests of the baby and following him in this regard, taking advantage of his involuntary attention to certain objects, it is necessary to direct them for his development. However, you should master techniques that cause involuntary attention to educational games, activities, and speech training.

So, what teacher techniques, objects, educational toys, and images of objects help attract the baby’s involuntary attention?

First of all, he is attracted by the novelty of the subject. If a child is asked to choose, according to an adult’s word, from, for example, two pictures, one of which is shown for the first time, he may give an inadequate reaction and point not to the one the adult is talking about, but to the one he saw again. Therefore, before getting the desired reaction, you need to remove the novelty and allow the baby to first become familiar with the new picture. The same thing happens when objects or their images differ in brightness: the child will choose the brighter ones from those offered. IN in this case competition occurs between visual and speech-auditory stimuli. The child's attention is more attracted by visual perception than by the word of an adult. It is also necessary to take into account the child’s emotional attitude towards a given object or image. So, for example, if a one and a half year old boy is asked to find an image from two pictures, one of which shows a car and the other a chicken, he, regardless of the adult’s question, will show what attracts him more - the car. So, in games aimed at developing understanding and active speech, the correct selection of objects and their images is very important.

The child's attention is attracted by techniques that an adult uses in speech games and classes - this is sudden appearance and disappearance of objects. Great importance also has the role of a motor analyzer, when a child, getting acquainted with an object, not only considers it, but also acts with it. It should be noted that attention The child is attracted to moving objects and their dynamism. We often see that while still sitting in the crib, the child throws out toys and carefully watches how they fall to the floor.

Unfortunately, quite often one has to observe how boring and uninteresting speech classes with children are. An object is shown, its parts (eyes, nose, etc.) are examined slowly and methodically. Children are naturally distracted. The child is attracted by the dynamism of the object, its actions are expressive, emotional, and suddenly changing. All of the above techniques attract and hold the child’s attention. At the same time, his attention is drawn and is recorded by the adult’s words “Who’s there? Where is so-and-so? Do this" those. elements of voluntary attention are interspersed. It manifests itself in the child’s activity and is associated with his interest: he runs up the hill in a group to see the transport passing outside the window. But already in the 3rd year of children’s lives, elements of voluntary attention appear not only in games organized by adults (“What’s missing?”, “What’s in the bag?”), or guessing by touch. Gradually, attention begins to be purposeful and sustainable (Fig. 14).

Volume of perceived objects largely depends on the interest, capabilities of the child, as well as on how much perceived objects fall into his field of vision. So, in the 1st year of life there are 1-2 objects, in the 2nd year - 2-3, in the 3rd year - 4-6. These are toys and pictures for perception, naming, self-development didactic toys.

Sustainability of attention- the child’s ability to engage in one type of activity for a certain time.

Fig. 14. Properties of attention

These important properties of attention, which underlie the duration of certain types and activities, are determined by the child’s age-related capabilities, namely: what younger child, the shorter the duration of his activity; the child’s emotional attitude to a particular activity, as well as the complexity of the task, which is determined by the type of activity. The most difficult tasks are related to the child’s ability to listen to stories and fairy tales that are not supported by a visual situation.

The participation of various analyzers also determines duration of games and activities, That's why the longest There may be musical and physical education classes associated with physical activity and a change in activities. Less long lasting games related to hand work - productive activities(modeling, drawing), didactic and construction games. Even shorter speech classes (showing pictures), and the shortest - telling without showing.

Concentration of attention- the degree of concentration of the child on a specific object.

On the one hand, switching attention can be voluntary or involuntary. The younger the child, the shorter his productive activity, the more often he is distracted and switches to other activities. On the other hand, there are situations when the child needs to be switched to another activity, distracting him from the previous one. So, for example, a baby sits at the table for a long time and does something. It is obvious that he is tired and it would be good to switch him to another type of activity, but we need to make sure that he understands why he was distracted from his previous work and what he will do next. Often adults do not take into account the baby’s capabilities and demand that they do something quickly, for example, quickly go wash their hands and eat. The child should be given the opportunity to calmly finish one activity and be given a pleasant, interesting setting for another.. Indicators of inattention in children in games and activities are low productive activity and frequent distractions. It is imperative to analyze what prevents the child from concentrating, distracts his attention, and create it yourself. the necessary conditions that contribute to the development of his attention.

