Best practices for early development
Child development is a continuous process. The baby begins to accumulate knowledge and acquire various skills, starting from birth. His mind is Blank sheet on which life writes its history. Children's memory is able to accommodate an unlimited amount of information, and the more extensive it is, the more versatile the child develops.
The hypothesis that the human brain functions far from being at full capacity, which has already become an indisputable fact, has radically changed the attitude of many teachers to learning in early age. From 0 to 6 years old, children are able to absorb a huge amount of information that is not forgotten, as many people think, but, on the contrary, is fixed in order to “emerge” at the right time. And if you pay enough attention to teaching a child at this age, you can achieve brilliant results by activating the hidden reserves of memory and thinking. You have probably heard about children who at 2-3 years old count up to a hundred, and at 5 years old they read fluently and know the multiplication table. Not all of them are child prodigies - for the most part they are just guys, for the development of which parents at one time spared no effort and, most importantly, managed to find the right approach to their crumbs.
So, in this article we will consider the most popular teaching methods today, which are used individually or in combination in modern centers early development children. Let's discuss their advantages and disadvantages together to understand what exactly these methods are aimed at and which ones are best for your baby.
Doman technique
According to the teachings of Glenn Doman, from birth to 6 years old, the child is engaged exclusively in cognition, and already from the age of 6 - directly learning. Therefore, cognitive practices can be applied already starting from 3-6 months.
In domestic schools of early development, teaching to read according to the Doman system is often used. It involves showing the child special cards. For example, to remember the word "orange", it is enough to show the baby a card with the image of this fruit and the inscription "ORANGE" every day. The child looks at the card for only a few seconds, while the teacher pronounces the written word. Toddlers quickly memorize the sound of a word and gradually begin to associate it with a visual image, “reading”, thus, the word not by letter, but in its entirety. Of course, studying according to Doman, your 2-year-old baby is unlikely to be able to read "War and Peace", but thanks to such activities, he learns to absorb information faster, trains visual and auditory memory, imaginative thinking. With the help of various cards, you can engage with your baby not only in reading, but also in mathematics and even geography!
Development according to Doman seems to be the most preferable for many parents, since it implies the possibility of individual lessons. It would seem that nothing complicated, because any of us can show cards and name words! However, as practice shows, not everything is so simple: many kids are not ready to sit quietly and look at the cards they are fed up with: they are distracted or simply run away, causing irritation and anger in their parents. All children, even the smallest ones, differ in their temperament - keep this in mind and, being carried away by the Doman system, do not rush to buy these numerous and not at all cheap benefits. Better make a dozen or two cards yourself and see if your baby wants to learn to read from the cradle, or prefers a more active pastime.
Montessori system
Maria Montessori, the ancestor of another method of early development, turned out to be more far-sighted, giving her students complete freedom of action. In the classroom according to this system, each child determines for himself what he wants to do at the moment, what objects to play with. The task of an adult is to arouse interest in the child and help him, using an individual approach. In addition, the so-called “prepared environment” is actively used in training - a space that helps the baby feel completely independent. Furniture in such an environment should be commensurate with the growth of the child, and all things should be accessible, as if inviting him to action. In Montessori classes, even fragile porcelain items are used, playing with which teaches children to be neat and tidy.
Montessori philosophy puts the personality of each individual child at the forefront. There are no assessments or other criteria for comparing children with each other, just as there are no rewards and punishments. Only their own opinion, self-criticism and internal motivation help the child to become a free, independent and self-sufficient person.
Montessori theory is based on the idea that the ability to learn certain skills manifests itself in a specific period of time. So, at the age of 0-3 years, children learn what order is, from 2.5 to 5 years they learn to communicate, while actively developing sensory skills (up to 5 years) and speech (0-6 years). And we must help the child, not by accelerating the pace of his development, but only gently pushing him in the right direction. Not all parents, due to their prejudice, will be able to overcome their emotions and doubts and competently build classes with their child. Therefore, an ideal option for supporters of this technique is to attend a Montessori class "from 3 to 6". By the way, this is also one of the characteristic features of the system: the communication of children different ages contributes to their better socialization.
waldorf system
Unlike those described above, the world-famous Waldorf education system recommends working primarily not on the mental, but on physical development children. Motor activity, games, music and dance, creative activity take precedence over teaching reading and counting, since the founders of this system believed that harmonious development is possible only when combining the spiritual, physical and emotional components. In addition, the principle of “not leading” is applied here - the versatile development of the child should take place at his own pace, and here you need to work not on speed, but on quality, trying to reveal the natural inclinations of each baby, and not impose alien interests on him.
