Diagnosis of cognitive development in early childhood. Early childhood. General characteristics. Teaching motor skills
Theories of J. Piaget
It will be interesting to consider the main theories of J. Piaget about the intellectual development of the child. About how he described at an early age pre-operational thinking, childish egocentrism, animism.
Theory of pre-operational thinking
This theory is applicable to children from 2.5 years. Pre-operational thinking is the time when the child gradually masters systematic, logical thinking. The child gradually moves from the sensorimotor stage to pre-operational thinking, during which the child develops more coordinated actions that are meaningful and correspond to social experience. Mental operations, according to Piaget, are internalized forms of those actions that the child has already mastered in practical form when comparing, combining and separating objects of the physical world. In early childhood, thinking is not quite logical, the child can repeat the same movement over and over, not achieving success in completing some task. Therefore, the child needs systematization and mutual coordination. The key feature of the preschooler's thinking, according to Piaget, is that he is able to focus on only one most noticeable feature or property of a problem situation. Piaget argues that the child is in the power of the immediate visibility of things, as a result of which his thinking remains at the prelogical level.
This can be shown in Piaget's problem given to the child. This task tests the child's ability to think about the part and the whole at the same time. A child is shown a necklace of 10 wooden beads, seven of which are dyed brown and three are white. Piaget asked the child: "Which is more - brown beads or beads?" The child usually answers that there are more brown beads than beads. Piaget believes that the child only compares part with part, but not part with the whole, because his thinking is a series of successive narrowly focused fixations on objects, which interferes with reasoning about the relationship between them. This and many other tasks convinced Piaget that the logical processes necessary for systematic reasoning were not yet sufficiently coordinated among preschoolers.
Confirmation of the lack of systemic thinking can also be considered by giving attention to the idea of egocentrism. Egocentrism is a view of the world only from one's own position, or in other words, the inability to distinguish one's own and other possible points of view. The child does not distinguish between subjective (i.e. private or personal) and objective (i.e. public knowledge about which we are sure that it is correct). This definition clearly shows that egocentrism has nothing to do with egoism as a personality trait. The child simply unconsciously accepts only his own point of view. Speaking of speech, Piaget initially considered it to be egocentric and socialized only in the process of cognitive development. Therefore, the conversations of young children are more like monologues than dialogues. In Piaget's theory, language and communication depend on the development of thinking.
J. Piaget proves that the child egocentrically assimilates what he does not understand with what he already understands. A good example is found in Piaget's work on animism, which can be defined as the attribution of animacy to inanimate objects. Piaget thinks that such confusion is egocentric, because it is based on the inability to distinguish between living and nonliving nature. Animism is considered one of the characteristics of children's thinking until about 10 years of age. Piaget believed that children see activity as the unconditional criterion of life and, therefore, attribute intentions to everything that can move, even inanimate objects, such as a thunderstorm, a candle flame. The child is not able to draw a clear line between how things look and what they really are. The child at the preoperational stage, Piaget is convinced, is simply not able to distinguish between appearance and reality. Since the perception of the child provides him with direct contact with the real world, and the cognitive development of the child will directly depend on what he perceives.
In conclusion, we can say that the child's thinking is very heterogeneous and often naive. Piaget, who tried to describe the universal stages of development, emphasizes the insufficient harmony of the child's logical constructions, his difficulties in accepting the point of view of other people, in judgments about appearance and reality, about cause and effect. He believes that the basis of all these difficulties is children's egocentrism.
Preview
Did you know?
How does a change in the body of a child, his infantile
What is intensive brain development and why theorists call the first few
years of life as a window of opportunity?
What is lateralization (of the brain) and how does it happen?
How does fine and gross motor skills develop during early childhood?
What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?
What are the differences between pre-operational children's thinking and the thinking of older children
and adults?
Why is symbolic representation so important for cognitive and language development?
How did Piaget assess the differences between the preoperative thinking of children and the thinking of older children, and why could he be wrong in his conclusions? How does an informational approach to development explain the functioning of memory, and what are its limitations in young children compared to the memory of older children and adults? What evidence is there that children invent their own rules of speech based on the words and utterances they hear around them? How do young children develop conversational skills? What are subdialects, how do they differ from real dialects? Is bilingualism positive or negative for children? What types of play do young children engage in and why are they important for learning and cognitive development?
These are the main themes of the chapter.
Children between the ages of 2 and 6 are relatively new to this world, and the manifestations of thinking they demonstrate are often both amazing and suggestive. Read the following excerpt from Winnie the Pooh, which reflects the child's cognitive and social egocentrism observed in early childhood, i.e. the child's tendency to see and interpret things solely from his own perspective:
_______Chapter 7, Early Childhood: Physical e, cognitive and speech development 319
One day, while walking through the forest, Pooh came to a clearing. A tall, tall oak tree grew in the clearing, and at the very top of this oak tree someone buzzed loudly: zhzhzhzhzhzhzh ...
Winnie the Pooh sat on the grass under a tree, put his head in his paws and began to think.
At first he thought like this: “This is - zhzhzhzhzhzh - for a reason! In vain, no one will buzz. The tree itself cannot buzz. So, someone is buzzing around here. Why would you buzz if you're not a bee? I think so!”
Then he thought and thought and said to himself: “Why are there bees in the world? To make honey! I think so!”
Then he got up and said: “Why is there honey in the world? For me to eat it! I think so, and not otherwise!”
And with these words he climbed up the tree. He climbed and climbed, and kept climbing, and on the way he sang a song to himself, which he himself immediately composed. Here's one:
The bear loves honey!
Why? Who will understand?
Indeed, why
Does he like honey? 1
Such attitudes show us how far a child has to go between the ages of 2 and 6 in order to master the thought processes he needs to study at school. During these 4 years, young children acquire the ability to form real linguistically literate concepts. They begin to realize what they can do and what they can't. The child tries to generalize his experience. His reasoning from associative gradually turns into logical.
In addition, children acquire speech to the extent necessary to express their thoughts, needs and feelings. Speech development occurs at a rapid pace, in close interaction with the cognitive and social. While 2-year-olds express themselves in one or two words, using their own original grammar, 6-year-olds speak in whole phrases or even groups of sentences that have the correct grammatical structure. By mastering the rules of syntax and expanding their vocabulary, preschoolers simultaneously master social values, such as politeness and obedience, and gender roles. As a result, language becomes a kind of bridge between infancy and childhood: with its help, the child can communicate and explain his desires, needs and observations, and thanks to this, those around him begin to communicate with him in a completely different way.
In parallel with these changes in the cognitive and speech sphere, the appearance of children and their physical capabilities are rapidly and dramatically changing. A chubby baby with a large head and short limbs turns into a rather slender 6-year-old child, able to perform more plastic movements, with greater coordination and physical strength. Children improve in jumping, running and developing the fine motor skills needed to write letters of the alphabet, fasten clothes or solve puzzles.