The most difficult the property of attention is its distribution- the child’s ability to maintain attention on a certain number of objects (actions) simultaneously. This property develops gradually throughout preschool and school age. For young children, it is very difficult to simultaneously perform several types of activities, for example, in dance, to work simultaneously with arms and legs. Difficulties in speech classes represent for a young child to hear a question from an adult, look at an image, and answer the questions posed. The baby receives similar tasks as early as 1 year 9 months, when he is asked to choose the one he needs from two images. But if an adult acts using the method outlined above, he receives an adequate reaction from the child in response. In this case, the simultaneous action of stimuli is separated different types- visual and auditory. And if a child is shown two pictures and asked the question “Where is something?”, he does not hear the adult’s question and points to the image that most attracts his attention. Therefore, the effect of visual stimuli is removed first. Adults are silently shown one, then another picture, then both are hidden, and the question “Where is this?” is asked, preceding visual perception, and only after that both pictures are shown. In this case, the influence of different stimuli is differentiated, and the child responds with an adequate response and correctly copes with the proposed task.

Memory development

Memory is a mental process formed as a result of a person’s individual experience. The physiological basis of memory is the formation of a conditioned reflex. The first conditioned reflex to the “position under the breast” is formed on the 9-15th day of the baby’s life. If before this the position under the breast was reinforced by feeding, then on the 9-15th day the newborn begins to have sucking movements until he receives food.

Exist different kinds memories formed in early childhood: motor, visual, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, speech-auditory. Memory has a different nature - short-term (a person’s current concentration on memorization), long-term (designed for a long period of “storage”), operational, intermediate (retained for a certain period). Memory has different phases: imprinting, associated with attention; storage is a continuous process associated with human life; recall - appears in two forms: recognition, reproduction. Memory in the form of recognition is formed in the first months of a child’s life. This is recognition of feeding situations, sleep, familiar faces, objects, images, actions. Playback- the most important form of memory that develops at an early age and acts as an indicator of learning. This is the memory on the basis of which learning of movements, actions, and words occurs as a result of imitation.

The baby's memory, as well as attention, is involuntary. Memorization of young children is based on two points.

1.Repetition which occurs in a child’s life and is the basis for the formation of skills and the development of certain functions. It is important to consider that the younger the child, the more repetitions in training are required. Thus, in the 1st year of life, the formation of some skills requires repetitions several times a day (taking a toy from the hands of an adult, the ability to crawl, etc.). In the 2nd year of life, repetitions for the development of skills should be at least 3-4 times a week, and in the 3rd year - 3-4 times a month. Based on this, a plan for educational games and activities in a preschool institution is drawn up. It should be especially noted that children love repetitions. After all, it is on them that the plots of Russians are built folk tales and, listening to them, children will not let the adult miss any repetition.

2.The memory of young children is associated with emotional experiences both positive and negative. Children remember the Christmas tree celebration for a long time and look into the room where it happened; visits to the zoo, circus, moments of participation in games and activities during which they received positive emotions remain in their memory for a long time. In the same way, children remember negative emotions, unpleasant procedures in the clinic, taking bitter medicines, various grievances, and fears for a long time.

The most difficult, but at the same time important, is to develop a child’s verbal and auditory memory by memorizing quatrains, the content of fairy tales, stories, and various images.

The development of attention and memory underlies the formation of a child’s cognitive activity, so adults need to pay attention to creating optimal conditions for their development.

Report on the topic:

“Development of speech and higher mental functions in preschool children.”

Speech therapist teacher, secondary school No. 22 SUIOP Rodina L.S.

What is the function of a speech therapist teacher?

A speech therapist teacher deals with speech development, sound pronunciation correction, and development of the HMF: memory, attention, thinking, perception.

