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, his memory, attention, thinking, perception develop, and his personality is formed. At this age, the child learns to communicate, acquires basic moral and moral norms, and for the first time develops volitional forms of behavior that are necessary both in adult life and when entering school.

The child’s activity capabilities contradict the emotional nature of his communication. A common object of activity between the child and the adult appears. During this period, children's cognitive activity develops very quickly.

Early childhood is a poorly studied period. A child is a slave of visual perception. I attract objects to a child. The child follows the actions of the adult, and tentative actions appear. Tests are observed in young children. During this period, solving intellectual problems is typical, and 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 gets on his feet. This acquisition is of such great importance that this period is sometimes called “walking childhood.” At first, walking upright 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 child’s autonomy from adults increases, and freer and more independent communication with the outside world develops. The range of objects available to the child expands, orientation in space and a certain independence appear. The basic need of a young child is to understand the world around him through actions with objects. A child cannot independently discover the way to use tools and other specifically human objects; the way to use them is not obvious and does not lie on the surface. Psychological “Robinsonade” is not capable of ensuring effective human development. Based on the situational-personal form of communication, a new need for substantive interaction is built. There is a division 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, a demand for attention, an offer to play together. A completely new form of communication is unfolding - situational business communication, which represents practical, business cooperation regarding actions with objects and forms the basis of interaction between a child and an adult up to 3 years of age. Contact becomes mediated by the object and the action with it. Means of communication are drawing attention to an object, exchanging toys, learning to use objects according to their meaning, and playing together.

For a young child, an adult is, first of all, a participant in objective activity and play. On the part of an adult, the attentiveness and kindness of the partner are important. In addition, he acts as a role model, as a person who evaluates the child’s knowledge and skills and emotionally supports him, reinforcing his successes and achievements.

Characteristics of full communication between a young child and adults:

initiative towards the elder, the desire to attract his attention to his actions;

a preference for substantive cooperation with an adult, an insistent demand from an adult for complicity in their affairs;

gullibility, openness and emotionality in relation to an adult, showing 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 blame;

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 not only look at these objects, but also approach them, touch them, 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 his orienting-cognitive activity is also expanding. The child begins to navigate not only among objects related directly to him, but also among objects and phenomena related to adults, their life and activities.

The expansion of the range of available objects, the tendency to master and act with them further exacerbates the child’s need to communicate with adults, confronting him - still unable to do without the participation of adults in his activities - with the need for even more intensive communication with them. Failures in performing certain actions with an 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 child’s wishes, gestures and facial expressions;

failure or opposition of adults to the actions of the child.

The nature and degree of manifestation of such reactions are determined by the specific living conditions of the child and the attitudes of adults towards him. These affective outbursts, which arise only under certain conditions of upbringing, are a symptom of emerging contradictions between the child’s increased needs and the possibilities of his actions with objects, contradictions between new needs and previous relationships 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 actual verbal communication with adults and associated new relationships with them. 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 a 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” - scarf; “gigililicha” - pencil); b) words that are fragments of words from adults, mainly roots (for example, “how” - porridge; “pa” - fell); c) words that are distortions of the words of adults, but retain their general phonetic and rhythmic pattern (for example, “ti-ti” - clock; “abala” - apple; “ninyanya” - no need); d) onomatopoeic words (for example, “av-av” - dog; “mu-mu” - cow). The second feature of children's first words is their polysemy, that is, the relation of these words not to one, but to a number of objects.

To master speech, it is not at all enough to simply give the child words as models for borrowing, but it is absolutely necessary to create the need for their active use. A 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 combinations thereof, 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 if there is a need for communication, in the child’s system of 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 presence of a need for verbal communication. The collapse of polysemantic words is an indicator of the restructuring of generalizations, the emergence of such generalizations that are characteristic of speech itself; 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 action, but ordinary, stable signs of objects and phenomena; they become carriers of a generalization of the objective characteristics of objects, identified on the basis of capturing how they similarities as well as their differences. It is on the basis of the development of generalizations that the correct identification of phonemes in a word occurs, although they may still be poorly pronounced. The end of the transition period in the development of speech is primarily associated with mastering the meanings of words. Outwardly, this is expressed, firstly, in a sharp increase in vocabulary, secondly, in the formation of two-word sentences, and thirdly, in the emergence 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 emergence in the child of a new type of communication with adults - actual verbal communication associated with a word that has a certain objective, rather than situational meaning. Thus, during the period of transition from infancy to early childhood, significant changes occur both in the child’s activities and in his communication with adults. First of all, the child’s relationship to the people and things around him is significantly differentiated. Some relationships arise based on the satisfaction of the child's basic needs (food, sleep, dressing). Other relationships arise in connection with the child’s independent activity 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 accessible 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 capabilities of the child, adults try to involve him in independently satisfying basic needs: the child does not yet eat or dress himself, but he is already taking part in this as much as possible. The role of the adult also changes in the sphere of the child’s relationship with objects: the adult conveys to him socially developed, specifically human ways of using certain objects. Thus, the adult now acts more and more 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, a leader of his orientation in the ever-expanding objective world.

