Elena Antonovna Strebeleva

Formation of thinking in children with developmental disabilities. A book for a teacher-defectologist

Preface

The basis of correctional and pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities is based on the fundamental position of Russian psychology on the genetic connection different forms thinking. In preschool age, three main forms closely interact: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. These forms of thinking form that single process of cognition of the real world, in which one or another form of thinking can predominate, and in connection with this cognitive process the real world takes on a specific character. At the same time, we must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful objective actions.

By performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static nature of perception. He realizes the dynamism of the environment, and most importantly, he learns the opportunity to influence the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. This situation of the child’s direct influence on surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the relationship between visual and verbal-logical forms of thinking.

The most important stage in the development of thinking is associated with the child’s mastery of speech. In the process of acting with objects, the child has an incentive to make his own statements: recording the action performed, reasoning, and conclusions. Verbal generalization of one’s own actions leads to the emergence and improvement of full-fledged images and the manipulation of them in the mental plane. It is on this basis that images and representations are formed, which become more flexible and dynamic.

The use of the developed system of classes for the development of the mental activity of children with developmental disabilities allows them to form a relationship between the main components of cognition: action, word and image.

A long-term study has shown the great role of targeted activities in the formation of thinking, their enormous contribution to the mental education of a child with developmental disabilities. Systematic correctional work arouses children's interest in their surroundings, leads to independence in their thinking, children stop waiting for solutions to all issues from an adult.

Purposeful classes on the formation of thinking significantly change the child’s ways of orienting himself in the world around him, teach him to highlight significant connections and relationships between objects, which leads to an increase in his intellectual capabilities. Children begin to focus not only on the goal, but also on the ways to achieve it. And this changes their attitude to the task, leads to an assessment of their own actions and the distinction between right and wrong. Children develop a more generalized perception of the surrounding reality, they begin to comprehend their own actions, predict the course of the simplest phenomena, and understand the simplest temporal and causal dependencies.

Education aimed at developing thinking has a great impact on speech development child: promotes memorization of words, the formation of basic functions of speech (fixing, cognitive, planning). What is important is that the desire developed during classes to record identified and conscious patterns in words leads to children’s active search for ways of verbal expression and to the use of all their available speech capabilities.

The first chapter contains didactic games and exercises that develop visual and effective thinking. The second chapter is devoted to work on the formation of visual-figurative thinking. The third chapter provides lessons on the development of elements of logical thinking. Visual material is provided for each chapter.

The educational and methodological manual is addressed to teachers-defectologists, psychologists, teachers of colleges and universities, students of seminars and advanced training courses, students of pedagogical universities, parents raising children preschool age with developmental disabilities.

Chapter I FORMATION OF VISUAL-ACTIVE THINKING

Thinking develops in two ways: the first - from perception to visual-effective thinking, and then to visual-figurative and logical; the second – from perception to visual-figurative and logical thinking. Both paths of development exist simultaneously and, although at a certain stage they merge together, they have their own specificity and play their own special role in cognitive activity person.

It is important to remember that the achievements of each period of development do not disappear, are not replaced by later stages of thinking development, but play their role throughout the subsequent life of a person. Therefore, the immaturity of thinking processes, going both from perception to visual-effective thinking and from perception to visual-figurative thinking, may turn out to be irreparable at a later age.

Development of thinking in early and preschool age. The first thought processes arise in a child as a result of knowledge of the properties and relationships of objects around him in the process of their perception and in the course of experience of his own actions with objects, as a result of acquaintance with a number of phenomena occurring in the surrounding reality. Consequently, the development of perception and thinking are closely related, and the first glimpses of a child’s thinking are of a practical (active) nature, that is, they are inseparable from the child’s objective activity. This form of thinking is called “visual-effective” and is the earliest.

Visual and effective thinking arises where a person encounters new conditions and a new way of solving a problematic practical problem. The child encounters problems of this type throughout childhood – in everyday and play situations.

An important feature of visual-effective thinking is that practical action, which is carried out by trial, serves as a means of transforming a situation. When identifying the hidden properties and connections of an object, children use the trial and error method, which in certain life circumstances is necessary and the only one. This method is based on discarding incorrect options for action and fixing correct, effective ones and, thus, plays the role of a mental operation.

When solving problematic practical problems, the properties and relationships of objects or phenomena are identified, “discovered,” and hidden, internal properties of objects are discovered. The ability to obtain new information in the process of practical transformations is directly related to the development of visual and effective thinking.

How does thinking develop? at child? The first manifestations of visual-effective thinking can be observed at the end of the first – beginning of the second year of life. As the child masters walking, his encounters with new objects expand significantly. Moving around the room, touching objects, moving them and manipulating them, the child constantly encounters obstacles, difficulties, looks for a way out, making extensive use of trials, attempts, etc. In these cases, the child moves away from simple manipulation and moves on to object-play actions corresponding to the properties of the objects with which they act: for example, he does not knock a stroller, but rolls it; puts the doll on the crib; puts the cup on the table; stirs in a saucepan with a spoon, etc. By performing various actions with objects (feeling, stroking, throwing, examining, etc.), he practically learns both the external and hidden properties of objects, discovers some connections that exist between objects. So, when one object hits another, noise arises, one object can be inserted into another, two objects, having collided, can move away in different directions, etc. As a result, the object becomes, as it were, a conductor of the child’s influence on another object, i.e. Effective actions can be performed not only by directly influencing an object with the hand, but also with the help of another object - indirectly. As a result of the accumulation of some experience in its use, an object is assigned the role of a means by which the desired result can be obtained. A qualitatively new form of activity is being formed - instrumental, when the child uses auxiliary means to achieve a goal.

