Cognitive development of preschool children during developmental games

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

It is known that preschool age is the age of formation and development of the most general abilities, which will improve and differentiate as the child grows older. One of the most important abilities is the ability to cognition.

The federal state educational standard for preschool education defines the tasks of cognitive development:

• development of children's interests, curiosity and cognitive motivation;
• formation of cognitive actions, formation of consciousness;
• development of imagination and creative activity;
• the formation of primary ideas about oneself, other people, objects of the surrounding world, about the properties and relationships of objects of the surrounding world (shape, color, size, material, sound, rhythm, tempo, quantity, number, part and whole, space and time, movement and rest , causes and consequences, etc.);
• the formation of primary ideas about the small homeland and Fatherland, ideas about the socio-cultural values ​​of our people, about domestic traditions and holidays, about planet Earth as the common home of people, about the peculiarities of its nature, the diversity of countries and peoples of the world.

Based on the objectives, the focus of teachers should be the orientation of the educational process towards the cognitive capabilities of the preschooler and their implementation. It is necessary to organize interaction with the child in such a way that it is aimed at developing cognitive interest, cognitive independence and initiative.

The main forms of interaction that promote cognitive development:

• involving the child in various activities;
• use of didactic games;
• application of teaching methods aimed at enriching creative imagination, thinking, memory, and speech development.

Cognitive development involves the cognitive activity of a preschooler. And in order to support cognitive activity, it is necessary to rely on the cognitive interest of children.

Cognitive interest is a selective focus on the knowledge of objects, phenomena, events of the surrounding world, activating the mental processes and activities of a person, his cognitive capabilities.

The main criteria are novelty, unusualness, surprise, and inconsistency with previous ideas.

Cognitive interest consists of the following interrelated processes:

• intellectual - logical actions and operations (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison), evidence;
• emotional - the experience of success, the joy of learning, pride in one’s achievements, satisfaction with one’s activities;
• regulatory - volitional aspirations, focus, persistence, attention, decision making
• creative - imagination, creation of new models, images.

In order to ensure the development of the personality of students, it is necessary to create a developing subject-spatial environment in the group. One of the important conditions when creating a developing subject-spatial environment is the correspondence of the material to the age of the children; the materials, complexity and accessibility of their content must correspond to today’s patterns and characteristics of the development of children of a given specific age and take into account those features of development zones that are characteristic of each individual child today.

To form and develop cognitive activity, you should:

• develop the creative abilities of children, create conditions for this,
• strengthen every child’s faith in his own abilities, encourage him, and not weaken his interest with mistrust and negative assessments;
• develop children's self-esteem.

A special place in working with children is occupied by educational didactic games: “Big - small” , “Seasons” , “Which tree is the leaf from” , “Tell me who I am?” , “Help me find my mother” , “Where, whose house?” , “Let’s dress Masha for a walk” , “Run to the named tree” help me familiarize children with animals, birds, natural phenomena, and form knowledge about the environment.

Word games: “Edible - inedible” , “Who is screaming?” , “What’s extra?” , “Recognize by voice” , “Good and bad” , “Who came to us?” and others develop children’s attention, imagination, and increase knowledge about the world around them.

TRIZ technology allows you to raise and educate a child under the motto “Creativity in everything . TRIZ gives children the opportunity to show individuality, teaches them to think outside the box, relieves feelings of constraint, overcomes shyness, and gradually develops fantasy, logic of thinking, and imagination.

“Magic bag” (to the touch)

• “Praise” (two children praise each of their objects)
• “Together” (take turns talking about the subject, adhering to the diagrams)
• “Riddle” (composing a story - a riddle, without naming the subject)
• “Good - bad” or “Pink - black glasses”
• “Wonderful things” (inventing, inventing something new, transferring the properties of one object to another)
• “Come up with a fairy tale” (familiar objects begin to have unusual properties)

A special place in working with children is occupied by games for composing a whole from parts: “Tangram” , “Columbian Egg” , “Vietnamese Game” , “Mongolian Game” . The essence of these games is to recreate on a plane the silhouettes of objects according to an image or design.

A relevant method of cognitive activity for preschool children is experimentation, which is considered as a practical activity of a search nature, aimed at learning the properties, qualities of objects and materials, connections and dependencies of phenomena. In experimentation, the preschooler acts as a researcher who independently and actively explores the world around him, using various forms of influence on it. In the process of experimentation, the child masters the position of the subject of cognition and activity.