The appearance of speech on the verge of infancy and early childhood significantly expands the child’s communication opportunities with adults and creates the preconditions for the emergence of a new type of relationship between them. The practical activity of a young child with objects from the perspective of his relationship with adults is characterized as a joint activity, the possibility of which is created by speech using 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, further development of his consciousness and individual mental properties occurs. Throughout early childhood, due to the complexity of relationships with adults and other children and due to the child’s mastery of objective actions, the emotional manifestations of children become more diverse. Success or failure in mastering objective actions when carried out independently, the presence or absence of communication with adults, permission or prohibition of activities by adults, satisfaction of the child’s basic needs - all this causes various emotional manifestations: the child is happy and capricious, shows sympathy or dissatisfaction, is offended , rejoices.

Early childhood– this is a period from 1 year to 3 years. At this age, changes occur in personal development, the cognitive sphere, and the social situation of development.

Neoplasms of infancy lead to changes in the relationship between the child and the adult, which in turn leads to the formation of a new social situation of development, which consists in the emergence of joint activities between a child and an adult, and also that this activity becomes subject. The essence of joint activity is the assimilation of socially developed ways of using objects, that is, an adult teaches the child how to properly use surrounding objects, and also explains what they are needed for and where they should be used. The social situation of a child’s development at this age looks like this: “Child – OBJECT – Adult.” As can be seen from this triad, the subject is important for the child. You can verify this by watching how a child plays: he constantly looks at the object he is passionate about, be it a car, a chair, a doll, a spoon, etc. There may be a feeling that he does not need anything else and no one needed, his attention is focused only on the object of passion. But this is not so, because without an adult a child cannot master human ways of using objects.

Joint activity becomes objective, because the motive of this activity lies in the object itself and the method of its use. Communication at this age takes the form of organizing objective activities. In other words, it occurs at the moment of explaining the correct use of a particular item. Communication develops intensively and becomes verbal, because mastering objects using only emotional coloring cannot be effective.

6.2. Development of the child’s cognitive sphere

At this age, perception, thinking, memory, and speech develop. This process is characterized by the verbalization of cognitive processes and the emergence of their arbitrariness.

Development of perception determined by three parameters: perceptual actions(integrity of the perceived object), sensory standards(the emergence of standards of sensations: sound, light, taste, tactile, olfactory) and actions of correlation. In other words, the process of perception consists in identifying the most characteristic qualities, signs, and properties of a given object or situation; drawing up a certain image based on them; correlation of these standard images with objects of the surrounding world. This is how the child learns to divide objects into classes: dolls, cars, balls, spoons, etc.

From one year onwards, the process of learning about the world around us begins to actively develop. A child aged from one to two years uses various options to perform the same action, and from one and a half to two years he acquires the ability to solve a problem by guessing (insight), i.e. the child suddenly finds a solution to this problem, avoiding trial and error method.

From the second year of life, the child’s perception changes. Having learned to influence one object on another, he is able to foresee the outcome of a situation, for example, the possibility of pulling a ball through a hole, moving one object with the help of another, etc. The child can distinguish shapes such as circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, polygon; colors – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

Thanks to the development of perception, by the end of early childhood the child begins to develop mental activity. This is expressed in the emergence of the ability to generalize, transfer the experience gained from initial conditions to new ones, in establishing connections between objects through experimentation, memorizing them and using them in solving problems. A one and a half year old child can predict and indicate the direction of movement of an object, the location of a familiar object, and overcome obstacles on the way to achieving the desired goal. And after a year and a half, the reaction of choosing an object appears based on the most striking and simple characteristics: shape and color.

Continues in early childhood development of thinking, which from the visual-effective gradually turns into the visual-figurative, i.e. actions with material objects are replaced by actions with images. The internal development of thinking proceeds in this way: intellectual operations develop and concepts are formed.

Visual and effective thinking appears by the end of the first year of life and remains dominant until 3.5–4 years. At first, the child can abstract and highlight shape and color, so when grouping objects, he first of all pays attention to the size and color of the object. At the age of about two years, he identifies objects based on essential and non-essential features. At 2.5 years old, a child identifies objects according to essential characteristics: color, shape, size.

A feature of thinking in early childhood is syncretism. Syncretism means incomprehension: a child, solving a problem, does not identify individual parameters in it, perceiving the situation as a holistic picture. The role of the adult in this case is to isolate and analyze individual details from the situation, from which the child will then identify the main and minor ones.

Visual-figurative thinking appears at 2.5–3 years and remains dominant until 6–6.5 years. The formation of this thinking is associated with the formation of elementary self-awareness and the beginning of the development of the ability for voluntary self-regulation, accompanied by a developed imagination.

