Development of cognitive interest and cognitive motivation of preschoolers

How does cognitive interest arise in preschoolers?

Cognitive interest is not formed out of nowhere or at the will of parents. It appears when a child encounters something completely new that does not fit into the “matrix” of his knowledge and experience. Surprise and puzzlement appear. The riddle haunts the preschooler until he clears up the keys to the answer.

Example. Deniska, 3.5 years old, saw a small tractor with a body in front. The first thing the kid asked was: “Why is the tractor driving backwards?” After listening to the answer, he walked a few steps backwards, just in case. Then came the conclusion: “So the driver sees that he is lucky.”

The child saw a flower bloom on the windowsill, and he is ready to water the indoor plants every day to repeat the phenomenon. He watches his grandmother knead the dough, and he certainly wants to practice turning loose flour into plastic dough.

The preschooler wants to join activities that awaken emotions and experiences. Even putting together puzzles and construction sets gets the child interested in the fact that the result should be a beautiful picture or model.

Some objects and phenomena captivate the child for a short time, others hold attention for a long time. The main forms of expression of interest can be identified:

• Curiosity is a primary interest in a subject, object or event.
• Curiosity is the desire to study a subject in more detail, to find its still hidden properties. At this stage, the joy of learning new things is formed. Research is carried out using trial methods or questions.
• Direct cognitive interest is characterized by the emergence of a task or situation in which the child seeks to understand independently, to understand the true essence of the phenomenon. At this stage, the mechanisms are dismantled into individual screws or the doll is disassembled into its components to find out what’s inside.

What maintains cognitive interest in preschool age

Cognitive interest can easily fade away if it is not nourished. Adults play a certain role here, encouraging the child to continue, but the main factors that stimulate continuation are cognitive independence and the presence of motivation.

In the process of learning something new, there is a combination of feelings and the intellectual component. A preschooler feels a sense of admiration when he learns that the seasons in the southern hemisphere follow different principles.

The joy of learning new things causes impatience and complete fascination with a toy or book that contains new information. Dismantling an alarm clock or kitchen appliances provokes such excitement that the young explorer may not notice his parents watching him.

Small experiments that can be carried out with the help of numerous sets of young physicists and chemists make you freeze in anticipation of the result. And finally, nothing motivates you to continue learning more than a solution achieved on your own.

Cognitive independence

Starting from the age of five, a preschooler increasingly asks chains of clarifying questions. He becomes interested in a specific subject or process, asks the main question that worries him, but the answer he receives prompts him to further research and new questions.

The essence of cognitive independence lies in the fact that the child himself, without additional incentives, feels ready to acquire new knowledge.

Older preschoolers can express their disagreement with the answer, offer their own version and persistently find out where their assumption is wrong. If it is necessary to obtain additional information, preschoolers themselves initiate a conversation with an adult and ask questions, filling in gaps in their knowledge.

One of the main conditions for the manifestation of cognitive independence is the sufficient development of the volitional sphere. When solving a task set for yourself, you need to finish the job, even if you encounter obstacles: screws don’t unscrew, parts don’t fit together, you can’t draw as your imagination suggests.

Cognitive motivation

Motivation is the second pillar on which cognitive interest stands. An adult’s verbal offer to assemble a model or read a book is not valid. It is necessary that the child is passionate about the process himself and strives to continue or begin the study.

The formation of cognitive motivation in preschool children is closely related to the development of voluntary attention.

A task that previously intrigued a child may turn out to be quite difficult for him. To continue to solve it, you need to maintain attention and remember the goal. This is beyond the power of younger preschoolers who have not yet learned to manage their attention.

Psychologists identify the conditions necessary for the formation of cognitive motivation of a preschooler:

• Emotional support. A child retains attention and interest in a task longer if he is encouraged, praised, and supported.
• Activation of thought processes. Minor hints for the child, an offer to check another version, inspires the young researcher. He comes up with an immediate goal and ideas on how to achieve it.
• Discussing successes and failures, encouraging the child to independently find explanations for why it was or was not possible to find a solution.