Children become familiar with auxiliary objects primarily in everyday life. Children are fed, and then they themselves eat with a spoon, drink from a cup, etc., they begin to use auxiliary aids when they need to get something, secure it, move it, etc. The child’s experience gained in solving practical problems is fixed in the methods of action. Gradually, the child generalizes his experience and begins to use it in various conditions. For example, if a child has learned to use a stick to bring a toy closer to him, then he gets out a toy that has rolled under the closet with the help of another one that is suitable in shape and length: a toy-shovel, a net, a stick, etc. Generalization of the experience of activities with objects prepares a generalization of experience in the word, that is, it prepares the child for the formation of visual and effective thinking.

It is urgent now to find effective ways of corrective work with preschoolers with intellectual disabilities.

In mentally retarded preschoolers, the most impaired is the thinking process, which is the main tool of cognition. It occurs in the form of such operations as analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, abstraction, and concretization. All these operations are not fully formed and have unique features.

The formation of mental activity in mentally retarded preschoolers is particularly difficult. They have a deficiency at all levels of mental activity. They find it difficult to solve even the simplest, visually effective problems, such as combining an image of a familiar object cut into 2-3 parts, choosing geometric figure, in its shape and size identical to the corresponding image available on the plane (“mailbox”), etc. Children complete such tasks with a large number of errors after a number of attempts. Moreover, the same mistakes are repeated many times, since mentally retarded children, without achieving success, usually do not change their method of action. Carrying out practical actions in itself makes it difficult for mentally retarded preschoolers, since their motor and sensory cognition is defective. Their movements are awkward and stereotyped, often impulsive, excessively fast or, on the contrary, too slow. Visual-figurative thinking tasks cause even greater difficulties for preschoolers. They cannot retain the pattern shown to them in their memory and act erroneously. The most difficult tasks for preschoolers are tasks the implementation of which is based on verbal and logical thinking. Many of them, which are essentially simple, turn out to be inaccessible even to those children who attended a special kindergarten for 2-3 years. If some tasks are performed by children, then their activity is not so much a process of thinking as of remembering. In other words, children remember certain verbal expressions and definitions, and then reproduce them with greater or less accuracy. As a result, their knowledge of the world around them is incomplete and possibly distorted, and their life experience is extremely poor.

The basis of correctional pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities is based on the fundamental position of Russian psychology about the genetic connection of different forms of thinking. In preschool age, three main forms closely interact: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. These forms of thinking form that unified process of cognition of the real world, in which one or another form of thinking can predominate, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. One of the most important tasks of the mental cognitive development of a preschooler is the creation of the necessary prerequisites for his transition from the so-called pre-operational thinking to a higher level of specific operations.

All children with developmental problems have different structure and nature of deviations in intellectual activity. Each of them needs their own pace in mastering the material. Therefore, it is necessary to develop individual support programs created on the basis of the theory of gradual assimilation of mental actions.

In the development of mental actions, objective actions are of primary importance, especially then. When a child in objective activity is guided by the essential features of the objects surrounding them.

One of the special sections that ensures that the child receives systematic knowledge and develops thought processes is familiarization with the environment. Special correctional classes are conducted in the form of didactic games and solutions to practical subject actions.

Although mental retardation is considered an irreversible phenomenon, this does not mean that it cannot be corrected. With properly organized corrective work on individual programs accompaniment, there is a positive dynamics in the development of thought processes and familiarization with the outside world.

(by lexical topics)

Games and exercises are selected based on materials from pedagogical technologies:

E.A. Strebeleva “Formation of thinking in children with developmental disabilities”,

A.A. Kataeva, E.A. Strebeleva “Didactic games and exercises in teaching mentally retarded preschoolers"

E.A. Ekzhanova, E.A. Strebeleva “Correctional and developmental training and education”

Teacher-defectologist: Matveeva M.N.

Download:

Preview:

Games and exercises for the formation of mental activity during classes to familiarize yourself with the outside world

(by lexical topics)

Games and exercises are selected based on materials from pedagogical technologies:

E.A. Strebeleva “Formation of thinking in children with developmental disabilities”,

A.A. Kataeva, E.A. Strebeleva “Didactic games and exercises in teaching mentally

Retarded preschoolers"

E.A. Ekzhanova, E.A. Strebeleva “Correctional and developmental training and education”

Teacher-defectologist

Matveeva M.N.