Memory development. By the age of two, a child develops working memory. Easy logic and thematic games are available to him, he can draw up an action plan for a short period of time, and does not forget the goal set a few minutes ago.

Speech development. By the age of one year, a child can already call things by their proper names. He has a wealth of experience in understanding the world around him, he has formed an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bparents, food, the environment, and toys. And yet, of the many qualities contained in a word as a concept, the child first assimilates only individual properties characteristic of the object with which this word was initially associated in his perception.

A one-year-old child reacts to words as to the situation as a whole. The word turns out to be associated with the situation, and not with the object representing it. The child carefully observes the facial expressions and gestures of the speaking adult, catching from them the meaning of what is being said.

From 11 months, the transition from pre-phonemic to phonemic speech and the formation of phonemic hearing begins, which ends by the age of two, when the child can distinguish words that differ from each other by one phoneme. The transition from prephonemic to phonemic speech lasts 3 years and ends in the fourth year of life. At the age of 3, the child learns to correctly use cases, first begins to use one-word sentences, then, at the age of 1.5 to 2.5 years, he can combine words, combining them into two-three-word phrases or sentences of two words, where there is also a subject and predicate. Then, thanks to the development of the grammatical structure of speech, he masters all cases and is able to construct complex sentences with the help of function words. At the same time, conscious control over the correct pronunciation of speech utterances arises.

After 1.5 years, activity in independent speech and verbal communication is noted. The child begins to ask himself the names of objects or phenomena that interest him. First, he uses the language of gestures, facial expressions and pantomimes or a pointing gesture, and then a question expressed in verbal form is added to the gesture. The child learns to control the behavior of other people using speech. But a child aged 2.5 to 3 years cannot follow the instructions of adults, especially when it is necessary to choose one action from several; he will be able to make this choice only when he is closer to 4 years old.

During the second year of life, the child begins to assimilate the verbal designation of surrounding objects, and then the names of adults, the names of toys, and only then - parts of the body, i.e., nouns, and by the age of two, with normal development, he understands the meaning of almost all words related to the surrounding reality . This is facilitated by the development semantic function children's speech, i.e. determining the meaning of a word, its differentiation, clarification and assignment to words of generalized meanings that are associated with them in the language.

By the age of 2, children have a clear understanding of the purpose of the household and personal hygiene items around them. They understand general questions that require a yes or no answer.

At about 3 years old, the child begins to listen carefully to what adults are talking about and loves having stories, fairy tales, and poems read to him.

By the age of 1.5 years, a child learns from 30 to 100 words, but rarely uses them. By 2 years old he knows 300 words, and by 3 years old he knows 1200–1500 words.

The following stages were identified in the development of speech:

1) syllables (instead of words);

2) words-sentences;

3) two-word sentences (for example, “mom here”);

4) sentences of three or more words;

5) correct speech (grammatically consistent sentences).

The main trends in the development of speech of a young child are as follows.

Passive speech is ahead of active speech in development.

The child discovers that each object has its own name.

At the border between the 2nd and 3rd years of life, the child intuitively “discovers” that the words in a sentence are related to each other.

There is a transition from the polysemy of children's words to the first functional generalizations built on the basis of practical actions.

Phonemic hearing is ahead of the development of articulation. The child first learns to listen to speech correctly and then to speak correctly.

Mastery of the syntactic structure of the language is carried out.

The functions of speech develop, a transition occurs from the indicative (indicative) to the nominative (denoting) functions of speech.

6.3. Personal formations

In early childhood, along with the development of the cognitive sphere, personal development also occurs. First of all it happens personal socialization a child, because, observing adults, he tries to imitate them: to do as they do, to behave as they behave in certain situations. The process of imitation occurs through communication and interaction between an adult and a child. Thus, observing people’s behavior and imitating them becomes one of the main sources of a child’s personal socialization. The sense of attachment, which is formed in a child by the end of the first year of life and continues to develop in early childhood, also plays an important role in the development of personality. The reason for attachment may lie in the fact that adults satisfy the child’s basic needs, reduce their anxiety, provide safe living conditions and active study of the surrounding reality, and form the basis for normal relationships with people in later life.

When the mother is close to the child, he is more active and inclined to explore the environment. A positive assessment of a child’s actions and personal qualities by a parent creates in him a sense of self-confidence, faith in his abilities and capabilities. If a child is attached to his parents and they pay him the same, then he is more obedient and disciplined. If parents are friendly, attentive and strive to satisfy the child’s needs, then he develops a personal, personal attachment.

If a child is deprived of constant positive emotional contact with his mother or loved ones, then he will subsequently have problems establishing normal, trusting relationships with others.

Happens in early childhood formation of self-awareness. The development of self-awareness will lead to the formation self-esteem(See 3.6 for details on this). Development noted independence. The phrase “I myself” speaks best about its manifestation. The child no longer always wants to be helped. Having mastered walking, he finds barriers and obstacles for himself and tries to overcome them. All this gives the child pleasure and indicates that he is beginning to develop qualities such as willpower, perseverance, and determination.

