Why is it necessary to develop thinking in children. The development of thinking in children: simple tricks and effective methods

Thinking is a mental process in which both hemispheres of the brain are involved. And the solution of the tasks assigned to him depends on how complex a person can think. That is why the development of thinking in children is so important. Perhaps in early childhood this is not very noticeable, since all the important decisions for the baby are made by his parents, and the achievements of the crumbs are most often measured by the number of steps taken, the ability to read syllables or fold the designer. But sooner or later there comes a moment when serious life goals and tasks arise in front of a person. To get a job in large and successful companies, applicants go through many tests, including an IQ test. Logical thinking and creativity are at the heart of every invention created by mankind. And if you want your child to have a chance to do something brilliant in his life, teach him to think right from childhood. Even if he chooses the path of art or, for example, sports, the ability to analyze his actions, clearly and logically build a line of his behavior will certainly lead him to success in any field.

Starting to develop the thinking of a child, you must clearly understand how his mind works. Our brain is divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is analytical. It is responsible for rational logical thinking. A person with a developed left hemisphere of the brain is characterized by consistency, algorithmic and abstract thinking. He thinks heuristically, synthesizing individual facts in his mind into a complete picture. The right hemisphere is creative. It is responsible for the human tendency to dream and fantasize. People with a developed right hemisphere of the brain are very fond of reading, compose stories themselves, show abilities in various types arts - poetry, painting, music, etc.

There are many examples with a strongly developed right or left hemisphere. But psychologists believe that initially parents should try to harmoniously develop both logic and creativity in the child. And already in the course of classes, it is worth looking closely at how the child thinks in order to understand what is easier for him. For example, a figuratively thinking kid automatically starts solving a math problem from a drawing, and a child with analytical thinking starts drawing a house from a schematic sketch. Be sure to take into account the nature of the crumbs' thinking in its further training.

Now for some theory. Despite its complexity and volume, human thinking is divided into 4 main types:

1. visual-effective
2. figurative
3. logical
4. creative

A small child who wants to feel and try everything, breaking cars and tearing off hands from dolls, is guided by visual-effective thinking. It is inherent in all children, and sometimes persists in some adults. But such people no longer break anything, but, on the contrary, design beautiful cars or do ingenious operations, securing the title of “golden hands”.

Figurative thinking in children

Figurative thinking in children involves operating with figures and images. It begins to develop in babies preschool age when they are building models from a construction set, drawing or playing around imagining things in their minds. The development of figurative thinking in children takes place most actively at the age of 5-6 years. And already on the basis of figurative thinking, logic begins to form in children. Development of thinking in kindergarten is based on the formation in children of the ability to create various images in their minds, memorize and reproduce situations, train memory and visualization. At school age, it is also useful to periodically do such exercises. But since the school curriculum pays more attention to the analytical and logical component, parents should, while drawing, creating crafts from various materials as well as reading and thinking interesting stories.

At the age of 6-7 years, the child begins to develop logical thinking. The student learns to analyze, highlight the main thing, generalize and draw conclusions. But, unfortunately, the development of logical thinking in children at school has absolutely no element of creativity. Everything is very standard and formulaic. In a fifth-grader's notebook, you can find as many tasks as you want, solved by actions, and not a single one, solved outside the box. Although for such relatively simple tasks there can be many solutions. But teachers do not pay attention to this, since the time of the lessons is limited and the children do not have the opportunity to sit and think.

This should be done by the parents. Do not force your child to solve ten examples of the same type “for training”, it is better to play chess or monopoly with him. There simply are no standard solutions, and you will definitely not find template options there. This will help the child develop logic. And strong logic in combination with unexpected, non-standard and creative solutions will raise his thinking to a new level.

How to develop creativity in a child? The simplest thing you should remember is that the development of creative thinking in children occurs at the moment of communication. It is when communicating with other people (talking in person, reading a book or, for example, listening to an analytical program) that a comparison of different points of view on the same issue takes place in the human mind. And only as a result of communication a person can develop his own opinion, and this is nothing but creativity. A person who is clearly aware that there can be several correct answers to one question is a truly creative person. But for your child to understand this, just telling him about it is not enough. He must himself come to this conclusion by doing many exercises.

And they don't teach it in school either. Therefore, parents should work with the child at home to make his thinking original, associative and flexible. It is not so difficult. You can combine the same geometric shapes with completely different pictures, construct figurines of people and animals from paper, or simply take the most common and understandable household item and try with your child to come up with as many new non-standard options for it as possible. Fantasize, invent new exercises, think creatively yourself and be sure to teach this to your child. And then happy and loud exclamations of “Eureka!” will sound more and more often in your house.

Why is it so important to teach a child to think? Let's understand, first of all, what is thinking?

This is a complex mental process that affects the work of both hemispheres of the brain.

The solution of the tasks assigned to a person, conclusions and conclusions drawn - all this depends on how complexly developed thinking is.