Games and exercises for the formation of mental activity

through familiarization with the environment

Preface

The basis of correctional pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities is based on the fundamental position of Russian psychology about the genetic connection of different forms of thinking. In preschool age, three main forms closely interact: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. These forms of thinking form that unified process of cognition of the real world, in which one or another form of thinking can predominate, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. At the same time, we must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful objective actions.
By performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static nature of perception. He realizes the dynamism of the environment, and most importantly, he learns the opportunity to influence the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. This situation of the child’s direct influence on surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the relationship between visual and verbal-logical forms of thinking.
The most important stage in the development of thinking is associated with the child’s mastery of speech. In the process of acting with objects, the child has an incentive to make his own statements: recording the action performed, reasoning, and conclusions. Verbal generalization of one’s own actions leads to the emergence and improvement of full-fledged images and the manipulation of them in the mental plane. It is on this basis that images and representations are formed, which become more flexible and dynamic.
The use of the developed system of classes for the development of the mental activity of children with developmental disabilities allows them to form a relationship between the main components of cognition: action, word and image.
A long-term study has shown the great role of targeted activities in the formation of thinking, their enormous contribution to the mental education of a child with developmental disabilities. Systematic correctional work arouses children's interest in their surroundings, leads to independence in their thinking, and children stop waiting for solutions to all issues from an adult.
Purposeful classes on the formation of thinking significantly change the child’s ways of orienting himself in the world around him, teach him to highlight significant connections and relationships between objects, which leads to an increase in his intellectual capabilities. Children begin to focus not only on the goal, but also on the ways to achieve it. And this changes their attitude to the task, leads to an assessment of their own actions and the distinction between right and wrong. Children develop a more generalized perception of the surrounding reality, they begin to comprehend their own actions, predict the course of the simplest phenomena, and understand the simplest temporal and causal dependencies.
Education aimed at developing thinking also has a great impact on the child’s speech development: it promotes memorization of words and the formation of the basic functions of speech (fixing, cognitive, planning). What is important is that the desire developed during classes to record identified and conscious patterns in words leads to children’s active search for ways of verbal expression and to the use of all their available speech capabilities.
The first chapter contains didactic games and exercises that develop visual and effective thinking. The second chapter is devoted to work on the formation of visual-figurative thinking. The third chapter provides lessons on the development of elements of logical thinking. Visual material is provided for each chapter.
The educational and methodological manual is addressed to teachers-defectologists, psychologists, college and university teachers, students of seminars and advanced training courses, students of pedagogical universities, parents raising preschool children with developmental disabilities.

