The development of memory and attention is one of the most important points in the upbringing of preschool children. This is much more important than the acquisition of specific skills (training in reading, counting, writing). And this is due to the fact that the ability to concentrate on one task or another, to notice little things and quickly remember new information is equally useful when studying any field.
How to develop memory and attention in children? First of all, it depends on the age of the child. In the first years of life, babies actively develop, and each short period of their development has its own characteristics:
- Up to 1 year. During this period, motor memory mainly develops. That is, the baby remembers the movements that it performs best. Moreover, those that were accompanied by certain emotions and / or had some kind of result are better remembered.
- 1-2 years. The volume, as well as the strength of memorization during this period increases. The kid begins to remember and recognize loved ones (in addition to parents). From one year to two, a figurative memory is formed, this explains why the first conscious memories of a person, as a rule, belong to this period.
- 2-4 years. A new period in the life of a little man makes another change in the processes of memory development . At this age, the baby begins to remember more complex words, he laid the foundations of logical thinking. In addition, the range of acquired and imprinted in the memory of motor skills is expanding.
- 4-6 years old. A child in this period can spontaneously remember anything, but basically what is interesting to him, what causes strong and vivid emotions is deposited in his memory.
How to develop memory and attention in children? There are several effective exercises for developing memory, and now we will consider the main ones:
- The first exercise is ideal for the development of motor memory. Of course, the most interesting thing is if there are several participants in the game. The bottom line is simple: the child is blindfolded, and the adult escort becomes a “puppeteer”. Its task is to lead the baby, holding by the shoulders, along a certain route (for example, take 3 steps to the left, 2 back, then sit down and take 4 more steps to the right). After that, the blindfold is removed from the eyes of the child, and he must again go this way.
- Speaking about how to develop memory and attention in children, one cannot help but recall one more game familiar to all of us from childhood. You need to print two pictures - the “original” and its copy, on which some elements will be absent (or new ones will be present). The task of the child is to find the differences between the two pictures.
- Auditory and associative memory can also be improved. There is a special exercise for this. Mom or dad calls a word, for example, "candy." The child must describe the appearance, some properties of the object or action that can be performed with it. In the case of candy, it can be the words "sweet, it smells good, you can bite or dissolve it." In addition, the exercise when the child repeats (taps) the rhythm set by an adult influences the development of auditory memory very well.
Continuing the theme of how to develop memory and attention, it is worth mentioning that kids are best trained in the game. There are a huge number of educational games. A vivid example is the labyrinths we all loved since childhood. You can draw them yourself or download. Of no less interest are confusion games in which the child needs to determine which knit from which ball, or which road leads to which castle. When we develop memory, attention, thinking and logic, there will be very useful exercises in which the child needs to connect the points in a certain sequence in order to get some kind of drawing. You can also make cards that will show objects whose names sound similar (for example, a spoon and a cat, dew and a rose). The task of the baby is to choose the appropriate pairs of pictures. Games that develop memory and attention can be bought at the store or made independently.