Peculiarities of thinking of children of senior preschool age

What is thinking?

There are many definitions of this concept, but, in essence, they all boil down to one thing: thinking is the process of cognition through generalizations, an indirect reflection of reality. That is, this is knowledge that we receive not from the senses, but through the thought process.

A simple example can be given: we look at a boiling kettle and know for sure that the water in it is very hot. We do not need to measure its temperature using special instruments, we do not need to test the water with our hands. We remember what boiling water looks like, and, having generalized our knowledge and extended it to a specific kettle of water, we draw a conclusion. This is how the thinking process works.

Let's look at the basic mental operations that help the cognitive process.

1. Analysis is the mental operation of decomposing the object being studied into its component parts, properties or characteristics. Analysis helps to highlight certain properties of an object that we need in a particular case. There can be as many of them as you like. For example, how can you describe an apple? It is round, red, edible.
2. Synthesis is an operation opposite to analysis, when objects or phenomena are combined into groups based on common features. In our example: something red, round and edible - what could it be? Apple? Yes, but not only - obviously, the description would include a tomato, a plum, and a candy of the appropriate shape.
3. Generalization is the combination of various objects or phenomena into one group based on a common feature. For example: several items of different shapes - an apple, a banana and a pear - can be combined into the “Edible” group. And the apple, red bow and fire truck are in the “Red Objects” group.
4. Comparison . Everything is simple here: objects or phenomena that have a common characteristic are compared with each other. The apple is as red as a fire truck, but much smaller. The common feature is color, the difference is size.
5. Concretization . Based on general characteristics, specific objects can be identified. In our case: red objects - an apple, a fire truck, a bow. Edible products: banana, apple, pear, tomato.
6. Analogy . Transferring knowledge about one subject/phenomenon to another (less studied or inaccessible for study). Knowing the characteristics of one apple, we can draw conclusions about all the apples in the basket.

Thinking operations also include:

1. Abstraction is when, while studying a subject, it is necessary to concentrate on one of its properties, ignoring the rest. For example, a ball and an orange are round objects, and that’s where their similarities end. But if we need to name exactly objects that have the shape of a ball, we can abstract from the remaining properties of an orange and a ball.
2. Classification is the distribution of objects according to some characteristics. For example, we can categorize objects by shape (round or not); color (red and not), the sign “edible or inedible”. Mental classification helps organize knowledge about a subject.
3. Systematization - arrangement of objects in a certain order. For example, all red objects can be arranged according to size: fire truck - apple - bow.

The process of learning, acquiring any new knowledge, as a rule, includes a person simultaneously performing several such mental operations.

Features of the development of thinking in preschool age

Children's thinking is characterized by a qualitative originality that distinguishes it from the thinking of adults.
The development of thinking in preschool age is included in subject-related activities. A preschooler gains knowledge and experience through actions. These actions develop into ready-made schemes, are appropriated by the child (internalized) and become the basis of intellectual activity. But the child not only uses ready-made connections that are familiar to him from actions with objects, but is aimed at establishing new relationships for him. A preschooler doesn’t just try on construction kit parts; selects a suitable object to “feed” the doll; builds a garage for his car - all these actions require analysis, comparison, generalization. That is, the child thinks, reflects.

The formation of a preschooler’s speech skills has a tremendous impact on the thinking process. Speech arises from the child’s need to communicate and interact, and then it acquires the functions of thinking.

In the first years of life, adult speech helps the child organize thinking and keep it in accordance with a specific goal. “Which ring in the pyramid will be next? Is it suitable? - the mother asks questions to the baby, and in response he tries to understand why one ring fits and the others do not.

The formation of active speech of the preschooler himself rapidly changes the conditions for the development of thinking. Now the child can ask a lot about what piques his interest. And the appearance of numerous questions is not long in coming.

Receiving answers, the baby finds out hidden characteristics and connections of objects that are not obvious to him, and children's thinking acquires elements of criticality and planning.