Chapter I
FORMATION OF VISUAL AND EFFECTIVE THINKING

Thinking develops in two ways: the first - from perception to visual-effective thinking, and then to visual-figurative and logical; the second – from perception to visual-figurative and logical thinking. Both paths of development exist simultaneously and, although at a certain stage they merge together, they have their own specificity and play their own special role in human cognitive activity.
It is important to remember that the achievements of each period of development do not disappear, are not replaced by later stages of thinking development, but play their role throughout the subsequent life of a person. Therefore, the immaturity of thinking processes, going both from perception to visual-effective thinking and from perception to visual-figurative thinking, may turn out to be irreparable at a later age.
Development of thinking in early and preschool age. The first thought processes arise in a child as a result of knowledge of the properties and relationships of objects around him in the process of their perception and in the course of experience of his own actions with objects, as a result of acquaintance with a number of phenomena occurring in the surrounding reality. Consequently, the development of perception and thinking are closely related, and the first glimpses of a child’s thinking are of a practical (active) nature, that is, they are inseparable from the child’s objective activity. This form of thinking is called “visual-effective” and is the earliest.
Visual and effective thinking arises where a person encounters new conditions and a new way of solving a problematic practical problem. The child encounters problems of this type throughout childhood – in everyday and play situations.
An important feature of visual-effective thinking is that practical action, which is carried out by trial, serves as a means of transforming a situation. When identifying the hidden properties and connections of an object, children use the trial and error method, which in certain life circumstances is necessary and the only one. This method is based on discarding incorrect options for action and fixing correct, effective ones and, thus, plays the role of a mental operation.
When solving problematic practical problems, the properties and relationships of objects or phenomena are identified, “discovered,” and hidden, internal properties of objects are discovered. The ability to obtain new information in the process of practical transformations is directly related to the development of visual and effective thinking.
How does thinking develop? at child? The first manifestations of visual-effective thinking can be observed at the end of the first – beginning of the second year of life. As the child masters walking, his encounters with new objects expand significantly. Moving around the room, touching objects, moving them and manipulating them, the child constantly encounters obstacles, difficulties, looks for a way out, making extensive use of trials, attempts, etc. In these cases, the child moves away from simple manipulation and moves on to object-play actions corresponding to the properties of the objects with which they act: for example, he does not knock a stroller, but rolls it; puts the doll on the crib; puts the cup on the table; stirs in a saucepan with a spoon, etc. By performing various actions with objects (feeling, stroking, throwing, examining, etc.), he practically learns both the external and hidden properties of objects, discovers some connections that exist between objects. So, when one object hits another, noise arises, one object can be inserted into another, two objects, having collided, can move away in different directions, etc. As a result, the object becomes, as it were, a conductor of the child’s influence on another object, i.e. Effective actions can be performed not only by directly influencing an object with the hand, but also with the help of another object - indirectly. As a result of the accumulation of some experience in its use, an object is assigned the role of a means by which the desired result can be obtained. A qualitatively new form of activity is being formed - instrumental, when the child uses auxiliary means to achieve a goal.
Children become familiar with auxiliary objects primarily in everyday life. Children are fed, and then they themselves eat with a spoon, drink from a cup, etc., they begin to use auxiliary aids when they need to get something, secure it, move it, etc. The child’s experience gained in solving practical problems is fixed in the methods of action. Gradually, the child generalizes his experience and begins to use it in various conditions. For example, if a child has learned to use a stick to bring a toy closer to him, then he gets out a toy that has rolled under the closet with the help of another one that is suitable in shape and length: a toy-shovel, a net, a stick, etc. Generalization of the experience of activities with objects prepares a generalization of experience in the word, that is, it prepares the child for the formation of visual and effective thinking.
The development of objective activity and its “verbalization” in a child occurs with the active participation of the people around him. Adults set certain tasks for the child, show ways to solve them, and name actions. The inclusion of a word denoting the action being performed qualitatively changes the thought process of a child, even if he does not yet speak spoken language. The action designated by the word acquires the character of a generalized method of solving a group of homogeneous practical problems and is easily transferred to other similar situations. By being involved in the child’s practical activities, speech, even if only audible at first, as if from the inside, rebuilds the process of his thinking. Changing the content of thinking requires its more advanced forms, and already in the process of visual-effective thinking, the prerequisites for visual-figurative thinking are formed.
In early preschool age, profound changes occur both in the content and in the forms of visual and effective thinking. Changing the content of children's visual-effective thinking leads to a change in its structure. Using his generalized experience, the child can mentally prepare and foresee the nature of subsequent events.
Visual-effective thinking contains all the main components of mental activity: defining a goal, analyzing conditions, choosing means to achieve it. When solving a practical problem problem, indicative actions are manifested not only on the external properties and qualities of objects, but also on the internal relationships of objects in a certain situation. At preschool age, a child can already freely navigate the practical tasks that arise before him and can independently find a way out of a problematic situation. Under problematic situation understand a situation in which you cannot act in the usual ways, but need to transform your past experience and find new ways to use it.
Following visual-effective thinking, visual-figurative thinking arises, which becomes the main type of thinking of a child in early preschool age. He solves “in his head” only those problems that he previously solved practically.
The simplest visual-figurative thinking (internal plan of action) is considered as the ability to operate with specific images of objects when solving certain problems. For example, a child can imagine how the boy shown in the picture, whose car has rolled under the closet, should act. The ability to operate with images “in the mind” is not a direct result of the child’s acquisition of knowledge and skills. It arises and develops in the process of interaction of certain lines mental development: development of objective actions, substitution actions, speech, imitation, play activities, etc. In turn, images can differ in the degree of generalization, in the methods of formation and functioning. Mental activity itself acts as the operation of images.
Subsequently, children begin to operate “in their minds” with complex ideas about objects, their properties, connections and relationships. So, they can imagine in advance a whole that can be made up of existing parts (in the imagination, these parts are combined into a whole): what kind of structure can be built from a given construction set, what image can be put together from a cut picture, the parts of which are pasted on different cubes; they can imagine the movement of objects or their parts in space, etc. By older preschool age, visual-figurative thinking becomes more and more generalized. Children understand complex schematic images, imagine a real situation based on them, and even create such images on their own.
The development of visual-figurative thinking is closely related to speech, which captures (fixes) images - ideas.
On the basis of figurative thinking in preschool age, verbal-logical thinking begins to form, which makes it possible to solve a wider range of problems and master scientific knowledge.
But the development of verbal-logical thinking depends on the level of development of visual forms of thinking, otherwise it is formed slowly and with great difficulty, and as a result it turns out to be inferior. It is necessary to remember that visual forms of thinking in preschool age are basic.
There is a deep two-way connection between visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. On the one hand, experience with objects when solving practical problems prepares the necessary ground for the emergence of verbal-logical thinking. On the other hand, the development of verbal-logical thinking changes the nature of objective actions and creates the possibility of moving from solving elementary to solving complex practical problems.
The transition from visual-effective to visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking depends on the degree of formation of higher types of orientation-research activity. This transition occurs when the nature of the orientation-research activity changes, on the basis of a higher type of orientation in the conditions of the task and the activation of speech tasks in the verbal plane.
Thus, in preschool age three main forms of thinking closely interact: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical. These forms of thinking form that unified process of cognition of the real world, in which, under different conditions, one or another form of thinking may predominate, and, in connection with this, the cognitive process as a whole acquires a specific character. At the same time, speech is included early in cognitive activity, acting as a carrier of the method of action in it. This mode of action is reinforced and transmitted through speech. At different stages of thinking development, the functions of speech change significantly.
Features of the development of thinking in children with developmental disabilities. In such children, visual-effective thinking is characterized by a lag in the pace of development. Children do not independently generalize their experience of everyday actions with objects-tools that have a fixed purpose. Therefore, they do not have the stage of comprehending a situation that requires the use of a fixed (generally accepted) weapon. In cases where children, with the help of an adult, use auxiliary means, they do not sufficiently generalize their own experience of action and cannot use it when solving new problems, that is, they do not transfer the method of action.
Children with developmental disabilities, unlike their normally developing peers, do not know how to navigate the conditions of a problematic practical task; they do not analyze these conditions. Therefore, when trying to achieve a goal, they do not discard erroneous options, but repeat the same unproductive actions. In fact, they do not have genuine samples.
In addition, problem children are distinguished by the inclusion of speech in the process of solving mental problems. Normally developing children have a constant need to help themselves comprehend the situation by analyzing their actions in external speech. This gives them the opportunity to become aware of their actions, in which speech begins to perform organizing and regulatory functions, i.e., it allows the child to plan his actions.
In children with developmental disabilities, such a need almost never arises. Therefore, their attention is drawn to the insufficient connection between practical actions and their verbal designation; there is a clear gap between action and word. Consequently, their actions are not sufficiently conscious, the experience of action is not recorded in words and therefore not generalized, and images and ideas are formed slowly and fragmentarily.
Until the end of preschool age, problem children actually do not have the ability to solve visual-figurative problems. When trying to solve such problems, they reveal a lack of connection between word and image. In children with developmental disabilities, there is a weak relationship between the main components of mental activity: action, word and image.
In addition, their formation of elements of logical thinking also suffers; it develops slowly, and their relationship between visual and verbal-logical thinking is different than normal.
The timely formation of visual forms of thinking qualitatively changes the development of cognitive activity of problem children and constitutes an essential link in preparing them for school education and socialization.
Ways to form visual and effective thinking in children with developmental disabilities. When choosing ways and methods for shaping the thinking of problem preschoolers, we proceeded from the fact that the child’s thinking is formed in the process various types activity (objective, play), communication, in unity with the process of mastering speech.
The basis for the formation of visual and effective thinking of preschoolers is the development of independent orientation and research activities in solving problematic and practical problems, as well as the formation of the basic functions of speech. In turn, this allows us to strengthen the weak relationship between the main components of cognition: action, word and image.
In the process of acting with objects, the preschooler acquires a motive for his own statements: reasoning, conclusions. On this basis, images-representations are formed that become more flexible and dynamic. When performing actions with objects and changing the real situation, the child creates a fundamental basis for the formation of images and representations. Thus, the visual-practical situation is a unique stage in establishing a strong connection between action and word in a preschooler. Based on this connection, full-fledged images and representations can be built.
A system of games and exercises has been developed aimed at developing the orientation and research activities of children with developmental disabilities.
The exercise games are grouped into four sections.
IN first section Preparatory games-exercises are recommended, during which children form generalized ideas about auxiliary means and fixed-purpose tools that a person uses in everyday life.
In second section exercise games are included, during which children are introduced to problematic practical situations, taught to analyze these situations and use substitute objects.
Third section consist of games-exercises, during which preschoolers develop ways of orienting themselves in the conditions of a problematic practical task, as well as the trial method as the main way to solve visual and effective problems.
Fourth section contains games-exercises to determine the reason that disrupted the usual course of an action or phenomenon.
The system of exercise games is presented taking into account the following principles: game motivation of actions; availability of tasks; gradual complication of practical problems; repeatability, the ability for each child to independently search for a solution to a problem; children’s observation of the actions of their peers in order to reinforce their own experience with observational experience, which provides material for generalization; inclusion of speech in the process of solving problematic and practical problems.
At each of these stages, the role of the teacher changes. At the initial stage, when children are developing purposeful actions, the teacher makes extensive use of joint actions with the child and the ability to imitate. At the same time, the adult summarizes all actions in his speech statements. Then the child’s independent search methods of orientation and practical actions in a problem-practical situation are activated, which the child records in active speech. Subsequently, he develops the ability to plan his practical actions when solving problematic and practical problems.