Cultivating curiosity gives rise to the independent habit of looking for everything unknown and incomprehensible in the surrounding space. Learning new things becomes a need for a child and motivates him to take cognitive actions, be it learning to read or compiling a collection.

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 .

Development of cognitive interests in older preschoolers

In older preschool age, the relationship between cognitive interest and attention increases significantly. During this period, children realize that the correct result largely depends on how carefully all the details were taken into account.

The arbitrariness of the attention function is also formed; children are able to concentrate on a task without being distracted by foreign objects or situations.

The progressive development of cognitive processes leads to the fact that older children analyze more, learn to highlight the main thing and abstract from unimportant signs. On the one hand, they are more capable of finding answers to their questions, but, on the other hand, their cognitive interests cover more areas.

At this stage, a cognitive interest in mathematics is formed. Preschoolers are interested in performing simple arithmetic operations, measuring objects, and solving logic problems.

Search and experimental activities play a significant role in the development of cognitive activity. The child is an experimenter. Understanding the world through experience is its natural state. In addition, the result obtained as part of the experiment is assimilated much better than just an adult’s story.

During the experiment, the older preschooler, on his own, receives answers to questions that are significant at his age: “How?” and why?". You can tell your child all you want about the laws of aerodynamics, but he won’t understand what you’re talking about until he flies a kite.

On walks or excursions, children get the opportunity to constantly experiment: why a leaf floats down a stream, why snow melts; see that the plucked branch will dry out or, conversely, take root in a glass of water.

In essence, cognitive research activities are close to experiments. It involves experimentation, but also uses collecting to teach how to classify objects according to various characteristics. You can collect herbariums and stamps, as well as figurines from the robot collection.

Excursions help you explore a piece of space along which the route is laid. Educational activities consist of acquiring minimal cartography skills, studying the plants and habits of animals encountered along the way.

Cognitive interest as a means of cognitive development of preschool children

Bibliographic description:

Antonova, S.G. Cognitive interest as a means of cognitive development of preschool children / S.G. Antonova, I.V. Menshova. — Text: direct // Questions of preschool pedagogy. — 2022. — No. 3 (40). — P. 1-4. — URL: https://moluch.ru/th/1/archive/191/6067/ (access date: 01/18/2022).


In the article, the authors reveal the importance of developing cognitive interest as an integral component of the cognitive development of preschool children.

Key words: cognitive development, cognitive actions, cognitive interest, preschool age.

Society needs a person who not only consumes

knowledge, but also able to obtain it.

One of the pressing problems of education today is the problem of developing cognitive interest in preschool children. Since it is at this age that the foundations of the future personality are formed, the prerequisites for the mental, moral and physical development of the child are formed. And our task, as teachers, is to develop this personality in all areas and prepare children for the next stage of education, primary school.

From the first days of life, a child begins his path to acquiring and mastering new knowledge and skills. His parents help him with this, and upon arrival at the preschool institution, teachers help him. The important and main task of the teacher will be not just to present him with information, but to teach him to “obtain” the necessary knowledge himself, by creating a zone of the child’s environment in which he can satisfy this need, show cognitive activity, his curiosity, develop his imagination, and find answers to his questions, thereby realizing your cognitive interest.

In the Law of the Russian Federation “On Education in the Russian Federation” in Art. 48, the duties and responsibilities of teaching staff are noted: “teaching staff are obliged to: develop students’ cognitive activity, independence, initiative, creativity, form a civic position, the ability to work and live in the modern world, form a culture of healthy and safe lifestyle in students” [9, p.5].

In the Federal State Educational Standard for Education, one of the main principles is the principle of forming cognitive interests and cognitive actions in a child in various types of activities [8, paragraph 1.4.7].

The main tasks of cognitive development in the Federal State Educational Standard for Education are: development of children’s hobbies, cognitive motivation and curiosity; development of cognitive actions, development of consciousness; development of imagination, fantasy and creative activity [8].