From younger to older preschool age, the internal mechanisms of the thinking process change. If in a small child the thought process is triggered by actions, then after 5 years a preschooler begins to actively operate with images.

Peculiarities of thinking of preschoolers

Psychologists distinguish three types of thinking characteristic of preschool children:

1. Visually effective . Involves studying a subject through direct interaction with it. It develops in a child very first, by the age of 2-3 years. Thinking at this age is based on the principle: “action - observing the results - trying to understand what is happening.” The baby is not yet thinking and practically does not refer to previous experience.

2. Visual-figurative . Appears from 3-6 years of age. Here, previously acquired experience plays an important role. At this age, a child does not have to perform certain actions if he knows their result. He can imagine a familiar object (its image) and even perform certain mental actions with it with the help of memories and imagination.

For example, a 2-year-old child needs both a doll and a spoon to “feed” a doll, and at 5 years old a child calmly operates with an invisible spoon, conducting an active dialogue with the doll, which also sometimes exists only in his imagination.

3. Verbal-logical . Typical for children of older preschool age. This is the most developed stage of thinking. Here, not only actions and images are involved in the process of cognition - the child uses mental operations and reasoning. At this stage of thinking, speech is actively used.

Of course, even at this age, visual material is of great importance, but the child is already able to analyze the situation, predict its development based on previous experience, generalize, and draw conclusions. They say that at the age of 5-7 years, a child’s “logic turns on.”

“Logic” literally translated from Greek means “the science of correct thinking” or “the ability to reason.” That is, in order to develop logical thinking in a preschooler, you need to teach him to think and reason correctly.

It must be remembered that a child’s logical thinking must be based on a certain level of knowledge. Therefore, it is important not only to develop the child’s thinking apparatus, but also to provide him with information about the world around him.

Types of thinking in preschool children

The main lines of development of thinking in preschool childhood are as follows:

- further improvement of visual and effective thinking based on imagination;
— improvement of visual-figurative thinking based on voluntary and indirect memory;

- the beginning of the active formation of verbal-logical thinking through the use of speech as a means of setting and solving intellectual problems.

Visual-effective thinking is predominant in the early stages of childhood. It is based on the process of solving practical problems in conditions of visual observation of the situation and performing actions with the objects presented in it.

Younger preschoolers (3-4 years old) do not always use actions that are adequate to the task at hand. Children immediately begin to effectively solve the problem through trial and error. When solving a problem, a younger preschooler usually does not analyze it in advance and goes straight to the solution. There is no critical attitude towards the result obtained. Three-year-old children only understand the final goal that must be achieved (you need to pull a candy out of a tall container, fix a toy), but they do not see the conditions for solving this problem.

However, mastering speech quickly changes the nature of the child’s thinking. The task, framed in speech, becomes meaningful. Understanding the task leads to changes in actions. In connection with the complication of activity, tasks arise where the result of a practical action is not direct, but indirect and depends on the connection between two phenomena. The simplest example is hitting a ball from a wall: the direct result of the action here is the ball hitting the wall, the indirect result is its return to the child. Younger preschoolers cannot yet solve problems in which it is necessary to take into account an indirect result in their heads.

In children of middle preschool age, comprehension of a problem and ways of solving it occur in the process of action itself. Clarifying the task makes the action problematic and exploratory. In older preschoolers, experimental actions are curtailed and lose their problematic character. They become executive because the task is solved by the child in his mind, i.e. verbally, before the action begins.

Visual-figurative thinking begins to actively develop at the age of 4-5 years. The child can already solve problems in his mind, relying on his figurative ideas about objects. Preschoolers are initially characterized by concreteness of images, a characteristic feature of which is syncretism. This quality of thinking of a preschool child characterizes the preanalytical stage of thinking. The child thinks in schemes, fused, undivided situations in accordance with the image that he has preserved on the basis of perception, without its division. The child does not know how to isolate the essential and basic signs and features of an object in the preserved image; he picks out any random signs and recognizes this or that object by them (if it “walks”, then it must have legs, if it is “cheerful”, it means it laughs) .