Today we will talk about the speech development of children.

Our children are sometimes called inquisitive explorers. They begin to receive information immediately after their birth. The child masters speech with the help of hearing. First he understands the speech addressed to him, and then he begins to speak himself. That is, speech appears through self-learning, not imitation.

Between the ages of 2 and 6 years, the process of cognition and learning proceeds rapidly. Watching your child, you see that he is interested in absolutely everything in the world: what a cup is made of, how a light bulb works (this is especially true for boys), why water freezes in winter and not in summer. The child constantly asks us questions: “Why?”, “Why?”, “Why?”, thus he learns about the world around him.

By the time a child is about to go to school, his brain has already absorbed so much information about himself, his family, and the world around him that we adults are not even aware of.

When talking with a child, you need to pay attention to your own speech: it should be clear and intelligible. According to the outstanding psychologist Anatoly Aleksandrovich Leontyev lexicon 6 year old child reaches 7000 words. In conversation, the child must use complex sentences containing more than 5 words.

At the age of six, children basically complete the stage of mastering the grammatical system of the language.

What should a child aged 6 know?

• The child must correctly answer the questions: “What is this?”, “Who is this?”,
• form the plural of nouns: “berry-berries”; " sock - socks", "mouth-mouths", "ear-ears";
• generalizing concepts. For example, “giraffe, lion, camel, zebra are wild animals”;
• formation of new words using diminutive suffixes: “table-table”, “chair-chair”;
• the formation of new words using augmentative suffixes: “hand-hand”, “wolf-wolf”;
• formation of new words with the help of endearing suffixes: “cat-kitty”, “hare-bunny”;
• the name of the young animals: “a pig has a piglet, a frog has a little frog, an owl has a little owlet, an eagle has a little eaglet,” a horse has a foal;
• education names of objects: “Bread is in the bread bin, sugar is in the sugar bowl, sweets are in the candy bowl”;
• formation of related words: “goat – goat – kid”;
• agreement of nouns with nouns: “1 bird, 2 birds, 5 birds”;
• the relationship between the whole and its parts: “teapot: spout, handle, lid, bottom”;
• knowledge of prepositions (the pen is on the notebook, under, above, right, left, in);
• choose the right verbs (for example, shout, speak, whisper, sing);
• verbs formed in an onomatopoeic way (mosquito - squeaks, frog - croaks, cow - moos, chicken - clucks, goat - bleats, horse - neighs, goose - cackles);
• formation of relative adjectives: wool jacket - wool jacket, leather boots - leather boots;
• shape of the object: “the watermelon is round, the egg is oval, the cube is square, and the roof is triangular”;
• taste of the object: “the lemon is sour, but the cake is sweet”;
• object size: “the tree is tall and the bush is low. The giraffe has a long neck, and the dog has a short neck”;
• speed of an object: “the hare runs fast, and the tortoise runs slowly”;
• characteristic features of the subject: “the lion is brave, and the hare is cowardly”;
• weight of the object: “the suitcase is heavy, but the ball is light”;
• formation of possessive adjectives: “the cat has a cat’s tail, the goat has goat’s hair”;
• agreement of adjectives with nouns: “green crocodile, Christmas tree, bucket, cucumbers”;
• selection of words with the opposite meaning (antonyms): “Sad - rejoice, slow - fast”;
• selection of words close in meaning (synonyms): “blizzard, blizzard, blizzard, blizzard, blizzard”;
• polysemy of words: “a needle can be a sewing needle, a hedgehog needle, a spruce needle, a syringe needle”;
• figurative meaning of the words: “golden hands - a skillful, hard-working person. Talkative, like a magpie - a talkative woman, a lot of talker";
• origin of the words: “snowdrop – first” spring Flower, which appears from under the snow. Boletus is a mushroom that grows under a birch tree.”

With this knowledge, your child will achieve excellent results and help prevent problems with school performance.

In order to prevent difficulties during learning in primary school, it is necessary to develop the child’s speech in preschool age.