The dynamics that a child makes in the areas of thinking, language and physical skills during early childhood are deeply and subtly interconnected. As children gain greater physical strength and improve their motor abilities, they develop a desire to use their increased abilities.
Translation by B. Zakhoder.
32U part ii. childhood
features for research and learning. This exploratory-orienting activity leads, in turn, to the further development of strength and dexterity. Thus, the way children behave and think, as well as the way their brain structures develop, can be seen as an integrated and dynamic system (Diamond, 2000; Johnson, 2000; Thelen, 1992; Thelen & Smith, 1996). Despite the fact that the understanding of the labyrinths of this system is still not well understood, many examples from this area will be offered below.
Physical development
In the period from 2 to 6 years, as the body changes its size, proportions and shape, the child ceases to look like a baby. The rapid development of the brain that occurs during this period leads to an expansion of the child's cognitive capabilities and to the improvement of gross and fine motor skills.
Body measurements and proportions
Pediatricians monitor the physical development of children and make a curve of their growth. This allows physicians to assign the resulting data to a particular percentile group in order to determine how this child's height compares with the growth of other children of the same age, and to identify strong deviations from the norm that may indicate any developmental defects. Developmental psychologists are also interested in the physiological aspects of growth, but they are more interested in how these relate to the acquisition of new skills.
In no case should we forget that the main conclusions about the characteristics of growth may not apply to a particular child. The growth of any of them is due to the genes he inherits, how he eats, how much time he devotes to play and exercise. As we saw in Chapter 4, long-term nutritional deficiencies can have long-term effects on children's physical and motor development. Periods of malnutrition suffered during early childhood directly and indirectly limit the cognitive development of children. The situation develops much more complicated than in a simple sequence: lack of proper nutrition - destruction of brain cells - cognitive retardation (Brown & Pollitt, 1996). Malnutrition is indeed the cause of brain cell destruction, which is sometimes reversible and sometimes not. However, at the same time, it triggers a dynamic and reciprocal process, during which, for example, the child becomes inhibited and only minimally explores the environment, learns from it, and thus slows down his cognitive development. In addition, malnutrition leads to delays in physical growth and development of motor skills, which reduces parental expectations, which in turn inhibits cognitive development.
body proportions. During childhood, body proportions undergo extreme changes, as shown in Fig. 7.1. For example, in newborns, the head makes up a quarter of the body. By the age of 16, despite the fact that the head doubles in size, it is only an eighth of the body length. Rapid lengthening of the lower body begins with the onset
cognitive and speech development 321
Rice. 7.1. Changes in body proportions in boys and girls from birth to physical maturity. Source: Nichols, W. (1990). Moving and learning: The elementary school physical education experience. St. Louis, MO: Times Mirror/Mosby college publishing
early childhood; at this time, children lose to a large extent that plumpness of the body, which is usually associated with infancy. Along with changes in body proportions in a child aged 2 to 6 years, there is a rapid increase in height and body weight. During this period, healthy children gain an average of 2 kg in weight and 8 cm in height annually. However, as with other aspects of physical development, it is important to remember that in general they vary greatly in growth rates, in the amount of added grams and centimeters during early childhood. Parents should not try to "speed up" their children's growth by feeding them too much or exercising too much.
The center of gravity in a child is higher than in an adult; the upper half of his body bears most of his weight. For this reason, it is more difficult for young children to control the movements of their body. They lose balance faster, it is difficult for them to stop on the run and not fall. The difficulty is to try to catch a big ball without falling and prevent it from being taken away (Nichols, 1990). As the child's physique changes, the center of gravity gradually descends into the pelvic region.
Skeleton development. The development of the skeletal system of children is accompanied by an increase in their physical strength. Bones develop and become hard through a process of ossification that begins before birth and turns soft tissues or cartilage into bones. Skeletal age, which is determined by the stage of maturation of the bones, is usually estimated using an x-ray of the bones of the hand. X-rays show the degree of ossification, or maturity, of the bones. In children of the same age, skeletal age may differ by 4 years. For example, in 6-year-old children, it can vary from 4 to 8 years (Nichols, 1990).
322 Part II. Childhood
X-ray of the hand of a 2-year-old child (left) and a 6-year-old child (right).
Note the significantly higher degree of bone ossification
in an older child
brain development
Rapid changes in the size and proportions of the body are visible evidence of the growth of the child, but in parallel with this, invisible physiological changes occur in the brain. When children reach the age of 5, their brain becomes almost the same size as that of an adult. Its development contributes to the implementation of more complex processes of learning, problem solving and language use; in turn, perceptual and motor activity contribute to the creation and strengthening of interneuronal connections.
Development neurons, The 100 or 200 billion specialized cells that make up the nervous system begin as early as the embryonic and fetal periods and are almost completed by the time of birth. Glial cells that perform the function of isolating neurons and increasing the efficiency of transmission of nerve impulses continue to grow throughout the entire 2nd year of life. The rapid growth in neuron size, glial cell numbers, and synaptic complexity (interneuronal contact areas) is responsible for the intensive brain development from infancy to 2 years of age, which continues (albeit at a slightly slower pace) throughout early childhood. The intensive development of the brain is a time of considerable plasticity or flexibility, during which the child is much faster and more likely to recover from brain damage than at an older age; adults are not plastic (Nelson & Bloom, 1997).
Early childhood maturation of the central nervous system (CNS) also includes myelination(formation of a protective layer of insulating cells - the myelin sheath that covers the fast-acting pathways of the CNS) (Cratty, 1986). Myelination of the pathways of motor reflexes and the visual analyzer occurs in early childhood.
Chapter 7 Early Childhood: Physical, Cognitive, and Language Development 323
ence. In the future, the motor pathways necessary for the organization of more complex movements are myelinated, and, finally, the fibers, pathways and structures that control attention, hand-eye coordination, memory and learning processes. Along with the development of the brain, the ongoing myelination of the CNS correlates with the growth of cognitive and motor abilities and qualities of the child in the preschool years and beyond.
At the same time, the specialization resulting from the unique experience of each child increases the number of synapses in some neurons and destroys, or "stops" the synapses of others. As explained by Alison Gopnik and her colleagues (Gopnik, Meltzoff & Kuhl, 1999), neurons in the brain of a newborn have an average of about 2500 synapses, and by the age of 2-3 years their number in each neuron reaches a maximum level of 15,000, which, in turn, much more than is typical for the adult brain. As the researchers say: What happens to these neural connections as we get older? The brain is not constantly creating more and more synapses. Instead, he creates many of the connections he needs and then gets rid of many of them. It turns out that removing old links is just as important a process as creating new ones. The synapses that carry the most messages become stronger and survive, while the weaker synaptic connections are cut off... Between the age of 10 and puberty, the brain ruthlessly destroys its weakest synapses, retaining only those that have proven useful in practice (Gopnik, Meltzoff & Kuhl, 19996 p. 186-187).