Gradually, children begin to highlight not all the features of an object, but only those that are essential for solving a problem, which ensures abstraction and generalization of thinking. The child begins to identify connections and relationships on which the solution to the problem depends. The main means for solving problems are visual models - substitutes for real objects. Children quickly learn that actions with a model must be correlated with the original. In their various types of activities - playing, drawing, designing, modeling, applique, children begin to depict the world not accurately, not literally, but by choosing and depicting only some of the most important features of objects, actions and relationships between people. As a result, children create not copies, but visual models of their surroundings.

Imaginative thinking makes it possible for older preschoolers to understand schematic representations - room plans, labyrinths, find hidden objects in the room according to instructions and according to the diagram, etc.

The intermediate link between figurative and logical thinking is figurative-schematic thinking . Thanks to the development of the sign function of thinking, children grasp the connection between the visual models they create and the phenomena of reality that these models depict, and understand that this is a designation of different aspects of reality. By the end of middle preschool age, children can already consciously use visual models to indicate qualities characteristic not only of one object, but of a whole group of similar objects.

Verbal and logical thinking begins to develop towards the end of preschool age. The child begins to operate with words and understand the logic of reasoning, without relying on actions with objects or their images, and a system of concepts denoting relationships is learned.

The child learns to operate with knowledge at the level of generalized ideas, masters elementary techniques of reasoning and inference, indirect forms of thinking, indirect methods of solving mental problems, such as visual modeling, the use of measures, diagrams, etc. Children aged 5-6 years are happy to engage in search and heuristic activities, begin to actively experiment, and learn to transfer the learned methods of solving intellectual problems to new conditions. Older preschoolers can generalize their own experience, establish new connections and relationships between things.

A characteristic feature of a preschooler’s thinking is its egocentric character , described by J. Piaget. Because of it, the child himself does not fall into the sphere of his own reflection, cannot look at himself from the outside, change his position, point of view, because he is not able to freely transform the frame of reference, the beginning of which is strictly connected with himself, with his “I” . A striking example of intellectual egocentrism are the facts when a child, when listing the members of his family, does not include himself among them.

N. N. Poddyakov specifically studied how preschool children develop an internal plan of action characteristic of logical thinking, and identified six stages in the development of this process from junior to senior preschool age.

The stages of the internal action plan are as follows:

1. The child is not yet able to act in his mind, but is already capable of using his hands, manipulating things, to solve problems in a visually effective way, transforming the problem situation accordingly.

2. In the process of solving a problem, the child has already included speech, but he uses it only to name objects with which he manipulates in a visually effective way. Basically, the child still solves problems “with his hands and eyes,” although in verbal form he can already express and formulate the result of the practical action performed.

3. The problem is solved figuratively through the manipulation of object representations. Here, the ways of performing actions aimed at transforming the situation in order to find a solution to the problem are probably realized and can be verbally indicated. At the same time, differentiation occurs in the internal plan of the final (theoretical) and intermediate (practical) goals of action. An elementary form of reasoning aloud arises, not yet separated from the implementation of a real practical action, but already aimed at theoretically clarifying the method of transforming the situation or the conditions of the task.

4. The child solves the problem according to a pre-compiled, thoughtful and internally presented plan. It is based on memory and experience accumulated in the process of previous attempts to solve similar problems.

5. The problem is solved in terms of actions in the mind, followed by the implementation of the same task in a visually-effective plan in order to reinforce the answer found in the mind and then formulate it in words.

6. The solution to the problem is carried out only in the internal plan with the issuance of a ready-made verbal solution without subsequent recourse to real, practical actions with objects.

Questions as a special form of children's thinking

Children use the acquired concepts in their reasoning, which begins with the formulation of a cognitive task, a question, which indicates the problematic nature of thinking, because The question reflects the intellectual or practical task facing the child. Their content and sequence are proof of the manifestation of the child’s developing thinking, curiosity, and desire to understand the world.

