Each parent thinks about the correct development of the child. It is especially important to develop children of kindergarten age, because their psyche is just beginning to take shape, and all the grafted skills and habits are fixed for life. And affect the fate of the child. In this period of life, children need not only to learn to read and write, but also to instill in them communication skills, to learn to think correctly. Not the last place should be occupied by the development of attention among preschoolers.
What is attention?
When practicing with a child, they pay attention not only to the physiological field, but also to the formation of the psyche. With the development of attention among preschoolers, decent results can be seen already in the second or third week of regular classes.
What is such attention? Why is it so important to develop it? Attention refers to the ability of the mind to focus on something specific, while distracting from everything else.
Attention can be directed to the object of the external world or to your own thoughts, feelings and experiences. It helps to master intellectual activity, to master new subjects. Improves school performance.
Attention includes such concepts as:
- Concentration. This is a person’s ability to focus for a certain time on an object or task.
- Volume. The ability to focus on multiple objects at once. Usually, by the age of three, children can focus on two or three objects at the same time.
- Switchability. It is characterized by the speed of moving attention from one subject to another. Interconnected with human willpower.
- Distributability. The ability to distribute attention between several objects, areas of activity at the same time.
Attention should be constantly trained, only then the child will be able to perceive the object selectively. It will develop the habit of correctly and quickly switching from one subject to another. During concentration, the baby conceptualizes the object, its properties, connects the imagination. He thinks that he can do with the selected object.
Preschool age is a period when a child learns everything new with pleasure. The development of auditory attention in preschoolers, as well as visual, is a process that the baby perceives with joy and is easily absorbed.
Mindfulness exercises include the following areas:
- memory management;
- attention distribution skills;
- ability to concentrate;
- development and improvement of mindfulness.
Often the development of attention in preschoolers occurs in a playful way and children usually like. But if the child does not like classes, then he should not be forced. It is necessary to wait time and work out after a few hours or the next day.
Attention Types
Attention is of two types - involuntary and arbitrary.
The first type involves the commission of spontaneous acts. There is no volitional effort and no prior conscious intention. A similar type of attention occurs against the background of internal and external stimuli. These include a pungent or unpleasant odor, bright lighting, strong sound. Internal factors causing involuntary attention are the feelings and needs of a person, the interests of the individual.
Arbitrary attention refers to social. It begins to form under the influence of adults. The development of voluntary attention of preschoolers is associated with the implementation of certain goals that a parent or teacher sets before a child. As they grow older, children begin to set goals for themselves on their own, making a strong-willed effort for this. Therefore, it is important to devote a lot of time to the development of attention in preschool children. This will positively affect their future fate and will help to study at school.
Impaired attention
Definitely the development of attention in preschoolers should be given time. Otherwise, its violation may occur, which leads to a decrease in psychological stability and concentration.
Children with impaired attention do not study well, cannot think and concentrate. Poor orientation on the street. They are not able to act according to the instructions and do not perceive speech by ear. For such a child, words have no informative meaning. Disturbed attention entails a syndrome of its complete absence.
What threatens a child with carelessness? First of all, impaired attention causes overwork, social exclusion, stress and depression. Inattention provokes scandals in the family, a difficult recovery after illness. Kids with a lack of attention, more than others, are prone to spring hypovitaminosis, colds. As a rule, such children are few in the fresh air and eat poorly.
Even less attention does not allow you to monitor ongoing events. The thoughts of such children jump from one object to another, skipping the pure awareness of what is happening. Children with this level of attention are hard at performing new exercises and are constantly returning to old, already mastered activities. Such a child is not able to concentrate. He quickly loses interest in everything.
Treatment of children with reduced attention should be carried out by a specialist. Prescribe medication. To say what means of developing the attention of preschoolers should be resorted to in this case. Sometimes even special efforts are not required. Even preschooler attention development exercises can sometimes correct this situation.
Symptoms of inattention
When do parents begin to be anxious and realize that more attention should be paid to developing the attention of a preschool child? This moment comes when adults see that the baby does not know how to focus on several objects at all. The child is constantly distracted, it is difficult for him to pack up and sit still. The inability to concentrate on a specific object or activity also speaks of a lack of care. Poor switchability from one kind of hobby to another also speaks of carelessness. Questions arise when the child cannot perform several activities at the same time, cannot concentrate at the request of an adult and is absent-minded.