Pupils of the Waldorf kindergarten they play only with toys made of natural, "living" materials (clay, wood, stone), not recognizing plastics and electronics. Much attention is paid fine motor skills and development of speech (in Waldorf schools from grade 1 they study English and German languages). If we compare the principles of this system with other methods, it becomes clear that Waldorf schools and kindergartens have a more humanitarian bias.
I would also like to note that in none of the usual schools of early development you will find individual elements of the Waldorf method of education - this system is very different from the traditional one and, as a rule, it is quite difficult to combine it with anything. As a result, the choice facing parents is small: either send the child to a classic Waldorf kindergarten, or completely abandon this technique.
Zaitsev School
The famous domestic teacher-innovator Nikolai Alexandrovich Zaitsev created a whole system of teaching kids the basics of literacy.
This approach is based on visual aids - Zaitsev's cubes, cards and tables, the so-called Zaitsev's chants are also used - funny songs, listening to which, kids easily learn the material they offer. Learning in the game is the main principle of Zaitsev's pedagogy: in the classroom according to his system, children are allowed to jump and stomp, walk from table to table, play with cubes. The latter are voluminous cardboard cubes with “warehouses” (syllables) depicted on them. It is easier for a child to understand how warehouses are combined into letters than to learn to read from scratch according to the traditional scheme. In addition, the cubes are divided according to the colors and the sounds they make into “soft” and “hard”, “voiced” and “deaf” warehouses. That is why the little pupils of Zaitsev and his followers, playing with cubes, easily and quickly memorize and even “write” words with cubes, laying them out in a certain sequence. Following this system, you can teach a child not only to read, but also to count: for this, cards with the image of a number tape (“hundred count”) are used.
The modern system of preschool and school education is imperfect: I think everyone will agree with this. The technique of Nikolai Zaitsev is able to nullify all the difficulties that children face in teaching literacy. Classes are fun and interesting, and the kids, as if in passing, imperceptibly, learn everything that we learned in childhood for a long time and sometimes painfully. What is the multiplication table alone worth!
There are others, no less interesting techniques early development of children: the theory of Cecile Lupan, the system of classes of the Zheleznovs and Danilova, the games of Nikitin and Voskobovich. Each of them is unique and valuable in its own way, because soul was put into its creation. the best specialists this sphere, which have developed their principles on their own pedagogical experience.
And finally, a little about personal experience. In our city there are about ten early development schools, and even ordinary child care centers call themselves that. When choosing a school for our daughter, we thought carefully about why we need it and what we want to see as a result. The main goals were as follows: to learn how to communicate with other people's children and adults, prepare mentally for visiting kindergarten, stimulate the child's desire to learn, consolidate basic concepts (colors and shapes, letters and numbers). As a result, we opted for a developmental center that offered: teaching reading according to the Doman system (1-2 years) and Zaitsev (2-3 years), classes according to the Zheleznov method (musical education) and some of the author's methods of the center's teachers. The result is the alphabet learned in six months and counting up to 10, a lot of poems and songs, the desire for independent creative activity(sculpting, drawing, making applications). The daughter became more open in communication with her peers and was looking forward to school.
The methods of early development of a child of 1-3 years old depend on the mother and father of the baby, who, most often, do not even know at what age and what he can be taught. As a rule, they are tormented by doubts: is their child too small or is it not, and are they in a hurry to make a little prodigy out of him?
Features of the development of a child in 1-3 years: what to teach and at what age?
So that you do not torture yourself with such questions, listen to the experts who say that the time must come when it will be ready!
At the age of one year and older, the baby perfectly learns certain skills and actions when he copies them from adults.
Why not give it to him game form somehow easy and unobtrusive. Of course, if your child lacks innate perseverance and determination, it may be more difficult for him to learn how to tie his shoelaces in a couple of times.
Some babies cry as soon as they face difficulties, while others look at their parents, take an example from them and show patience and calmness. So, it depends on you how quickly your baby learns to go to the potty, read the first books and “climb” to new heights. Just try not to yell at him, otherwise he won't understand anything at all.
Child development at the age of 1 year. When to start potty training your baby?