1. Galina Petrovna Shalaeva “Native speech”, “Entertaining grammar”, “Entertaining arithmetic”.
2. Irina Viktorovna Skvortsova “Speech therapy games.”
3. Victoria Semenovna “Album on speech development.”

In parallel with the development of speech, the child develops HMF: memory, thinking, perception, attention - these are the foundations on which speech is built.

Thinking divided into:

• Visual-figurative,
• Visually effective,
• Verbal-logical.

For check visual-figurative thinkingThe child is asked to assemble puzzles.

Visual-effective thinkingcharacterized by the assembly of a pyramid.

Verbal-logical thinking. Pictures of one story are laid out in front of the child, but not sequentially. The child’s task: arrange them sequentially and compose a story (cards No. 5).

Perception divided into:

• visual,
• Auditory,
• Spatial,
• Temporary.

Examining visual perceptionthe child is asked to correct a mistake made by the artist (“Educational Grammar”, p. 11).

Auditory perceptionchecked by rhythmic pattern: / // ///.

Spatial– draw a circle and invite the child to add something to make a picture.

Temporary is checked by questions such as: “What happened before winter?”, “What comes after the night?” "Name Thursday's neighbors."

In order for your child to remember the days of the week, I advise you to purchase a wall calendar.

Memory divided into:

• Hearing and speech
• visual,
• Tactile and motor.

Auditory-verbal memory.The child is asked to listen to 10 one- or two-syllable words and then reproduce them in any order.

Visual memory. 6 numbers (letters) are laid out in front of the child. After 15 seconds, the numbers (letters) are removed, and the child writes the numbers (letters) in order.

Tactile and motorchecked by playing the game “Magic Bag”.

To test your child's attention and memory, ask questions like:

Say your name.

State your last name.

State your first and last name.

State your first and last name.

And in conclusion, I would like to remember the words that are well known to everyone: “We all come from childhood” and wish you, the parents, patience in working together painstakingly with a specialist to overcome certain problems in a child for the benefit of his future life.

Education of correct speech in children is one of the most important problems of general and special pedagogy.

All mental processes in a child - perception, memory, imagination, thinking - develop with the direct participation of speech.Speech develops in close relationship with the formation of thought processes. One of the most important conditions for organizing mental activity is attention, which directs and regulates the processes of perception, memory, and thinking.
Due to a speech defect, children communicate little with others, the range of ideas is therefore significantly limited, and the pace of development of thinking slows down.

In connection with all of the above, it is advisable to set the following correction tasks:
- development in schoolchildren mental processes: perception, attention, memory, thinking;
- improving the process of voluntary attention and improving its productivity;
- development of children’s ability for relatively long-term and purposeful activities, supported by some significant material or play situation.

Parents are offered games and exercises that help develop their child’s perception, attention, thinking, memory, fine motor skills and spatial orientation.

Games for the development of perception

Perception is the leading cognitive process in preschool children. Its formation ensures the successful accumulation of new knowledge, rapid mastery of new activities, and adaptation to a new environment. Incompleteness in the development of the perception process leads to a delay in the development of other cognitive processes.

Individual characteristics of the development of visual perception and visual memory largely determine the character correctional work with kids. The most accessible for children's perception are real objects and their images, more complex are schematic images, signs and symbols. Last but not least, materials with a superimposed, “noisy”, under-drawn image are used.

We bring to your attention games for the development of visual perception:

Games for developing attention

Children's attention general underdevelopment speech is characterized by insufficient stability, rapid exhaustion, There are periodic fluctuations, uneven performance, which determines the tendency to reduce the pace of activity during work.
Errors of attention are present throughout the entire work and are not always noticed and corrected by children on their own. It is difficult to concentrate children's attention and hold it during one or another activity. Children actimpulsive, often distracted. Manifestations of inertia may also be observed. In this case, the child has difficulty switching from one task to another.

