Development of mental functions in young children. Attention and memory. Part 4

IN 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 there is currently a large number of preschool children 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 are related to the work of hands - 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.

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 children preschool age. 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 conducted and examination of a large number of children, 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

Speech. In preschool childhood, the long and complex process of speech acquisition is largely completed. By the age of 7, language becomes a means of communication and thinking of the child, as well as a subject of conscious study, since learning to read and write begins in preparation for school. According to psychologists, the child’s language truly becomes native.

The sound side of speech develops. Younger preschoolers begin to realize the peculiarities of their pronunciation. But they still retain their previous ways of perceiving sounds, thanks to which they recognize incorrectly pronounced children’s words. Later, subtle and differentiated sound images of words and individual sounds are formed, the child ceases to recognize incorrectly spoken words, he both hears and speaks correctly. By the end of preschool age, the process of phonemic development is completed.

The vocabulary of speech is growing rapidly. As at the previous age stage, there are great individual differences: some children lexicon it turns out to be more, for others it is less, which depends on their living conditions, on how and how much close adults communicate with them. Let us give the average data according to V. Stern: at 1.5 years a child actively uses approximately 100 words, at 3 years – 1000-1100, at 6 years – 2500-3000 words.

The grammatical structure of speech develops. Children learn subtle patterns of morphological order (word structure) and syntactic order (phrase structure). A child of 3–5 years old not only actively masters speech - he creatively masters linguistic reality. He correctly grasps the meanings of “adult” words, although he sometimes uses them in an original way, and feels the connection between changes in the word, its individual parts and changes in its meaning. 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; Let's remember some of them.

In general, at preschool age, a child masters all forms of oral speech inherent in adults. He has detailed messages - monologues, stories. In them, he conveys to others not only the new things he has learned, but also his thoughts on this matter, his plans, impressions, and experiences. In communication with peers, dialogical speech develops, including instructions, evaluation, coordination of play actions, etc. Egocentric speech helps the child plan and regulate his actions. In monologues he pronounces to himself, he states the difficulties he has encountered, creates a plan for subsequent actions, and discusses ways to complete the task.

The use of new forms of speech and the transition to detailed statements are determined by the new communication tasks facing the child during this age period. Full communication with other children is achieved precisely at this time; it becomes an important factor in the development of speech. As we know, communication with adults continues to develop, whom children perceive as erudite, capable of explaining anything and telling about everything in the world. Thanks to communication called M.I. Lisina is non-situational and cognitive, vocabulary increases, and correct grammatical structures are learned. But it's not only that. Dialogues become more complex and meaningful, the child learns to ask questions on abstract topics, and at the same time reason - think out loud. Here are a few typical questions for preschoolers that they ask their parents: “Where is the smoke flying?”, “Who shakes the trees?”, “Listen, mom, when I was born, how did you know that I was Yurochka?”, “Is it possible to get a newspaper big enough to wrap a living camel?”, “Does an octopus hatch from eggs, or does it suck?”, “Mom, who gave birth to me? You? I knew it. If Dad, I would be with mustache"

Memory. Preschool childhood– the age most favorable for memory development. As L.S. pointed out. Vygotsky, memory becomes the dominant function and goes a long way in the process of its formation. Neither before nor after this period does the child remember the most varied material with such ease. However, the memory of a preschooler has a number of specific features.

U 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, actions, and images that are interesting to him are easily imprinted, and verbal material is also involuntarily remembered if it evokes an emotional response. The child quickly remembers poems, especially those that are perfect in form: sonority, rhythm and adjacent rhymes are important in them. Fairy tales, short stories, and dialogues from films are remembered when the child empathizes with their characters. Throughout preschool age, the efficiency of involuntary memorization increases, and the more meaningful the material the child remembers, the better the memorization. Semantic memory develops along with mechanical memory, so it cannot be assumed that in preschoolers who repeat someone else’s text with great accuracy, mechanical memory predominates.

In middle preschool age (between 4 and 5 years old) the random memory. 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 carrying out instructions for adults, and during classes - preparing children for schooling. The child can reproduce the most difficult material to remember while playing. For example, taking on the role of a salesman, he is able to remember and recall at the right time a long list of products and other goods. If you give him a similar list of words outside of a game situation, he will not be able to cope with this task.

The intensive development and inclusion of memory in the process of personality formation determines its position as the dominant function in preschool age. The development of memory is associated with the emergence of stable figurative ideas that lead to new level thinking.

In addition, the very ability to reason (associations, generalizations, etc., regardless of their validity) that appears in preschool age is also associated with the development of memory. The development of memory determines a new level of development of perception (more on this will be discussed below) and other mental functions.

Perception in preschool age, thanks to the emergence of reliance on past experience, becomes multifaceted. In addition to the purely perceptual component (a holistic image determined by the sum of sensory influences), it includes a wide variety of connections between the perceived object and surrounding objects and phenomena with which the child is familiar from his previous experience. Gradually, apperception begins to develop - the influence on the perception of one’s own experience. With age, the role of apperception constantly increases. In maturity different people depending on your life experience and associated personal characteristics often perceive the same things and phenomena in completely different ways.

In connection with the emergence and development of apperception in preschool age, perception becomes meaningful, purposeful, and analytical. It highlights voluntary actions - observation, examination, search.

The appearance of stable figurative ideas in preschool age leads to the differentiation of perceptual and emotional processes. The child’s emotions become associated mainly with his ideas, as a result of which perception loses its originally affective character.

Speech has a significant impact on the development of perception at this time - the fact that the child begins to actively use the names of qualities, characteristics, states of various objects and the relationships between them. By naming certain properties of objects and phenomena, he thereby identifies these properties for himself; by naming objects, he separates them from others; determining their states, connections or actions with them, sees and understands real relationship between them.

In favorable conditions, when a preschooler solves a problem that is understandable and interesting to him and at the same time observes facts that are understandable to him, he can reason logically correctly.

In preschool age, due to the intensive development of speech, concepts are mastered. Although they remain at the everyday level, the content of the concept begins to more and more correspond to what most adults put into this concept. So, for example, a 5-year-old child already acquires such an abstract concept as “living being.” He easily and quickly classifies a crocodile as “living” (for this he needs only 0.4 s), but has a little difficulty classifying a tree (thinks 1.3 s) or a tulip (almost 2 s) into this category. Children begin to use concepts better and operate with them in their minds. For example, it is much more difficult for a 3-year-old child to imagine the concepts of “day” and “hour” than for a 7-year-old. This is expressed, in particular, in the fact that he cannot estimate how long he will have to wait for his mother if she promised to return in an hour.

By the end of preschool age, a tendency to generalize and establish connections appears. Its occurrence is important for the further development of intelligence, despite the fact that children often make unlawful generalizations, insufficiently taking into account the characteristics of objects and phenomena, focusing on clear external signs ( small object– means light; big means heavy, if heavy, then it will drown in water, etc.).

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 centers early development.

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. Visiting children's performances, exhibitions, concerts, home handicrafts, modeling, crafts, drawing - all this perfectly develops the child's perception and imagination.