Conventionally, children's questions can be divided into 3 categories (according to A.I. Sorokina ):

1) questions that are posed by the child in order to get help (i.e. they are motivated by the child’s desire to involve an adult in participating in the various activities of the child himself);

2) questions expressing a desire to receive reinforcement (emotional empathy, assessment, agreement);

3) questions expressing children’s desire for knowledge, or cognitive questions: a) questions related to mastering the rules of behavior; b) cognitive questions in the proper sense of the word.

The reasons for the emergence of cognitive questions are:

1. Meeting with a new, unknown object that the child cannot understand or find a place in his past experience.

2. When established ideas are violated, when contradictions arise between what the child sees or learns and his past experience and existing knowledge.

3. If the new representation coincides with the ones formed only according to some characteristics, but differs according to the rest.

Posing the question indicates awareness of the problem situation.

At 3–4 years old, questions do not yet have a cognitive orientation. Children often, without even listening to the answer, run away or, having received an answer, repeat their question again. Questions like “Who? What? Which? For what?" are chain in nature - this is a form of active communication with adults. At 4-5 years old - questions like “Why? For what?" are already cognitive in nature, but are still unsystematic, disordered and varied, no longer associated with direct perception. The child is not yet trying to generalize the acquired knowledge or somehow connect it. At 5–7 years old the questions “Why? For what?" more varied in content, the child waits for an answer, expresses doubts, objects. Children are already comparing the answers they receive from adults with what they know, they compare, express doubts, and enter into an argument.

Forms of logical thinking

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

A concept is a generalized characteristic of a phenomenon or object, or rather, a group of objects or phenomena that are similar in some way.

For example, “snow is a type of precipitation of crystalline form.” In this case, the concept of “snow” identifies precisely this type of precipitation based on the attribute “crystalline form”.

Judgment is a reflection of connections between objects or phenomena. It is not necessarily true - it can be false, and private, and individual.

An example of a true and general proposition in our case could be the expression “snow always falls at low temperatures,” a particular one — “there are snowless winters,” and a singular one — “there was no snow this winter.”

Inference is the establishment of such connections between concepts (or judgments) in which a new one is obtained from one or more initial judgments - a conclusion.

Obviously, it is the ability to draw conclusions (conclusions) from the information available to a person that speaks of his ability to think logically.

Development of logical thinking in preschoolers

A 5-7 year old child is already able to use mental operations: analyze objects and phenomena, highlight their characteristic features, establish cause-and-effect relationships, and draw conclusions. That is, logical thinking is quite accessible to children of older preschool age.

At the same time, child psychologists warn parents against trying to quickly “transfer” a child from the stage of imaginative thinking to the more developed stage of logical thinking. It is not worth preventing a child from “thinking in pictures”, if only because such a skill develops creativity in children, and therefore facilitates the search for solutions to non-standard problems. The lack of developed imagination can result in a child’s inability for abstract thinking, which develops later, by the age of 10.

The main role of parents is to provide children with the most effective learning process. Children under 3 years old, who “think with their hands,” should be given as many opportunities as possible to tactilely explore objects and their transformations. The child must assemble a tower of cubes, make a cake out of sand, bathe a duck in water, and so on. Material for research may be limited only for safety reasons.

To develop imaginative thinking, it is necessary that the child be able to draw or sculpt objects from plasticine from memory, observe nature, coherently describe pictures, and be able to talk about what result he wants to achieve by assembling a construction set.

You should not expect that, having reached a certain age, a child will immediately jump from one type of thinking to another. He is developing the ability to move to a new level, and he can only realize it with the help of an adult. At the first stage, the participation of an adult in children's activities is necessary. At the same time, he not only does the same thing as the child, but also involves him in the discussion: “What do you think, if you put this detail here, what will happen?” (assembling a construction set), “I forgot what a fly agaric looks like” (drawing a forest).

At a later age, the child needs to be involved in the search for cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena and objects. For example, do not immediately answer his questions, but reason with him or ask him to offer his options. The main thing in this case is not the correct answer, but the search for a solution.