Therefore, it is so important to start developing and training thinking from an early age.

Of course, in early childhood, the criteria for assessing thinking are extremely low and are measured in the number of words learned and spoken, assembled figures from the designer, and similar achievements that are insignificant from the point of view of adults.

But in the life of a child there will come moments that require the ability to think logically and correctly solve problems. School exams, admission to a university, getting a job - all this will require the test subject to pass certain tests, including IQ.

To achieve something in life, to invent something, to make a successful career or build a growing business, you must always think logically and, most importantly, creatively.

For any profession and creative activity, it is extremely necessary to think analytically and figuratively build the order of one's actions. This is the key to success in any field.

How does a child think?

As we know, our brain consists of two hemispheres: the left is responsible for logic and analytical thinking, the right - for creativity.

People with a developed left hemisphere are distinguished by consistency and abstract thinking, and those with a right hemisphere are distinguished by a tendency to fantasize and dream. It is from people with a developed right hemisphere of the brain that people of all creative professions turn out: poets, artists, writers, musicians, etc.

There is also a separate species of people with equally developed right and left hemispheres.

As a rule, these are brilliant or very extraordinary people.

Experts advise that initially in a child it is necessary to develop abstract and creative thinking simultaneously and harmoniously. Because the predisposition becomes clear, as a rule, not immediately, but in the course of classes. You'll just see what your child does better.

Pay attention to the way your child thinks, for this will help him in his later life.

Types of thinking of a child

The whole complex and complex process of thinking is divided into four main types:

• visual-effective
• figurative
• logical
• creative

Visual and effective

It is people with such a highly developed type of thinking that are called people with “golden hands”.

Among such people: brilliant designers and talented surgeons.

This kind of thinking is inherent in all children. All kids love to explore, touch and try, they take apart toys and often just break them out of a desire to know how they work inside.

figurative

Figurative thinking in children begins to form at preschool age, at the age of five or six. Children begin to draw, collect something from the designer, play, imagining images and shapes in their minds.

It is the teachers in the kindergarten who are responsible for developing the child's ability to create images in the mind, memorize and retell, train the memory to reproduce various situations. For example, the teacher shows pictures of animals for children, and they draw the animals they like from memory.

Since the school curriculum for the most part consists of tasks for training logical thinking, at school age, the child already needs the help of parents in the development of figurative thinking. Be sure to study at home on your own: draw, sculpt, create crafts, as well as read and retell what you read. It is also useful to come up with stories and interesting skits with the child.

Boolean

During elementary school, at the age of six or seven years, logical thinking begins to develop.

The child learns to think analytically, isolate the main thing, generalize and draw conclusions. However, in modern school realities, the development of logic in a child is completely stereotyped and standard one-sided. No creativity, no creativity. All this is due to the teacher's lack of time and the workload and density of the program and tasks. Schoolchildren have a lot of tasks and none with a more or less creative solution. A textbook problem has one solution, although in fact it can be solved creatively and in a different way. But this is not taught in school, unfortunately.

And again, the responsibility for this falls on the shoulders of the parents. No need to force the child to solve hundreds of standard monotonous tasks.

It is better to play board games with your child: chess, checkers, monopoly or colonizers.

It's there for the solution logical tasks you will need all your imagination, there are no template solutions. And creative and non-standard solutions, coupled with logic, develop thinking.

Creative

How to develop creative thinking in children? Just. It helps develop communication.

Communication and interaction of the child with other people lead him to compare many points of view on the same issue.

This happens during a conversation, while reading a book or listening to an analytical program.

By developing and forming his own opinion, the child performs a creative act, he creates, and this is creativity. For only a truly creative person can come to the realization that there can be many correct answers to the same question. And just telling a child about it is not enough, you need him to come to an understanding of this himself by doing a lot of such creative tasks on one's own.

The school does not provide such development, here parents will also have to try to study at home with the child, teach him to think outside the box and flexibly. This is not difficult, for a start at an early school age, for example, such an exercise as folding different pictures from the same geometric shapes will help.

For example, origami or paper construction is great for developing children's creative thinking.

Try with your child to take some familiar everyday item and come up with non-standard new uses for it.

Fantasize, create, invent new tasks, think creatively yourself and the child will definitely learn to be creative with you.

In this article:

Before we talk about how the development of thinking occurs in children, let us dwell on what the process of thinking is in principle, how it proceeds and what it depends on.

Thinking is a process in which two hemispheres of the brain take part at once. The decisions that a person makes are directly dependent on how complex he is able to think. That is why it is so important to pay attention to the development of thinking in childhood.

Many parents are sure that it makes no sense to develop thinking in children in early childhood, since they make the lion's share of decisions at this age for babies. Children, on the other hand, devote most of their time to games and development. creativity while sculpting, drawing, designing. Nevertheless, in the life of every child there will surely come a moment when, already as an adult, he will have to accept correct solution- one on which his future life will depend.