Cognitive activity is active activity in acquiring and using knowledge. The main task of a child’s cognitive development is the formation of the need and ability to think actively and overcome difficulties in solving various mental problems.

Speaking about cognitive activity, the Federal State Educational Standard for Education uses the following terms:

 Cognitive interests are the child’s desire to learn new things, to find out what is unclear about the qualities, properties of objects, phenomena of reality, and the desire to delve into their essence, to find connections and relationships between them.

 Cognitive actions are the activities of children, with the help of which they strive to acquire new knowledge, skills and abilities. At the same time, internal determination develops and a constant need is formed to use different methods of action to accumulate and expand knowledge and horizons.

Cognitive development is a set of quantitative qualitative changes that occur in cognitive mental processes due to age, under the influence of the environment and the child’s own experience [8].

Therefore, the issue of cognitive development of preschoolers is so acute, since it has an indelible impact on the development of preschoolers as a whole, their personality. It is necessary to “awaken” this cognitive need in the child, which is the source of his cognitive activity and forms the basis for the development of the individual’s cognitive interest. It is safe to say that a child’s cognitive development is impossible without a “pressure lever”—cognitive interest.

The works of many scientists (B. G. Ananyev, L. N. Bozhovich, L. S. Vygotsky, L. A. Wenger, etc.) have proven that cognitive interest is formed only with active cognitive activity. Cognitive interest is revealed in the child’s desire to learn something new, to get acquainted with the qualities and properties of surrounding objects and phenomena, in the desire to understand their essence, to find a relationship between them. They all agree that cognitive interest occupies the main place in the pedagogical process, and it is this that needs to be given close attention.

According to I. V. Metelsky: “Interest is an active cognitive orientation associated with a positive, emotionally charged attitude towards studying a subject, with the joy of learning, overcoming difficulties, creating success, with self-expression and affirmation of a developing personality” [3]. Cognitive interest in pedagogy is understood as an external stimulus, as a means of activating children’s cognitive activity.

L. S. Vygotsky believed that cognitive interest arises in activity, and its goal is a person’s desire to delve into the diversity of the surrounding world, to reflect in consciousness the inherent processes, cause-and-effect relationships and patterns. At the same time, cognitive interest, being included in cognitive activity, is integrally associated with the emergence of diverse personal relationships: selective attitude towards a particular field of science, cognitive activity, participation in them, communication with participants in knowledge. It is at this stage of cognition of the objective world and the attitude towards it and scientific facts that an ideology is formed, the nature of which is promoted by cognitive interest [1].

Educators agree that interest is an “external stimulus” for activating the cognitive activity of preschoolers, a kind of stimulator of activity.

B.P. Esipov argued: “cognitive interest is an inextricably linked formation of personality. It, as a general phenomenon of interest, has a complex structure, which consists of both individual mental processes (intellectual, emotional, regulatory), and the objective and subjective interaction of a person with the world, expressed in relationships” [2].

Cognitive interest, having motivational and regulatory capabilities, thereby contributes to the productive development of the child as a subject of cognitive activity. Being a stable characteristic of a personality, cognitive interest contributes to its formation as a whole, since under its influence perception proceeds best, observation develops, emotional and logical memory is activated, and imagination works more intensively.

I would like to note the most characteristic feature of interest - the presence of a strong-willed orientation. Cognitive interest is aimed not only at the process of cognition, but also at the final result, which is always associated with the pursuit of a goal, its implementation, overcoming difficulties, and volitional efforts. It is in it that all the most important manifestations of personality interact. Only with competent organization of the educational process can interest become a stable personality trait and only then play a role in its development. As a personality trait, cognitive interest manifests itself always and everywhere, in any setting, under any circumstances and conditions. It is interest that contributes to the development of thought processes, which manifest themselves in asking questions to an adult, looking for ways to satisfy their interest, which contributes to the formation and development of personality.

Even K. D. Ushinsky noted how important it is to make a serious activity entertaining and interesting for children. To this end, teachers saturate their activities with techniques that generate direct interest in the student. They use a variety of interesting educational material and role-playing games, mini-quizzes, intelligence tasks, puzzles, charades, and entertaining situations [6].

