Topic 3.3.4 Development of thinking in preschool age

One of the important features of a child in the future is the development of thinking today. It is important to start paying attention to this as early as possible.

There is such a thing as a “sensitive period”. This is the optimal stage for developing a particular skill. For children, the period when the foundation is laid is from 1 year to 7 years.

In the article we will talk about the stages of development of thinking in children, methods, and the connection of thinking with other skills.

Features of thinking in preschool age

The brain of a preschooler is mobile and malleable, open to new knowledge. That is why useful habits, the desire to engage in sports, music, theater and art are laid precisely in the preschool period.

In order for a child to analyze and think, it is necessary to constantly set new tasks for him, as well as modernize and complicate the skills he has already acquired.

There are several factors that have a strong influence on a child’s thinking:

• Circle of friends. The older the child, the more children and adults there should be around him. Kindergartens, clubs and sections help with this. The child must observe different behavior patterns of both adults and children.
• Speech development. The child learns to construct sentences and express his thoughts.
• Formation of an analytical worldview. Preschool children are characterized by paying attention to shapes, color, size, spatial arrangement and time frames.
• Acquiring skills and abilities. The child learns to retell, read syllables, and sing.
• Formation of personal qualities. Character, adaptability, initiative, organization - all this is formed as a result of educational activities.
• Formation of self-esteem. A developed child is able to evaluate himself.
• The emergence of self-control. The child learns to manage his behavior and actions.

Stages of development of preschoolers

Preschool age is a period of rapid development. At this time, the child learns to control his body, speech, perception, attention, memory, imagination develop, the emotional sphere and self-awareness are formed. This is the age of formation and development of mental abilities in children.

Infancy stage (birth to 1 year)

At this age, the child masters coordination, develops sensual (sensory) perception of the world - hearing, vision and touch, which will further influence the physical, mental and mental development of the child. There is an accumulation of experience. By the age of one year, the child pronounces only individual sounds, but understands almost all the words that you say to him.

Early childhood stage (1 year to 3 years)

The child becomes more autonomous, he has already enjoyed his first victories, so he continues to develop skills and abilities with pleasure. This is the age of “whys”.

Preschool stage (3 to 7 years old)

The child learns to defend his opinion and show character. The first attempts at conscious control of the emotional sphere appear.

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Stages of development of thinking

• visually effective;
• visual-figurative;
• verbal-logical.

Visual and effective thinking is formed at the age of 1-3 years. When, as a result of his actions, a child, without realizing it, draws conclusions “for the future.” And proof of this are toys, keyboards, and parental gadgets disassembled for spare parts. The purpose of these actions is to know “what’s inside?”

At the age of 3-7 years, visual-figurative thinking is formed. It is during this period that the first signs of analysis appear. For example, having certain skills, a child can already tell what a toy will feel like when he sees it in a store window. Many can already predict the situation.

Closer to 6 years, the first inclinations of verbal and logical thinking appear. At this stage, the child begins to give detailed answers after analyzing information, is able to arrange the sequence of events in the correct order, and can characterize almost any object. Speech is of paramount importance on the development of a child’s thinking.

Mental operations

Observing how a child’s thinking develops, the entire thought process can be divided into stages:

• comparison;
• analysis;
• synthesis;
• generalization.

At the comparison stage, the child learns to find the same in different things, different in the same. During this period, it is appropriate to give “find the differences” pictures and play memory games (start with 6 pairs of pictures, gradually increasing the number).

At the analysis stage, features, qualities, properties, materials and objects used are identified. In his imagination, a child can divide any product into its component parts.

The synthesis stage is closely related to the analysis stage. Without analysis it will not be possible to synthesize. An example of this is reading. Without remembering letters, without understanding how they merge into syllables, a child will not be able to read.

Vivid signs of generalization are the identification of common characteristics of objects and grouping. As soon as a child develops coherent speech and the use of a large number of generalizing concepts, you know that the generalization stage has begun.

What is thinking?

There are many definitions of this concept, but, in essence, they all boil down to one thing: thinking is the process of cognition through generalizations, an indirect reflection of reality. That is, this is knowledge that we receive not from the senses, but through the thought process.

A simple example can be given: we look at a boiling kettle and know for sure that the water in it is very hot. We do not need to measure its temperature using special instruments, we do not need to test the water with our hands. We remember what boiling water looks like, and, having generalized our knowledge and extended it to a specific kettle of water, we draw a conclusion. This is how the thinking process works.

Let's look at the basic mental operations that help the cognitive process.