At this age, many children become disobedient. When they are told that they cannot do this, they continue to do it their own way. This often happens due to children’s desire to understand the world around them as quickly as possible.

From the age of 1.5 years, the child begins to realize his capabilities and his own personality traits. A two-year-old child understands that he can influence people and achieve the desired goal.

Children begin to develop empathy– understanding the emotional state of another person. You can observe how a one and a half year old child strives to console an upset person: he hugs him, kisses him, gives him a toy, etc.

The child has a need in achieving success. This need is formed in stages. First, the child begins to realize his successes and failures, then he can explain the successes and failures of other people, then he acquires the ability to distinguish tasks by degree of difficulty and assess the degree of development of his own skills necessary to complete a given task, and finally he can evaluate his own abilities and efforts. efforts.

Table 5

Main achievements in the mental development of a child from 1 to 3 years old

In table 5 shows the achievements of the child’s mental development with which he approaches the crisis of three years.

6.4. Crisis of three years

The three-year crisis is characterized by the fact that personal changes occurring in the child lead to changes in his relationships with adults. This crisis arises because the child begins to separate himself from other people, is aware of his capabilities, and feels himself a source of will. He begins to compare himself with adults, and he involuntarily has a desire to perform the same actions as them, for example: “When I grow up, I will brush my teeth myself.”

At this age, the following traits appear: negativism, stubbornness, devaluation, obstinacy, self-will, protest-rebellion, despotism. These characteristics were described by L.S. Vygotsky. He believed that the emergence of such reactions contributes to the emergence of a need for respect and recognition.

Negativism manifests itself in a negative reaction to an adult’s demand or request, and not to the action itself. For example, a child ignores the demands of one family member or teacher, while obeying others. It was also noticed that negativism mainly manifests itself in relationships with relatives, and not with strangers. Perhaps subconsciously the child feels that such behavior towards his family will not cause him serious harm. Therefore, we must remember that negativism and disobedience are two different things.

Another characteristic of the three-year crisis is stubbornness. Its reason is not the child’s desire to get what he wants or demand at any cost, but so that his opinion is taken into account. It doesn’t matter to the child whether he gets this thing or not, he needs to establish himself in his “adulthood”, in the fact that his opinion also means something. Therefore, a stubborn child will insist on his own even if he does not really need this thing.

Next characteristic – depreciation– is inherent in all crises. It manifests itself in the fact that all habits and values ​​that were previously dear begin to depreciate. For example, a child may throw and even break a previously beloved toy, refuse to comply with previously accepted rules of behavior, now considering them unreasonable, etc.

Obstinacy is directed against accepted norms of behavior in the family and is similar to negativism and stubbornness. For example, if it is customary in the family to have dinner together, then the child begins to refuse to eat at this particular time, and then he develops an appetite.

Self-will is expressed in the child’s desire to do everything himself. If in infancy he strived for physical independence, now his behavior is aimed at independence of intentions and plans. This behavior manifests itself not only in the actions offered to adults, for example: “Do it yourself,” “You’re already big and can do it,” etc., but also in the persistent desire to do this and not otherwise. This feeling captures the child to such an extent that he openly contrasts his desires with the expectations of others. The manifestation of independence is reflected in relationships with adults. When a child realizes he can do something myself, He doesn't need adult help. They must understand this and try to avoid negative statements on this matter, not criticize the child, but allow him to show independence.

Protest riot is expressed in frequent quarrels between children and parents. According to L.S. Vygotsky, “the child is at war with others, in constant conflict with them” (Vygotsky L.S., 1991).

Manifestations despotism are as follows: the child begins to dictate to everyone around him how to behave, and strives to be listened to and acted as he says. Such behavior can occur when the child is alone in the family or the last one.

6.5. The leading activity in early childhood

In early childhood, the leader becomes subject activity, which affects both mental development and communication with adults.

In infancy, activity is manipulative in nature: the child can repeat actions shown to adults, transfer the learned action to another object, and master some of his own actions. But when manipulating, the child uses only the external properties and relationships of objects. In early childhood, objects become for the child not just an object, but a thing that has a specific purpose and a specific way of use. The child tries to master more and more new actions of the subject, and the role of the adult is to mentor, cooperate, and help in difficult situations.

By manipulating an object at the end of infancy and at the beginning of early childhood, the child will never be able to understand its functions. For example, he can open and close a cabinet door an infinite number of times, but will never understand its functional purpose. Only an adult can explain why this or that thing is needed.

Mastering the purpose of an object does not guarantee that the child will use it only for its intended purpose, but what is important is that he will know how, when and where it should be done. For example, having learned that pencils are needed for writing and drawing, a child can nevertheless roll them around the table or build something with them.