Moreover, in our time, testing employees for the IQ level is practiced, based on the results of which decisions are made on hiring in reputable companies.

It is logical and creative thinking that is the basis of almost every invention created by man.

Therefore, the task of every parent who wants to give a child a chance to succeed in life as much as possible is to develop his thinking from childhood.

Thinking in a child

When they are born, children do not have a mind. For this, they simply do not have enough experience and insufficiently developed memory. Around the end of the year, the crumbs can already
observe the first glimpses of thought.

The development of thinking in children is possible through purposeful participation in the process during which the child learns to speak, understand, act. We can talk about development when the content of the baby’s thought begins to expand, new forms of mental activity appear, and cognitive interests increase. The process of development of thinking is endless and is directly related to human activity. Naturally, at each stage of growing up, it has its own nuances.

The development of thinking in babies occurs in several stages:

• actionable thinking;
• figurative;
• logical.

First stage- active thinking. It is characterized by the adoption by the child of the simplest decisions. The kid learns to know the world through objects. He twists, pulls, throws toys, looks for and presses buttons on them, thus getting the first experience.

Second phase- creative thinking. It allows the baby to create images of what he will do with his hands in the near future, without their direct involvement.

At the third stage, logical thinking begins to work, during which, in addition to images, the child uses abstract, abstract words. If you ask a kid with a well-developed logical thinking questions about what the universe or time is, he will easily find meaningful answers.

Stages of development of thinking in children

In early childhood, babies have one feature: they try to taste everything, take it apart, and they are guided by exceptionally efficient thinking, which in some cases persists even after they grow up. Such people, being adults, no longer break - they grow up as designers, able to assemble and disassemble almost any object with their hands.

Figurative thinking develops in children at a younger preschool age. Usually the process is influenced by drawing, games with the designer, when you need to imagine the final result in your mind. The most active figurative thinking in children becomes around the end of the period of preschool age - by the age of 6. Based on the developed
figurative thinking begins to form logical.

In kindergarten, the process of developing thinking is associated with educating children in the ability to think in images, memorize, and then try to reproduce scenes from life. When children enter school, they can also continue to engage in such exercises.

At the same time, you need to understand that most of the school programs are built with an emphasis on the development of logic and analytics, so parents will need to work on the development of figurative thinking in kids. To do this, you can invent and stage interesting stories together with your child, make various kinds of crafts together, and draw.

After 6 years, the process of active development of logical thinking starts in kids. The child is already able to analyze, generalize, draw conclusions, draw something basic from what he has seen, heard or read. At school, most often they pay attention to the development of standard logic, completely unaware that they teach children to think in patterns. Teachers try to suppress any initiative, non-standard solution, insisting that children solve problems as indicated in the textbook.

What should parents do?

The most important thing is that in the process of working on the development of the child's thinking, parents do not get bogged down in dozens of identical examples that completely kill creativity in children. It will be much more useful in such cases to play board games with the child, for example, checkers or Empire. In such games, the kid will get the opportunity to make really non-standard decisions, in this way developing logic and gradually transferring thinking to a new level.

Are there ways to help nurture creativity in a child? The most important thing to learn is that the development of creative thinking takes place most actively in communication. In the process of communicating with people, as well as when reading a book or even viewing an analytical
transmission in the mind, several opinions arise at once regarding the same situation.

As for personal opinion, it appears in a person exclusively in the process of personal communication. Creative personalities stand out among the main mass, first of all, by the understanding that there can be several correct answers to one question at once. To convey this to a child, just words will not be enough. The kid himself must draw such a conclusion after numerous trainings and exercises for the development of thinking.

The school curriculum does not provide for the development of associative, creative, flexible thinking in children. Therefore, the entire responsibility for this lies on the shoulders of the parents. In fact, it turns out not to be as difficult as it might seem at first glance. With a child, it will be enough to periodically design, work with pictures of animals and geometric shapes, put together a mosaic, or just fantasize with a baby from time to time, for example, describing all the possible functions of an object.

Features of the development of thinking at a young age

As noted above, at each age the development of thinking has its own characteristics. IN younger age this process is mainly associated with the actions of the child, who is trying to find solutions for certain immediate problems. Very young children learn to put rings on a pyramid, build towers from cubes, open and close boxes, climb on a sofa, etc. When performing all these actions, the child is already thinking, and this process is still called visual-active thinking.

As soon as the baby begins to learn speech, the process of developing visual-effective thinking will switch to new stage. Understanding speech and using it for communication, the child tries to think in general terms. And although the first attempts to generalize are not always successful, they are necessary for the further development process.
The kid can group completely dissimilar objects if he can catch a fleeting external resemblance in them, and this is normal.

For example, at 1 year and 2 months old, it is common for children to name several objects at once with one word that seem similar to them. It can be the name "apple" for anything that is round, or "kitty" for anything that is fluffy and soft. Most often, children at this age generalize according to those external signs that are the first to catch the eye.