Section 1. Games-exercises to form ideas about the use of objects that have a fixed purpose

First of all, it is necessary to teach children to use objects that have a fixed purpose, to form an idea of ​​​​the use of object-tools in activities, and to teach them to imitate the actions of an adult. It is important to show children that most of the actions in everyday life related to work, to meeting the needs of life, are performed by a person using such auxiliary means as a chair, spoon, cup, pencil, rope, scissors, watering can and other objects that have a fixed purpose. It is also necessary to draw children's attention to such simple devices for objects as a handle, handle, handle, rope, etc.
Despite the fact that children use all these aids and adaptations to objects in the process of actions in everyday life, during games, they do not generalize the experience of actions and do not comprehend it. The teacher’s task is to generalize this experience and bring it to the awareness of each child.
Games-exercises are carried out at the initial stage of correctional and pedagogical work with children.

GAME “CATCH THE BALL!”
Equipment: two boxes, a balloon, a ribbon.
Progress of the lesson. The teacher shows the children a beautiful box, knocks on it and asks: “What’s in there?” One child opens the box and takes out a balloon. The teacher reacts emotionally to the appearance of the ball, rejoices and says: “We will play with the ball. You have to inflate it, and then you can throw it and catch it.” After which, in front of the children, he inflates the balloon and draws the children’s attention to the fact that it quickly deflates. This is repeated 2-3 times. Then the teacher asks the children: “What should we do? How are we going to play with this ball? Shows the children another box and invites the child to knock on the box and ask: “What is there?” He opens the box and takes out a ribbon. The teacher exclaims: “Here it is, the ribbon! We’ll tie it to a ball and we’ll play,” and he ties a ribbon to the ball, paying attention to the fact that the ball does not deflate. Then the children are invited to play with the ball in a circle. The teacher calls the name of each child and tells him: “Catch the ball!”
The game can be repeated while walking.

GAME “FEED THE BEAR!”
Equipment: a set of children's dishes, a set of children's furniture, a bear.
Progress of the lesson. The teacher plays out the arrival of the bear to the children. Someone knocks on the door, the teacher asks: “Who is coming to visit us?” He opens the door and exclaims: “This bear came to play with us!” Then he places the bear at the table and places a dinner set in front of him, which is missing a spoon and a cup. The teacher invites the children to feed the bear. If the children do not realize that they need a spoon for feeding, he takes it out of the cupboard and gives it to the child. Then the teacher says that the bear is asking for a drink. Offers the children a jug of water and asks the children: “Where should I pour the water?” If there is any difficulty, he asks the children to take a cup from the cupboard and give the bear some water. After completing the game actions, the teacher records the method of action in a word: “You need to feed with a spoon; You have to drink from a cup.”

GAME "LET'S ROLL THE BUNNIES!"
Equipment: two bunnies; two carts - one with a rope, the other without a rope.
Progress of the lesson. The teacher invites the children to the play corner. Two bunnies come to visit the children. They want to ride in carts. The teacher puts the bunnies in both carts, invites two children and asks them to give the bunnies a ride. He draws the attention of all children to the fact that it is inconvenient to carry a cart without a rope, so you need to tie a rope to the cart. The teacher ties a rope to the cart, showing the children how to properly grasp the rope. The children take turns rolling the bunnies.

GAME “LET’S BAKE PIES!”
Equipment: sand molds, scoops.
Progress of the lesson. The game is played outside. In warm weather, the teacher organizes the children near the sandbox and invites them to bake pies for the dolls. The teacher hands out molds to the children. If they start to take sand with their hands, the teacher stops them and says: “You can’t take sand with your hands. How can you take sand? He hands out scoops to the children, shows them how to scoop up sand, pour it into molds and “bake pies.” The teacher clarifies that sand must be scooped up with a scoop.