At first, the action and the object are closely related in the child’s understanding. An example of this is the following fact: he cannot comb his hair with a stick or drink from a cube. But over time, the subject is separated from the action.

There are three phases in the development of the connection between an action and an object:

1) any actions can be performed with the object;

2) the item is used only for its intended purpose;

3) free use of an object is possible, but only if its true purpose is known.

D.B. Elkonin identified two directions for the development of substantive activity:

1. Development of action from joint with an adult to independent execution.

The path of development of action from joint to independent was studied by I.A. Sokolyansky and A.I. Meshcheryakov. They showed that at first the orientation, execution and evaluation of the action are under the control of the adult. This manifests itself, for example, in the fact that an adult takes the child’s hands and performs actions with them. Then a partial or joint action is performed, i.e. the adult begins it, and the child continues. Then the action is performed based on demonstration and, finally, based on verbal instructions.

2. Development of means and methods of orienting the child in the context of the action. It goes through several stages. The first stage consists of:

a) in the non-specific use of tools (manipulation of objects);

b) using an object when the methods of its use have not yet been formed, for example, a child understands what a spoon is for, but when eating he takes it very low;

c) mastering a specific method of use.

The second stage occurs when the child begins to perform actions in an inadequate situation. In other words, the action is transferred from one object to another, for example, a child, having learned to drink from a mug, drinks from a glass. There is also a transfer of action according to the situation, for example, having learned to put on shoes, the child tries to pull them on the ball.

The third stage is accompanied by the emergence of game action. Here the adult does not tell the child what to do, how to play or use an object.

Gradually, the child begins to correlate the properties of objects with operations, that is, he learns to determine what an object can best do, which operations are most suitable for a specific object.

The stages of formation of such fastenings were identified by P.Ya. Galperin. He believed that at the first stage the child varies his actions based not on the properties of the tool with which he wants to get the object he needs, but on the properties of the object itself. He called this stage “targeted trials.” At the second stage - “lying in wait” - the child finds an effective way of acting with an object and tries to repeat it. At the third stage - the “stage of obsessive intervention” - he tries to reproduce an effective method of influence and master it, at the fourth stage he discovers ways to regulate and change the action, taking into account the conditions in which it will have to be performed.

Correlative and instrumental actions are significant for mental development.

Correlating Actions consist of bringing several objects into certain spatial interactions - for example, folding pyramids from rings, using collapsible toys, etc.

Gun action- these are actions in which one object is used to influence other objects. The child masters instrumental actions in the process of learning under the guidance of an adult.

It was found that instrumental actions can be an indicator of the intellectual development of children, and subject actions indicate the degree of their learning and the breadth of contacts with adults.

Towards the end of early childhood, play and productive activities arise in object-tool activity.

Features of the cognitive and emotional-personal sphere of the child, corresponding to the specific cultural model. In the first half of the 20th century, the formation of these characteristics was considered as the beginning of socialization, the cultivation of the natural development of the child, which begins after a period of physiological or natural development. The strategy and meaning of this new turn in his individual history were assessed differently in line with psychoanalysis, cultural-historical, sociological, and behavioristic approaches. In modern psychology, the influence of the cultural and individual characteristics of the mother on the development of the child is considered extremely significant, especially in areas related to the development of personal formations. Here we can note some discrepancy in the assessment of the role of the mother in cognitive psychology and personality psychology. What can be considered undeniable is that the individual characteristics of the emotional-personal sphere of the child and their correspondence to the specific cultural model of the society of which he is a member are ensured by the special characteristics of maternal behavior inherent precisely in this culture.

Conclusion. There are two interrelated groups of maternal functions. One of them is designed to provide species-typical features of child development in both the cognitive and emotional spheres. The other has as its task the formation of such characteristics of the cognitive and emotional sphere of the child that would ensure that the child’s development corresponds to this particular, specific cultural model. The first group of mother functions can be called visually typical, and the second - specifically cultural.

Categories are understood as extremely broad concepts that reflect the most general and essential properties, features, connections and relationships of objects, phenomena of reality and knowledge. They are real for any manifestations of mental activity, no matter what objects absorb it.

Reflection category denotes the property of highly organized matter to reproduce in the form of subjective images (sensations, perceptions, ideas, thoughts and feelings) with varying degrees of adequacy the signs, structural characteristics and relationships of other objects in the process of active activity. The nature of reflection 7 depends on the level of organization of matter, as a result of which it is qualitatively different in inorganic and organic nature. The simplest forms of reflection serve as a prerequisite for the development of more complex forms; including both sensory and mental images of reality, which make it possible to reproduce its spatial and causal relationships, giving behavior an increasingly adaptive and active character.