After two years, children have a desire to highlight a certain feature or action of an object. They easily notice that "the porridge is hot" or that "the kitty is sleeping." By the beginning of the third year, babies are already free to single out the most stable signs from a number of signs, and also to imagine an object according to its visual, auditory description.

Features of the development of thinking in preschoolers: predominant forms

At preschool age, in the child’s speech, one can hear interesting conclusions such as: “Lena is sitting, the woman is sitting, mom is sitting, everyone is sitting.” Or the inference may be of a different kind: seeing how mother puts on a hat, the child may note: "Mom is going to the store." That is, at preschool age, the child is already able to conduct simple cause-and-effect relationships.

It is also interesting to observe how at preschool age children use two concepts for one word, among which one is generic, and the second is the designation of a single object. For example, a kid can call a car "car" and at the same time
same time "Roy" named after one of the cartoon characters. Thus, general concepts are formed in the mind of a preschooler.

If at the most tender age the child's speech is directly woven into actions, then in time it will outstrip them. That is, before doing something, the preschooler will describe what he is going to do. This suggests that the concept of action is ahead of the action itself and acts as its regulator. Thus, children gradually develop visual-figurative thinking.

The next stage in the development of thinking in a preschooler will be some changes in the relationship between word, action and images. It is the word that will dominate in the process of working on tasks. Nevertheless, until the age of seven, the child's thinking continues to be concrete.

Exploring the thinking of preschoolers, experts offered children to solve problems in three ways: in an effective way, figuratively and verbally. In solving the first problem, the children found the solution using the levers and buttons on the table; the second - using a picture; the third was a verbal decision, which was reported orally. The research results are in the table below.

From the results in the table it can be seen that the children coped best with the tasks in a visual-effective way. The most difficult were verbal tasks. Until the age of five, children did not cope with them at all, and the older ones solved it only in some cases. Based on these data, we can conclude that visual-effective thinking is predominant and the basis for the formation of verbal and visual-figurative thinking.

How does the thinking of a preschooler change?

At preschool age, the child's thinking is primarily situational in nature. Younger preschoolers are unable to think even about what is difficult for them to perceive, while middle and older preschoolers are able to go beyond personal experience, analyzing, telling and
reasoning. closer to school age the child actively uses facts, assumes and generalizes.

The process of distraction at preschool age is possible both in the perception of a set of objects and in the course of explanations in verbal form. The child is still pressed by images of certain objects and personal experience. He knows that the nail will sink in the river, but he does not yet understand that this is because it is made of iron, and iron is heavier than water. He backs up his conclusion with the fact that he once saw a nail actually sink.

How actively thinking develops in preschoolers can also be judged by the questions that they ask adults as they grow older. The very first questions are related to objects and toys. The child turns to adults for help mainly when the toy breaks down, falls behind the sofa, etc. Over time, the preschooler begins to make attempts to involve parents in games, asking leading questions about how to build a bridge, a tower, where to roll a car, and so on.

After a while, questions will appear that indicate the onset of a period of curiosity. The child will be interested to know why it rains, why it is dark at night and how fire appears on a match. The thought process of preschoolers during this period is aimed at generalizing and distinguishing between events, objects and phenomena that they happen to encounter.

With admission to the first grade, the activities of children change. Schoolchildren need to think about new phenomena and objects, certain requirements are imposed on their thought processes.
The teacher makes sure that the children learn not to lose the thread of reasoning, to be able to think, to express thoughts in words.

Despite this, the thinking of schoolchildren in the lower grades is still concrete-figurative, although elements of abstract thinking are becoming more and more obvious. Younger students are able to think about what they know thoroughly at the level of generalized concepts, for example, about plants, about school, about people.

Thinking in preschool age develops rapidly, but only if adults work with the child. With admission to school, for the development of thinking, scientifically developed methods are used to accelerate this process, applied under the guidance and control of the teacher.

Features of thinking of secondary school students

Secondary school children are considered to be students between the ages of 11 and 15. Their thinking is built primarily on the knowledge acquired in verbal form. Studying subjects that are not always interesting for themselves - history, physics, chemistry - children understand that not only facts play a role here, but also connections, as well as regular relationships between them.

High school students have more abstract thinking, but at the same time, figurative thinking is actively developing - under the influence of studying works of fiction.

By the way, a kind of research was conducted on this subject. Schoolchildren were asked to talk about how they understand Krylov's fable "The Rooster and the Pearl Grain".

Pupils of the first and second grades did not understand the essence of the fable. It seemed to them in the form of a story about how a rooster digs. Third grade students were able to compare the image of a rooster with a person, while they literally perceived the plot, summing up,
that pearls are inedible to a man who loves barleycorn. Thus, third graders draw the wrong conclusion from the fable: all a person needs is food.