The emergence of knowledge about early brain development has led many researchers to conclude that interventions and interventions for children who are at increased risk of cognitive impairment and developmental delays due to living in conditions of material poverty and intellectual hunger should begin at the earliest. early stages. Traditional programs head start(the main start), for example, begin during a period called the "window of opportunity" of brain development, i.e. during the first 3 years of life. As noted by Craig, Sharon Ramey and their colleagues (Ramey, Campbell & Ramey, 1999; Ramey, Ramey, 1998), major projects involving infants had a much greater impact than interventions started later. Undoubtedly, these and other authors note that in this case quality is everything (Burchinal et al., 2000; Ramey, Ramey, 1998). It turned out that visiting special centers for children leads to better results. (NICHD, 2000), and this approach should be used intensively in areas such as nutrition and other needs related to health, social and cognitive development, child and family functioning. The magnitude of the benefits received from the program, according to researchers Ramey (Ramey, Ramey, 1998, p. 112), depends on the following factors.
Correspondence of the program of cultural belonging to the level of development of the child.
Timetable of classes.
The intensity of learning.
Coverage of topics (breadth of the program).
Orientation to individual risks or violations.
324 Part II. Childhood
This does not mean that the first 3 years of life are a critical period and that after this time the window will somehow close. Qualitative changes that occur at an older age are also beneficial, and as many researchers have emphasized (eg Bruer, 1999), learning and the corresponding development of the brain continues throughout life. As we improve our knowledge of early brain development, we understand the importance of the first 3 years of life for any child, whether they are at risk or not. Researchers have a long way to go before they can conclude which experiences at which point in a given period are of decisive importance.
Literalization. surface of the brain, or cerebral cortex(cerebral cortex), divided into two hemispheres - right and left. Each hemisphere has its own specialization in information processing and behavior control; this phenomenon is called lateralization. In the 1960s, Roger Sperry and colleagues confirmed the existence of lateralization by studying the effects of surgery to treat people suffering from epileptic seizures. Scientists have found that dissection of the nervous tissue (corpus callosum(), connecting the two hemispheres can significantly reduce the frequency of seizures, while leaving intact most of the abilities necessary for daily functioning. However, the left and right hemispheres of a person turn out to be largely independent and cannot communicate with each other (Sperry, 1968). Currently, the surgery associated with the treatment of epileptic seizures is much more specific and subtle.
The left hemisphere controls the motor behavior of the right side of the body, while the right hemisphere controls the left side (Cratty, 1986; Hellige, 1993). In some aspects of functioning, however, one hemisphere may be more active than the other. Figure 7.2 is an illustration of these hemispheric functions as they are performed in right-handers; in left-handers, some functions may have reverse localization. It must be remembered that most of the functioning of normal people is associated with activities Total brain (Hellige, 1993). Lateralized (or otherwise specialized) functions indicate more activity in a given area than in others.
By observing how and in what sequence children display their skills and abilities, we notice that the development of the cerebral hemispheres does not occur synchronously (Tratcher, Walker & Guidice, 1987). For example, linguistic abilities develop very quickly between the ages of 3 and 6, and the left hemisphere of most children, which is responsible for them, grows rapidly at this time. The maturation of the right hemisphere in early childhood, on the contrary, proceeds at a slower pace and somewhat accelerates during middle childhood (8-10 years). The specialization of the cerebral hemispheres continues throughout childhood and ends in adolescence.
hand. Scientists have long wondered why children tend to prefer to use one hand (and foot) more than the other, usually the right. In most children, this "right-sided" choice is associated with a strong dominance of the left hemisphere of the brain. But even with this dominance
Corpus callosum (lat.) - corpus callosum. - Note. transl.
Chapter 7, Early Childhood: Physical some, cognitive and speech development 325
Rice. 7.2. Functions of the left and right hemispheres. Source:
Shea S. N., Shebilske W. L. & Worchel S. 1993. Motor learning
and control, englewood cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, p. 38
young children are able to learn to use their "unloved" hand to solve certain problems. Over time, this flexibility is lost. Scientists involved in brain asymmetry suggest that right-handed people, who make up the majority of the world's population, have speech localized in the left hemisphere. In the remaining 10% of people who are left-handed, both sides of the brain are usually responsible for speech functions, and not just one hemisphere. This may indicate that the lateralization of the cerebral hemispheres is not as pronounced in left-handers as in right-handers (Hiscock and Kinsbourne, 1987). In addition, many left-handers actually turn out to be ambidexters, that is, they can use both hands quite well, including normal coordination of movements.
It has long been noted that in most children the preference for the right hand or the left hand develops gradually, becoming stable between early and middle childhood (Gesell and Ames, 1947); studies show that a preference for one of these is present in some children as early as 20 months of age (Tirosh, Stein, Harel & Scher, 1999). Preference for one or another hand may indicate both increasing specialization of the cerebral hemispheres and its maturation, and the existence of pressure from parents and teachers to teach children to use the “socially preferred” right hand. However, the prevailing opinion is that the child should be allowed to use the hand that is more convenient, to allow him to develop in a natural way, without interference from outside. This becomes especially important if, as many researchers believe, handedness does have a genetic basis and, therefore,
326 Part II. Childhood
Security questions to the topic
"Physical development"
Malnutrition in early childhood usually causes irreversible brain damage.
Skeletal age is determined by the degree of ossification of the bones.
Throughout life, the average number of interneuronal synapses is constantly increasing.
In relation to brain development, the first 3 years of life are a window of opportunity that practically closes at the end of this period.
The hand is the result of laterapization.
Question for thought Why is the interaction between early childhood nutrition and brain development a dynamic process?
thus, it is programmed (Bryden, Roy, McManus, Bulman-Fleming, 1997; McKeever, 2000).
Most children between the ages of 3 and 5 also show a strong preference for the right or left foot. Recently, scientists have suggested that the "nail" is much less affected by social influences than the hand. For example, parents may force left-handers to retrain to do everything with their right hand. Failure to select a preferred leg may be perhaps a more sensitive indicator of motor and cognitive retardation associated with the establishment of this preference (Bradshaw, 1989; Gabbard, Dean & Haensly, 1991).
Development of motor skills
During the preschool years, children improve their motor skills and qualities (Clark and Phillips, 1985). The most noticeable changes during this period affect gross motor skills - the ability to make movements of large amplitude, which include running, jumping, throwing objects. The development of fine motor skills - the ability to make precise movements of small amplitude, such as writing, using a fork and spoon, is slower.
It is difficult for preschoolers to draw a line between physical, motor and perceptual development, on the one hand, and cognitive development, on the other. Everything that a child does during the first years of his life becomes the basis not only for the formation of subsequent motor skills, but also for cognitive, social and emotional development. For example, when a preschooler walks on a log somewhere on the beach, on the one hand, he learns how to maintain balance, and on the other hand, he learns the cognitive concept of narrowness and the emotional concept of confidence.