E.A. Strebeleva

Formation of thinking

in children with developmental disabilities

A book for a teacher-defectologist

Strebeleva E.A.

C84 Formation of thinking in children with developmental disabilities: Book. for a teacher-defectologist / E.A. Strebeleva. - M.: Humanitarian, ed. VLADOS center, 2005. - 180 p. : ill. - (Correctional pedagogy). 18YOU 5-691-00605-3.

The book presents a system of correctional pedagogical work on the formation of the mental activity of children with disabilities in mental development. A detailed description is given of more than 200 didactic games, exercises, stories, tasks and riddles that help to enhance the cognitive activity of preschool children.

At the end of the manual there are two appendices with material for teachers to understand the creation of a situation for classes with children, and visual handouts for children.

Addressed to teachers-defectologists, psychologists, college and university teachers, students of seminars and advanced training courses, students of pedagogical universities, parents raising preschool children with developmental disabilities.

UDC 376 BBK 74.3

© Strebeleva E.A., 2001

© LLC "Humanitarian Publishing House"

VLADOS Center", 2001 © Series "Correctional Pedagogy"

and serial design.

LLC "Humanitarian Publishing House"

VLADOS center", 2001 © Decoration. OOO

"Humanitarian Publishing Center

VLADOS", 2001
© Layout. LLC "Humanitarian Publishing Center VLADOS", 2001
13VN 5-691-00605-3

Preface

The basis of correctional pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities is based on the fundamental position of Russian psychology about the genetic connection of different forms of thinking. In preschool age, three main forms closely interact: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. These forms of thinking form that unified process of cognition of the real world, in which one or another form of thinking can predominate, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. At the same time, we must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful objective actions.

By performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static nature of perception. He realizes the dynamism of the environment, and most importantly, he learns the opportunity to influence the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. This situation of the child’s direct influence on surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the relationship between visual and verbal-logical forms of thinking.

Preface

The basis of correctional pedagogical work with children with developmental disabilities is based on the fundamental position of Russian psychology about the genetic connection of different forms of thinking. In preschool age, three main forms closely interact: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. These forms of thinking form that unified process of cognition of the real world, in which one or another form of thinking can predominate, and in connection with this, the cognitive process of the real world acquires a specific character. At the same time, we must remember that thinking develops in meaningful, purposeful objective actions.

By performing actions with real objects, moving them in space, changing their functional dependencies, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the static nature of perception. He realizes the dynamism of the environment, and most importantly, he learns the opportunity to influence the dynamics of an object according to his own plan or in accordance with the tasks that an adult sets for him. This situation of the child’s direct influence on surrounding objects creates favorable conditions for the relationship between visual and verbal-logical forms of thinking.

The most important stage in the development of thinking is associated with the child’s mastery of speech. In the process of acting with objects, the child has an incentive to make his own statements: recording the action performed, reasoning, and conclusions. Verbal generalization of one’s own actions leads to the emergence and improvement of full-fledged images and the manipulation of them in the mental plane. It is on this basis that images and representations are formed, which become more flexible and dynamic.

The use of the developed system of classes for the development of the mental activity of children with developmental disabilities allows them to form a relationship between the main components of cognition: action, word and image.

A long-term study has shown the great role of targeted activities in the formation of thinking, their enormous contribution to the mental education of a child with developmental disabilities. Systematic correctional work arouses children's interest in their surroundings, leads to independence in their thinking, and children stop waiting for solutions to all issues from an adult.

Purposeful classes on the formation of thinking significantly change the child’s ways of orienting himself in the world around him, teach him to highlight significant connections and relationships between objects, which leads to an increase in his intellectual capabilities. Children begin to focus not only on the goal, but also on the ways to achieve it. And this changes their attitude to the task, leads to an assessment of their own actions and the distinction between right and wrong. Children develop a more generalized perception of the surrounding reality, they begin to comprehend their own actions, predict the course of the simplest phenomena, and understand the simplest temporal and causal dependencies.

Education aimed at developing thinking also has a great impact on the child’s speech development: it promotes memorization of words and the formation of the basic functions of speech (fixing, cognitive, planning). What is important is that the desire developed during classes to record identified and conscious patterns in words leads to children’s active search for ways of verbal expression and to the use of all their available speech capabilities.

The first chapter contains didactic games and exercises that develop visual and effective thinking. The second chapter is devoted to work on the formation of visual-figurative thinking. The third chapter provides lessons on the development of elements of logical thinking. Visual material is provided for each chapter.

The educational and methodological manual is addressed to teachers-defectologists, psychologists, college and university teachers, students of seminars and advanced training courses, students of pedagogical universities, parents raising preschool children with developmental disabilities.

Chapter I
FORMATION OF VISUAL AND EFFECTIVE THINKING

Thinking develops in two ways: the first - from perception to visual-effective thinking, and then to visual-figurative and logical; the second – from perception to visual-figurative and logical thinking. Both paths of development exist simultaneously and, although at a certain stage they merge together, they have their own specificity and play their own special role in human cognitive activity.

It is important to remember that the achievements of each period of development do not disappear, are not replaced by later stages of thinking development, but play their role throughout the subsequent life of a person. Therefore, the immaturity of thinking processes, going both from perception to visual-effective thinking and from perception to visual-figurative thinking, may turn out to be irreparable at a later age.