Games to develop attention:

• "Seekers"
• "Find the odd one out"
• "Subsequence"
• "Attention and Logic"

Development tasks fine motor skills hands and graphic skills

Children with OHP have peculiarities in the development of fine motor skills of their fingers. This manifests itself in insufficient coordination of the fingers (for example, when unbuttoning and fastening buttons, tying and untying shoelaces, ribbons, etc.).
Research from the Laboratory of Higher Nervous Activity of Children at the Institute of Physiology of Children and Adolescents has found that the level of speech development in children is directly dependent on the degree of formation of fine movements of the fingers.
Based on the experiments and surveys carried out large quantity children, such a pattern was established that if the development of finger movements corresponds to age, then speech development is within normal limits; if the development of finger movements lags behind, then speech development is also delayed, i.e. a close connection is established between the functions of the hand and speech.
Therefore, in the system of educational and educational work, as well as correctional work in children’s preschool institutions It is necessary to pay attention to the development of finger movements by training the movements of the fingers.
It is advisable to carry out work on the development of fine motor skills in children with general speech underdevelopment systematically - 3-5 minutes daily.
For this purpose, a variety of games and exercises can be used to help correct movements of both general and fine motor skills.

• "Finger gymnastics"
• “Tasks for the development of graphomotor skills»
• “Preparing your hand for writing » (tasks for children of senior preschool age)
• “Coloring pages - outlines»
• "Games with Counting Sticks"»

Games and exercises to develop orientation in space

With general speech underdevelopment, the formation of spatial representations has its own characteristics associated with the developmental characteristics of children with speech pathology. The lack of spatial concepts in preschoolers with ODD manifests itself in a violation of the perception of their own body diagram - the formation of ideas about the leading hand, and parts of the face and body occurs later than in normally developing peers. Children master many spatial concepts (front, back, above, below) only through special training.
They find it difficult to understand prepositions and adverbs that reflect spatial relationships (under, above, about). Children with general speech underdevelopment do not use prepositions in their speech that denote spatial relationships between objects, people and animals. Their speech often lacks the preposition “above.” In oral speech, preschoolers find it difficult to differentiate the prepositions “to - at”, “in - at” (to the house - at home, in the table - on the table). Often children in this category mix up the prepositions “before” - “after” - “for”, which is a consequence of unformed spatial relationships.
Many of them have a perception of a holistic image of an object: they cannot draw a cut-out picture, they do not carry out construction based on a model from sticks and building material
In the future, children have difficulties in orienting themselves in the layout of a notebook sheet (skipping a certain number of lines or cells, highlighting a red line, keeping the margins, writing in two or three columns, writing letters in mirror images).

Games to develop spatial orientation:

"Navigating in space" games for children 3-4 years old

"Orientation in space" folder with tasks for preschoolers

During this period, speech, the ability to substitute, to perform symbolic actions rapidly develop, visual-effective and visual-figurative thinking, memory and imagination develop. Sensations and perceptions improve. Visual acuity and color perception accuracy increase.

Attention– the ability for voluntary concentration is already manifested, which is a good prerequisite for studying at school.

Memory– there is a transition from involuntary to voluntary memorization. Moreover, in early preschoolers (3-4 years old) visual-emotional memory dominates, while in older preschoolers (5-7 years old) the first signs of semantic memorization appear.

Imagination– quickly develops from reproductive to creative. It develops in the game and at first is inseparable from the perception of objects and game actions with them. Formed in play, imagination moves into drawing, modeling, composing fairy tales and poems.

Perception in preschool age, become more perfect, meaningful, purposeful, and analytical. It highlights voluntary actions - observation, examination, search. Children know the primary colors and their shades, and can describe an object by shape and size. They learn a system of sensory standards (round like an apple).

Memory. Preschool childhood is the most favorable (sensitive) age for memory development. In younger preschoolers, memory is involuntary. The child does not set a goal to remember or remember something and does not have special methods of memorization. Events that are interesting to him, if they evoke an emotional response, are easily (involuntarily) remembered. In middle preschool age (between 4 and 5 years), voluntary memory begins to form. Conscious, purposeful memorization and recall appear only sporadically. Usually they are included in other types of activities, since they are needed both in play, and when running errands for adults, and during classes - preparing children for school.