Effective methods of cognitive development of preschoolers include project activities that ensure the development of children’s cognitive interests, the ability to independently construct their knowledge and navigate the information space, and the development of critical thinking.

Recently, research activities have been widely used in preschool education, which in its most complete, expanded form presupposes the following:

• the child identifies and poses a problem that needs to be resolved;
• offers possible solutions;
• tests these possible solutions against the data;
• draws conclusions in accordance with the results of the audit;
• applies conclusions to new data;
• makes generalizations.

In preschool age, research activities are aimed at objects of living and inanimate nature through the use of experiments and experiments. Experimentation is carried out in all areas of children's activity: educational activities, play, walking, sleeping, washing. In the process of experimentation, children become familiar with the properties of solid, liquid, gaseous substances, the properties of wood, metal, etc., for example: “Will it float or sink?” , “How does water disappear?” , “Mixing colors” , “Where did the sugar go when I stirred the tea with a spoon?” . Everything is assimilated firmly and for a long time when the child hears, sees and does everything himself.

By older preschool age, the child’s ability to be proactive increases noticeably. This age period is important for the development of the child’s cognitive needs, which is expressed in the form of search, research activities aimed at “discovering” new things, which develops productive forms of thinking. What is crucial for a child’s development is not the abundance of knowledge, but the type of learning in which this knowledge is acquired.

Thus, using gaming technologies, experimentation, cognitive tasks and project activities when solving the problem of cognitive development of preschool children, the teacher ensures a staged transition, qualitative changes in the development of cognitive activity: from curiosity to cognitive activity.

For the development of cognitive abilities, the development of research behavior is of great importance: curiosity, observation, the development of research skills and abilities: the ability to see problems, the ability to ask questions, put forward hypotheses, the ability to classify, the ability to conduct experiments, the ability to draw conclusions and conclusions.

To develop children’s ability to see problems, games and tasks are used: “Continue the story” , “Look at the world through someone else’s eyes” , “Name as many features of an object as possible” ; observations, looking at different objects.

Simple exercises help in the ability to develop hypotheses: “Think about why children love to play?” , “Why does water flow?” and etc.

Observing the world around them, children draw conclusions and conclusions, and the more deeply a child learns the mysteries of the world around him, the more questions he has: “Why?” "For what?" "How does this happen?"

The questions should be exploratory in nature, developing the ability to put forward hypotheses, for example: “Do you think it will rain all day?” , “What do you think will happen if there is no rain at all?” , “Will the snow ever melt?” , “What do you think will happen to insects if they don’t go to bed?” and etc.

A teacher should not give children ready-made knowledge and reveal the truth to them, but teach them to find it. If a child asks a question, try not to give him a ready-made answer, but ask him what he thinks himself. By calling for reasoning and leading questions, the teacher should lead him to find answers and make discoveries for himself, based on existing knowledge and ideas.

Such joint activities and business communication develop children’s intelligence and personality as a whole. Children have a desire to learn new things about the properties of things and actively explore them.

Activities planned outside of class are a mandatory component of the child’s cognitive development system. It is at such events that teachers have the opportunity not only to consolidate, clarify, expand, and systematize children’s accumulated ideas, but also to introduce new content.

Forms of activities held outside of class

• Tradition "Our Glorious Deeds" ;
• Educational evenings;
• Stories from teachers “Did you know...” ;
• Selection of material about animals and plants;
• Collecting.

It is advisable to follow the wise advice of V. A. Sukhomlinsky: “Be able to open one thing to the child in the world around him, but open it in such a way that a piece of life sparkles in front of the children with all the colors of the rainbow. Always leave something unsaid so that the child wants to return again and again to what he has learned .

Cognitive development of preschool children during developmental games

 Mental cognitive processes include: perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking and speech.

Perception is a holistic reflection of an external material object that directly affects the senses.

Attention is a prerequisite for any activity. Attention can be voluntary or involuntary. With voluntary attention, a person sets a goal: to pay attention to a certain object through volitional efforts.

Imagination is a mental process that consists of creating images and situations that have never been perceived.