In the 4th grade, schoolchildren are already able to note for themselves some features of the image of the hero and even give him a description. They are sure that the rooster is digging manure because they are confident in their knowledge, they consider the character to be proud and pompous, from which they draw the correct conclusion, expressing irony towards the rooster.

High school students are able to demonstrate a detailed perception of the image, due to which they deeply understand the moral of the fable.

In the process of studying the foundations of science, schoolchildren are introduced to the system of scientific concepts, where each concept is a reflection of one of the aspects of reality. The process of forming concepts is long and is largely related to the age of the student, to the methods by which he learns, and to his mental orientation.

How the thinking of the average preschooler progresses

The process of assimilation of concepts is divided into several levels. Developing, students learn about the essence of phenomena, objects, learn to generalize and make connections between individual concepts.

In order for a student to form as a holistic and harmonious, comprehensively developed personality, it is necessary to ensure that he learns the basic moral concepts:

• partnerships;
• duty and honor;
• modesty;
• honesty;
• sympathy, etc.

The student is able to master them in stages. At the initial stage, the child summarizes cases from his own or the lives of friends, drawing appropriate conclusions. At the next stage, he tries to apply the accumulated experience in life, either narrowing or expanding the boundaries of the concept.

At the third level, students try to give detailed definitions of concepts, pointing out the main features and giving examples. At the last level, the child fully masters the concept, applying it in life and realizing its place among other moral concepts.

At the same time, the formation of conclusions and judgments takes place. If junior schoolchildren everything is judged categorically in an affirmative form, then in the third or fourth grade, children's judgments are rather conditional.

In the fifth grade, students reason using evidence, both indirect and direct, using personal experience, trying to substantiate and prove.
High school students, on the other hand, calmly use all the forms of expression of thought available to them. They doubt, admit, assume, etc. It is already easy for high school students to use deductive and inductive reasoning, raise questions and justify answers to them.

The development of inferences and concepts occurs in parallel with the ability of schoolchildren to master the art of analyzing, generalizing, synthesizing and a number of other logical operations. How successful the result will be depends largely on the work of teachers at the school at this age.

Features of the development of thinking in children with physical disabilities

We are talking about children with impaired hearing, vision, speech, etc. It is worth noting that physical defects cannot but affect the formation of a child's thinking. A toddler with poor eyesight and hearing loss is unable to experience the same amount of personal experience as a completely healthy child. That is why the lag in the development of thought processes in children with physical disabilities is inevitable, since they will not be able to copy the behavior of adults, gaining the necessary life skills.

Visual and hearing impairments will lead to difficulties in the development of speech and cognitive activity. The development of the capabilities of children with hearing impairments is carried out by specialists - deaf psychologists. They help to improve the development of thought processes in a child. Help here
it is simply necessary, because it is deafness that is the main obstacle to the knowledge of the world and the development of a person, since it deprives him of the main thing - communication.

Today, hearing-impaired children have the opportunity to study in specialized institutions, where they are provided with corrective assistance.

The situation is somewhat different with children who have intellectual disabilities, which is manifested low level mental abilities and thinking in general. Such children are inactive, do not seek to master objective activity, which is the basis for the formation of thought processes.

At the age of three, such children have no idea about the world around, they have no desire to distinguish themselves and learn something new. Toddlers are lagging behind in development in all respects, from speech to social.

By the end of preschool age, such children lack voluntary attention, memory, they are unable to memorize. The main form of their thinking is visual-effective, which nevertheless lags far behind the level of its development in children without intellectual impairment. In order to be able to study in specialized institutions where they will work on the development of their thought processes, such children must undergo special training at preschool age.

Exercises for the development of thinking in children

In conclusion, here are some options for games and exercises with which you can develop thinking in children at an early age:

Useful for the development of thinking in children will be games with a designer, both wooden and metal or plastic, as well as modeling from dough, clay or plasticine, and applications.

You can invite your child to draw, color, play role-playing games, collect puzzles and puzzles, complete pictures by dotted lines or numbers, look for differences in pictures, etc. Do not forget to read to the child, communicate with him. And do not limit his communication with peers, from which he will also draw new ideas, improving his thinking.

As you can see, it is not so difficult and even interesting to develop a child’s thinking if you do it with pleasure and in game form. Just help your child see the world in all its colors.

Anastasia Kondratieva
Thinking: forms, properties, types, methods of development in children

Thinking- the process of mediated and generalized cognition (reflection) of the surrounding world. Its essence is in reflection: 1) general and essential properties of objects and phenomena, including those properties that are not perceived directly; 2) essential relationships and regular connections between objects and phenomena.

Basic forms of thinking

There are three main forms of thinking: concept, judgment and inference.

A concept is a form of thinking that reflects the general and, moreover, essential properties of objects and phenomena.

Each object, each phenomenon has many different properties, signs. These properties, features can be divided into two categories - essential and non-essential.