1. Analysis is the mental operation of decomposing the object being studied into its component parts, properties or characteristics. Analysis helps to highlight certain properties of an object that we need in a particular case. There can be as many of them as you like. For example, how can you describe an apple? It is round, red, edible.
2. Synthesis is an operation opposite to analysis, when objects or phenomena are combined into groups based on common features. In our example: something red, round and edible - what could it be? Apple? Yes, but not only - obviously, the description would include a tomato, a plum, and a candy of the appropriate shape.
3. Generalization is the combination of various objects or phenomena into one group based on a common feature. For example: several items of different shapes - an apple, a banana and a pear - can be combined into the “Edible” group. And the apple, red bow and fire truck are in the “Red Objects” group.
4. Comparison . Everything is simple here: objects or phenomena that have a common characteristic are compared with each other. The apple is as red as a fire truck, but much smaller. The common feature is color, the difference is size.
5. Concretization . Based on general characteristics, specific objects can be identified. In our case: red objects - an apple, a fire truck, a bow. Edible products: banana, apple, pear, tomato.
6. Analogy . Transferring knowledge about one subject/phenomenon to another (less studied or inaccessible for study). Knowing the characteristics of one apple, we can draw conclusions about all the apples in the basket.

Thinking operations also include:

1. Abstraction is when, while studying a subject, it is necessary to concentrate on one of its properties, ignoring the rest. For example, a ball and an orange are round objects, and that’s where their similarities end. But if we need to name exactly objects that have the shape of a ball, we can abstract from the remaining properties of an orange and a ball.
2. Classification is the distribution of objects according to some characteristics. For example, we can categorize objects by shape (round or not); color (red and not), the sign “edible or inedible”. Mental classification helps organize knowledge about a subject.
3. Systematization - arrangement of objects in a certain order. For example, all red objects can be arranged according to size: fire truck - apple - bow.

The process of learning, acquiring any new knowledge, as a rule, includes a person simultaneously performing several such mental operations.

How to develop a preschooler's thinking

The development of thinking occurs through play, as this is the leading type of activity. You can beat everything. From a pedagogical point of view, it should be developed in different directions. Involve your child more in housework.

Check out the table; it contains the main types of exercises for developing thinking in children, which we focus on in our classes.

Characteristics of thinking ↑

Thinking is one of the basic psychological processes. Its formation has been well studied. It has been proven that it is closely related to speech. And it is characterized by the following features:

• search and discovery of new knowledge;
• a generalized reflection of the information received and the surrounding reality;
• analysis of events or objects;
• perception of objects.

As the child grows and socializes, the nervous system and thinking improve. For their development, they will need the help of adults who surround the baby. Therefore, as early as one year of age, you can begin classes aimed at developing children’s cognitive activity.

Important! It is necessary to consider what objects and how the child is ready to work. Educational materials and assignments are selected taking into account the individual characteristics of children.

The thinking characteristics of this age group are determined by the following:

• generalization – the child is able to compare and draw conclusions about similar objects;
• visibility – the child needs to see facts, observe various situations in order to form his own idea;
• abstraction – the ability to separate signs and properties from the objects to which they belong;
• concept - an idea or knowledge about a subject related to a specific term or word.

Systematic mastery of concepts occurs already at school. But groups of concepts are laid down earlier. Along with the development of abstraction, children gradually master inner speech.

Exercises and games to develop thinking in preschoolers

Let's look at options for exercises and games that can be easily used in everyday life by the whole family.

Games for the development of visual and effective thinking

1. “Sort into groups” is a game in which the work of the eyes and hands is leading. For example, place large spoons, dessert spoons and tea spoons in front of your child. Ask them to sort them. The child must decide for himself on what principle to do this.
2. Game "Build a Row". Cylinder blocks, color plates, heat bottles, flavor bottles, tangram and other materials can be used here. For example, you need to build a row from large to small. Cylinder blocks from the Montessori method are used. Colored plates of the same color, but different shades, must be arranged from darkest to lightest.
3. Game "Find a place for the nesting doll." It will require nesting dolls (at least 6 pieces). We arrange the figures in a row at an equal distance from each other. Then we ask the child to close his eyes, remove one figure, and align the rest. The baby opens his eyes and tries to find the place between which figures the matryoshka stood. As the task is completed, the number of components should increase.

