Human thinking is based on the creation of ideal images of reality that we reproduce in the mind. These images are formed under the influence of life experience. In order for a child to understand such abstract concepts as size, color, number, size, etc., he must see real objects, hold them in his hands, and perform various operations with them. Of particular importance is the visual-practical method in teaching preschoolers, since they have not yet formed logical thinking.
Age features
From 3 to 7 years, the development of the child is very intensive. Kids are characterized by curiosity and a desire to explore the world. They ask a lot of questions, try to join the adult world through role-playing games, imitation. The central neoplasm of the preschool period is imagination, that is, the ability to create images in the mind.
However, it needs external support. Kids need to visually see a phenomenon or object in order to then present it. Comparison, generalization, classification are possible only if the child operates with real toys, didactic materials. When choosing methods and techniques for teaching preschool children, these features must be taken into account.
Use of visibility
Cognitive activity in children can be formed from the first year of life. The main teaching methods and techniques for preschoolers are divided into three groups: verbal, practical, and visual. The peculiarity of the latter is that they are not independent, but are always used in combination with other methods. Nevertheless, their value is quite large, because preschoolers need sensory-visual perception of the studied objects.
The group of visual methods traditionally includes:
- Observation when children focus on some phenomenon or object (a rainbow, bullfinches on a tree, the work of a janitor, etc.), highlight its essential signs, the changes occurring with it.
- Examination of paintings, posters, diagrams, layouts, with the help of which static visual images are formed in the child’s imagination.
- Demonstration of cartoons, movies, plays, slides, expanding horizons and creating dynamic visual images.
Practical methods and techniques for teaching preschoolers
Examining pictures with the kids or watching the fish in the aquarium, an adult resorts to verbal explanation, conversation. However, it is easier for a child to remember and realize those processes in which he was directly involved. It is one thing if the boy in the film compared the length of paper strips using the overlay method. Another thing is when a preschooler reproduces this action himself.
Practical methods aimed at the real transformation of objects and didactic materials by children are very important at this age. These include:
- Exercise, when the child repeatedly repeats the learned actions.
- Experiments and experiments involving the creation of special conditions in order to identify the hidden qualities of objects or the relationships between them.
- Modeling, in the process of which a generalized image of an object or phenomenon is created (room plan, house of cubes, sound scheme of the word).
- The game method, when children are involved in an imaginary situation, compete with each other or imitate others, while having fun and learning.
The relationship between practical and visual methods
Sensory experience is an important condition for the successful development of the child. Before a person develops the ability to solve examples in the mind, he often resortes to using his own fingers. Teachers took this feature of children into account when developing their didactic materials (for example, M. Montessori, spouses Nikitina, B. Zaitsev). Cubes with syllables, insert frames, letters made of velvet paper serve as a means of visualization and at the same time you can perform practical actions with them and use them in games.
Information that the child not only saw but also lived through is remembered involuntarily. Thus, visual and practical methods in teaching preschoolers play a decisive role and become the basis for the emergence of logical thinking. Repeated repetition of the same actions with real objects leads to the fact that the baby begins to reproduce them mentally, replace the originals with models, diagrams.
Children with general speech underdevelopment
Of particular importance are practical methods in teaching preschoolers with OHP, who have difficulties with verbal understanding. Thinking and speech are closely related. The inability to express one’s thoughts and understand the adult leads to the fact that the child slowly thinks, does not know how to draw conclusions and compare objects, gets confused in terms, has problems understanding symbols.
It is necessary to work purposefully with such children using non-verbal tasks. Experts recommend:
- to teach children to compose an object from parts (mosaic, puzzles, applique);
- to formulate the skill of generalization by identifying an excess picture, grouping various objects according to one or more signs;
- develop imagination, inviting children to turn a spot or geometric figure into an understandable pattern;
- work on the formation of imaginative thinking (recognize objects by the contour, draw a plan of a room or playground, build houses from the designer according to the scheme).
Didactic games
It is easier for children to absorb information when it is presented in an entertaining way. Didactic games with objects (mosaic, inserts, prefabricated toys) or printed materials (cards, lotto, cut pictures) became a kind of practical method of teaching preschool children.
Children get acquainted with the properties of objects, learn to compare them, find differences or select a pair, group, classify. At the same time, they are passionate about the process and receive positive emotions. Performing game actions with cubes or geometric figures, the child involuntarily concentrates on the task, assimilates knowledge more firmly and does not feel pressure from outside.
Stage and dramatization
Another practical method of teaching preschoolers is imitation. Children tend to imitate adults, copy the actions of animals, fairy-tale characters. Playing a role, getting involved in an imaginary situation, they learn the world, relations between people. Speech is actively developing.
It is very useful to stage performances based on the readings of fairy tales, go on imaginary journeys across countries and oceans, turn into representatives of various professions. Preschoolers with pleasure "live" interesting material for themselves, including it in this way in their personal experience. This gives an impetus to reflection, awakens the imagination, develops communication skills and cognitive interests.
Experimental activity
This practical method of teaching preschoolers involves the impact on the object with the aim of studying it. Children like to perform elementary experiments with water in all its states, clay, sand, plants, magnets, observe the changes taking place before their eyes. At the same time, they learn to analyze what they saw, to draw conclusions, are included in the search activity.
Often the practical side of what is happening (special tools, unusual materials) causes the kids more joy than the discovery made. Therefore, it is important to motivate preschoolers to learn new information before setting up an experiment. To do this, fairy-tale characters can be introduced (a letter from the Snow Queen, which suggests exploring the magical properties of snow and ice). The children can also be interested in visual aids (books, bright posters, cards) or a preliminary discussion, during which assumptions are made about the results of the experiment.
Modeling
Not always studied object can be seen or felt. In this case, a substitute is created (layout, diagram, symbolic image), in which the studied properties or relationships are clearly reproduced. Modeling as a practical method of teaching preschoolers was studied by L. E. Zhurova (for sound analysis of words), L. A. Paramonova (during construction), E. F. Terentyev and N. I. Vetrova (for the study of nature), V. Loginova. . and Krylova N. M. (for acquaintance with adult labor). The use of visual models facilitates the process of cognition, as they make the hidden properties of objects accessible to children's perception.
In order for a preschooler to work with symbolic analogies, he must have experience of substitution. It is formed during games, when the kids feed the doll with sand or turn into brave captains, as well as in creative activities (drawing, modeling).
Younger preschoolers work with subject models that reproduce the design features of their analogue (constructions from the designer, models, technical toys). By the age of 5-6, children can already create subject-schematic models in which objects and their properties are indicated by graphic symbols. A vivid example is the calendar of nature or the word model, where sounds are indicated by colored circles.
Practical methods of teaching preschoolers form visual-figurative and visual-schematic thinking. Thanks to them, kids not only learn the world, but also begin to think logically, plan their actions in advance, anticipate their results and abstract from insignificant signs of the object.