The most independent thought is always connected with our practice through a concept, a word that contains a certain experience. The process of concept formation begins with preschool age and a platform for this is prepared from early childhood. Generalization of experience and its expression in the word occurs in the child gradually.
According to modern specialists, the development of the child's thinking in the early and preschool years passes in three stages: a visual-effective, characteristic of the children of the first, second and third years of life; visual-figurative thinking, and, later, conceptual thinking.
Visual-shaped thinking - when a child can see every thought in action. For example, a toddler of two years sees a toy, for example, standing high on a shelf. In order to remove the toy, the child takes a chair and removes it. Visual-effective thinking involves solving any practical problems. This is the immediate activity of the child. In the above example, the older child will do the same, but more cleverly. This suggests that the visual-effective decision takes other forms with age, but does not disappear at all. A child of preschool age can already solve life problems based on his knowledge, and realizing the consequences of his actions. And so the child continues to advance in its development.
Despite the fact that we identify some stages in the development of the child's thinking, it is still a single continuous process. And by shaping the child's visually-effective thinking, we contribute to the development of speech and conceptual thinking.
The condition for the development of visual-effective thinking is his emotional communication with adults surrounding him.
The development of the child's thinking at an early age takes place in games, communication, and didactic activities. Thinking for a young child is always connected with finding the possibility of achieving a goal. For example, a child of 5-6 months unintentionally sorts out the diaper, until gradually the toy is not next to the baby. In a few months, the child will already intentionally pull on the diaper, in order to get what he wants.
When the baby is 6-7 months old, to the rattle, to which the child can not reach, you can tie the tape. The child himself will start pulling the toys behind the tape after several attempts. You can repeat this exercise several times, changing the toy so that the child is more interesting. At an age when the child is already getting up and walking, another game will be interesting. Usually children at this age like to throw toys on the floor and watch them fall and what happens to them. You can tie a toy to the one end of the tape or gum, which the kid loves, and attach the other end to the board of the arena or crib. Thus, the child will be able to pull the abandoned toy back into the crib and repeat the action with a throw. The ribbon in this case is for the child a means of achieving the goal.
From the age of 10 months, special classes can be conducted with the child. Sit the child in a child seat and put the toy in front of him so that he can not reach. The kid, most likely, will reach for her, will not reach and look at you inquiringly. Then tie a colored ribbon to the toy and put it again in front of the child. The kid will immediately pull the tape and pull the toy to him. Repeat this exercise several times, changing the toys and ribbon colors. When a child solves such problems, you can complicate the game. Put a toy in the mug, and put a colored ribbon in the ring of the mug and put both ribbons of the tape in front of the baby. To get a cup with a toy, the child will need to pull at both ends of the sliding tape. A child of 11-12 months will easily solve this problem. However, if the baby will be difficult, then show him yourself what to do and the kid will happily repeat it for you.
The main thing in these tasks is that the kid uses a ribbon (diaper, rope, elastic) as a means of achieving his goals. For the child this is the elementary culture of thinking. The experience that the kid accumulates from the first year of life, solving such simple tasks, contributes to his mental development.
A child who can walk must always solve practical problems. At the same time, it is not always possible to solve similar problems with the help of some objects (ribbons, blades, etc.). When the toy lies at the other end of the table, the child can simply bypass and take the toy. Complicate, in this case, to him the task - build a labyrinth of chairs, let him find the path to the desired object.
In the process of communication between the child and an adult, special behaviors develop. For example, a child sees where the desired object lies, but for some reason can not take it. In this case, most often, the baby will look at the adult, reach out to the desired object and make sounds with pleading intonation. Older children will say "give".
A child with whom parents have little contact can not correctly address the request to adults and organize their behavior. The ability to solve problems in children is formed not only in actions, but also in communication. If for the solution of problems of subject content it is necessary to use the object as the achievement of its goals, then in communication as a goal, a certain manner of behavior is used.
Only in conditions of constant communication with adults, the child learns ways of acting with objects and norms of behavior. Parents give the child ways of interacting with objects, create conditions for learning the experience of the baby, developing his thinking. An important role in the development of the child's thinking is played by the cognitive orientation of his activity, the accumulation of practical knowledge that he acquires in the play with objects and toys. The accumulation of experience and its generalization in various actions with objects, ways of communicating with people, and contributes to the transformation of thinking from the visual-effective, inherent in the child at an early age, into a visual-figurative and conceptual way - in the preschool and school age.