Development of thinking in early and preschool age. The first thought processes arise in a child as a result of knowledge of the properties and relationships of objects around him in the process of their perception and in the course of experience of his own actions with objects, as a result of acquaintance with a number of phenomena occurring in the surrounding reality. Consequently, the development of perception and thinking are closely related, and the first glimpses of a child’s thinking are of a practical (active) nature, that is, they are inseparable from the child’s objective activity. This form of thinking is called “visual-effective” and is the earliest.

Visual and effective thinking arises where a person encounters new conditions and a new way of solving a problematic practical problem. The child encounters problems of this type throughout childhood – in everyday and play situations.

An important feature of visual-effective thinking is that practical action, which is carried out by trial, serves as a means of transforming a situation. When identifying the hidden properties and connections of an object, children use the trial and error method, which in certain life circumstances is necessary and the only one. This method is based on discarding incorrect options for action and fixing correct, effective ones and, thus, plays the role of a mental operation.

When solving problematic practical problems, the properties and relationships of objects or phenomena are identified, “discovered,” and hidden, internal properties of objects are discovered. The ability to obtain new information in the process of practical transformations is directly related to the development of visual and effective thinking.

How does thinking develop? at child? The first manifestations of visual-effective thinking can be observed at the end of the first – beginning of the second year of life. As the child masters walking, his encounters with new objects expand significantly. Moving around the room, touching objects, moving them and manipulating them, the child constantly encounters obstacles, difficulties, looks for a way out, making extensive use of trials, attempts, etc. In these cases, the child moves away from simple manipulation and moves on to object-play actions corresponding to the properties of the objects with which they act: for example, he does not knock a stroller, but rolls it; puts the doll on the crib; puts the cup on the table; stirs in a saucepan with a spoon, etc. By performing various actions with objects (feeling, stroking, throwing, examining, etc.), he practically learns both the external and hidden properties of objects, discovers some connections that exist between objects. So, when one object hits another, noise arises, one object can be inserted into another, two objects, having collided, can move away in different directions, etc. As a result, the object becomes, as it were, a conductor of the child’s influence on another object, i.e. Effective actions can be performed not only by directly influencing an object with the hand, but also with the help of another object - indirectly. As a result of the accumulation of some experience in its use, an object is assigned the role of a means by which the desired result can be obtained. A qualitatively new form of activity is being formed - instrumental, when the child uses auxiliary means to achieve a goal.

Children become familiar with auxiliary objects primarily in everyday life. Children are fed, and then they themselves eat with a spoon, drink from a cup, etc., they begin to use auxiliary aids when they need to get something, secure it, move it, etc. The child’s experience gained in solving practical problems is fixed in the methods of action. Gradually, the child generalizes his experience and begins to use it in various conditions. For example, if a child has learned to use a stick to bring a toy closer to him, then he gets out a toy that has rolled under the closet with the help of another one that is suitable in shape and length: a toy-shovel, a net, a stick, etc. Generalization of the experience of activities with objects prepares a generalization of experience in the word, that is, it prepares the child for the formation of visual and effective thinking.

The development of objective activity and its “verbalization” in a child occurs with the active participation of the people around him. Adults set certain tasks for the child, show ways to solve them, and name actions. The inclusion of a word denoting the action being performed qualitatively changes the thought process of a child, even if he does not yet speak spoken language. The action designated by the word acquires the character of a generalized method of solving a group of homogeneous practical problems and is easily transferred to other similar situations. By being involved in the child’s practical activities, speech, even if only audible at first, as if from the inside, rebuilds the process of his thinking. Changing the content of thinking requires its more advanced forms, and already in the process of visual-effective thinking, the prerequisites for visual-figurative thinking are formed.

In early preschool age, profound changes occur both in the content and in the forms of visual and effective thinking. Changing the content of children's visual-effective thinking leads to a change in its structure. Using his generalized experience, the child can mentally prepare and foresee the nature of subsequent events.

Visual-effective thinking contains all the main components of mental activity: defining a goal, analyzing conditions, choosing means to achieve it. When solving a practical problem problem, indicative actions are manifested not only on the external properties and qualities of objects, but also on the internal relationships of objects in a certain situation. At preschool age, a child can already freely navigate the practical tasks that arise before him and can independently find a way out of a problematic situation. Under problematic situation understand a situation in which you cannot act in the usual ways, but need to transform your past experience and find new ways to use it.

Following visual-effective thinking, visual-figurative thinking arises, which becomes the main type of thinking of a child in early preschool age. He solves “in his head” only those problems that he previously solved practically.

The simplest visual-figurative thinking (internal plan of action) is considered as the ability to operate with specific images of objects when solving certain problems. For example, a child can imagine how the boy shown in the picture, whose car has rolled under the closet, should act. The ability to operate with images “in the mind” is not a direct result of the child’s acquisition of knowledge and skills. It arises and develops in the process of interaction of certain lines of mental development: the development of objective actions, substitution actions, speech, imitation, play activities, etc. In turn, images can differ in the degree of generalization, in the methods of formation and functioning. Mental activity itself acts as the operation of images.

Subsequently, children begin to operate “in their minds” with complex ideas about objects, their properties, connections and relationships. So, they can imagine in advance a whole that can be made up of existing parts (in the imagination, these parts are combined into a whole): what kind of structure can be built from a given construction set, what image can be put together from a cut picture, the parts of which are pasted on different cubes; they can imagine the movement of objects or their parts in space, etc. By older preschool age, visual-figurative thinking becomes more and more generalized. Children understand complex schematic images, imagine a real situation based on them, and even create such images on their own.