Long-term research by I. G. Morozova and G. I. Shchukina showed that cognitive interest is not inherent in a person from birth, it develops in the process of a person’s life activity, and is formed in the social conditions of his existence. At the same time, the path to the formation of interest in preschool age goes through several qualitative stages: from interest in the external qualities, properties of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world to penetration into their essence, to the discovery of connections and relationships that exist between them [4;9].

Cognitive interest acts both as the main way of learning and as a way of development. And it works only when internal motivations come to the fore, which are able to restrain the impulse of interest that arises from external influences. Novelty, unusualness, surprise, inconsistency with what was previously studied - all these features can not only arouse instant interest, but also awaken emotions that generate a desire to study the material more deeply, i.e. contribute to the sustainability of interest.

It is impossible to ignore the conditions and observance of which serve to form, develop and strengthen cognitive interest in preschoolers. In the works of domestic scientists, much attention is paid to this aspect:

1. The first condition is maximum reliance on the child’s mental activity. The rudiment for cognitive powers and capabilities are solutions to cognitive problems, situations of active search, guesswork, reflection, situations of mental tension, clashes of different positions, which you need to understand yourself, identifying a certain point of view.
2. The second condition is that the process of education and upbringing must be built at a favorable level for the development of the child.
3. The third condition is the creation of a favorable, positively emotional atmosphere in the educational process. A prosperous atmosphere is associated with two main sources of development: with activity and communication, which give rise to ambiguous relationships and create the tone of the child’s personal mood. A positive learning atmosphere supports and encourages the desire to be smarter, better and more savvy. D.I. Pisarev notes that the desire to be better and not to stop there strengthens self-esteem, which, with successful activity, brings great satisfaction. Creating a favorable atmosphere for a child’s cognitive activity is the most important condition for the formation of cognitive interest, as a consequence of the development of the personality as a whole [5].
4. The fourth condition is favorable and inviting communication. In the course of this, it is necessary to take into account the individual characteristics of the child himself, his experiences of success and failure, his inclinations and other interests, as well as the characteristics of his psychology. Each of these relationships can influence a child's interest, in both positive and negative contexts.

Compliance with all of the above conditions serves as prerequisites for the formation of cognitive interest in the process of activity.

To summarize the above, I would like to note that activating a child’s cognitive activity without developing his cognitive interest is not only difficult, but also practically impossible. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly systematically stimulate, develop and strengthen the cognitive interest of children, considered both as an important motive for learning, and as a persistent personality trait, and as a very good means of training and education, improving their quality. At the same time, it should be noted that the teacher occupies a special place in maintaining cognitive interest; he is assigned a special role in the learning process.

Thus, cognitive interest is a selective focus of the individual on objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality, which is characterized by the child’s desire for knowledge, for new, more complete and profound knowledge. The main characteristics of cognitive interest can be designated as follows: it has a volitional orientation; is one of the most important motives of teaching; with proper pedagogical and methodological organization of activities, systematic and targeted educational activities can become a stable feature of the child’s personality; acts as a powerful means of cognition.

Literature:

1. Vygotsky, L. S. Psychology of human development [Text] / L. S. Vygotsky. - M.: Publishing house Meaning; Eksmo Publishing House, 2005–1136 p.
2. Esipov, B. P. Pedagogy [Text]: textbook / B. P. Esipov, N. I. Boldyrev, K. P. Belsky; edited by prof. Dr. ped. Sciences B.P. Esipova. - M.: Education, 1967–414 p.
3. Metelsky, I.V. How to set a learning task for students [Text] / I.V. Metelsky. - M.: Pedagogical Society of Russia. — 2004 –57 p.
4. Morozova, N. G. To the teacher about cognitive interest [Text] / N. G. Morozova. // Pedagogy and psychology. - 1979 - No. 2 - P. 5–46.
5. Pisarev, D. I. Selected works [Text] / D. I. Pisarev - M.: Education, 1951–283 p.
6. Ushinsky, K. D. Collected works [Text] / K. D. Ushinsky: in 11 volumes - M.: Academy of Pedagogical Science, 1950–59 p.
7. Federal state educational standard for preschool education [Electronic resource] / Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia dated October 17, 2013 No. 1155 Moscow // Russian newspaper “RG.RU”. — URL: https://www.rg.ru/2013/11/25/doshk-standart-dok.html (date of visit 03/07/2017)
8. Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” [Text]. - M.: Omega - L., 2014. - 134 p.
9. Shchukina, G. I. Pedagogical problems of forming cognitive interests of students [Text] / G. I. Shchukina. - M.: Pedagogy, 1988–208 p.