There is such a thing as “attention crisis”. It implies the ability of a child to perceive oral speech not completely, but in parts, after a certain period of time. As a rule, the child is concentrated only the first 15 minutes. Then the children's brain is turned off for 2-3 minutes. The next batch of information is perceived for 12 minutes, that is, three minutes less, then another “attention crisis” ensues. Next comes the third “crisis” that concludes. After ten minutes, the child’s brain completely ceases to perceive oral speech. He feels tired and sleepy.
During classes, this feature of some children should be taken into account, and at times when the brain ceases to perceive information, the child should be switched to another activity. Arrange a physical training session, joke, help the baby relieve stress and relax.
Stages of attention development
There is a special approach to the development of attention of a preschool child. Classes should be held in a comfortable environment. It is better for the child to tell the content of the upcoming exercises. The kid should have a positive attitude and tune in to confidential communication.
The development of attention in a child takes place in several stages:
- In the first year of life, babies develop only involuntary attention.
- In the second year, the baby begins to study the outside world more intensively, explores everything around. It is in this period of life that the first rudiments of voluntary attention are laid.
- From the third year of life, children are able to follow simple instructions. They look with their eyes for the item they need.
- In the fourth and fifth year of life, the child is able to act according to verbal instructions. Can purposefully search for an item. Able to analyze the properties of the object. Establish his connection with the outside world.
- At the age of five or six, the child begins to perfect his desires. For their execution, he develops certain instructions.
- At the age of seven, volitional desire is fully formed. The amount of information, the ability to concentrate and the stability of attention will change, improve as you grow older.
When developing the attention of a preschool child, you should use special games and exercises that are aimed at improving this area of the human psyche. So that the child is not tired of classes, physical and mental exercises should alternate.
The development of attention in preschoolers
Features of the development of attention in children are that the child in this period of life becomes obedient. She is happy to study and study the outside world. Strives for independence. Such children need to be allowed to do something on their own. Teach to finish the job. Let the baby express their wishes and thoughts. At this point, it is important to help the baby create his own world on paper or with the help of a designer. Thus, the child learns to react, empathize and understand people correctly.
The development of voluntary attention of older preschoolers consists in the opportunity to participate in role-playing games. These can be scenes from various fairy tales. Games in a hospital, shop or war. The main thing is to help the baby make an action plan, to distribute the roles in the game. To teach you how to communicate. It is in these games that the kid learns to concentrate.
When creating math classes for children, one should take into account that the preschooler is already familiar with simple geometric figures, is able to arrange numbers up to ten in the right order, knows how to distinguish a large object from a small one and compare the number of objects.
Logic lessons should be taught to focus on a specific object. This can be a search for differences between the two pictures, picking up a simple puzzle or designer according to the model. You can offer the baby to summarize objects according to similar characteristics, retell a fairy tale, list the names of cities and countries, characterize a specific fruit or vegetable. The main thing is that the lesson should be interesting and be able to captivate the child for 10 minutes.
Developing Preschooler Attention: Games and Exercises
Each age of the child has its own nuances. When developing attention in older preschoolers, it should be borne in mind that children at this age speak well and are able to build sentences. They feel intonation, perceive music, reproduce various movements, and also with pleasure sculpt, paint, glue, make crafts, help in housework.
With the development of attention among preschoolers, outdoor games should also be involved. Morning exercises, bouncers, and other ball games are useful. They learn to concentrate on several irritants at once.
Active physical exercises to develop attention in older preschoolers can be as follows, these are:
- Imitation. Here the children are arranged in a circle. The host is in the center and says certain words. For example, with the word “bunny”, children should jump, etc.
- Ear nose. A specific part of the body is called, and the children must clutch at the organ mentioned.
- Onlookers. Children go in circles. As soon as a clap comes out, they should roll over, and the one who gape will drop out.
Classes should be held calmly, without excessive activity. Children should not push each other and move quickly, in order to avoid bruises and injuries.