Memory is the imprinting, preservation, recognition and reproduction of what a person previously perceived, experienced, thought, did. This is the basis of mental life, the basis of our consciousness. The accumulation of experience, its preservation and use is the result of the activity of memory.

Thinking is a generalized, indirect, abstract reflection of the external world and its laws. The operational components of thinking are mental operations - analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, generalization, classification.

There are three types of thinking: visual-effective (learned through the manipulation of objects); visual-figurative (cognized with the help of representations of objects, phenomena); verbal-logical (cognized with the help of concepts, words, reasoning). Of the three types of thinking: verbal-logical, visual-figurative and visual-effective, the last two types are sufficiently developed and predominate in preschool children. As for the first - verbal-logical, this type of thinking in preschool age begins to develop intensively by the age of 6-7 years.

Speech is the process of a person’s practical use of language for the purpose of communicating with other people. Language is a means of communication between people.

Cognitive development involves the development of children's interests, curiosity and cognitive motivation; formation of cognitive actions, formation of consciousness; development of imagination and creative activity; the formation of primary ideas about oneself, other people, objects of the surrounding world, about the properties and relationships of objects of the surrounding world (shape, color, size, material, sound, rhythm, tempo, quantity, number, part and whole, space and time, movement and rest , causes and consequences, etc.), about the small homeland and Fatherland, ideas about the socio-cultural values ​​of our people, about domestic traditions and holidays, about the features of nature, the diversity of countries and peoples of the world.

The main feature of educational games: these are educational games. They contribute to the development of cognitive activity, intellectual operations, which are the basis of learning. But what attracts a child to a game is not the educational task inherent in it, but the opportunity to be active, perform a game action, achieve a result, and win. However, if a participant in the game does not master the knowledge and mental operations that are determined by the learning task, he will not be able to successfully perform game actions. The ability to teach young children through active activities that are interesting to them is a distinctive feature of educational games.

An educational game helps to demonstrate cognitive activity in independent activities, expand one’s own cognitive interests and needs, teaches one to master various methods of safe behavior in the modern information environment, develops the child’s integrative qualities, educates, socializes, entertains, and gives rest.

Thus, the knowledge acquired by the child in classes is consolidated in joint activities, after which it passes into independent and, after that, into everyday activities.

When organizing work to develop cognitive activity, it is advisable to use not only specially made games, but also ordinary objects, so that the child sees that the real world does not exist on its own. To work with children to identify the properties and relationships of objects, use not only classes, but also walks and productive joint activities; for individual work - routine moments (dressing and undressing situations, hygiene procedures, preparation for lunch, bedtime).

Verbal games help develop children's speech: by replenishing and activating the vocabulary, forming correct sound pronunciation, developing coherent speech, the ability to correctly express their thoughts, compose independent stories about objects, phenomena in nature and social life, developing retelling skills. Games such as “Name in one word”, “Name three objects” require children to actively use generic and specific concepts. Finding antonyms, synonyms, words that sound similar is the main task of word games.

Development of children's cognitive activity through educational games:

‒ Thinking operations develop: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, classification;

- The ability to imagine develops;

- Show interest in classes;

- The speech activity of children in various types of activities increases.

Games for classes must be selected taking into account the cognitive material that the children have studied. For mathematics classes, games with mathematical content that require mental effort: puzzle games; joke games; games with interesting questions.

In classes on speech development, games: to develop the ability to “peer” into an object, phenomenon; on the ability to make inferences and assumptions.

In classes to familiarize yourself with the surrounding world, games: to consolidate knowledge about seasonal phenomena, flora and fauna; promoting the development of curiosity and observation.

During the games themselves, depending on the age of the children, it is necessary to ask questions, give a sample of actions, a sample of a statement, remind the rules, referring to the experience of the children, take on the role of a leader or observe the progress of the game.

In the process of gaming activities with children, try to arouse their interest in games, create in them a state of enthusiasm, mental tension, using entertaining problem situations that require resolution.

To organize joint and independent activities of children, it is necessary to create a subject-development environment in the group - a special developmental area with a large range of educational games, taking into account safety, aesthetics, clarity, and accessibility.