Thinking and perception are so closely connected that they speak of visual-figurative thinking, which is most characteristic of preschool age. Despite this peculiar childish logic, preschoolers can reason correctly and solve quite complex problems. Correct answers can be obtained from them by certain conditions. First of all, the child needs to have time to remember the task itself. In addition, he must imagine the conditions of the task, and for this he must understand them. Therefore, it is important to formulate the task in such a way that it is understandable to children. The best way achieve the right decision- organize the child’s actions so that he draws appropriate conclusions based on his own experience. A.V. Zaporozhets asked preschoolers about physical phenomena little known to them, in particular, why some objects float and others sink. Having received more or less fantastic answers, he suggested that they throw various things into the water (a small nail that seemed light, a large wooden block, etc.). Beforehand, the children guessed whether the object would float or not. After a sufficiently large number of trials, having checked their initial assumptions, the children began to reason consistently and logically. They developed the ability for the simplest forms of induction and deduction.

Speech. IN preschool childhood The long and complex process of speech acquisition is basically completed. By the age of 7, the child’s language truly becomes native. The sound side of speech develops. Younger preschoolers begin to realize the peculiarities of their pronunciation. The vocabulary of speech is growing rapidly. Same as the previous one age stage, there are great individual differences here: some children have a larger vocabulary, others have less, which depends on their living conditions, on how and how much close adults communicate with them. Let us present the average data according to V. Stern. At 1.5 years old, a child actively uses about 100 words, at 3 years old - 1000-1100, at 6 years old - 2500-3000 words. The grammatical structure of speech develops. Children learn morphological (word structure) and syntactic (phrase structure) patterns. A 3-5 year old child correctly grasps the meaning of “adult” words, although sometimes he uses them incorrectly. Words created by the child himself according to the laws of the grammar of his native language are always recognizable, sometimes very successful and certainly original. This children's ability to form words independently is often called word creation. K.I. Chukovsky, in his wonderful book “From Two to Five,” collected many examples of children’s word creation (Mint cakes create a draft in the mouth; The bald man’s head is barefoot; Look how it’s raining; I’d rather go for a walk without being eaten; Mom is angry, but quickly calms down ; creeper - worm; mazelin - petroleum jelly; mokres - compress).

Description of material: I bring to your attention an article containing a number of psychological and pedagogical exercises for the development and correction of higher mental functions (HMF) in children of preschool and primary school age. This material will be useful to educational psychologists, speech therapists and speech pathologists of preschool educational institutions and state budgetary educational institutions of secondary schools, as well as specialists of early development centers.

Development of higher mental functions in children of preschool and primary school age

Higher mental functions (HMF) are specific mental functions of a person. These include: memory, attention, thinking, perception, imagination and speech. The famous Russian psychologist, Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, wrote: “The highest mental function appears on the stage twice: once as an external, interpsychic (i.e., a function divided between a child and an adult), and the second - as an internal, intrapsychic (i.e. . function belonging to the child himself).” Small child is not yet able to focus attention for a long time, remember and correctly pronounce the names of certain objects, etc., therefore the role of an adult in this period is to be an intermediary between the baby and the outside world. Thus, an adult acts as the child’s basic mental functions, reminding him of the names of phenomena and objects, concentrating his attention, developing thinking and speech. Then, in the process of growing up, the child gradually inherits social experience and becomes able to use it independently. Thus, from Vygotsky’s point of view, the process of development is a process of transition from the social to the individual.

It should be noted that the process of development of higher mental functions begins long before the child arrives at school, even in infancy. Young children learn constantly: in play, while walking, watching their parents, etc.

However, there are certain phases in a child's development when he or she is especially receptive to cognition and creativity. Such periods in a baby’s life are called sensitive (literally “sensitive”). Traditionally, these periods include the process of child development from 0 to 7 years. In Russian psychology and pedagogy, this period is considered the most productive in terms of the child’s assimilation of social experience and the acquisition of new knowledge. At this stage, the foundation is laid not only for the behavioral and emotional-volitional, but also for the cognitive sphere of a person’s personality.