Games for the development of visual-figurative thinking

1. Game "What does it look like?" There are a lot of variations of it. One of them might be to show an image of a fancy blob. Give your child the opportunity to think about what it is, who it is, what it tastes like, what it smells like, what it does and other signs.
2. Game “Say it in one word.” Depending on the age of the child, the approach to identifying objects will change. For children 3-4 years old - simple generalizations such as: furniture, dishes, berries, flowers. For a child aged 5 years, the generalization should be deeper, for example: insects, wild animals, pets, professions, etc. Children 6-7 years old already operate with such concepts as animals of Africa, Asia, fruits of Europe, Asia, etc.
3. Game "Give a definition." The child is offered an object that he characterizes. For example, we show a mug that needs to be described: big, dad’s, fragile, glass, etc. And then the child shows you the object, and you characterize it.

Games for the development of verbal and logical thinking

1. Game "Collect the picture." It is analogous to puzzles. The child’s task is to assemble a whole picture from several parts. The older the baby, the more details.
2. Game "Continue the Row". Draw a chain and a row of beads in a certain sequence: yellow, green, blue, pink, and then repeat the row once and invite the child to continue. The older the child, the more beads there are, and their sizes change.
3. "Opposites". A game of matching the opposite. For example, you say cold, but the child picks up hot; wet-dry; black and white and so on.
4. Game "Guess what it's about." You consistently describe the subject, and the child guesses what you are talking about. For example: round, striped, sweet, juicy - watermelon.

Features, types and properties of thinking of preschool children article on the topic

Features, types and properties of thinking in preschool children.

Thinking is the reflection of connections and relationships between objects and phenomena of reality, leading to the acquisition of new knowledge.

With the help of thinking, a person learns about the world around him in all its diversity, properties and relationships.

The first feature of thinking is its indirect nature. What a person cannot know directly, directly, he knows indirectly, indirectly: some properties through others, the unknown through the known. Thinking is always based on the data of sensory experience - sensations, perceptions, ideas, and previously acquired theoretical knowledge. indirect knowledge is mediated knowledge.

The second feature of thinking is its generality. Generalization as knowledge of the general and essential in the objects of reality is possible because all the properties of these objects are connected with each other. The general exists and manifests itself only in the individual, the concrete.

Currently, in Russian psychology, three main stages of the development of children's thinking are quite clearly characterized:

1.visual-effective (cognition through the manipulation of objects),

2.visual-figurative (cognition through representations of objects, phenomena),

3.verbal-logical (cognition with the help of concepts, words, reasoning). For the development of a child’s thinking, targeted education and upbringing by adults plays a decisive role.

Visual and effective thinking develops intensively in a child from 3 to 4 years of age: he comprehends the properties of objects, learns to operate with objects, and establish relationships between them. The features of object-based thinking are manifested in the fact that problems are solved with the help of a real, physical transformation of the situation, with the help of direct contact with objects. This form of thinking is typical for children under 3 years of age. A child of this age compares objects, placing one on top of another or placing one next to another. That is, the child’s thought is directly related to his actions, while the action itself is ahead of thinking.

Subject-based thinking is also found in adults. For example, when thinking about an upcoming renovation, we use this type of thinking. Subject-specific thinking is necessary when it is not possible to fully foresee the results of any actions

Based on visual-effective thinking, a more complex form of thinking is formed - visual-figurative. It is characterized by the fact that the child can already solve problems based on ideas, without the use of practical actions. This type of thinking is spoken of when a person, solving a problem, analyzes, compares, generalizes various images, ideas about phenomena and objects. A visual-figurative solution most fully recreates the whole variety of different characteristics of an object, while the vision of an object can be simultaneously recorded from several points of view.

Thus, visual-figurative thinking is practically inseparable from imagination. Visual-figurative thinking plays an important role in developing children’s understanding of the processes of change and development of objects and phenomena.

By the age of 6–7 years, a more intensive formation of verbal and logical thinking begins, which is associated with the use and transformation of concepts. However, the leading one at this age is visual-figurative thinking. Verbal-logical thinking operates on the basis of linguistic means and represents the highest stage of development of thinking. Thanks to verbal-logical thinking, a person can establish the most general patterns, foresee the development of certain processes in nature and society, and generalize various visual materials.

Verbal-logical thinking is the highest type of human thinking, dealing with concepts about objects and phenomena, and not with the objects, phenomena or their images themselves. This type occurs entirely in the internal, mental plane.

The development of visually effective and visually figurative thinking is carried out in close connection with the formation of logical thinking. It is necessary to pay special attention to the development of the strengths of complex thinking, which is leading throughout a significant period of preschool childhood and is extremely important in the overall mental development of children. The correctness of solving a practical or cognitive problem that requires the participation of thinking depends on whether the child can identify and connect those aspects of the situation, the properties of objects and phenomena that are important and essential for its solution.