Some evolutionary series of behavior are characterized by functional subordination (functional subordination). Actions that were originally performed for their own sake then become part of a more complex skill. So, at first the child can just play with crayon and a sheet of paper. But for-
Chapter 7 cognitive and speech development 327
That is, the image of some signs on paper becomes functionally subordinate to the implementation of more complex tasks, such as drawing, writing, and even drawing.
The origins of complex thought processes are not always obvious. We will return to this thought later, after reviewing how gross and fine motor skills develop in the preschool years. In table. 7.1 presents the main achievements of preschoolers in the field of motor development. It should be recalled that the ages shown in the table are averages; The development of each child can differ significantly from these norms.
Table 7.1Motor development of preschoolers
| 2 years | 3 years | 4 years | 5 years |
| They walk with their legs wide apart and swaying from side to side. | When walking and running, they put their feet much closer than before. | They can change the pace. | They can walk on the balance beam. |
| They can climb, push and pull, run, cling tightly to something with both hands. | Better balance when walking and running; move more smoothly and dexterously. | They move awkwardly in jumps; jump. | They jump dexterously; stand on one leg. |
| They have low endurance. | Pick up items with one hand. | Demonstrate great strength, endurance and coordination of movements. | They can fasten buttons and zippers, tie shoelaces. |
| Pick up items with both hands. | Draw stains and scribbles on paper; stack cubes. | Draw simple shapes and figures with a pencil; draw with paints; made from building blocks. | They know how to use writing instruments, dishes and other household items. |
gross motor skills
Compared to babies, two-year-olds are amazingly skilled creatures, but they still have a lot to learn. They can walk and run, but still appear squat and overweight. At 2 years old, children usually walk with their legs wide apart and swaying from side to side. They also strive to use both arms or legs, even if one is sufficient. If a 2-year-old child is offered a cookie, he will most likely reach out with both hands for it.
At the age of 3, children begin to put their feet much closer to one another while walking and running, they no longer need to constantly control their movements with their eyes (Cratty, 1970). Thus, in their gross motor skills, elements of automatism are already visible - the ability to implement motor behavior without conscious control (Shiffrin, Schneider, 1977). They run, turn and stop on the move with more ease than they could at 2 years of age. However, the ankle joints and hands in children are not yet the same.
328 Part II. Childhood
as flexible as they will be in a year or two. 3-year-olds are already beginning to give preference to the right or left hand and, most likely, will reach out for the offered cookie with one, not two hands.
By the age of 4, children can already change the pace of running. Many of them also know how to make jumps, however, rather clumsy, performing them on the run or from a place. A 5-year-old child deftly jumps, confidently walks on a balance beam, stands for several seconds on one leg and imitates dance movements. Many children at this age are able to throw up and catch a large ball thrown by someone (Cratty, 1970). But it takes several years for them to be able to throw accurately and catch well (Robertson, 1984).
While 3-year-olds push a stroller with a doll or a big toy truck just for fun, 4-year-olds functionally subordinate these actions to playing in a doll house or garage, although sometimes they still do some actions for the sake of the actions themselves.
Children's motor activity peaks when they are 2-3 years old and gradually declines throughout the remainder of preschool age. It declines more quickly in girls than in boys, so a 5-year-old boy may be more troublesome than his peers playing quietly in kindergarten (Eaton & Yu, 1989).
fine motor skills
Fine motor skills include precise movements of the hands and fingers. The development of the various skills that require their use involves a series of overlapping processes that begin even before a child is born. (Remember how in an infant the grasping reflex is replaced by an arbitrary grasping movement, and that, in turn, by a “tweezer grip” of objects.) By the end of the 3rd year, such abilities in a child acquire a new quality when he begins to combine and coordinate the movement of the hands and fingers with other motor, perceptual and verbal circuits. In fine motor skills of preschoolers, automatism begins to appear. For example, 4-year-olds are able to carry on conversations at the table while being proficient with a fork (Cratty, 1986). However, despite the growing skill, they still have difficulty performing actions that require particularly precise movements. These difficulties are associated, on the one hand, with the immaturity of the child's central nervous system (the process of myelination is still ongoing), and on the other hand, with their lack of patience necessary for their implementation.
As children develop fine motor skills, they become more independent in their daily activities. For example, by the age of 3, children learn to put on and take off simple clothes, they can handle large zippers and use a spoon or chopsticks correctly.
So, a 3-4-year-old child can fasten and unfasten large buttons and “serve” himself at the table, although he makes minor mistakes from time to time. When children are 4-5 years old, they are able to dress and undress without assistance, skillfully handle a fork, while 5-6-year-old children can already tie a simple knot, and at 6 years old, putting on shoes,
Chapter 7, Early Childhood: Physical, Cognitive and Language Development 329
sometimes tie shoelaces; however, for many of them this task is still difficult and often requires the help of adults.
Teaching motor skills
The motor skills that children learn are usually everyday activities such as tying shoelaces, using scissors or jumping. Mastering these skills allows the child to move freely, take care of himself and be creative. Some of them are trying to learn more complex skills, such as doing gymnastic exercises, playing the piano and even horseback riding.
Experts have long identified a number of essential conditions for motor learning. These are readiness, activity, attention, motivation, competence and feedback. The formation of any new skill requires the child to be able to readiness. In order to benefit from the exercise, the child must reach a certain level of development (determined to a large extent by maturational processes) and possess a number of prior knowledge and skills. Although it is difficult to determine when children reach this state of readiness, classical studies conducted in Russia and the United States have led to the following conclusion. If you begin to skillfully teach a child new actions at the moment of his highest readiness, he will master them quickly, with minimal effort and without much stress (Lisina M.I., Neverovich Ya. 3., 1971). Children in this state want to learn, enjoy their activities and exuberantly rejoice at their successes. Their behavior is the best indicator of whether they have reached a state of readiness; they themselves begin to imitate certain actions.
Activity essential for motor development. Children will not learn to climb stairs if they do not try to do it. They won't be able to throw the ball if they don't practice it. If a child lives in cramped conditions, the development of his motor skills will be delayed. Children who fail to be fully active in learning (due to a lack of toys, places to examine, people they could imitate) may have difficulty developing motor skills. On the other hand, those whose environment actively influences them and is diverse,
In order for a preschooler to learn skills,
associated with particularly precise movements, like a game
on the piano, it is necessary to have such conditions,
as readiness, motivation and attention
330 Part II. Childhood
there is a necessary stimulation for learning. They copy the execution of any actions, repeating them many times. Children love to pour water from one glass to another, which contributes to the assimilation of the concepts of "full" and "empty", "fast" and "slow". This self-selected and regulated learning regimen is often more effective than adult-programmed learning cycles (Karlson, 1972).