The development of visual-figurative thinking is closely related to speech, which captures (fixes) images - ideas.

On the basis of figurative thinking in preschool age, verbal-logical thinking begins to form, which makes it possible to solve a wider range of problems and master scientific knowledge.

But the development of verbal-logical thinking depends on the level of development of visual forms of thinking, otherwise it is formed slowly and with great difficulty, and as a result it turns out to be inferior. It is necessary to remember that visual forms of thinking in preschool age are basic.

There is a deep two-way connection between visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking. On the one hand, experience with objects when solving practical problems prepares the necessary ground for the emergence of verbal-logical thinking. On the other hand, the development of verbal-logical thinking changes the nature of objective actions and creates the possibility of moving from solving elementary to solving complex practical problems.

The transition from visual-effective to visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking depends on the degree of formation of higher types of orientation-research activity. This transition occurs when the nature of the orientation-research activity changes, on the basis of a higher type of orientation in the conditions of the task and the activation of speech tasks in the verbal plane.

Thus, in preschool age three main forms of thinking closely interact: visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical. These forms of thinking form that unified process of cognition of the real world, in which, under different conditions, one or another form of thinking may predominate, and, in connection with this, the cognitive process as a whole acquires a specific character. At the same time, speech is included early in cognitive activity, acting as a carrier of the method of action in it. This mode of action is reinforced and transmitted through speech. At different stages of thinking development, the functions of speech change significantly.

Features of the development of thinking in children with developmental disabilities. In such children, visual-effective thinking is characterized by a lag in the pace of development. Children do not independently generalize their experience of everyday actions with objects-tools that have a fixed purpose. Therefore, they do not have the stage of comprehending a situation that requires the use of a fixed (generally accepted) weapon. In cases where children, with the help of an adult, use auxiliary means, they do not sufficiently generalize their own experience of action and cannot use it when solving new problems, that is, they do not transfer the method of action.

Children with developmental disabilities, unlike their normally developing peers, do not know how to navigate the conditions of a problematic practical task; they do not analyze these conditions. Therefore, when trying to achieve a goal, they do not discard erroneous options, but repeat the same unproductive actions. In fact, they do not have genuine samples.

In addition, problem children are distinguished by the inclusion of speech in the process of solving mental problems. Normally developing children have a constant need to help themselves comprehend the situation by analyzing their actions in external speech. This gives them the opportunity to become aware of their actions, in which speech begins to perform organizing and regulatory functions, i.e., it allows the child to plan his actions.

In children with developmental disabilities, such a need almost never arises. Therefore, their attention is drawn to the insufficient connection between practical actions and their verbal designation; there is a clear gap between action and word. Consequently, their actions are not sufficiently conscious, the experience of action is not recorded in words and therefore not generalized, and images and ideas are formed slowly and fragmentarily.

Until the end of preschool age, problem children actually do not have the ability to solve visual-figurative problems. When trying to solve such problems, they reveal a lack of connection between word and image. In children with developmental disabilities, there is a weak relationship between the main components of mental activity: action, word and image.

In addition, their formation of elements of logical thinking also suffers; it develops slowly, and their relationship between visual and verbal-logical thinking is different than normal.

The timely formation of visual forms of thinking qualitatively changes the development of cognitive activity of problem children and constitutes an essential link in preparing them for school education and socialization.

Ways to form visual and effective thinking in children with developmental disabilities. When choosing ways and methods for forming the thinking of problem preschoolers, we proceeded from the fact that the child’s thinking is formed in the process of various types of activities (subject, play), communication, in unity with the process of mastering speech.

The basis for the formation of visual and effective thinking of preschoolers is the development of independent orientation and research activities in solving problematic and practical problems, as well as the formation of the basic functions of speech. In turn, this allows us to strengthen the weak relationship between the main components of cognition: action, word and image.

In the process of acting with objects, the preschooler acquires a motive for his own statements: reasoning, conclusions. On this basis, images-representations are formed that become more flexible and dynamic. When performing actions with objects and changing the real situation, the child creates a fundamental basis for the formation of images and representations. Thus, the visual-practical situation is a unique stage in establishing a strong connection between action and word in a preschooler. Based on this connection, full-fledged images and representations can be built.

A system of games and exercises has been developed aimed at developing the orientation and research activities of children with developmental disabilities.

The exercise games are grouped into four sections.

IN first section Preparatory games-exercises are recommended, during which children form generalized ideas about auxiliary means and fixed-purpose tools that a person uses in everyday life.

In second section exercise games are included, during which children are introduced to problematic practical situations, taught to analyze these situations and use substitute objects.

Third section consist of games-exercises, during which preschoolers develop ways of orienting themselves in the conditions of a problematic practical task, as well as the trial method as the main way to solve visual and effective problems.

Fourth section contains games-exercises to determine the reason that disrupted the usual course of an action or phenomenon.

The system of exercise games is presented taking into account the following principles: game motivation of actions; availability of tasks; gradual complication of practical problems; repeatability, the ability for each child to independently search for a solution to a problem; children’s observation of the actions of their peers in order to reinforce their own experience with observational experience, which provides material for generalization; inclusion of speech in the process of solving problematic and practical problems.

At each of these stages, the role of the teacher changes. At the initial stage, when children are developing purposeful actions, the teacher makes extensive use of joint actions with the child and the ability to imitate. At the same time, the adult summarizes all actions in his speech statements. Then the child’s independent search methods of orientation and practical actions in a problem-practical situation are activated, which the child records in active speech. Subsequently, he develops the ability to plan his practical actions when solving problematic and practical problems.