World-famous manufacturers of baby diapers claim that no matter how hard you try, but only in 1.5-2 years will he ask for a potty on his own. How true is this? Remember what your friends told you. So, what time to potty train, remember? That's it!
Many modern parents practice the following method: from birth, after eating and sleeping (daytime, nighttime), they constantly hold their baby doll over an ordinary bowl or bucket, and after they learn to stand on legs, they sit on a potty.
He just has a conditioned reflex, that is, he gets used to it. Let him not ask himself, because he still cannot really connect 2 words, but at 2-3 years old he will not urinate in his pants. Why not try?
When should you learn to use knives and matches?
At 1-3 years old, when your child becomes very curious, it is simply unrealistic to hide everything in lockers from him, especially in the kitchen. But you will have to try, because the baby does not yet understand where the danger lies in wait. The main thing is to explain that knives and matches cannot be touched with handles yet. When he reaches the age of 7, try to talk to him and explain everything in detail.
Learning to read!
Experts say that it is better to start teaching a child to read at the age of one year. Isn't it too early? Not at all! At least show him the whole words.
Leave letters and syllables alone. The kid will see the word several times, remember it, and when he learns to speak, he will already know it and, accordingly, learn to read unfamiliar texts sooner.
Just the age when his oral speech is more or less developed. Buy cookies in the form of letters for your child, learn how to sculpt from plasticine, turning the lesson into an exciting game.
Actively use cards that depict animals, coloring pages, and their names correspond to a certain letter. Let the child guess and have fun! Be sure to reward correct answers.
A toddler is not a small copy of an adult. He lives according to his age laws. Knowing these laws helps parents better understand and develop their baby. This article will briefly, without unnecessary digressions, tell you about the most important stages in the development and features of the psychology of children aged 1-3 years.
Physiology
1 year. The child stands unsteadily on widely spaced legs, sways from side to side when walking. The baby has a relatively long torso, a large head (1/5 of the total body length), short legs. The center of gravity is higher than that of an adult. Underdevelopment of the arch of the foot.
From the first half of the 2nd year, the baby may begin to ask for a potty.
2 years. The main acquisitions during this period: mastery of a straight gait; development of objective activity (manipulates with objects), mastery of speech; the necessary curves of the spine (cervical, thoracic, lumbar) are outlined.
2-2.5 years, milk teeth finally erupt (20 in total).
From 2 to 3 years, there is a rapid ossification of the limbs, but the hands still retain a cartilaginous structure.
The work of the circulatory and respiratory systems is improved: the pulse rate slows down, the amount of blood that the heart throws out in 1 beat increases, the volume of the lungs increases; breathing at the age of 2-3 years is frequent, uneven, superficial.
Movements: walking, climbing, running, throwing.
Nervous system: its efficiency increases, nerve cells do not get so tired, so the baby can already be awake for up to 6 hours without a break.
Development of the psyche
The development of the psyche of a child from 1 to 3 years is influenced by:
Mastering a straight gait. Mastering walking develops the ability to navigate in space. Muscular feeling becomes a measure of distance and spatial arrangement of objects. Approaching the object that the child is looking at, he begins to understand the direction and distance.
The development of objective actions is the mastery of methods of handling objects as is customary in society. The child learns from adults the permanent purpose of things. The objects surrounding the baby (furniture, clothes, dishes, toys, etc.) have a certain meaning in the world of people. This meaning of things the baby comprehends in early childhood. Correlating objects with each other, wielding them, the child most contributes to the development of the psyche. New types of activities begin to appear: play and productive ones (drawing, modeling, designing). The baby accumulates impressions, which contributes to the development of speech.
Memory
At the beginning of the 2nd year, the baby recognizes familiar people, even if he has not seen them for several weeks, remembers well the events of a week ago, and is well versed in the arrangement of rooms in the apartment and objects in them. Going outside himself, he comes to the place where he recently played.
By the end of the 2nd year, recognition is more perfect. He remembers the events of three months ago.
In the 3rd year of life, the baby can remember the events that happened to him 6 months ago (for example, in the summer they remember winter events).