The role of an adult in the formation of cognitive interest of preschool children

The main task of adults at the stage of formation of cognitive interest is to maintain the motivation of a preschooler and use methods that help keep children’s attention and complete the task.

Parents need to make sure not only that there are reference books and encyclopedias suitable for preschool age in the house, but also regularly read with their child materials that enrich the child’s knowledge. It is useful to use non-standard developmental methods. For example, finger games for children are exciting in their practical implementation and bring tangible benefits to the development of fine motor skills.

The main lines of work in the development of children's cognitive interest:

• Supporting the child's desire to ask questions. Expressed in a favorable attitude and detailed explanation instead of short answers and excuses.
• Additional stimulation of cognitive interest. It consists of exciting stories, identifying topics that interest the preschooler, expanding answers, going beyond the topic. For example, when talking about hours and minutes, you can touch on the calendar.
• Application of games. For preschoolers, this is the main activity in which new skills are learned. You can build games in the form of “question-answer” or correct information that the child uses incorrectly when playing with peers.
• Supporting a preschooler in his research. Praise upon achievement of a result and during the activity so that the child understands that his efforts aimed at solving the problem are important.
• Help in mastering planning and goal setting skills.

Adult support for a child's curiosity in relation to any area of ​​life will lead to the presence of developed cognitive interest. And this is a good deposit for upcoming school success and diversified personality development at any age stage.

Modern society needs an active personality, capable of cognitive and active self-realization, of manifestation of activity and creativity in solving vital problems. The fundamental foundations of such a personality must be laid in preschool childhood. The development of cognitive activity in children is a pressing issue today, because The federal state educational standard for preschool education requires teachers to develop curiosity and cognitive motivation. They need to develop key qualities in future kindergarten graduates, such as creativity and the ability to search for knowledge.

The main thing in working with preschoolers is focusing on the possibilities of developing interest, aimed at studying the world around them through experimental and research activities.

Therefore, it is necessary to organize children's research activities from early preschool age. They are characterized by an increased interest in everything that happens around them.

One of the effective methods of understanding the patterns and phenomena of the surrounding world is experimentation. It has enormous development potential. Its main advantage is that it gives children real ideas about the various aspects of the object being studied, relationships with other objects and the environment. That is, children's experimentation is a good means of cognitive development of preschoolers.

When observing children, you should pay attention to the fact that young children have insufficiently developed cognitive activity. Such immaturity is reflected in the development of speech, logical thinking, memory, and attention. Children do not always actively show curiosity and research interest in the world of living and inanimate nature, preferring other types of activities. Therefore, pedagogical activities should be based on purposeful, systematic work using children's experimentation.

To achieve the goal, the following tasks should be solved:

1. Study the methodological literature on children's search and experimental activities;

2. Organize the developmental subject-spatial environment of the group in accordance with program requirements;

3. Expand children’s understanding of the world around them;

4. Develop coherent speech and active vocabulary in the process of experimental activities;

5. Encourage children to reason, teach them to ask questions and make requests;

6. Contribute to the formation of conclusions and definitions during experiments and children's research;

7. Enrich children's experience.

Having analyzed the requirements of the approximate basic general educational program of upbringing and training in the kindergarten “Childhood” and having studied practical and theoretical information about children’s experimental activities, scientific and methodological literature on this topic, we have outlined ways to carry out future work on this problem.