In fact, all types of thinking are closely interrelated. In practice, it can be difficult to determine what type of thinking is used by a person when solving a particular problem, since all types of thinking are intertwined with each other. We can only talk about the relative predominance of one or another type of thinking.

In practice, thinking as a separate mental process does not exist; it is invisibly present in all other cognitive processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory, speech. The highest forms of these processes are necessarily associated with thinking, and the degree of its participation in these cognitive processes determines their level of development.

The task of thinking is to reveal relationships between objects, identify connections and separate them from random coincidences.

Leontyev A.N. defines thinking as “the process of reflecting objective reality, constituting the highest level of human cognition.” According to Leontyev A.N., thinking provides knowledge about the essential properties, connections and relationships of objective reality, and carries out the transition “from phenomenon to essence” in the process of cognition.

One of the most famous theories of the formation and development of human thinking is the theory developed by J. Piaget. He came to the conclusion that in its development, children's thinking goes through the following four stages:

1. Stage of sensorimotor intelligence. It covers the period of life from birth to 2 years. At this stage, visual and effective thinking is presented in the most elementary forms. Thanks to this thinking, the child gets the opportunity to understand the world around him in its invariants, stable properties.

2. Stage of pre-operational thinking. At this stage there are children from 2 to 6 - 7 years old. At this time, children develop speech and the process of connecting it with thinking begins. Here there is an internalization of external actions with objects, that is, the transformation of any process or phenomenon from external, in relation to a person, into internal. For example, a joint activity shared between several people into an internal, psychological process. However, the child is not yet able to perform operations.

3. Stage of specific operations. At this stage there are children aged 7-8 years to 11-12 years. They can perform operations with specific objects, and the actions included in such operations become reversible. However, children of this age are not yet able to perform operations with abstract concepts.

4. Stage of formal operations. It includes children aged 11-12 years to 14-15 years. These children are able to perform full-fledged mental, reversible operations with concepts, acting according to the laws of logic. The mental operations of children at this stage represent a structurally organized, internally consistent system.

L. S. Vygotsky studied the process of concept development in children in approximately the same age range with which J. Piaget dealt.

L. S. Vygotsky identified the following four stages of concept formation in children:

1. Stage of syncretic thinking. Children at this stage cannot cope with the task of forming concepts, and instead of searching for essential signs of a concept, they select objects on a random basis (a syncret is a random, unordered set of objects).

2. Stage of complex thinking. Objects at this stage are combined by children into groups based on common objective features. However, these signs are random and insignificant for the items being compared. In addition, the features identified by children can vary randomly in the same experiment: first, the child selects objects based on one feature, then on another, etc.

3.Pseudo-concept stage. At this stage, children seem to act correctly, selecting objects according to their essential characteristics. It seems that they understand what the corresponding concept means. However, these definitions do not highlight the essential features of the relevant items.

4. Stage of real concepts. At this stage, children not only act correctly, but also give correct verbal definitions of concepts, highlighting in them the most general and essential features of the corresponding objects.

P. Ya. Galperin proposed another theory of the development of thinking, which he called the theory of planned (stage-by-stage) development of mental actions. This theory represents and scientifically substantiates the process of gradual transformation of external, practical actions with material objects into internal, mental actions with concepts. This process naturally goes through the following stages:

1. The stage of forming an indicative basis for action. At this stage, the person who must form a new mental action becomes familiar with the action, its composition and the requirements for it, that is, he orients himself in it.

2. The stage of performing an action in an external, expanded form, with real material objects. At this stage, the corresponding action is practically performed in its entirety on real, material objects and is carefully practiced.

3. The stage of performing actions in terms of loud speech. Here the action worked out at the previous stage is spoken out loud from beginning to end, but is practically not performed.

4. The stage of performing the action in terms of speaking “to oneself”. At this stage, the action is spoken by the person to himself, that is, with the help of so-called silent speech. A person’s vocal cords are working, but people around him cannot hear him.

5. The stage of performing an action in terms of inner speech. This is the final stage of the formation of a mental action, at which it becomes completely internal, is associated with inner speech, is performed quickly and automatically, so that it seems that the person instantly, without hesitation, gives an answer to the question posed.

According to S.L. Rubinstein, as the main subject of psychological research, thinking acts as a process, as an activity.

M.N. Poddyakov systematically studied the development of visual-effective and visual-figurative thinking. The development of children's thinking is analyzed from the point of view of complication and improvement of means and methods of cognitive activity.

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