Attention
Peculiarities nervous system the child is such that he cannot concentrate his attention on one type of activity for a long time. However, compared with an earlier age, attention becomes more stable. At 1 year old, he can keep his attention on one toy for 10 minutes, at 3 years old - about 30 minutes, and if he is very interested, it can be difficult to distract even after half an hour. It is difficult to draw attention to a subject that the baby is not interested in. It is very important at this age to encourage the child to do something, to arouse his interest, but not to force. At the age of 1-3 years, imagination is actively developing (for example, a baby rides a stick like a horse).
Perception
At this age, perception is extremely imperfect. A child at 1 year old is unable to consistently consider an object and find out its properties. Usually the baby highlights only one sign that catches the eye. For example, having learned the word "petit" (bird), the baby begins to call all objects that have something like a beak like that.
By the end of the 3rd year, the child learns 5-6 shapes (circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, polygon), 8 colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black).
The greatest influence on the development of intelligence is exerted by actions with objects (tools): the correlation of objects with each other (for example, folding a pyramid), the use of tools (for example, eating with a spoon). The baby is characterized by increased emotionality.
Thinking
Visually effective and visually figurative thinking develops. Generalizations are born. The child begins to assimilate the signs, but they are still separated, not interconnected.
At the age of 1-2 years, the child begins to actively experiment by trial and error, to use different methods of action with objects. For example, noticing the direction in which an object fell, the baby will throw it again and again different ways and and look at the result. The child will also deliver the rolled little thing in different ways: with the help of ropes, sticks, spoons, etc.
At an early age, the word of an adult can contribute to the development of visual-effective thinking. An adult can tell a child a way out of the situation not only by action, but also by word. For example, if a toddler persistently pulls a box over the bars of a bed, an adult can only give a verbal instruction: "Turn the box, then it will pass."
Speech
From 11 months, the transition from prephonemic to phonemic speech begins. This process continues in the 2nd, 3rd and even 4th years of life.
Up to 1.5 years, speech develops slowly (the child learns from 30-40 to 100 words) and is rarely used. After one and a half years - a sharp change: the baby begins to demand to name objects, pronounces the words that these objects denote.
The 2nd and 3rd years of a child's life are the period of speech acquisition. Development occurs in two directions: the understanding of the speech of adults by the baby is improved; 2) develops its own active speech. If during this period there is a delay in the development of speech, then it is very difficult to catch up later.
The second half of the 2nd year is the transition to active, independent speech, aimed at controlling the behavior of other people and mastering one's own behavior.
By the end of the 2nd year, the development of two-word and then multi-word sentences begins, within which, from the 2nd year, the coordination of all the words of the sentence begins. By the age of 3, the baby basically uses cases correctly. Around the same time, the child begins to consciously control the correctness of his statements and the speech of other people.
In the 3rd year of life, the child's understanding of the speech of an adult changes. By this age, a baby not only understands individual words and is able to perform an action at the request of an adult, but also begins to listen to any statements of an adult that are not directed directly at him. The child begins to listen and understand messages that go beyond the situation of his communication with an adult. This gives the baby the opportunity to use speech as a means of knowing the world, inaccessible to the direct experience of the child.
Vocabulary:
1 year - 10-20 words;
1.5 years - 30-40 words;
2 years - up to 300 words;
3 years - 1200-1500 words.
With the advent of speech, the opportunities for communication between the baby and adults become wider. Collaborative relationships emerge.
The age of 1-3 years is critical, because at this age, on the basis of mastering speech, there is a transition from the natural to the social type of development and the prerequisites for the formation of personality are created.
The game
At 2-3 years old, play begins to take a prominent place. At about a year and 3 months, the baby in the game performs not only the actions shown to adults, but also those that he himself observed earlier: he presses the doll, kisses her, mine, puts her to bed; starts “eating” from an empty cup, writes with a stick on the table, “reads”.
At about a year and a half there is a leap: the child begins to make substitutes out of objects. For example, he wants to wash a doll, but there is no soap, the baby makes a cube with soap.
After 1 year, closer to a year and a half, the child makes his first drawings: scribbles. And the kid calls them somehow. By the age of 3, the child draws a person in the form of a “cephalopod” (head, neck, 2 legs). Drawing well develops imagination and creativity.
A child of 1-3 years old has a highly developed interest in the world around him. The desire to know "what it is" should be noticed and encouraged by parents.
At the age of one to three years, the development of the psyche and brain of the child is not just fast, but rapid. How much time, attention and opportunities for development parents provide depends on intellectual ability baby in the future. An important role here is played by the developing environment and the right toys.