At the age of 5-6 years, children can be offered simple logic problems for preschoolers. The main thing is not to overload your baby: at this age, 10-15 minutes of exercise a day will be enough. And to maintain your child’s interest, try to choose tasks with a fascinating plot and colorful illustrations.

Basic mental operations and their development ↑

The first thing a baby masters in the cognitive sphere is the operations of comparison and generalization. Parents identify a large number of objects with the concept of “toys”, “balls”, “spoons”, etc.

From the age of two, the comparison operation is mastered. Often it is built on opposition, so that it is easier for children to form judgments. The main comparison parameters are:

• color;
• size;
• form;
• floor;
• temperature.

The generalization comes later. For its development, a richer vocabulary of the child and accumulated mental skills are required.

Three-year-old children are quite capable of dividing objects into groups. But to the question: “What is this?” they may not answer.

Classification is a complex mental operation. It uses both generalization and correlation. The level of surgery depends on various factors. Mainly based on age and gender. At first, the baby is only able to classify objects according to generic concepts and functional characteristics (“what is this?”, “what is he like?”). By the age of 5, a differentiated classification appears (dad’s car is a service truck or a personal passenger car). The choice of basis for determining the types of an object in preschoolers is random. Depends on the social environment.

Questions as an element of improving mental activity

Little “whys” are a gift and a test for parents. The appearance of a large number of questions in children indicates a change in the stages of preschool development. Children's questions are divided into three main categories:

• auxiliary - a preschool child asks older people for help in his activities;
• cognitive - their goal is to obtain new information that interests the child;
• emotional – their purpose is to receive support or certain emotions in order to feel more confident.

Under the age of three, a child rarely uses all types of questions. It is characterized by chaotic and unsystematic questions. But even in them a cognitive character can be traced.

A large number of emotional issues is a signal that the baby lacks attention and self-confidence. In order to compensate for this, it is enough to communicate face-to-face for 10 minutes during the day. Children 2–5 years old will perceive that their parents take a lot of interest in their personal affairs.

The absence of cognitive questions at the age of 5 years should alert parents. More thinking tasks should be given.

Questions from children of junior and senior preschool age require answers of varying quality. If at three years old a child may not even listen to the answer, then at 6 years old they may have new questions in the process.

Parents and teachers of the preschool development system should know how much detail and in what terms they need to communicate with their child. This is the peculiarity of thinking and raising children.

The prerequisites for asking cognitive questions appear in children at about 5 years of age.

Auxiliary questions are typical for a period of up to 4 years. With their help, you can develop the skills necessary for further development and life in everyday life.

Games and exercises to develop logical thinking in preschoolers

Children's games to develop logic will be useful at any age. Here are some examples of such games and exercises.

"The Game in Reverse"

An adult says a phrase that contains a deliberately incorrect message. The child must quickly correct it. Depending on age, you can complicate the original phrases. For example, the little ones understand that the phrase “The snow is hot” should be immediately answered: “Cold”; “Tomato blue” - “Red”. And older children can already compare and answer the phrase “An elephant is smaller than a mosquito”: “More.”

The good thing about this game is that it can be played by an unlimited number of children. In addition, kids are always very cheerful and readily “correct” adults.

"Extra item"

The Find the Odd One game is also a fun activity suitable for all ages.

Pictures or objects are collected in one place (box, hat) according to some principle, and one extra object is thrown there. It needs to be identified and named.

Tasks can be very simple or more complex. For example, for kids you can throw a ball into a box of fruit, and for older children you can put a vegetable in the same fruit.

In this case, in a playful way, the child learns to analyze objects, identify common and different features, and acquire classification skills.

“What does it look like?”

Play association games with your child. Let him say what this or that object reminds him of. You can start with the simplest (an orange is a ball, a potato is a pebble) and gradually move on to more complex associations: what does a rainy sky, a fluffy kitten, a mitten, a table look like?.. The more surprising the association, the better.

Don’t try to tell your child a trivial answer: even if you don’t think that ice cream looks like a balloon, it’s okay, it’s important that the child develops his own images.