Motor development is carried out more efficiently due to attention which requires a certain level of alertness and involvement in the situation. But how to encourage a child to be more attentive? You can't just tell kids what to do and how to do it. For example, 2-3-year-old children master physical skills more successfully if someone directs their actions. In order to teach the child any special movements of the arms and legs, it is useful to resort to games and exercises. This technique has shown that children aged 3 to 5 years are better able to concentrate their attention if they actively repeat someone's actions. At the age of 6-7 years, they can already pay attention to verbal instructions and are able to carry them out quite accurately, at least in those cases when they take part in familiar activities (Zaporozhets A.V., Elkonin D.B., 1971).
In his classic review of the writings of Freud, Piaget, and others, Robert White developed the concept competence motivation(White, 1959). It reflects the observation that children (and adults) try something for the sake of seeing if they can do it, perfecting a skill, testing their muscle strength and dexterity, enjoying the success. They run, jump, climb on something to please themselves and test their abilities. This kind of behavior is called intrinsically motivated behavior; this behavior is carried out for its own sake, and it is impossible to name any specific goal of it, perhaps, except for the desire to master it to perfection. Externally motivated behavior on the contrary, it is aimed at obtaining reinforcements in some form.
And finally, the acquisition and improvement of motor skills by children is facilitated by the constantly received by them Feedback. This connection can be external, as a positive reaction from parents or peers, or internal and inherent in the task itself. So, climbing on some gymnastic apparatus, they can enjoy the feeling of tension in the muscles, the height, the opportunity to see what cannot be seen from the ground.
Security questions to the topic
"Development of motor skills"
Learning to write is a skill that demonstrates functional subordination.
In the process of development, both in rough and fine motor skills, automatism is observed.
Readiness is important for the acquisition of some motor skills, but in other cases it is not necessary.
Competency motivation is an example of intrinsic motivation.
Question for thought
Why is it difficult to separate the development of motor skills from cognitive development?
Chapter 7 Early Childhood: Physical, Cognitive, and Language Development 331
Parents and caregivers can be of great help to children by making this internal feedback more visible. A specific remark, such as "Now you're holding on tight to the bar," is more useful than
The range of cognitive abilities of a child in early childhood expands in the most dramatic way.
Children try to comprehend new information in acc. with those images of understanding with which they are currently operating. Piaget called these images (representations of reality) schemes. Schemas undergo changes under the influence of two processes: accommodation and assimilation. If the new information does not match the child's schema, he can either correct his ideas (akk) or adjust this information to fit his existing ideas (acc). By the end of the first sensorimotor period, children discover the ability to understand the world through symbolization. Piaget called the second period pre-operational, it includes two stages: pre-conceptual (from 2 to 4 years), and intuitive (from 5 to 7). The use of symbols, symbolic play and language come to the fore at this stage. The child can go beyond the current situation in his thoughts (the mind becomes more flexible). However, children at the pre-conceptual stage are still not able to distinguish between mental, physical, social realities - this feature is called animism. Animistic ideas originate in egocentrism - a cognitive position in relation to the world, considered by its owner from the only possible point of view - in relation to. to yourself. Children are not able to separate the external. the world the sphere of its existence and its own. opportunities. At the intuitive stage, children begin to understand the plurality of points of view and acquire relative concepts, although they do not differ in this consistency and systematicity. A distinctive feature of 2-year-old children is symbolic representation (the use of symbols in the form of actions, images or words to represent events or the content of one's own experience). As soon as children begin to use symbols, their thought processes become more complicated. Children become receptive to other people's feelings and views, and it becomes easier for them to understand how an object can change its appearance or its shape, while remaining the same object. Features of pre-operational intelligence:
Thinking of a preschooler: concrete (no abstraction) ; irreversible, that is, the development of events, and the formation of connections goes only in one direction; egocentric - limited by the child's perspective (their point of view is the only correct one); is centered on some one physical property or dimension of an object or situation (for example, the inability to take into account both the color and the material of the product).
In the preoperational period, children focus on current states rather than on processes of change and transformation.
A two-year-old baby may say words that indicate that he knows about time and space: "later", "tomorrow", but he does not realize what these terms mean. It is very difficult for children at this age to comprehend the concepts of week and month, minute and hour. The meaning of such words as “above”, “below”, is acquired by the child in the process of acquiring experience associated with his own body. First, children learn the concept with the help of their own body, then with the help of some object, later they highlight this concept in pictures and express it in words.
Social development concept : each society includes children in a variety of ways. forms of action through what is called guided participation. There is a process of transferring cultural traditions from more experienced members of society (adults) to less experienced ones (children). According to Vygotsky, children develop by participating in activities that are slightly beyond their competence, receiving help either from adults or from more experienced comrades. He introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development. ZPD corresponds to the difference between the current level of development and its potential level, determined by the tasks that it solves under the leadership. The game is the main means that allows children to master increasingly complex social and cognitive skills (intellectual activity develops in a social game). An important aspect of cognitive development is the ability to remember. It allows you to perceive the world selectively, classify objects and phenomena, reason logically and form more complex concepts. Scientists who are on the positions of the informational approach believe that human memory consists of 3 parts: 1) sensory register, which records information received through the senses; 2) short-term memory, which retains what is recognized by a person at the moment; 3) long-term memory, which can store information throughout a person's life (a person's permanent knowledge base). Visual memory develops first in humans. Motor (motor) and verbal (verbal) memories develop later. Features of the memory of preschoolers: recognition (the ability to correctly identify previously perceived objects when they appear again) and reproduction (the ability to restore information about objects that are currently absent in memory). Preschoolers have well-developed recognition skills needed to encode and retain large amounts of information. Children are not good at coding and searching for information. Repetition and organization as techniques for remembering information are not yet available to children. It is possible to sort, assign names to groups of objects, highlight the identification features of categories for teaching children. Children are able to memorize information that is ordered in time, mentally organize and remember a sequence of actions after performing them once. Scripting is a mnemonic device used to remember the sequence of events. They allow a small child to verbally rehearse some kind of event in which he is going to take part.
Introduction
Early childhood is one of the most important periods in a person's life. It is then that the child begins to realize himself, his actions, he develops memory, attention, thinking, perception, a personality is laid. At this age, the child learns to communicate, learns the basic moral and moral norms, for the first time he has volitional forms of behavior, which are necessary both in adulthood and when entering school.
The possibilities of the child's activity contradict the emotional nature of his communication. A common object of activity of a child and an adult appears. During this period, the cognitive activity of children develops very quickly.