At the first stage of work, we were faced with the task of enriching the subject-spatial environment for the implementation of children's experimental activities in practice. A child develops through cognition, experience and transformation of the world around him, therefore a carefully thought-out developmental subject environment encourages children to explore, show initiative and creativity. For this purpose, we created an experimental center in the group, its equipment included:

- magnifying glasses, buckets, measuring cups, sand, pebbles, shells, children's books with illustrations about animal life, board games, plant seeds, herbariums and much more.

We planned the group space to be convenient for independent choice and decision-making and discovery. At the same time, the environment developed children's initiative and provided an opportunity for creativity and experimentation. All this allowed children to develop a searching, active, independent style of thinking in their activities.

At the second stage of work, we developed long-term planning for experimental and research work for the academic year. The basis was based on calendar and thematic planning for the second junior group.

The work system was built from the interconnection of three main blocks:

— direct educational activities, as a specially organized form of training;

— joint activities of the teacher, parents and children;

- independent activity of children, which promotes active cognitive activity.

Direct educational activities, built on the principles of developmental education, are aimed at developing the personality as a whole, as well as improving the speech of preschoolers, their thinking and creative abilities.

The cognitive development of preschoolers is unthinkable without activity. To keep kids interested and active, we used special educational games.

Experimenting with sand, clay, water, snow, and pebbles delighted the children. They had a desire to examine, compare, establish cause-and-effect relationships and dependencies. In such games and experiments, children acquired experience in search actions.

Games, manuals, models, books that were used in classes and in joint activities helped stimulate search and cognitive work.

In developing cognitive interests in children of primary preschool age, we adhered to some rules and principles:

- they did not force the child to play, but created conditions for the emergence of interest in the game;

- children were not prohibited from actively moving;

- encouraged children's initiative;

The main method in experimentation activities for children of primary preschool age is to conduct simple experiments.

Their novelty and theoretical significance in the work is as follows:

firstly, due to the nature of the problems being solved, the experiments are accessible to children’s understanding and contribute to the development of cognition;

secondly, in the process of conducting experiments, scientific discoveries do not occur, but elementary concepts and conclusions are formed;

thirdly, such work uses ordinary household items and play equipment

Such educational activities using experiments help to satisfy children’s cognitive interests, search and the ability to analyze, compare and make small but very important discoveries for kids.

In our practice, to study the properties of water, clay, air, we widely use didactic games.

Using the games “Clean Hands” and “Our Helpers,” children learned that hands and objects will become cleaner if they are washed with water.

Getting acquainted with the properties of sand, we played the game “Let's bake pies and cakes.” In the process of sculpting from dry and wet sand, the children summed up how dry and wet sand take shape. And when carrying out the didactic game “Pathfinders”, the children were convinced that traces and prints remain on the wet sand.

When conducting the didactic game “Catch the Air,” children tried to catch air in plastic bags and were convinced that the air was transparent and weightless. In the game "Storm" the kids blew through a straw into a glass of water and saw that the water pushed out air. And the game “My Cheerful Tinkling Ball” contributed to the understanding that the ball also contains air.

During lessons with stones, we play games “Light - Heavy” and “What Shape is the Pebble?”, in which children learned that stones have different weights and different shapes.

Through experiments with paper, children learned that it is light: you can crumple it, blow on it, and it can move, paper is thin and can tear, and so on.

Experimental games promote children's sensory development, broaden their horizons, and deepen children's understanding of the properties and qualities of natural materials.

We involved the parents of our children in the work on developing cognitive interests. They readily accepted our advice and recommendations and joined us in the exciting game of experimentation.

The joint efforts of parents and kindergarten teachers helped to achieve positive results in nurturing preschoolers’ cognitive interests in the environment and developing their sensory experience.

The children's level of cognitive interest increased and their horizons broadened. Children learned to see interesting things in nature around them, observe plants and animals, make simple conclusions, distinguish between living and inanimate objects of nature, and understand their interconnection. This allows us to believe that the developmental education system helps to increase the level of intellectual and cognitive development of children and their development in general.