This game is more suitable for average preschoolers.

"What does it mean?"

A lightweight version of a full-fledged logic game.

Invite your child to continue the phrase in as many ways as possible: “I took candy from the table. What does it mean?" Options, for example, could be: “There is no more candy on the table”, “The candy is now in my hand (pocket)”, “There are fewer candies on the table”, “I have stained my hand with chocolate”...

The more options are born, the more amazing they are. This game is not for the youngest, but at 4-5 years old children already play it with pleasure.

“Complete the drawing”

The simplest creative task. You can draw any figure (squiggle) on the sheet and invite the child to complete the drawing, so that this figure is definitely involved. For younger children, you can depict something quite recognizable, but not completed, and for older children, do not limit your imagination.

"Find a Pair"

Make pairs of pictures that are logically related to each other. Divide into two piles. Let the child find a pair for each item.

For younger children, you can choose simple options: tree - leaf, fish - aquarium. Older children can cope with a more complex task - for example, “picking up” a syringe for the doctor.

"Item Description"

You name the object, and the child must choose as many epithets for it as possible. For example, a Christmas tree: prickly, tall, beautiful, elegant, green.

The reverse option is also interesting. What could be prickly? The same tree, hedgehog, needle, snow, scarf... The more associations, the better.

The game, of course, is not for the little ones.

"Find the sequence"

For children who can count to at least 10, you can create an elementary number sequence, where each subsequent number is greater/less than the previous one (by a certain number).

2 - 4 - 6 - ...What's next?

9 - 7 - 5 - ...What's next?

Older preschoolers will enjoy pattern-finding games not only with numbers, but also with pictures.

"The Most Necessary Items"

Invite your child to go to the countryside / desert island / on a trip around the world, taking with him only things, for example, with the letter “k” or green, and no more than 10 pieces. Let him explain why he needs this or that thing.

Besides being fun, it's also a good way to test your child's ability to predict future events.

There are many types of developmental activities. Which one to choose depends only on the imagination of adults and the inclinations of children. Some children perceive information better in verbal form, others - through illustrations. The main thing is that the child is interested, so that he gets involved in the process of finding a solution, and begins to think: “Why is this so?” and “What if?”

Logic and mathematics for children

We develop logical thinking, teach you how to work with information and make the right decisions in an interactive game format.
Learn more.

Ways to develop visually imaginative thinking

Depending on the age and preferences of the child himself, various methods are chosen, however, each is based on creating a result based on the presented image.

At the age of three, this is a game with a pyramid and similar collapsible toys. To begin with, the adult shows the process of disassembling and correctly assembling the toy, after which the child is asked to repeat the steps.

To complicate the task, you will need a pyramid with rings of various sizes. An additional effect of the toy is learning to highlight the essential properties of objects, distinguish between sizes, shapes, and shades. It can be stated that the process of developing imaginative thinking has begun when, before an action, the child is able to tell what he will now build or draw.

Basic methods applicable in older preschool age

In the future, the imaginative thinking of older preschoolers should be stimulated using the following methods and techniques:

• Observation of nature with subsequent descriptions and displays of what was seen;
• Comparative analysis of objects of various sizes and shapes;
• Collecting puzzles with gradual complication of the task;
• Drawing from memory;
• Creative work with plastic materials - modeling from clay, plasticine;
• Excursions to museums and exhibitions;
• Displaying on paper or canvas concepts that do not have visual signs: love, friendship, thought, sound, melody;
• Creating panels using natural materials, cardboard, colored paper.

The effectiveness of classes aimed at developing visual imaginative thinking in preschool age depends on the correct implementation of the stages of learning:

• Demonstration;
• Description or explanation;
• Cooperative activity;
• Independent work according to the sample;
• Creativity based on a generalization of ideas about a phenomenon, not limited by any framework.

Any activity should not tire the child

As soon as he feels tired, he needs to switch his attention to another activity

In addition, it is important to constantly encourage and motivate the child, cultivating in him a true passion for the process of drawing or constructive creativity