Early childhood is a poorly studied period. The child is a slave of visual perception. Objects attract the child. The child traces the actions of the adult, trying actions appear. In young children, samples are observed. During this period, the solution of intellectual problems is characteristic, speech develops. Communication with adults begins.
childhood early activity subject
Development of cognitive functions in early childhood
General characteristics of early childhood
At the end of the first year, the child is on his feet. This acquisition is of such great importance that this period is sometimes referred to as "walking childhood." At first, walking upright, walking is a special task associated with strong feelings, the solution of which requires the support, participation and approval of adults. Gradually, walking becomes confident, the autonomy of the child from adults increases and more free and independent communication with the outside world develops. The circle of objects accessible to the child is expanding, orientation in space and a certain independence appear. The main need of a young child is the knowledge of the world around him through actions with objects. On his own, the child cannot discover the method of using tools and other specifically human objects; the method of using them is not obvious, does not lie on the surface. Psychological "Robinsonade" is not capable of ensuring the effective development of a person. Based on the situational-personal form of communication, a new need for objective interaction is being built. There is a dismemberment of the subject and social environment. The emerging social situation of development, characteristic of early childhood, can be indicated by the formula: "child - object - adult." The child wants to touch everything, turn it over in his hands, he constantly turns to an adult with a request, demanding attention, with an offer to play together. A completely new form of communication is unfolding - situational-business communication, which is a practical, business-like cooperation regarding actions with objects and forms the basis for the interaction of a child with an adult up to 3 years. Contact becomes a mediated object and action with it. The means of communication are drawing attention to the subject, exchanging toys, learning to use objects according to their meaning, joint games.
An adult for a young child is, first of all, an accomplice of objective activity and play. On the part of an adult, the attentiveness and friendliness of a partner are important. In addition, he acts as a role model, as a person who evaluates the knowledge and skills of the child and emotionally supports him, reinforcing his successes and achievements.
Characteristics of a full-fledged communication of a young child with adults:
initiative in relation to the elder, the desire to draw his attention to his actions;
preference for substantive cooperation with an adult, insistent demand from an adult complicity in their affairs;
gullibility, openness and emotionality of attitude towards an adult, manifestation of one's love for him and a willing response to affection;
sensitivity to the attitude of an adult, to his assessment and restructuring of one's behavior depending on the behavior of an adult, a subtle distinction between praise and censure;
active use of speech in interaction.
The development of a fairly wide range of actions with objects and the emergence of the first attempts to walk independently makes the child relatively more independent of adults. Independent walking not only significantly expands the range of objects that the child encounters, but also - this is the main thing - changes the nature of the child's contact with objects. On the one hand, only receptive contact with some previously inaccessible objects is replaced by direct practical contact: the child can already not only examine these objects, but also approach them, touch them, and act with them. On the other hand, objects become accessible to the child not only through showing them to adults, but also through his own handling of them. Adults themselves now demand relatively greater independence from the child. Thus, with the beginning of walking, the range of objects directly accessible to the child expands significantly; the scope of its orienting-cognitive activity is also expanding. The child begins to orientate himself not only among objects relating directly to him, but also among objects and phenomena relating to adults, to their life and activities.
The expansion of the range of available objects, the tendency to master and act with them further exacerbate the child's need for communication with adults, puts him - still unable to do without the participation of adults in his activities - before the need for even more intensive communication with them. Failures in the performance of certain actions with the object for the first time begin to cause an affective reaction on the part of the child. These affective reactions arise mainly in connection with acts of communication with adults. The most typical causes of these affective outbursts are:
misunderstanding by adults of the desires of the child, his gestures and facial expressions;
non-compliance or opposition of adults to the actions of the child.
The nature and degree of manifestation of such reactions are determined by the specific conditions of the child's life, the attitude of adults towards him. These affective outbursts, which arise only under certain conditions of upbringing, are a symptom of the urgent contradictions between the child's increased needs and the possibilities of his actions with objects, contradictions between new needs and previous relations with adults, when the child's activity was directly mediated by the activities of adults and non-specific, non-verbal forms of communication. These contradictions are resolved through the emergence of proper verbal communication with adults and new relationships with them associated with this. The appearance of the first words with which a child addresses adults is a central link in the transition from infancy to early childhood.
The first words actively used by the child are characterized by two main features. The first feature of these words is that there are sharp phonetic differences between them and the words of the adults around the child. So, children have: a) words that are not similar to the words of adults (for example, "adiga" - fish oil; "ika" - a scarf; "giligilicha" - a pencil); b) words that are fragments of adult words, mainly roots (for example, “how” - porridge; “pa” - fell); c) words that are distortions of the words of adults, but retain their common phonetic and rhythmic pattern (for example, “ti-ti” - a clock; “abala” - an apple; “ninyanya” - no need); d) onomatopoeic words (for example, "av-av" - a dog; "mu-mu" - a cow). The second feature of the first children's words is their ambiguity, i.e., the relation of these words not to one, but to a number of objects.
To master speech, it is not at all enough just to give the child words as models for borrowing, but it is absolutely necessary to create a need for their active use. The child very early, already in the second half of the first year of life, being in a joyful state, babbles a lot and can pronounce sounds or their combinations similar in form to the words of adults: for example, “mmma - mmma”, “bba - bba”, or "dda". However, these sounds are not yet words; they do not serve as a means of communication. They turn into words only after they become a means of communication with an adult, when “mmma” turns into a call to an adult. Thus, the connection between a word and an object, or a word and an action, arises only when there is a need for communication, in the system of the child's activity, carried out with the help of an adult or together with him. The decisive condition for the emergence of both understanding of speech and its active use is the need for speech communication. The disintegration of polysemantic words is an indicator of the restructuring of generalizations, the emergence of such generalizations that are characteristic of speech proper; the word begins to relate to objects not only on the basis of capturing what is similar in them, but also by highlighting and generalizing what is different. The decisive thing is not when the child begins to pronounce words correctly, but that his words begin to reflect not diffuse, emotionally experienced situations of actions, but ordinary, stable signs of objects and phenomena, become carriers of a generalization of the objective signs of objects that are distinguished on the basis of capturing them as their similarities as well as their differences. It is on the basis of the development of generalizations that the correct allocation of phonemes in a word occurs, although they can also be poorly pronounced. The end of the transitional period in the formation of speech is primarily associated with mastering the meanings of words. Outwardly, this is expressed, firstly, in a sharp increase in the vocabulary, secondly, in the formation of two-word sentences, and thirdly, in the appearance of questions regarding the names of objects. These changes usually occur at the beginning of the second half of the second year of life and mark the appearance in the child of a new type of communication with adults - verbal communication proper, associated with a word that has a certain objective, and not situational, meaning. Thus, during the period of transition from infancy to early childhood, both in the activity of the child and in his communication with adults, significant changes occur. First of all, the child's relationship to the surrounding people and things is significantly differentiated. Some relationships arise on the basis of meeting the basic needs of the child (food, sleep, dressing). Other relationships arise in connection with the independent activity of the child with various objects - toys and household items; still others - on the basis of the child's orientation in the world of things that are not yet directly inaccessible to him, but have already interested him. However, with all the variety of relationships that arise at this age, all of them can be realized only in joint activities with adults. At the same time, the nature of this activity and the role of the adult are gradually changing. Thus, in connection with the increased possibilities of the child, adults try to involve him in the independent satisfaction of basic needs: the child does not yet eat and does not dress himself, but he already takes a feasible part in this. The role of the adult also changes in the sphere of the child's relations with objects: the adult passes on to him the socially developed, specifically human ways of using certain objects. Thus, the adult now more and more acts not only from the side of satisfying the basic needs of the child, but also mainly as a bearer of social experience of actions with objects that the child masters, and as an organizer, leader of his orientation in an ever-expanding objective world.