Educational games contribute to:

‒ development of cognitive and mental abilities: acquiring new knowledge, generalizing and consolidating it; expanding their understanding of objects and natural phenomena, plants, animals; development of memory, attention, observation; developing the ability to express one’s judgments and draw conclusions;

‒ development of children’s speech: replenishment and activation of vocabulary;

‒ social and moral development of a preschool child: in such a game, knowledge of the relationships between children, adults, objects of living and inanimate nature occurs, in it the child shows a sensitive attitude towards peers, learns to be fair, to give in if necessary, learns to sympathize, etc. .

The structure of an educational game is formed by basic and additional components. The main components include: didactic task, game actions, game rules, result and didactic material. Additional components: plot and role.

Conducting educational games includes:

1. Familiarizing children with the content of the game, using didactic material in it (showing objects, pictures, a short conversation, during which the children’s knowledge and ideas are clarified).
2. Explanation of the course and rules of the game, while strictly following these rules.
3. Show game actions.
4. Determining the role of an adult in the game, his participation as a player, fan or referee (the teacher directs the actions of the players with advice, questions, reminders).
5. Summing up the results of the game is a crucial moment in its management.

Based on the results of the game, one can judge its effectiveness and whether it will be used by children in independent play activities. Analysis of the game allows us to identify individual abilities in the behavior and character of children. This means properly organizing individual work with them.

Education in the form of a didactic game is based on the child’s desire to enter an imaginary situation and act according to its laws, that is, it corresponds to the age characteristics of a preschooler.

Types of educational games:

‒ Games with objects (toys).

‒ Printed board games.

‒ Word games.

Games with objects are based on children’s direct perception and correspond to the child’s desire to act with objects and thus become familiar with them. In games with objects, children learn to compare, establish similarities and differences between objects. The value of these games is that with their help children become familiar with the properties of objects, size, and color. When introducing children to nature in such games, I use natural materials (plant seeds, leaves, pebbles, various flowers, pine cones, twigs, vegetables, fruits, etc.) - which arouses keen interest and an active desire in children to play. Examples of such games: “Describe this object”, “What is this?”, “What first, what next”, etc.

Printed board games are an interesting activity for children to get acquainted with the world around them, the world of animals and plants, and phenomena of living and inanimate nature. They are varied in type: “lotto”, “dominoes”, “paired pictures”. With the help of board and printed games, you can successfully develop speech skills, mathematical abilities, logic, attention, learn to model life patterns and make decisions, and develop self-control skills.

Word games are an effective method of fostering independent thinking and speech development in children. They are built on the words and actions of the players. Children independently solve various mental problems: describe objects, highlighting their characteristic features, guess them from the description, find similarities and differences between these objects and natural phenomena. During the games, children clarify, consolidate, and expand their ideas about natural objects and its seasonal changes.

Developmental game in experimental activities - contributes to the formation of children's cognitive interest in the environment, develops basic mental processes and observation.

Literature:

1. Ananyev, B. G. Cognitive needs and interests / B. G. Ananyev / Uch. zap. Leningrad State University, No. 265; issue 16, Psychology. - L., 1959. - P. 41–60.
2. Averin V. A. Psychology of children and adolescents. - St. Petersburg, 1998.
3. Bondarenko A.K. Didactic games in kindergarten / A.K. Bondarenko.-M., 1991
4. Gamezo M.V., Gerasimova V.S., Gorelova G.G., Orlova L.M. Developmental psychology (Personality from youth to old age): Textbook. - M., 1988.
5. Kryzhanovskaya L. M. Developmental psychology. - M., 1997.
6. Mukhina V. S. Age psychology. - M., 1998.
7. Development in older children of cognitive interest in the history of the objective world in project activities: educational method. Manual/auth.-comp. A. Yu. Kuzina.-Tolyatti: TSU, 2009.-60p.
8. Subbotsky, E.V. A child opens the world: A book for kindergarten teachers / E.V. Subbotsky. - M.: Education, 1991. - 207 p.
9. Tikhomirova L. F. Development of children's cognitive abilities. A popular guide for parents and teachers. - Yaroslavl: Academy of Development, 1996. - 192 p., ill.

Development of cognitive activity of preschool children through didactic games; methodological development

Relevance of the chosen topic.

We know well how inquisitive children are. The world before the eyes of a child is huge and has many faces.

Preschoolers are interested in everything: people, objects, animals, plants, natural phenomena, etc. We are constantly faced with children's questions “Why..?” That’s why they jokingly call the child “why”.