Exercise for the development of attention in preschoolers can occur according to the following schemes:
- "What has disappeared?" Several items are placed in front of the child and time is given for their study. Then they ask the baby to turn away and remove one toy. Preschool should name the missing item.
- "Find a toy." You need to hide the toy, and then explain where it is. And the child, relying on a verbal description, must find a hidden thing.
- "Differences." Two similar pictures are shown to the kid and asked to find differences.
- "Days of the week". The days of the week are called at a fast pace, and at the mention of the weekend the child should clap his hands.
- Circle the picture. It follows from the points to draw an image. The kid should connect the dots with a continuous line so that a drawing is obtained.
Activities with children to develop attention
Developing the attention of preschoolers should be fun. Exercise should be fun and enjoyable for the baby. The following activities may be interesting for children:
- The task is to draw a city, road, house, bunny, etc. If the child does not like to draw, then you can ask him to make a plasticine figure. Some children are happy to glue or cut.
- To do this, any sheet from an old book or newspaper will do. In it, you need to ask the child to cross out a certain letter. For example, the letter “a” or “e”. Over time, the task can be complicated by asking to cross out one letter and underline the second.
- You can develop an action plan with your child for classes and clearly follow it. Suppose a child first has a drawing, then modeling, and then labor assignments around the house.
- Attention develops the search for errors in pictures. For example, apples can be drawn on spruce, and cones on an apple tree.
- You can place several objects in front of the child. Then cover them, and the child from memory must reproduce those things that lay in front of him. It is believed that if a preschool child calls 6-7 subjects, then this is already good.
- Location of items. Lay out several objects on the table, the child will study them. Then you should ask the baby to close his eyes. You should change the order of things. The child must recall from memory the previous arrangement of objects.
- It helps to focus on memorizing a verse with a sound stimulus on. For example, when the TV is running.
- “Make no mistake.” An adult pronounces a set of words, and a child should clap his hands when voicing certain objects. For example, the name of vegetables, vehicles or clothing.
- A good learning result is provided by the “digital” table. The numbers from 1 to 10 or 20 are arranged in a chaotic order on a sheet of paper. The child counts in order, pointing to the numbers.
- "Top clap." When pronouncing the correct phrases, the child stomps, if he hears the wrong, then claps.
- When listening to a fairy tale, an adult knocks a hammer several times. The child must count how many times he heard the hammer knock.
- The child, following the adult, repeats the movements. The manipulations that the baby should not perform are determined in advance. As soon as the baby repeats the forbidden movement, he lost.
It is necessary to devote time to the development of the memory and attention of a preschooler, otherwise at school the child will encounter difficulties in mastering new subjects, will not be diligent and will hardly give in to learning.
Breathing exercises
Respiratory control exercises are just as important for developing preschoolers' attention as everyone else. What are these exercises for? First of all, in order to establish the rhythm of breathing and improve the functions of self-control. Breathing exercises that help develop mindfulness are as follows:
- "Balloon". To perform it, you need to relax your stomach. Then the child is invited to inhale and inflate the stomach, simulating the presence of a ball in the stomach. Do this exercise several times.
- Alternate inhalation of air. Closing the right nostril, begin to breathe with the left and, conversely, closing the left nostril, breathe with the right. This exercise stimulates the functioning of the cerebral hemispheres.
- Alternate inhalation and exhalation of air through the nose. This exercise is similar to the previous one and differs from it in that you need to inhale air through one nostril, and exhale through another.
- Inhalation of air with eyes closed and open. When performing this exercise, when inhaling, the child should open his eyes, when exhaling, close them. After several repetitions, inhalation is performed with closed eyes, exhale with open eyes.
These exercises, like the previous ones, are aimed at developing voluntary attention in preschool children. The main thing is to perform them regularly, then the result will not be long in coming.
Rules for developing mindfulness
There are many methods aimed at developing attention among preschoolers, and when they are mastered, several identical principles apply:
- Gradualness. Do not start classes immediately with complex exercises. Here, gradualism is good, and you should adhere to the principle of "from simple to complex."
- Remembering the rules. The kid should not only follow the verbal requirements of adults, but also remember the rules. , , .
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