Development of object-related activity in young children

Development of object-related activity in young children

Often children, when disassembling a pyramid, put all the rings in order, and then, when collecting it, string it in the reverse order. It is enough to mix the rings together to make the task impossible. In other cases, children achieve success differently: first, they string the rings indiscriminately, and then move them repeatedly until the pyramid becomes “even.”

The most successful at assembling pyramids are those kids who have been specially taught, by placing rings next to each other, to select the largest of them, string it, then select the largest of the remaining ones, etc. From here it is only one step to assembling the pyramid by eye, i.e. that is, to a full-fledged, “adult” way. This means that when teaching children objective actions, adults must show not only their result, but also the method of execution, and a method accessible to children. By mastering objective actions, the child learns what they do with this or that object and how they do it, and he himself learns to perform appropriate actions. In other words, children learn the purpose of objects, ways of operating with them and (within accessible limits) the technique of performing these actions.

Thus,

The child’s objective activity, which arises at the turn of infancy and early childhood, consists of mastering and performing objective actions. It is of key importance for the development of a child in the second or third year of life. In the course of mastering objective actions, the child also masters those mental actions and qualities that are necessary for this. Mastering the use of the simplest tools, the child at the same time gradually begins to assimilate the general principle that one can influence things not only with hands, feet, teeth, but also with things specially created for this purpose.

1. Formation of interest in cooperation with adults in children of the second year of life in the process of manipulative actions.

To establish positive emotional contact with the child, the teacher should perform motor and tactile actions (stroking the child and stroking his eyes, mouth, cheeks with his hands), play games in front of the mirror, “infect” the child with emotions of joy, pick up his counter actions, play games with with the child’s fingers, hands, and feet, using nursery rhymes and short poems; encourage the child to show positive emotions (kissing, hugging, etc.).

2. Formation of orientation towards evaluation of one’s actions by adults (carried out in all classes).

To teach children to act with objects, focusing on the adult’s assessment, manifested in the form of gestures, facial expressions, speech statements (“So”, “Not so”, “Correct”, “Wrong”, “Well done”, “Good”, etc.) ; to form an idea of ​​the final result of the action, it is recommended to encourage the child to perform tasks as shown by the teacher, submitting to his control and evaluation (positive or negative), focusing on the generally accepted result that completes each specific action with the object; with a look, a gesture, a word, look for assessments of the correctness of the action being performed; in cases of difficulties, encourage the child, using gestures or words, to seek help from the teacher; evaluate the actions performed; answer an adult’s questions about the correctness of the action; encourage you to complete the action you have started (independently, with help), transfer learned actions to other situations; create situations in which each subsequent action is possible only if the previous one was performed correctly.

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

Subject activity is the leading activity of early childhood. Important new developments in early childhood include the child’s mastery of objective activities. Its prerequisites were formed in infancy.

The transition to object-based activity is associated with the development of a new attitude in the preschooler to the world of objects. Objects begin to appear to him not only as objects convenient for manipulation, but also as things that have a specific purpose and a specific way of use. The discovery of the purpose of objects distinguishes the object-based activity of a young child from the manipulative activity of an infant. The functions of things and objects are revealed to the child by an adult. It is he, the adult, who can provide knowledge about the purpose of objects and show techniques for their use, participating in the child’s activities as an organizer, assistant and senior partner.

An important role in the mastery of objective activity is play activity, which contributes to the fact that objective activity acquires leading status at an early age.

One of these common interpretations is the definition of the psychological concept of “activity” through the concept of “activity” . Since activity and objective activity (as we will try to analyze and prove in further research) are completely irreducible and not deducible from each other, realities and categories, but, at the same time, in psychological works are constantly connected and interdependent, we believe it is necessary to show them meaningful difference and, thereby, justify the limitations of activity and the prospects of substantive activity.

According to the periodization of mental development existing in Russian psychology, objective activity is leading at an early age. In the process of this activity, mastery of socially developed ways of acting with objects occurs.

Tool actions are formed in children gradually; mastering them requires certain efforts from children, since it presupposes a very specific, strictly fixed way of using objects.

Object-tool activity is leading in early childhood, ensuring the development of all aspects of the child’s life.

The influence of objective activity on the mental development of a child. Objective activity contributes to the development of mental processes.

Objective activity also determines the content of the child’s communication with adults.

Within the framework of objective activity, a new type of activity is being formed - a procedural game. The assimilation of socially developed ways of acting with objects is included in the system of human relations, which the child begins to understand in the course of real object-practical interaction with adults.

For children of primary preschool age, completing game tasks brings great pleasure. While playing, the child practices various actions. With the help of adults, he masters new, more complex movements.

At early preschool age, the requirement for mandatory targeted education of motor (physical) qualities is not yet put forward. However, changing game situations and game rules force a small child to move with greater speed in order to catch up with someone, or to quickly hide in a pre-designated place (house, nest) so as not to be caught, deftly overcome elementary obstacles (climb under a rope, without touching them, run between the pins without knocking over any, be sure to run to a certain place, etc.).