The appearance of speech on the verge of infancy and early childhood significantly expands the possibilities of communication between the child and adults and creates the prerequisites for the emergence of a new type of relationship between them. The practical activity of a young child with objects from the side of his relations with adults is characterized as a joint activity, the possibility of which creates speech with the use of words that have an objective meaning. In the process of mastering the ways of using objects and means of communication - language, which is the main content of a child's life in early childhood, there is a further development of his consciousness and individual mental properties. During early childhood, in connection with the complication of relationships with adults and other children and in connection with the child's mastery of objective actions, the emotional manifestations of children also become more diverse. Success or failure in mastering objective actions during their independent implementation, the presence or absence of communication with adults, the permission or prohibition of activities by adults, the satisfaction of the basic needs of the child - all this causes various emotional manifestations: the child is happy and capricious, shows sympathy or discontent, is offended , rejoices.
By the beginning of an early age, the child begins to perceive the properties of surrounding objects, to capture the simplest connections between objects and use these connections in their manipulations. This creates the prerequisites for further mental development, which occurs in connection with the mastery of objective activity (and later - playing and drawing) and speech.
The basis of mental development at an early age is formed in the child by new types of actions of perception and mental actions. In objective activity, perception develops. No development of objective actions is possible without focusing on individual features of the object.
Studies have shown that the accuracy of perception is great, but the perception itself is peculiar. First, it fixes some one quality of the object, and subsequently the child is guided by this quality when recognizing the object. Secondly, the perception of a young child is affectively colored and is closely related to practical activities.
So, for example, if a child is shown a cactus, given the opportunity to touch it with his hand, and then asked to draw, then the child, as a rule, will depict it with greatly exaggerated thorns.
An example of the first feature of the perception of a young child can be such a feature of perception as the recognition of close people in photographs and objects in drawings, incl. on contour lines. This is due to the fact that children of the second year of life do not perceive drawings or photographs as images of objects and people. For them, the depicted objects are completely independent objects. And if a child calls an object and its image the same, it means that he identifies them, perceives them as one and the same. Identification becomes possible because one detail stands out in the image, which most attracts the attention of the child. First of all, the child pays attention to the shape and size. Color, although it distinguishes, does not attach attention to it.
In order for perception to become complete and comprehensive, the child must develop new actions of perception. Such actions are formed in connection with the mastery of objective activity, especially correlative and instrumental actions.
Playing with a pyramid, a matryoshka, a child performs many correlative actions in order to collect these toys. All this can be called external orienting actions that allow the child to achieve the correct practical result (assembly of the pyramid). Such toys are called autodidactic (self-learning).
External orienting actions are also formed in the child during the mastery of instrumental actions. So, trying to get a remote object with a stick, the child can take a short stick and, making sure that it is no good, replace it with a long one.
From correlating, comparing the properties of objects with the help of external orienting actions, the child proceeds to the visual correlation of the properties of objects. A new type of perception actions is being formed (2.5 - 3 years).
Along with visual perception at an early age, auditory perception also develops intensively. Phonemic hearing develops especially intensively and, as a rule, by the end of the second year of life, children already perceive all the sounds of their native language.
Perception is the leading mental function of early age. Thus, the memory of a young child always manifests itself only in active perception - recognition (this explains the fact of early childhood amnesia: almost no coherent memories are preserved, so far it participates so little in the activity of consciousness).
Features of the perception of early age (in addition to the above):
1) his affective nature, passion. Emotions are detected mainly at the moment of visual perception of the object to which they are directed. Adults learn to look at things with a distraction from the immediate emotion they evoke, and without showing any interest in a number of things at all. For an early age, this is impossible, because. perception and emotion are merged into one. As a result, this leads to another feature of perception:
2) perception is directly related to action, determines behavior; there is a unity between sensory and motor functions. As a result of actions with objects, the child begins to perceive the properties of surrounding objects, to capture the simplest connections between objects and use this knowledge in his actions with them. This creates the prerequisites for further mental development, which occurs in connection with the mastery of objective activity (and later, elementary forms of play and drawing) and speech.
By the beginning of an early age, the child masters visual actions that make it possible to determine certain properties of objects and regulate practical behavior. However, the accuracy and meaningfulness of such objective perception is very low, although at first glance it is imperceptible. In fact, a child of the 2nd year of life cannot accurately determine the properties of familiar objects - their shape, size, color, and the objects themselves usually recognize not by the totality and combination of properties, but by individual, conspicuous features (one of the features of perception) .
Children cannot consistently, systematically inspect an object, revealing its different properties, therefore, perception, as it were, "grabs" some one conspicuous feature and "recognizes" the object by it. This may be a small area of the object that the child encounters when manipulating. So, feeling a toy bird with a sharp beak, the child learns the word "bird" and then names all objects that vaguely resemble a bird and have a protrusion ("beak").
Throughout the early years, the child's perception becomes more accurate and meaningful as he masters new actions of perception. Such actions collide in mastering objective activity, especially in mastering correlative and instrumental actions. First, children perform actions in the material plane, then they move on to visual correlation. A new type of perception actions is being formed. The property of one object turns into a sample, a measure by which it "measures" the properties of other objects. For example, the size of one ring of a pyramid becomes a measure for other rings. Gradually, the child begins to perform objective actions without first trying them on, but only with the help of visual orientation.
In connection with the development of visual correlation, a child of 2.5 - 3 years old becomes available visual choice according to the model (first in shape, then in size, and later - in color). Models for highlighting the properties of an object are ideas fixed in memory about the properties of some objects, known from one's own experience. Therefore, when identifying round objects, the child says “like a ball” (there are no sensory standards yet). For the appearance of representations, active actions of the child with these objects are necessary.
A child of the 3rd year of life is able to master ideas about 5-6 shapes (circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, polygon) and about 8 primary colors, although he still names them poorly.
auditory perception: phonemic hearing is especially developed (first vowels are distinguished and recognized, and then consonants; by the age of 2, all sounds of the native language are differentiated).
Under the influence of perception, the development of all other mental processes occurs. Memory, for example, at this age is involuntary. Although during this period a recollection appears, and moreover, the latent period of recollection increases, but the child does not remember himself, but “he is remembered”. Memory does not yet act as a separate process.
Memory. The predominant types are motor, emotional and partially figurative. The manifestations of a good memory (when long poems are recited by heart) does not mean that the child has a phenomenal memory or a high level of intelligence. This is the result of the general plasticity of the central nervous system, which is characteristic of all young children.