Category of the psyche. Psyche (from the Greek - soul) is a systemic property of highly organized matter, which consists in the subject’s active reflection of the objective world, in the construction of a picture of this world that is inalienable from him and self-regulation on this basis of his behavior and activities. Events of the past, present and possible future are represented and ordered in the psyche. Thanks to the active and anticipatory reflection of external objects by the sense organs and the brain, in the form of the psyche, it becomes possible to carry out actions that are adequate to the properties of these objects, and thereby the survival of the organism in need of them, its search and supra-situational activity. It follows that the defining features of the psyche are: reflection, which gives an image of the objective environment in which living beings operate, their orientation in this environment and the satisfaction of the need for contacts with it. Thus, the psyche acts as a single cyclical system that has a reflexive character. Reflexivity is the primacy of the objective conditions of life of the organism and the primacy of their reproduction in the psyche, the natural transition of the perceiving components of the system into the executive ones, the expediency of motor effects and their “reverse” influence on the image. With the transition to man, the psyche acquires a qualitatively new structure, determined by socio-historical laws. Consciousness emerges as the leading level of regulation of activity, a personality is formed, serving as a source of higher manifestations of mental activity.

organizational methods (comparative, longitudinal, complex);

empirical methods of obtaining scientific data (observational methods - observation and introspection; experimental methods - laboratory, field, natural, formative psychological and pedagogical; psychodiagnostic methods - standardized and projective tests, questionnaires, sociometry, interviews and conversations; praxismetric methods - techniques for analyzing processes and products of activity (chronometry, cyclography, professional description, evaluation of work); modeling method - mathematical, cybernetic, etc. - analysis of facts, dates, events, evidence of human life;

data processing techniques (methods of quantitative (mathematical and statistical) and qualitative analysis;

interpretive methods (genetic and structural methods).

The main research methods in psychology - as in natural science in general - are observation and experiment. The observation method is the deliberate, systematic and purposeful perception of a person’s external behavior for the purpose of its subsequent analysis and explanation. Objective observation in psychology is aimed not at external actions in themselves, but at their psychological content; here the external side of activity is only the initial material of observation, which must receive its psychological interpretation and be comprehended within the framework of a certain theory.

The experimental method is one of the main methods of psychology. The main task of a psychological experiment, like observation, is to make the essential features of the internal mental process accessible to objective external perception.

Let's consider two types of psychological experiments: laboratory and natural.

A laboratory psychological experiment takes place in specially created and controlled conditions, usually using special equipment and devices.

Objective methods of psychology also include testing used for the purposes of psychological diagnostics, to recognize or assess states, characteristics, characteristics of a particular person, group of people, a particular mental function, etc.

The survey method is used in psychology in two forms: questionnaires and conversations (interviews).

Mathematical methods in psychology are used as a means of increasing the reliability, objectivity, and accuracy of the data obtained.

It is difficult or impossible to imagine our own psychological knowledge without the method of introspection. S.L. Rubinstein noted that “the data of consciousness are actually always used in the physical sciences in every study of the external world.”

Introspection does not lock us into the inner world of consciousness, but, on the contrary, takes us to the external - natural and social - world.

The self-report method follows directly from the introspection method.

Among psychocorrectional methods, various psychotherapeutic techniques can be distinguished (autogenic training, rational psychotherapy, group forms, etc.).

teacher-speech therapist MADOU No. 62, V.Novgorod, Russia

SPEECH AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN

EARLY AGE

The first three years are an extremely important and particularly favorable period in a child’s life for speech and cognitive development. At this age, the formation of fundamental personal formations occurs, a giant leap is made in the child’s development: physical, neuropsychic, social. At no other age will the child’s psyche develop so dynamically.

We observe in a young child quantitative and qualitative changes that occur as a result of biological processes in the body and exposure to the environment. The focus is on aspects of physiology, cognition, and behavior that show changes as the child develops from birth to adulthood.

According to neurophysiologists, during early childhood the basis for effective interhemispheric interaction is laid, ensuring the somatic, affective and cognitive status of the child. It also increases the performance limit of the nervous system. Walking skills are formed and improved, motor skills and hand coordination develop, as a result of which the possibilities of understanding the surrounding world and speech development are significantly expanded.

For a long time, science has considered a baby as a creature that has limited behavioral capabilities - innate reflexes (I.M. Sechenov, 1952; J. Piaget, 1969; L.S. Vygotsky, 1997; A.N. Leontiev, 1977). In the activity theory of A.N. Leontev and activity-oriented theories: the phased formation of mental actions by P.Ya. Galperin (1966) and the theory of the development of perception through the formation of perceptual actions by A.V. Zaporozhets (2000), the leading role of action was affirmed. According to the activity paradigm, the infant’s repeated actions are reinforced and acquire a pronounced focus on objects and events that lead to changes in the external environment that are interesting to the child (secondary circular reactions). Gradually, the child acquires ideas about the world around him, mastering and improving external motor forms of behavior, which are subsequently internalized, transformed into images of objects. In the same way, in J. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, it was suggested that the system of internal images develops in stages during direct manipulation of surrounding objects. Piaget also showed that speech becomes psychologically internal before it becomes physiologically internal.