Thus, already in early preschool age, outdoor games are a means not only for the development of movements, but also for developing such qualities as dexterity, speed, and endurance.

Outdoor games create an additional opportunity for teacher to communicate with children. The teacher tells and explains to the children the content of the games and their rules. Kids remember new words, their meaning, and learn to act in accordance with instructions.

The activity of children in games depends on a number of conditions: the content of the game, the nature and intensity of the movements in it, the organization and methodology of its implementation, as well as the preparedness of the children.

In the process of play activities, the child acquires communication skills. He learns to take initiative, coordinate his actions, allowing him to maintain communication with his peers. In the future, gaming activities provoke longer communication. In the process of play activities, the child acquires communication skills. He learns to take initiative, coordinate his actions, allowing him to maintain communication with his peers. In the future, gaming activities provoke longer communication. Role-playing games contribute to the development of memory and imagination, and the child also learns to regulate his behavior.

Initially, interest in drawing and design is also associated with play activities, aimed at the process of creating a drawing. Only in middle and older age does the result itself—the drawing—become important for the child. The initial stage of educational activity takes place in close conjunction with play activity.

Indicative actions

There are three stages in the development of objective activity. The first of them is observed in babies 5-6 months old. This stage represents subject manipulations. By 7-9 months they are transformed into indicative actions.

At first, all manipulations with objects in a child are carried out without considering their properties. The baby treats whatever comes into his hands equally. He sucks on a toy or any other object, waves it, taps it, etc. At the same time, he also examines what is in his hands, moves it from place to place and repeatedly repeats the same movement. And only a little later he begins to develop specific manipulations. The child not only notices, but also uses the features of objects, their most simple properties. An example of such indicative actions is stacking one object on top of another, threading a toy through the bars of the playpen. Babies also love to crumple paper and rattle with rattles. Moreover, their attention is attracted by objects created not only by man, but also by nature - sand, pebbles, water, etc.

The subject activity developing at this stage is one of the options for exploratory behavior, which manifests itself thanks to the child’s curiosity and his cognitive activity. By conducting experiments on objects in the surrounding world, the baby extracts information about them and learns to establish existing connections.

Exploratory behavior begins to develop most intensively after a little person learns to move independently, gaining access to various objects. And here the child’s communication with adults is especially important. They are entrusted with the task of organizing the child’s objective activities. Adults must create the environment necessary for the development of a little person, attract his attention to new objects, support and encourage his curiosity.

During early childhood, exploratory behavior is constantly improving. At the same time, it remains one of the most important components of creative and cognitive development not only during this period, but also in the future. By experimenting, the child gets real pleasure. He begins to feel like a subject of ongoing events and a source that caused changes in the surrounding reality.

Main settings

The objective activity of a young child can have a developmental effect only through cooperation with adults. They are the carriers of methods of action and cultural means for a little person, as well as a source of discovering new meanings of his activity. Initially, the child performs certain manipulations on behalf of an adult and while being next to him. This confirms the joint focus of such work.

In this regard, in the child’s objective activity the following parameters of its level of development can be distinguished:

1. Operating. This parameter is a direct characteristic of the actions being performed. Its indicators are such types of actions with objects as manipulative (specific and non-specific), as well as the actual object, culturally fixed ones.
2. Need-motivational. This parameter indicates the level that the child has reached in his cognitive activity. Its indicators are the child’s interest in objects, his desire to examine them, as well as actions with them, emotional involvement in such activities and persistence.
3. Communication with adults during objective activities. The degree of acceptance of support and help from others is an important indicator of the child’s potential capabilities.

Gun actions

In the second year of life, objective activities again undergo some changes. They acquire a new quality. Actions become objective and specifically human, based on the ways of using certain things developed in culture. They are called guns.

How are these actions formed? By the end of the first year of life, the child begins to increasingly encounter those objects that are associated with the everyday life of adults. This could be a comb or spoon, toothbrush, etc. Actions with them are called instrumental. That is, they involve performing certain manipulations and obtaining a substantive result of activity in the form of achieving the necessary goal. This can be drawing with a brush, chalk or pencil. This also includes turning the key to operate the winding machine. At the same time, objective play activity also develops when children pour sand into a bucket with a scoop, hammer pegs into the holes of a board or into the ground, etc.

Consultation for teachers “Object-based activities and play in preschool age”

Object activity and play in preschool age

In connection with the mastery of objective activities, the nature of the child’s orientation in situations that are new to him, when meeting new objects, changes. If during the period of manipulation a child, having received an unfamiliar object, acts with it in all ways known to him, then subsequently his orientation is aimed at finding out what this object is for and how it can be used. Orientation like “what is it?” is replaced by an orientation like “what can be done about this?”

Among the actions that a child masters in early childhood, correlative and instrumental actions are especially significant for his mental development. Correlating are actions whose purpose is to bring two or more objects (or their parts) into certain spatial relationships. This, for example, is folding pyramids from rings, using all sorts of collapsible toys, closing boxes with lids.