According to L.S. Vygotsky, all mental functions at this age develop "around perception, through perception and with the help of perception." This also applies to the development of thinking. (Obukhova, p. 221)
Thinking. Appears at the threshold of early childhood and is manifested in the use of the connection between objects to achieve some goal (for example, a child attracts a pillow on which an attractive object lies in order to get it). At first, the establishment of new connections goes through trial and error. Some children, having achieved a result, deliberately return the object back and then bring it closer, then move it away.
Most problems of this type are solved by children through external indicative actions (WOD). These actions are different from the WAT of perception, aimed at identifying and taking into account the external properties of objects.
Thinking based on WAT is called visual-effective (it is aimed at finding connections between objects and actions that make it possible to obtain a certain result).
But already at an early age, mental actions appear in children, performed without external tests, in the mind. The child transfers the method worked out in 1 situation to a similar situation. This is based on tests made in the mind, when the child acted not with real objects, but with their images, ideas about objects and ways of using them.
Thinking, in which the solution of the problem is carried out through internal actions with images, is called visual-figurative. As long as the child solves with its help only a limited class of problems, more difficult problems are either not solved at all or are transferred to a visual-active plan.
One of the essential acquisitions is the sign-symbolic function of consciousness. Therefore, at an early age, the child begins to understand that some things and actions can be used to designate others, to serve as their substitutes. However, the sign-symbolic function completes development in adulthood.
By the end of an early age, mental activity develops, including: 1) the ability to generalize; 2) to the transfer of acquired experience from the initial conditions and situations to new ones; 3) the ability to establish connections between phenomena and objects through experimentation; 4) memorize these skills and use them in solving problems.
The basis for generalizations is created by the assimilation of speech, since the meanings of words always contain generalizations. (For example, the child is taught to refer to the word “clock” as small hand clocks, alarm clocks, large wall clocks, etc.).
The mastery of speech, which contains generalized words (signs of objects) is associated with the child's transition from visual-active thinking to the formation and functioning of visual-figurative thinking, because. the image is some abstraction of the properties of the object. In the image, the sign (word) is associated with the meaning, but is already separated from the direct perception of the object designated by it.
Chronologically, the beginning of the formation of visual-figurative thinking in children is timed to the end of an early age and usually coincides in time with two events: 1) the formation of elementary self-consciousness; 2) the beginning of the development of the ability for arbitrary self-regulation. All this is accompanied by a fairly developed imagination of the child, which is reproductive at an early age. At first, when the child is at the stage of visual-active thinking, he has the opportunity to learn about the world around him, solve problems by observing him and performing real actions with objects in his field of vision. Then images of these objects appear, and the ability to operate with them arises. Finally, the image of an object can be evoked and maintained in the child's mind not only by external object signals, but also by the spoken word. This is visual-figurative thinking.
Infant speech development
In the second half of the year, the child's understanding of the speech of surrounding adults develops intensively. Prior to this, speech had already been included in the care of the child, it was a kind of accompaniment to the actions that an adult performed in relation to a child. The significance of this speech is enormous: the child listens to it, understands its general emotional tone, and later highlights individual words in it. Verbal influences constitute a significant part of an adult's behavior towards a child. Therefore, infants early, even at the stage of preverbal communication, form a special attitude to the sounds of speech due to their inseparable connection with the figure of an adult.
Of particular interest as prerequisites for the future development of speech are vocalizations. At first they look like short, and later melodious sounds, which express the state of the child. , ranging from delight, joy, pleasure (shouts, squeals) to intense concentration (gurgles). Baby vocalizations - preverbal, although some may resemble familiar words. In the aggregate, listening to adult speech and vocalization M. I. Lisina called voice communication- a special kind of personal and business situational communication. With the development of voice communication, speech communication is formed. hearing and are being worked out speech articulations.
Development of speech hearing is on the path of increasing selectivity. Selective attitude to speech sounds - first stage this development. By the end of the first year of life in children, a deepening of the analysis of the speech sounds themselves is observed: two different parameters are distinguished - timbre and tonal. For speech sounds, the main generators and constants are specific timbres. In the second half the child moves to a more complex interaction with an adult, so new means of communication appear. This means becomes speech, first passive (understanding), then active (speaking).
To master speech separate semantic distinctive units of language. In most languages, the units of meaning are phonemes. Mastery of speech is possible only on the basis of a sufficiently developed phonemic hearing, which begins to form intensively in early childhood together with aural hearing.
N. L. Figurin and M. P. Denisova tried to describe stages of development of speaking : 1) the stage of cooing and cooing, 2) the stage of babbling and babbling, 3) the stage of the appearance of the first pseudo-words, words-sentences.
From the 5-6th month gradually appear imitative vocal responses. It is easiest for a child to imitate words that mean the names of frequently used objects, animals, as well as onomatopoeic words. These are the first attempts at naming. The child still cannot call, but he can call. By 8-9 months, imitations of naming the action may appear.
In the first year, a child can actively use (after 10 months) from 1-5 to 7-16 words. D. B. Elkonin considered the first words to be one of the evidence of the child’s transition from infancy to early childhood. The first words are also remarkable because the child, using them, makes the greatest discovery in terms of meaning, the most important for his further development: he learns that every thing, in general, everything has its own name. More precisely, from that moment on, the connection between sign and meaning is revealed to him, the sign-symbolic function of consciousness begins to develop.
The first words are called pseudo words, because they differ in features:
1) there are sharp phonetic differences between the words of a child and the words of an adult; the sound composition of the words of the child is different from the sound composition of the words of adults; these are a) words that are not similar to the words of adults (“ika” - “locker”, “adiga” - “fish oil”, etc.); b) words-snippets of words of adults, more often - roots ("ka" - "porridge", "pa" - "fell", etc.); c) words that are a distortion of the words of adults, but with the preservation of their phonetic and rhythmic pattern (“ti-ti” - “clock”, “ninyanya” - “no need”); d) onomatopoeic words (“av-av” - “dog”, “mu-mu” - “cow”);
2) children's words are characterized by ambiguity, so "aka" can mean sweets, berries, sugar cubes, mosaic tiles; "uka" can mean the whole sentence "Ducks swim in the water", etc.
Based on these features, children's speech of this period is called autonomous. There is certain speech distortions(second feature): for example, a child is often told “bo-bo” instead of “it hurts”, and pointing to a big house and a big horse, they say “house” and “horse”. Communication with children at this time is possible only in a specific situation.(third feature), where the first words are used in close connection with actions and when the subject is in front of the eyes.
Autonomous children's speech is a necessary period in the speech development of every normal child. It can even be used to conduct an early psychological diagnosis of the level of speech development. For example, the underdevelopment of a child often manifests itself in a change in the period of autonomous speech. For a normal child, autonomous speech is always the bridge over which the child passes from the non-linguistic period to the linguistic one. The beginning and end of autonomous speech mark the beginning and end crisis of the first year of life.