Judgments reflect the connections and relationships between objects and phenomena of the surrounding world and their properties and features. A judgment is a form of thinking that contains the assertion or denial of a position regarding objects, phenomena or their properties.

Inference is a form of thinking in which a person, comparing and analyzing various judgments, derives a new judgment from them. A typical example of inference is the proof of geometric theorems.

Properties of thinking

The main properties of human thinking are its abstractness and generalization. The abstractness of thinking lies in the fact that, thinking about any objects and phenomena, establishing connections between them, we single out only those properties, signs that are important for solving the question we are facing, abstracting from all other signs, in this case we not interested: listening to the explanation of the teacher in the lesson, the student tries to understand the content of the explanation, highlight the main thoughts, connect them with each other and with their past knowledge. At the same time, he is distracted from the sound of the teacher's voice, the style of his speech.

The abstractness of thinking is closely related to its generalization. Highlighting the most important aspects, connections and relationships that are essential from one point of view or another, we thereby focus our thoughts on the general thing that characterizes entire groups of objects and phenomena. Each object, each event, phenomenon, taken as a whole, is unique, as it has many different sides and signs.

Types of thinking

In psychology, the following simple and somewhat conditional classification of types of thinking is common: 1) visual-effective, 2) visual-figurative, and 3) abstract (theoretical) thinking. There are also intuitive and analytical thinking, theoretical, empirical, autistic and mythological thinking.

Visual-active thinking.

In the course of historical development, people solved the problems that confronted them, first in terms of practical activity, only then did theoretical activity stand out from it. Practical and theoretical activities are inextricably linked.

Only as practical activity develops does it stand out as a relatively independent theoretical mental activity.

Not only in the historical development of mankind, but also in the process of mental development of each child, the starting point will be not purely theoretical, but practical activity. It is within this latter that children's thinking first develops. At preschool age (up to three years inclusive) thinking is mainly visual and effective. The child analyzes and synthesizes cognizable objects as he practically separates, dismembers and reunites, correlates, connects with each other certain objects perceived in this moment. Inquisitive children often break their toys in order to find out "what's inside."

Visual-figurative thinking.

In its simplest form, visual-figurative thinking occurs mainly in preschoolers, i.e., at the age of four to seven years. The connection between thinking and practical actions, although they retain, is not as close, direct and immediate as before. In the course of the analysis and synthesis of a cognizable object, the child does not necessarily and by no means always have to touch the object that interests him with his hands. In many cases, systematic practical manipulation (action) with the object is not required, but in all cases it is necessary to clearly perceive and visualize this object. In other words, preschoolers think only in visual images and do not yet master concepts (in the strict sense).

Distracted thinking.

On the basis of practical and visual-sensory experience, children at school age develop, at first in the simplest forms, abstract thinking, that is, thinking in the form of abstract concepts.

Mastering concepts in the course of assimilation by schoolchildren of the basics of various sciences - mathematics, physics, history - is of great importance in the mental development of children. The formation and assimilation of mathematical, geographical, physical, biological and many other concepts in the course of school education is the subject of numerous studies. The development of abstract thinking in schoolchildren in the course of assimilation of concepts does not at all mean that their visual-effective and visual-figurative thinking now ceases to develop or disappears altogether. On the contrary, these primary and initial forms of all mental activity continue to change and improve as before, developing together with abstract thinking and under its influence.

Intuitive and analytical thinking.

Analytical thinking is characterized by the fact that its individual stages are clearly expressed and the thinker can tell another person about them. Analytically thinking person is fully aware of both the content of his thoughts and their constituent operations. Analytic thinking in its extreme form takes the form of careful deductive (from general to particular) inference.

Intuitive thinking is characterized by the fact that it lacks clearly defined stages. It is usually based on a folded perception of the whole problem at once. The person in this case arrives at an answer, which may be right or wrong, with little or no awareness of the process by which he got that answer. Therefore, the conclusions of intuitive thinking need to be verified by analytical means.

Intuitive and analytical thinking complement each other Through intuitive thinking, a person can often solve problems that he would not solve at all or, at best, would solve more slowly through analytical thinking.

theoretical thinking.

Theoretical thinking is thinking that does not lead directly to practical action. Theoretical thinking is opposed to practical thinking, the conclusion of which is, in the words of Aristotle, an act. Theoretical thinking is guided by a special attitude and is always associated with the creation of a specific "theoretical world" and the drawing of a fairly clear boundary between it and the real world.

empirical thinking.

There are at least three vital functions of empirical thinking.

First, empirical thinking provides a person with an awareness of similar and different. The most important task of thinking when faced with an infinite variety of sensually given properties and relations of things is to separate them, to focus on similar and different, to single out a general idea of ​​\u200b\u200bobjects.

Secondly, empirical thinking allows the subject to determine the measure of similarity and difference. Depending on practical everyday tasks, a person can define the same objects, phenomena, situations as more or less similar and different.