So, let's now talk about the basic exercises and technologies used by teachers in the development of higher mental functions in children of preschool and primary school age. Let's give short examples from daily practice.

Thinking.

Mental operations include the processes of generalization, analysis, synthesis and abstraction. Accordingly, different techniques are used to develop each of the operations.

Generalization.

Goal: teach the child to find common features of an object.

A series of cards are laid out in front of the child, which depict objects united by one common characteristic (for example, the series: “apple, banana, pear, plum”). The child is asked to name all these objects in one word (in this case, “fruit”) and explain his answer.

Analysis and synthesis.

Goal: to teach the child to eliminate unnecessary things and combine objects according to their characteristics.

Option 1. The student is asked to find an image of an extra item among the proposed cards and explain his choice (for example, the series: “skirt, boots, trousers, coat”; the extra one is “boots”, because these are shoes, and everything else is cloth).

It should be emphasized that the child’s answer must be complete and detailed. The child should not guess, but meaningfully make his choice and be able to justify it.

Option 2. The student is presented with a form with images of different animals. The child is explained that if the animal is wearing boots, then it is 1, if it is not wearing boots, then it is 0 (for example, a cat in boots = 1, and a cat without boots = 0, etc.). Next, the teacher points to each picture in turn and asks the child to name only the number (1 or 0).

Abstraction.

Goal: teach your child to find indirect signs.

The child is presented with a form with images of animals: “cow, elephant, fox, bear, tiger.” Then the baby is asked to combine them with other animals whose names begin with the same letter: “rat, dog, lion, mouse, seal” (the correct answer in this case would be: “cow-rat, elephant-dog, fox-lion, bear-mouse, tiger-seal"). The student is required to give reasons for his choice, because... children often ignore the instructions and connect pictures according to some other criteria (for example, according to the principle of big-small, good-evil, wild animal-domestic animal, etc.). If the child does not understand the instructions, they should be repeated again and an example given.

Memory.

Memory is divided into short-term and long-term. To train short-term memory, for example, a student is presented orally with a series of words (usually 10 words), which he must remember and reproduce immediately after presentation in random order.

To train long-term memory, you can, for example, read a number of words several times (so that the child remembers them properly) and ask him to reproduce all the words after 15-40 minutes. The task can be complicated by asking the child to reproduce all the words in order.

Standards for junior school student reproduction of 10 words is considered. For a preschooler - 7-8 words.

Reading literature has been and remains an excellent exercise for developing memory. After reading, you need to discuss the plot of the fairy tale or story with your child, ask them to evaluate the characters, ask questions on the test, etc. You can also ask your child to draw a favorite episode from a book, sculpt the main characters from plasticine, etc.

Attention.

A large printed text (not very long) is presented in front of the child. Then the child is asked to circle all the letters “A” in the text with a red pencil, all the letters “B” with a blue pencil in a square, and all the letters “B” with a green pencil in a triangle. You can also present a form with letters printed in random order and ask to cross out certain of them (you need to time it - 3 minutes).

You can also ask your child to continue the pattern in a checkered notebook (or draw exactly the same pattern next to it). After the pattern is completed, you can ask the child to color each cell in the drawing with a different color, etc.

Speech.

Unfortunately, today more and more children come to school with serious speech and writing disorders.

First of all, you should understand that for the harmonious development of speech you need to communicate with your child. When talking with a child, try to use the full names of phenomena and objects: do not abbreviate them, do not use “slang” in your own speech, do not distort sounds (for example, not “fotik”, but “photo camera”; not “shop”, but “ store”, etc.). By pronouncing words clearly and completely, you enrich your child’s vocabulary and correctly form sound pronunciation.

An excellent exercise for developing speech would be reading together (especially old folk tales), telling poems, sayings, and tongue twisters.

Perception and imagination.

The best exercise for developing these mental functions is reading. fiction and creative and aesthetic activities. Attending children's performances, exhibitions, concerts, home handicrafts, modeling, crafts, drawing - all this perfectly develops the child's perception and imagination.