The formation of speech in young children is the subject of research by scientists in various fields of pedagogy (E.F. Arkhipova, E.R. Baenskaya, N.D. Shmatko, M.I. Lisina, M.M. Liebling, O.S. Nikolskaya, O.G. Prikhodko, Yu.A. Razenkova, etc.). The speech system is formed and functions in inextricable connection with the development of the sensorimotor, intellectual, affective-volitional spheres of the child (P.K. Anokhin, N.A. Bernstein, L.S. Vygotsky, N.I. Zhinkin, V.L. Zinchenko and etc.).

A person’s cognitive (mental) and speech development is determined by a number of factors: genetic factors, the course of the mother’s pregnancy, environmental factors, the composition and social status of the family, the influence of the educational institution, and the personal characteristics of the child and parents.

Works by J. Gibson and E. Gibson (Gibson, 1988), T. Bower (Bower, 1967, 1985), A. Meltzoff and R. Borton (Meltzoff & Borton, 1979), E. Spelke (Spelke 1988, Spelke et all , 1995), R. Baillargeon (Baillargeon, 1994, Baillargeon, 2000) changed and enriched the idea of ​​early cognitive development. In their research, they hypothesized that perception is an active process from birth, and children are already ready to have an adequate understanding of the world around them.

Cognitive and speech development of a child in a social context as a separate direction in Russian psychology was founded by L.S. Vygotsky. M.I. Lisina, developing the idea of ​​L.S. Vygotsky, in her works showed the positive impact of communication with adults on the emotional, speech and cognitive development of infants and proved that communication is a necessary condition for the full development of a child. It should be noted that the child will speak in a communication situation only at the request of an adult. Only the presence of an adult who constantly addresses the child with verbal statements and demands an adequate response to them, including speech, forces the child to master speech.

Mastering speech rebuilds the processes of children's perception, memory, and thinking, improving all types of children's activities and socialization (in particular, relationships with adults and other children).

An important condition for the dynamics of a child’s cognitive development is the active stimulation of processes such as perception, attention, memory, thinking, and imagination. The inclusion of an emotional component in any message of a social nature either stimulates mental action aimed at a positive effect, or inhibits (to a certain extent) cognitive work with information. Emotional discomfort does not contribute to a child’s positive interaction with the reality around him.

The perception of a young child is affectively colored and is directly related to practical action. The emerging new type of perception allows the child to compare the properties of one object (as a sample) with the properties of other objects. First, children begin to focus on shape, then on size, then on color. By the end of early childhood, the child understands and can identify and name objects that have the same properties.

The memory of a young child is very plastic, although it is limited to directly perceived images. During this period, spatial visual involuntary emotional and mechanical (motor) memory predominates. At 2 years of age, a free form of verbal short-term memory allows children to specifically learn rhyming text. Memorization occurs after repeated repetitions of the rhythmic text. Long-term memory is formed in a child under the condition of an emotionally positive assessment of what is happening.

Symbolic play appears by the age of 1.5 years, with the inclusion of another person in it. It imitates familiar actions performed by adults. There is an increase in the number of imaginary actions. For example, a child can imagine and say that a wooden stick is a spoon, and the carpet in the room is the sea. Imagination has a recreative character. At the same time, the emergence of the phenomenon of symbolic representation is noted. By the age of three, a child can already imagine events told by adults. However, at this stage of development they are still confused in the main categories.

Thinking in young children is visual and effective. It arises when a child moves from manual actions to instrumental ones. By manipulating things, the child practically establishes connections between them.

J. Piaget, in his concept of imitation as a mechanism for the formation of a child’s thinking, says that a trusting emotional relationship between a child and an adult is a prerequisite for imitative actions. The slightest fear, wariness, or distrust of an adult can slow down development for a long time.

Mental stimulation from the first months of life can be crucial for a child’s cognitive and speech development. Children should grow up in microsocial conditions that will be source of special motivating force, giving them the opportunity to communicate with different people, manipulate new objects, and learn new skills.

Literature.

1. Vygotsky, L.S.Developmental psychology as a cultural phenomenon: selected works. psychol. works [Text] / L.S. Vygotsky. – M.: Voronezh, 1996.

2. Bozhovich, L.I.Problems of personality formation: selected psychological works [Text] / L.I. Bozhovich; edited by D.I.Feldstein. – M.: Moscow Psychological and Social Institute, Voronezh, 2001.

3. Lisina, M.I.Problems of ontogenesis of communication [Text] / M.I. Lisina. – M.: Pedagogy, 1986.

4. Lubovsky, V.I.Development of verbal regulation in children. – M.: 1978.

5. Piaget, J.Selected psychological works [Text]/ Piaget J. – M: International. ped. acad., 1994.

Social development situation in the 1st year of life it consists of 2 moments:

1. Even biologically, a baby is a helpless creature. He cannot independently satisfy even the basic needs of life and his life depends entirely on the care of an adult (food, movement in space, even turning over from side to side, etc.). This indirectness allows us to consider the child as a maximally social being (his attitude to reality is initially social).