Thirdly, empirical thinking makes it possible to group objects according to generic relations, to classify them.

Ways to develop thinking

The development of visual - effective thinking of children.

By the age of 5-6, children learn to perform actions in their minds. The objects of manipulation are no longer real objects, but their images. Most often, children present a visual, visual image of an object. Therefore, the thinking of the child is called visual-effective.

For the development of visual-effective thinking, the following methods of working with children should be used:

1) Teaching the analysis of a visual image (an adult can draw the child's attention to individual elements of objects, ask questions about similarities and differences).

2) Learn to determine the properties of objects (children do not immediately understand that different objects may have similar properties; for example: “Name 2 objects that have three features at once: white, soft, edible”).

3) Learning to recognize an object by describing possible actions with it (for example, riddles).

4) Learning to find alternative ways of acting (for example, "What if you need to know the weather outside?").

5) Learning to compose plot stories.

6) Learning to draw logical conclusions (for example, "Petya is older than Masha, and Masha is older than Kolya. Who is the oldest?").

Development of logical thinking of children.

To develop the logical thinking of preschool children, the following techniques are used:

1) Teaching the child to compare objects (for example, "Find 10 differences in the following pictures").

2) Teaching the child to classify objects (for example, the game "What is superfluous?").

3) Teaching the child to search for the same properties or signs of objects (for example, among toys, invite the child to find 2 identical ones).

Development of logical thinking of children of primary school age:

1) The use of exercises aimed at developing the ability to divide objects into classes (for example, “Read the words (lemon, orange, plum, apple, strawberry) and name the berries and fruits”).

2) Formation of the ability to define concepts.

3) Formation of the ability to highlight the essential features of objects.

Thinking acts mainly as a solution to problems, questions, problems that are constantly put forward before people by life. Solving problems should always give a person something new, new knowledge. The search for solutions is sometimes very difficult, so mental activity, as a rule, is an active activity that requires focused attention and patience. The real process of thought is always a cognitive process.

Bibliography:

1. Brief psychological dictionary / ed. A. V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. - Rostov-ND, 1998.

2. Gippenreiter Yu. B. Introduction to General Psychology: Textbook / Yu. B. Gippenreiter. - M. : Omega L, 2006.

3. Tertel A. L. Psychology. Course of lectures: Textbook / A. L. Tertel. – M. : Prospekt, 2006.

4. Diagnosis and correction of the mental development of preschoolers: Textbook / Ed. Ya. L. Kolominsky, E. A. Panko. - Mn., 1997.

5. Uruntaeva G. A. Workshop on child psychology: Textbook / G. A. Uruntaeva, Yu. A. Afonkina. - M .: Education, 1995.

Ecology of life. Children: Parents of preschoolers are most busy looking for an answer to the question "how and what to teach a child?". They choose the "most-most" from a variety of innovative methods, enroll the child in various circles and studios, engage in various "educational games" and teach the baby to read and count almost from the cradle. What is the development of thinking in preschool age? And, really, what is the priority to teach children?

Parents of preschoolers are most busy looking for an answer to the question "how and what to teach a child?". They choose the "most-most" from a variety of innovative methods, enroll the child in various circles and studios, engage in various "educational games" and teach the baby to read and count almost from the cradle. What is the development of thinking in preschool age? And, really, what is the priority to teach children?

As in any area of ​​personality development, a child's thinking goes through several stages of formation. In psychology, it is customary to define three stages in the development of thinking: visual-effective, visual-figurative, verbal-logical.

For a child who discovers the world through active work of all sense organs, the basis for obtaining information is the motor and tactile channels of perception.

A small child in early childhood (1-3 years) literally “thinks with his hands”. Not only their own information depends on the work of the receptors of these channels, but also the activity of other types of perception, other sense organs.

What does it mean? For example, the visual perception of a baby is not yet perfect, its capabilities, in comparison with the vision of an adult, are somewhat limited. The child does not understand the perspective - it seems to him that if the high-rise building is barely visible on the horizon, then it is very small.

He still cannot always understand the three-dimensionality of things. The kid does not understand visual illusions - for example, he wants to reach the horizon or touch the rainbow. The image for him is a special state of the object, he does not believe that the image does not actually exist.

In this, children's perception is reminiscent of primitive man. Seeing an evil character in a book of fairy tales, the child closes the “good fellow” from him with his hands, and so on. Everything that the child sees, he wants to touch, act with this object, experience it. And the more actions he performs with a thing, the better he perceives its properties. The better it works for him, not only the motor and tactile, but also the visual channel of perception.

Visual-effective thinking is a trial and error method. When receiving a new object, the child first of all tries to interact with it - try it on the tooth, shake it, knock it on the floor, twirl it from all sides.

In her book “A Child Learns to Speak,” M. Koltsova cites an interesting experiment as an example: two groups of babies who began to speak the first words were shown some objects to memorize new words. In one group they were allowed to play with objects, in the other they were only shown and named. Children from the first group memorized the names of objects new to them much faster and better and introduced them into speech than in the second group.