By the end of early childhood (in the third year of life), new types of activities begin to take shape, which reach expanded forms beyond this age and begin to determine mental development. This is a game and productive activities (drawing, modeling, designing). During the period of preschool childhood, play becomes the leading activity, but not because the child, as a rule, spends most of his time in games that entertain him; play causes qualitative changes in the child’s psyche. The actual play action will occur when the child means another by one action, and another by one object. The game action is of a familiar (symbolic) nature. It is in play that the formulated sign function of the child’s consciousness is most clearly revealed. Its manifestation in the game has its own characteristics: game substitutes for objects may have significantly less resemblance to the objects themselves than, for example, a drawing with the reality depicted. However, game substitutes should allow you to act with them in the same way as with the replaced item. Therefore, by giving his name to the chosen substitute object and attributing certain properties to it, the child also takes into account some of the features of the substitute object itself. When choosing substitute objects, the preschooler proceeds from the real relationships of the objects. He readily agrees that half a match will be a bear, a whole match will be a mother bear, and a box will be a bed for a bear. But he will never accept this option, where the teddy bear is a box, and the bed is a match.

In play activities, the preschooler not only replaces objects, but also takes on one or another role and begins to act in accordance with this role. A child can take on the role of a horse or a terrible beast, but most often he portrays adults - a mother, a teacher, a driver, a pilot. In play, the child discovers for the first time the relationships that develop between people in the process of work, their rights and responsibilities.

In role play, children reflect the diversity of reality around them. They reproduce scenes from family life, work activities and relationships between adults. The reality reflected in children's games becomes the plot of a role-playing game. Children of different age groups, playing a game with the same plot, bring different content to it. Thus, younger preschoolers repeatedly repeat the same actions with the same objects, reproducing the real actions of adults. The game plot, as well as the game role, is most often not planned by the child of primary preschool age, but arises depending on what object falls into his hands. The content of the role-playing game for older preschoolers is subject to the rules arising from the role taken on.

In play activities, certain forms of communication between children develop. The game requires from the child such qualities as initiative, sociability, and the ability to coordinate his actions with the actions of a group of peers in order to establish and maintain communication.

With the development of gaming skills and the complication of game plans, children begin to engage in longer-term communication. The game itself demands this and promotes this. In playing together, children learn the language of communication, mutual understanding and mutual assistance, and learn to coordinate their actions with the actions of others. Gaming activity influences the formation of arbitrariness of mental processes. Thus, in play, children begin to develop voluntary attention and voluntary memory. Role-playing play is crucial for the development of imagination. In play activities, the child learns to replace some objects with others and take on different roles. By capturing the child and forcing him to obey the rules corresponding to the role he has assumed, the game contributes to the development of feelings and volitional regulation of behavior.

Productive activities of the child - drawing, design - at different stages of preschool childhood are closely merged with play. Interest in drawing and design initially arises precisely as a game, aimed at the process of creating a drawing or design in accordance with the game plan. And only in middle and senior preschool age is interest transferred to the result of the activity (for example, drawing), and it is freed from the influence of the game. Within the gaming activity, educational activity also begins to take shape, which later becomes the leading activity.

The emergence of other types of activities

In the third year of life, that is, towards the end of early childhood, the child begins to become interested in playing, drawing, modeling and designing. In other words, he begins to develop new directions of knowledge of the world around him. But at the same time, subject development activities continue to be of no small importance.

At the end of early childhood, children enjoy role-playing games. By doing this, they strive to satisfy a social need, expressed in the desire to live together with adults, while playing their roles. In this case, substantive actions fade into the background.

The prerequisites for the beginning of role-playing games arise throughout early childhood. Moreover, they can be detected in the objective activity itself. These are manipulations with toys that are offered by adults, and then independently reproduced by the baby. Such actions were already called games. However, in such a situation this name can only be applied conditionally.

Initial games involve performing 2-3 actions. For example, feeding a doll and putting it to sleep. But later, when the child increasingly transfers the ways adults influence various objects in the world around him, he begins to play games with more complex manipulations.

Correlating Actions

By the end of the first year of life, the child’s activity in relation to objects in the surrounding world takes on a slightly different character. His objective-practical activity is based on using things for their intended purpose. An adult shows the child how to deal with them. Imitating him, the child begins to assemble pyramids, build towers from cubes, etc.

At this level, objective activity is no longer isolated actions with various objects. After all, they are performed with objects when they interact with each other. Such manipulations are called correlative. The child conducts various experiments with objects and determines the connections that exist between them.

Conditions for effective teaching of subject activities

Since objective activity is very important for the development of a child’s personality, his consciousness and thinking, its organization is given a significant place. In order for the process of learning to interact with objects to be effective, the following conditions for its formation must be observed:

• Start with a small number of objects, gradually increasing it and creating conditions for the child to be interested in them, their use and options for actions with them;
• The formation of objective actions should be step-by-step in nature and carried out through direct interaction and cooperation with the child;
• To develop activity, independence, curiosity, and the child’s initiative in performing actions with objects;
• An adult must show tolerance and restraint, not impose his opinion on the child, giving him the opportunity to choose and be active in activities.

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