2. The child is deprived of the main means of communication – speech.

IN contradictions Between maximum sociality and minimal opportunities for communication lies the basis for the entire development of a child in infancy.

The beginning of infancy coincides with the end of the neonatal crisis.

The turning point is between the 2nd and 3rd months of a child’s life and is marked by the emergence of an adult as the central element of the surrounding reality.

The first specific act of behavior of a child is "revitalization complex"» - a form of response specifically to a person (to his face or voice).

Components of the “revitalization complex”:

1. Smile: the first smiles can be recorded in the 1st week of the 2nd month. In the experiments of M.I. Lisina, it was established that a smile can change with age. The first smiles are light, with a stretching of the mouth, but without opening the lips. Gradually, the child begins to smile calmly, with serious, calm facial expressions. In a developed “revitalization complex,” the smile is lively, wide, with an opening of the mouth and animated facial expressions.

2. Vocalization: the child walks, hums, babbles, screams to meet the adult.

3. Motor reactions, revival: the “revitalization complex” opens by turning the head, squinting at the adult, and weak movements of the arms and legs. Gradually, the child begins to raise his arms, bend his legs at the knees, and turn on his side with his back arched. In the developed “revitalization complex”, energetic repeated bending of the back with emphasis on the back of the head and heels, goodwill (“bridges”) with equally energetic straightening, as well as walking movements of the legs, throwing up, swinging and lowering of the arms are noted.

Stages of the revitalization complex: 1) smile; 2) smile + hum; 3) smile + vocalization + motor animation (by 3 months).

Until about 5 months, the “revival complex” develops and remains as a whole, and by 6 months it dies off as a single complex reaction, but its components begin to transform: smiling into facial expressions, humming into speech, motor revival into grasping.

The inextricable connection between a child and an adult persists throughout the entire 1st year of life, which is why L.S. Vygotsky called the social situation of mental development in infancy “We.”

Contradiction This developmental situation is that the child needs the adult as much as possible, but has no means of influencing him. The adult treats the baby as if he hopes for his response, as if the baby understands the words, gestures, and emotional reactions addressed to him. The adult seems to attribute to the baby an understanding of his actions. And as a result of this behavior of an adult, the child develops the first social need - the need to communicate with an adult. It marks the emergence of the child’s first activity - the activity of communication, where the object becomes another person (M.I. Lisina). Now the activity in establishing contacts moves from the adult to the child. The child himself begins to influence the adult in order to enter into communication with him, to encourage him to make contact.

The communication of children in the first years of life was studied in detail in the laboratory of M.I. Lisina.

Criteria for the need for communication:

The child’s attention and interest in the adult (focus on knowing the adult, who becomes the object of the child’s special activity);

Emotional manifestations of a child in relation to an adult (assessment of an adult by a child);

Initiative actions of a child aimed at expressing himself and attracting an adult;

A child's reaction to an adult's attitude towards him.

By 2.5 months, children develop a need for communication.

Communication in the 1st half of the year takes a direct, emotional and personal form. It is situational in nature, because carried out in this specific situation and about it.

This form is considered established when:

The child looks into the eyes of an adult;

Returns a smile with a smile; proactive smiles (encouraging)

Motor revitalization + vocalization; the desire to prolong emotional contact with an adult, i.e. the child is ready to restructure his behavior in accordance with the behavior of the adult.

The function of communication is performed by the “revitalization complex” (from 4-6 weeks).

Communication between an infant and an adult occurs independently, outside of any other activity, and constitutes the leading activity of this age.

With the development of grasping and manipulation of objects (from 5-6 months), situational and personal communication begins to become obsolete. Now communication takes place in the process of joint activity with an adult against the background of manipulations regarding objects (situational business form of communication). The prerequisites for speech development are emerging. Moreover, first the basics of understanding an adult’s speech are formed.

Situational business the form of communication between children and adults (6 months - 2 years) unfolds in the process of joint manipulative actions with adults and satisfies the new need child - in cooperation. Business comes first motives. An adult is considered by a child as an expert, a model, an assistant, a participant and an organizer of joint actions. Expressive-facial funds supplemented by subject matters. The child expresses his desire for cooperation through poses and gestures. The main feature of this type of communication should be considered the practical interaction of a child and an adult; it is included in the objective activity. Asking for help, inviting an adult to take joint actions, asking for permission helps children recognize objects and learn how to operate with them. During this period, a positive assessment is very important, because it influences the assimilation of actions with objects and promotes the development of speech.

Cognitive development(from the English Cognitive development) - the development of all types of mental processes, such as perception, memory, concept formation, problem solving, imagination and logic.