More and more often, more and more boldly, he peers into the prospect of understanding the “big world” that opens before him - the knowledge that humanity has acquired along the path of its development. Children boldly “cross space and time”, everything is interesting to them, everything attracts their attention . They try with equal interest to master both what is already understandable to them at this age stage and what they are not yet able to deeply understand.

Any human activity, both external practical and internal mental, has a certain structure: need, motive, goal, means (actions and operations), result. In intellectual activity, many scientists consider mental actions as the main apparatus for processing information, which ensures the acquisition of new things: analysis, synthesis, comparison, classification, cause-and-effect relationships and relationships. All these qualities in preschoolers are formed during the development of cognitive interests and needs.

Our activities in developing the cognitive activity of preschoolers are based on the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions and the step-by-step methodology for its development created in the course of our work.

The purpose of our work was to study the characteristics of cognitive activity through gaming activities, namely didactic games.

Tasks:

1. To study and analyze the problem of the development of cognitive activity in psychological and pedagogical literature.
2. Characterize the age characteristics of children in didactic games.
3. Consider the development of cognitive activity of preschool children in play activities.
4. To experimentally study the features of cognitive activity of preschool children and analyze the results obtained during the course.

While working on this topic, we relied on the advanced pedagogical experience of such scientists as: P.Ya. Galperin, A.I. Raev, N.F. Talyzina.

We have studied and tested in practice the methods of Glen Doman, Cecile Lupan, P. Tyulenev, N.A. Zaitsev, in which children are instilled in an accessible and entertaining form with elementary mathematical abilities, in particular the formation of spatial-temporal orientations and ideas, the idea color, shape and size, as well as learning to count and numbers.

Methodology O.L. Sobaleva, aimed at developing motivation to learn and non-stereotypical creative speech behavior in children.

Currently, working in an early age group, I am studying and implementing the “Artists in Diapers” method by M.V. Gmoshinskaya. This technique is based on children’s study of the color spectrum and, with the help of drawing, allows children to more easily “wean off their mother” and adapt to kindergarten.

To develop the ability to establish relationships between objects, their parts, functions, characteristics, properties and qualities in the younger and middle ages, we use the following exercises:

-examine an unfamiliar toy and talk about it;

- select all smooth and rough, large or small, round or flat pebbles for the flowerbed;

- select only wooden or paper items from the bag;

-find a crib on which the doll or teddy bear will sleep comfortably.

In older preschool age, the following exercises can be used to develop the same qualities:

“Guess what I was made of?”, “Who can use this thing?”, “Without what it would be impossible to exist...” (kettle, pencil, car, etc.)

To develop the actions of analysis and synthesis in younger preschoolers, you can use the following exercises and games:

- “New furniture” - new furniture was brought for the family of dolls. They need to help disassemble it, arrange it and determine its purpose.

— Fairy tale “Football”, “What is more comfortable to drink from?”, “What material is better to make a chair from.”

Senior preschool age - at this age it is very important that the child can conduct experiments, experiment, and model. To do this, you can use the following games: “Harvest”, “What is it made of”, “Toy Store”, “Recognize an object by a given characteristic”.

To develop comparison actions, you can use the following games: “What to put the bouquet in?”, “Each plant has its own care,” “Find similarities and differences,” “what will you dress the doll in today,” “What to talk about,” “Help Little Red Riding Hood ", "The mysterious platypus".

To develop the actions of establishing cause-and-effect relationships and relationships, you can use the following games: “Inflate the balloon”, “Close the window”, “What in the world does not happen?”, “Who will be who?” , “What happened, what will happen?”

This work is not limited by strict schedules or time. At the same time, preschoolers themselves determine the intensity and duration of the games they choose, freely plan their time, choosing subjects of study in accordance with their interests. As a consequence, the wide time frame of our system contributes to the development of the problem-search aspect in the learning process: to put forward hypotheses, make assumptions, conduct research, experiment and reflect. In order for bottom work to have a positive result, the teacher himself must easily and naturally navigate and operate with these concepts. Only by fulfilling these requirements can a positive result be achieved.

Municipal preschool educational autonomous institution

TsRR d/s No. 1

urban district of the city of Raichikhinsk, Amur region

Development of cognitive activity

preschoolers through educational games

Veremeenko Natalya Viktorovna