Each object seen for a child is a new puzzle that needs to be “taken apart” and then “assembled”. The only thing that interests him in early childhood is what can be done about it? That is why it is so dangerous to get carried away with newfangled methods that offer training in early childhood, attempts to develop logic or the basics of analytical thinking in kids.

What to do with the baby? More often include him in any household activity, let him participate in all mother's affairs - washes dishes, wipes dust, sweeps. Of course, mom sometimes has to take more away from such "help", but the teaching always goes through trial and error! It is during the period of early childhood that the child learns the world in activity as actively as never before.

And in order to master the space, to understand the interconnection of things, he needs to perform real, meaningful actions as much as possible, imitating adults, and not shifting the details of a special "developing" game. It is also useful to mess around with various substances - sand, water, snow. However, many textures can be found at home, without any special classes - different cereals, shreds of rags, dishes and all kinds of ordinary household items.

In respect of creative development the child is now going through a period of familiarity with the materials, where he needs to be given complete freedom and not yet expect any "crafts" and any other results.

Visual-figurative thinking. The role of fantasy in the development of thinking. Play as a leading activity.

The second stage in the development of thinking begins at about 3-4 years and lasts up to 6-7 years. Now the child's thinking is visual-figurative. He can already rely on past experience- the mountains in the distance do not seem flat to him in order to understand that a large stone is heavy, he does not have to pick it up - his brain has accumulated a lot of information from various channels of perception.

Children gradually move from actions with the objects themselves to actions with their images. In the game, the child no longer has to use a substitute object, he can imagine “play material” - for example, “eat” from an imaginary plate with an imaginary spoon. Unlike the previous stage, when in order to think, the child needed to pick up an object and interact with it, now it is enough to imagine it.

During this period, the child actively operates with images - not only imaginary in the game, when a car is presented instead of a cube, and a spoon "turns out" in an empty hand, but also in creativity. It is very important at this age not to accustom the child to use ready schemes Don't impose your own ideas.

At this age, the development of fantasy and the ability to generate one's own, new images are the key to the development of intellectual abilities - after all, thinking is figurative, than better baby invents his own images, the better the brain develops. Many people think fantasy is a waste of time.

However, how fully figurative thinking develops, its work also depends on the next, logical, stage. Therefore, do not worry if a child at the age of 5 cannot count and write. It is much worse if he cannot play without toys (with sand, sticks, pebbles, etc.) and does not like to be creative!

In creative activity, the child tries to portray his invented images, looking for associations with known objects. It is very dangerous during this period to "train" the child in given images - for example, drawing according to a model, coloring, etc. This prevents him from creating his own images, that is, from thinking.

Verbal-logical thinking and its connection with the previous stages. Is it necessary to form this type of thinking in advance?

In the period of early and preschool childhood, the child absorbs sounds, images, smells, motor and tactile sensations. Then there is a comprehension of the accumulated material, processing of the information received. By the end of the preschool period, the child has a well-developed speech, he already owns abstract concepts and can independently generalize.

So gradually (from about 7 years old) there is a transition to the next step in the development of thinking - it becomes verbal-logical. Speech allows you to think not in images, but in concepts, to structure and designate information received with the help of the senses. Already at 3-4 years old, the child tries to classify known objects, for example: an apple and a pear - fruits, and a chair, and a table - furniture.

He often accompanies his actions with comments, asks an infinite number of questions, for him the naming of an object is a designation of its existence. But speech has not yet become an instrument of thought, it is only an auxiliary instrument.

By the early school age, the word for the child becomes an abstract concept, and not associated with a specific image. For example, for a three-year-old kid, a "sofa" is just a sofa he knows, standing in his living room. He still does not have a generalization and abstraction from a specific image.

Children 7-8 years old can already be distracted from a specific image and highlight the basic concepts. The child independently determines the essential features of an object or phenomenon, assigns a new object to categories known to him, and, conversely, fills a new category with the appropriate concepts. Children are able to appreciate the true size of an object (a ten-story building on the horizon does not seem tiny to them). They develop causal relationships General characteristics phenomena and objects. They are able to perform actions without relying on images.

But, no matter how perfect verbal-logical thinking seems to us, adults - parents and teachers, we should not rush and form it artificially in a preschooler. If the child is not allowed to fully enjoy the game with images, to teach him to think logically at a time when he is not yet ready for this, the result is just the opposite.

Extremely schematic, weak thinking, formalism and lack of initiative are found just in those children who have gone through a serious school " early development", as it is now fashionable to call the rote learning of babies. At the age when the brain is ready to operate vivid images, dry schemes were brought to him, preventing him from enjoying all the richness of colors, tastes and smells of this world. Everything is good in time, and the child will certainly go through all stages of the development of thinking, let each of them give him everything that is possible only in a certain period. published